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Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes...

TheLiteraryCrush

My apologies for letting this blog whither and die. I'm still deciding what I should do with it. But, in the meantime you got the link above. Happy New Year!

Eureka...I have found her!

After years of searching for a stylist and trying salon after salon, I've finally found a stylist that I'm in love with :) Her name is Sabrina and she works at The Den Salon in Chino Hills. If you know me, you know that I'm a sucker for signs...not like "Stop" or "Slow Down"...but signs from the powers that be that tell me I'm making the right choice or I'm headed in the right direction.

One Friday afternoon in January, after driving all over what seemed like every freeway in Southern California, I decided to go straight home after my last meeting instead of back to the office. As I was driving home, I took a look at myself in the mirror and decided that I've put up with my yucky hair for the last day. I found myself at The Shoppes in Chino Hills. I knew there were two salons there: Vicara Salon and The Den. Vicara is an Aveda salon. I used to use Aveda products but stopped a couple years ago because they weren't giving the volume I wanted. I saw that new clients get 50% off their first visit. Great. Fine. Solid. But I couldn't help but go and check out The Den.

The New Client Discount was only 25%, but they had Bumble & Bumble products everywhere and had a very cool, hip, edgy vibe to the place. I asked if anyone was available to do a short cut since I didn't have an appointment. The receptionist looked over to the girl sitting in one of their neat rattan armchairs and asked her if she wanted to take me. She took one look at me and my hair, stood up and said, "Hi! My name is Sabrina...what would you like to drink: tea....water...white wine...sangria?" I happily replied, "Sangria, please!" and have been in Hair Honeymoon ever since.

After the first cut, I was SO happy with how it turned out that I knew I would be coming back for a second appointment to make sure she can cut it just how she did the first time (I'm also a sucker for consistency). I went back 2 weeks ago. She was running late, but called to let me know so I had some time to go shopping. You think she cut my hair just how I want it twice in a row? HELL YES!

Those are pics taken a couple hours after the second cut and it looks just like the first cut. SO happy I finally found someone who can actually do an awesome short cut. I told her I'm thinking of doing some color for the Summer. I usually go red, which she said would be cute but I feel like I should step out of the box a little more and play with other colors (other than black and red). Sabrina suggested lightening my hair a bit and then adding some blond in. I've always wanted blond highlights...but with black hair, so I gotta think about going light. I'm not a very light-colored person...although I've been using a lot more pinks lately - I'll probably get over that soon.

Anyways...it costs a lot to see Sabrina...as it would for any good stylist, but I'm happy to fork out the money. One thing I've learned about myself, if my hair doesn't look good, I don't feel as confident about my look in general. A good stylist that you get along with is definitely a worthwhile investment.

Crime Fiction at its Finest.

It's been a couple weeks since I finished this book, but I definitely wanted to share it with you as a "must-read" if you're a book worm...who is into thrillers or crime mysteries or sex or sexual deviance because this book definitely has all of that and more.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo centers around two main characters, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. Salander is a young Private Investigator often hired to dig up dirt on high-profile executives. Blomkvist is a veteran financial reporter who was recently found guilty of libel and sentenced to three months in prison. The two characters cross paths when Blomkvist is hired by a very rich, very old business man to investigate the disappearance of his niece over 40 years ago.

This is also the first book in the trilogy written by Stieg Larsson, referred to as the "Millenium series". The book was originally written in Swedish and translated into English. At first, it's a little difficult to get past all the Swedish names and locations, but you eventually get used to it since the story is so engaging. We follow Blomkvist as he and Salander uncover the ugly truth behind one of Sweden's most powerful families. There's a healthy dose of crime and sex in the story, which definitely grabbed my attention, but the way the story is written just grabs hold of you and refuses to let go. Every page seemed to raise more questions about the mystery at hand, but also gave you just enough clues to keep you satisfied until you reach the end of the book.

