Read this blog because I'm not posting at the moment...

Until my novel is done, I'm not posting (except for this post). So read this beautiful & amazing blog that has made me happy since I found it in January. Sign up for the email. Reading her post in your email is wonderful.

Paris Breakfasts

This is a quick post on why I'm not posting until April

It's simple.

I'm on a mission to finish my novel by Friday March 30, 2007. My reward for completing the book is that I will:

1. Blog.

2. Be able to figure out the Flickr nightmare and the mishap of my accounts. I really lost my mind last Tuesday & Wednesday when things weren't going my way.

3. Scheduled Saturday March 31, 2007. I'm getting the works done at a fabulous little boutique spa. The package known as the Body & Soul package consists of a 30 minute Hydrotherapy spa, European Facial, Spa Mani & Pedi, and a spa lunch. What a treat but until then it is work, work, and work!




Besides, if Mr. Cop knew I was blogging he'd kill me. LOL! He thinks that I waste too much time blogging. He might be right but one can not help passion!

How does this Happen?

I'm currently completely locked out of all of my Flickr accounts! Lost are my user names, photos, and contacts! What is a girl to do!!

Miss Brunette can feel the love!

DSC_5678
Originally uploaded by azopper.lin.

I was really fretting the whole return to Canada but I've made a choice to be happy living where ever I am. Because, frankly, before my trip home to Orange Country, I wasn't. Everything about Canada had me frustrated. I think I was frustrated with the auditions, the incomplete book, and my whole career in general. Now, I'm on the verge of completing a book and I really believe that it's going to hit the shelves of Target, Walmart, and all the grocery stores in North America. Learn to dream big and build it-that's whay I have to say! Anyhow, I'm done hating Canada and I'm exploring the unique beauty that makes this place that it is. If it's snow melting or pierogis, I'm going to find any way to love the city I'm in. Now, I'm off to pour myself an iced tea & return to my writing desk!

Get into the Zen: The Beauty of Winter Melting Away

After I walked my dog through a nearby park in the Toronto area, I concluded that winter was fading. What joy it is for a girl like me to experience. As it happened, I conducted a few field recordings of the experience. In the below collection of field recordings, I'm proud to share a moment easily lost in the hectic experience of day to day living. Allow yourself to relax to the sounds of nature doing its thing. Let the sound of melting snow, melt away all your winter blues.

Cop Car Parade

Cop Car Parade 2
Originally uploaded by tommylane.

This image if strictly for the boy in my life, Mr. Cop. And guess what? He loves cop cars all across the world. Too bad he wasn't in NYC to watch it! Next time baby!

Brunette Confidential is Selling at Cafe Press!

Check out some of the highlighted gear:

The Truth Kills Hoodie...Click here to view.

Stop'em in their Tracks...Click here to view it!

Undercover T-shirt...Click here to view it!

The Official Brunette Confidential Bumper Sticker...Click here to view it!

I'm Watching Everything You Do Sweatshirt....Click here to view it!

Brunette Confidential Ballcap...Click here to view it!

The Style Agent/Spy Journal...Click here to view it!

Every Blog needs to talk about Baby yaks.

Baby yak
Originally uploaded by horses and tigers.

What must it be like to be a baby yak relaxing by the road in Derge, one will never know. Enough said.

The Long Road Home

Garland
Originally uploaded by Jon Block.

For the last three days, I've been running into things, dropping things, and as I started this post I just hit my funnybone so hard that I was screaming to the high heavens. It's so obvious. I never want to return to Canada ( I hate, hate, and hate cold weather!). However, the path to heaven is never straight. It just so happens that I'm in love with a guy, my fiance, who happens to live in Toronto. Damn, I should have wished for a local love but miracles aren't concerned with specific details.

I'm counting my blessings. I love Mr. Cop. I may be leaving the place in which my entire being is satisfied and content, Orange County of all places! But, Mr. Cop has pinky sworn in front of my family that he will move to Cali in a year. What more can I ask for?!