An interesting tid-bit about Stieg Larsson...these books were written to express his disgust for sex crimes and violence against women. Apparently, he had witnessed the gang rape of young girl (also named Lisbeth) when he was a teen, but failed to stop the crime. He spent the rest of his life living in guilt from that experience and it essentially became the inspiration for this series.

I would highly recommend reading this book, especially since it's being made into an American movie (the Swedish adaptation was released in 2009). Rooney Mara plays Salander and Daniel Craig plays Blomkvist in the American adaptation, which is set to be released in December of this year. I'm hoping to read the second book this month so you can bet I'll be posting my reviews of that in a couple weeks. As a tiny warning, I read part of this book while I was in Tampa...alone...in a hotel room...very late at night...it pretty much freaked me out.

Losing My Bearings

Yesterday, I concluded  two things: 1) I am probably not cut out to be an FBI agent or do any type of work that would require discretion or guarding of top-secret information and 2) I think God likes sending my signs because it's comic relief. Why, you ask? Well because I've been leaving important crap everywhere.

Yesterday morning, I got to work and realized that my work laptop was not in the van I was driving. After shitting a brick and triple-checking the van, I tried to remember when I last had it with me. The day before (this past Wednesday), I was in Downtown LA at Ernst & Young Plaza doing a vanpool outreach event. I had brought my laptop with me just in case potential vanpoolers wanted to take a look at our new ridesharing online community. I wasn't even going to demo the website, but the client had requested it so I brought the laptop. Turns out, there wasn't an electrical outlet for me to use so I packed the laptop under my table. Ironically, I didn't want to leave it in the van because someone might take it since the van was on display and all kinds of people were going to be crawling in and out of it.  Long story short, someone came up to me while I was closing up shop and we started talking about public transportation. After our talk, I quickly grabbed everything else I could see and jammed out of there. I didn't even know I had left my laptop under the table until the next morning! Once I finally realized what I had done, I called my contact at the building and a couple hours later, they located my laptop and I was able to pick it up yesterday afternoon.

I thought my absent-mindedness was done for the day...but it wasn't...

Yesterday night, after getting my laptop back, I headed home and decided to join my mom and brother for the nightly Mass at our church. Everything was great: I paid attention to the readings and homily, thanked God for all my blessings, and asked for a shitload of new blessings (hahaha...NOT kidding). Feeling good about spending some quality time at church, we all headed home to get dinner started. Once I had parked my car in the garage and turned the engine off, I realized that my purse wasn't in the car. Where was it??? Back at church, under the freakin' pew. I let my mom and brother out of the car and zoomed over to church to find my purse waiting for me where I had left it.

I sat down in the empty church and just took a minute to breathe. I looked at all the pictures of the Saints surrounding me and then looked at Jesus on the crucifix (btw, my Jesus has INSANE abs! Does yours?!). Somehow, I think me losing my shit and finding it again was a sign. Of what? Not sure, exactly, but God probably wants me to calm the fuck down and refocus my energy because I'm too preoccupied on a particularly negative aspect (read: work) of my life and it's only temporary.

Got it...Messaged received....Copy that.

God sure does work in strange ways, but I'm thankful for it and it reminds me not to take things so seriously.

P.S. I HAVE been taking pictures for the blog, but getting the pictures from camera to blog is another story. I'll get pictures up this month ;)

To San Francisco and Back and then some

The other week, I drove from Diamond Bar to San Diego and back home to Diamond Bar. The following day, I drove from Diamond Bar to San Luis Obispo to Downtown LA then back home. The next week (which was last week), I drove from Diamond Bar to Downtown LA to Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc and back home. All that adds up to at least 1,033 miles driven (it's actually more because I stopped for bathroom breaks, breakfast and/or lunch, and to stretch at Vista Points) in 3 working days.

This week, I have two trips: one to Woodland Hills and the other to Pasadena. I have never looked forward to two-hour commutes during rush hour in my life...until now.

All this driving will be worth it if I can just get 20+ vans on the road this year, preferably before June...eeks!