I leave behind my family, my community, the landscape, the flowers, the hummingbirds, the hawks, the traffic, the shopping, the smog, the ocean, the sidewalks, the mountains, the food, the style, and boy, can I keep going on..... The road home is going to be long indeed.

Ding Dong! Mr. Cop & Miss Brunette are Engaged!

Santa Catalina held all of the magic that a brunette girl could ever want!

It began February 28, on Wednesday morning, when Mr. Cop & Miss B boarded the Dana Point to Catalina Island ferry. We were told at the time that the ride might be choppy but everything would be fine. Famous last words!

We sailed beyond the Dana point break wall and started to immediately take on 6-8 foot waves! We wanted a view of the water so we were sitting with a few brave souls on the second deck. By the time we were out in the ocean, waves were pounding on the second level of the ferry so much that there were many times that there was zero visibility. Water was literally seeping in through the windows! What had began as as a fun little ferry ride to Catalina, turned into a wild hog tossing roller coaster ride! I had to sit backwards on my seat, sitting on top of legs, and holding the arm rest in order to not get caught in the motion of the ocean. I used all my best yoga breathing techniques to not get sick. Mr. Cop was holding a table in order to hang on as well. And let me tell you something, Mr. Cop isn't a small boy! There were several times that everyone on the second deck were literally thrown out of their seats! Wow! The lengths we go for love, right? We made it to the island but before we made it there were moments of sheer beauty that also made the trip worthwhile. We saw a white Buluga whale and scores of dolphins (on our last day in Catalina, we were graced with two American bald eagles flying less than thirty feet overhead!). That was magically between all the tossing waves. Yeah! Land ahead! Funny thing, a Catalina fireman would tell us later that day that he thought the ferry shouldn't have been operating. He told us that he hardly believed that it ran because the water was so rough. Boy! At least we made it! Land!!!

We arrived on the island and soon found out that Avalon is a small town. Tiny. I mean real small. There are probably fifteen streets that make up the city. As you might image, there were all these cute touristy shops and savoury smelling restaurants. Well, the high wind conditions were so severe that the cruise ships that dock on Wednesday had to abort dock. What do we care if Princess liners show up? Well, we didn't except that we found out that most of all those cute little tourist shops close shop if the cruise ships don't land. In a town that starts at ocean level and rises straight up a mountain side, that meant something. On Avalon, most people got around town by use of golf carts. I'm n0t kidding. It was great. However, the gold cart rental business closed shop when the cruise liners didn't dock. That meant that Mr. Cop and I could only rent beach bikes and ride straight up forty-five degree angle hills. We were out of breath in like less than five minutes! But, on those few flat surfaced road it was magic and it felt great to be adventuring on an island.






Closed shops, tired legs, and exhaustion from roaring ocean ferries, it was definitely time to hit the hotel. The hotel, Pavilion Lodge, had just undergone a 3 million dollar renovation. We arrived at our quaint room and I fell in love with it! I loved this hotel! It had style and it was comfortable at the same time. We bought loads of healthy snacks (Mr. Cop made that choice) and junk food (that was my choice, dear reader, I needed some real candy like starburst jelly beans, licorice, and York Peppermint patties! Yum!). We lounged and set a reservation at the Catalina Country Club.


Oh, I wondered. Was Mr. Cop really going to pop the question on such a crazy day! It hardly seemed possible while I was crashed out on a sugar high on our hotel bed. No way!

Catalina Country Club is located at the top of a hill which is no big surprise. It's absolutely beautiful but we had no idea how to get inside! There was no door, no receptionist desk, and people dining inside a very upscale room. I finally had to walk into the kitchen and ask the chef how we were suppose to get inside! It was that bizarre! The country club was built like a modernize french chateaux. What we were too shy to do was open up the one of five sets of french doors and just walk in! You try it! It was still uncomfortable to do even after the cook told us to do it.

We had the best meal that we've had since being in California. We had wine flights from Californian vineyards. The sommelier was an expert at pairing wines for our meal. The ambiance of the room was sultry like a country club but updated with modern scaled furniture pieces and textile choices. Okay, is he like going to ask? Hmm...I'm headed off to the restroom. Mr. Cop wants me to leave my purse so he can check out our cameras. No problem-o! I'm cool like that! Back at the table, the check arrives at the table. The drunken ex-waitress in me that has loved the whole dining experience reaches for the comment card. I grab my purse and reach for a pen. But! When I open my purse, sitting inside my bag is a jewelry box. What? I might be drunk but I know what a ring box looks like! That's like an engagement ring box sitting in my purse! Mr. Cop grabs my purse and says I wasn't suppose to look in there. Maybe, I'm not the only one feeling the wine because aren't girls suppose to look inside their own purses? He grabs my purse and runs off to the men's restroom! Wait, is the bill paid? HAHA! It was and I ran after him. He went into the men's restroom but I couldn't bring myself to cross that boundary. The boy's bathroom is definitely a no girls zone even if my purse was in there! I had to wait. In less than five, he rushed out and handed me my purse. I rummaged through my purse contents and it was like I was going mad! The box was gone!!!!



Let's Walk, That was all he said.

My mother likes to brag to friends and strangers that I can find my way out of a paper bag. It's a real asset but sometimes a curse. I couldn't help but point out to my dear Canadian lover that he was headed in the absolute wrong way. He looked me in the eye and said that he felt like strolling. It was a total lie. It was freezing out and we were both shaking from the Pacific Ocean wind that was rattling the island. The moon was almost full, the stars were brilliant, and the lights were dim inside the Catalina cottages. It was a romantic walk, like kind girls dream of. We ended up at the Catalina beach front that skirts the tourist shops and the boardwalk. We walk out onto the rocky beach and he pulls the box from his pocket. He opens it and a star-like light explodes from the center of the dark box. Diamonds are a girl's best friend! So what does Mr. Cop say...

MR. COP
(nervous)
Well, you know what that means.

MISS BRUNETTE
(gasps, it's the Tacori ring of her dreams and the man of her life standing in front of her. Ah, like why isn't Mr. Cop kneeling?)

MR. COP
(as if on cue, he drops to his knee, and speaks one of the most famous phrases known all over the world)
Will you marry me?

MISS BRUNETTE
Are you kidding?
(She gets lost in watching the moonlight reflect on the pacific ocean behind him, the swooping sandpipers, and gentle sea waves breaking on the shore. This is a moment she never will never forget in her entire life)

MR. COP
(patiently waiting on knee, shifting his weight, wondering what this girl from the OC is got rolling around in her head)

MISS BRUNETTE
Is this for real?
(she kisses his cheek)

MR. COP
Wait, you still haven't said anything. Is that like a yes?

MISS BRUNETTE
Yes! Yes! Yes!

Mr. Cop and Miss Brunette laugh, hug, and kiss. A near disaster of a proposal turns into magical laughter immediately.


See, I had always watched romantic movies and heard all the stories of proposals and marriage. I never thought a year ago that I would have meant such a wonderful man that I would truly want to spend the rest of my life with! The miracle of God happens as Jennifer Hudson said spell bound on Oscar night. A star that I had wished on that night answered back to me that night. And, I didn't cry like I had always expected! It was a proposal filled with laughter and adventure! I was laughing so hard when it finally arrived!

MISS BRUNETTE
So, why did you put the ring box in my purse?

MR. COP
I didn't think you'd look inside.

MISS BRUNETTE
What?
(laughing and shaking her head-what girl doesn't look inside her purse!)

MR. COP
The box was killing my leg. Look at it. That box is the largest box that I've ever seen in my life.

MISS BRUNETTE
Are you kidding me? You carry a gun for a living!

MR. COP
Ah...Well, I didn't think you'd look. You kind of ruined my plan.

MISS BRUNETTE
(hugging Mr. Cop on the beach)
I can tell you....I'll never fill out another comment card again in my life. Now kiss me fool, we're engaged!

THE END FOR NOW...