Let's Do Something New!

Well this was a really FUN  new thing to do!!!  One of my readers suggested that I try to take pictures….all day…of a regular day (as if I EVER have those) and try to make it artsy and fun…..since I do not have a fancy camera, I took all the pix with my i-phone  (since it SUX as a phone, I might as well use the camera part)

I tried to be creative when I could, but somehow, I found myself attracted to flowers and went with it. Everything you see here was literally along my way today.  I had so much fun hiking in the morning, working out, grocery shopping and then visiting neighbors, ending the eve with a fabulous dinner party at a beautiful house, and I was so excited to take pix while I was there. The best thing about this NEW THING is that I got the chance to open my eyes to such beautiful moments as well as becoming more sensitive to the beautiful art, food , nature and people that might have otherwise not been seen with such focus and attention.

Thank you Parker, for this wonderful suggestion  I now suggest this to anyone who reads this blog. For just ONE DAY, take pix (even with your cell phone) and document your day. It really did make today a more memorable experience and it was really fun trying to pretend I was a hip/cool photographer…… click play to see my work of art…..It was amazing….mixed with grace….

I never know what my new thing might be for the day till it hits me. As I was packing my car to go to visit friends in Santa Barbara, I realized that when I visit them, I usually always air my dirty laundry, but I have never actually BROUGHT my dirty laundry. Since I love their company so much, and my laundry machine is 2 floors down from me and something I dis-like doing, why not make it a big road trip- dinner-laundry -party? That WOULD be something new. Make something like LAUNDRY a fun time!!

Maybe this video will inspire you to appreciate if you DO have a laundry machine, it might even inspire you to play a wine glass…… it was a new idea anyway, and I really DID have FUN…..but was a DO SOMETHING NEW I will do again???  Click play to see……

This was an easy one, but very, VERY powerful. It’s all about being thankful….and I know from experience, the more you give thanks to the universe ( and to the people in your life) the more you are in the energy of HAVE…… and so….the more you will receive.  Today I wanted to let my sister know how grateful I am for a gift she made me a few years ago that I still use every day. I encourage you today to DO SOMETHING NEW and give thanks to one person in your life that might have added something to your life…..weather it is a gift, a nice word, their friendship, or, like my sister…something I use almost everyday, that she might not realize means so much to me. Just an e-mail, it will not take but a second, but it is such a great thing to do, for you and for the other person, to remind them that you are in appreciation of what they add to your life  So I am telling you, if you DO subscribe to my blog, and you are reading this…..just commit today, to sending out a quick e-mail of thanks, to someone, and you know who they are…….it will be so worth it, and you will feel really good about your DOINGSOMETHINGNEW…..and so will they!!!  Here is what I am thanking my sister for……

When I was in Dallas working on an informercial for Transformation.com, I got the chance to watch people who crossed the finish line. I was there to interview a few people and hear how they felt once the achieved their goal of running a marathon, but I was overtaken by inspiration as I really, REALLY watched the faces of the second a person succeeds in the personal triumph of this one moment. I decided to give my attention to peoples faces as they crossed the finish line. This may seem like a simple thing to do, but if you really give yourself over to this moment, you see the magic that happens, and …well, you just feel good inside watching it. Click play to watch a feel-good dosomethingnew. Oh and today, maybe stop for a second and notice someones face, look into their eyes and imagine them crossing a finish line of their own personal journey. Its a way to pray for someone without even trying.

Well thanks to JILL MAGLIONE one of my blog readers, I am CPR certified!!! She challenged me for somethineg NEW- to take a class to learn how to get certified in CPR for adults AND infants!

This was not an easy task and took a month of research and planning….but….I challenge all of YOU to take this class!!!  If you live in L.A. you can sign up at www.funcpr.com and it will tell you how to register and where the next class is! If you do NOT Live in L.A. it would still be a cool thing to do on a date,(you have to make out with a dummy anyway, it can only make the other person look good) or take it with a few friends,…some of these places will even come to your office to teach everyone! It only takes a few hours, and just think what a hero you might one day be when you bring someone back to life!   Google CPR class wherever you live, It’s fairly cheap, and the best few hours you will spend……especially if you can save a life!!

I walked into the class and was promptly asked why I am taking CPR class….(most people take it because they have to for their health profession) I quickly stated that since I have recently begun dating older men, I thought it was very appropriate that I am prepared.  This got a good laugh,and started to put the FUN in the FUN CPR that I signed up for. Click on this picture to see the results of my day learning to save a life!!!

Now I am a person who WELCOMES change. But when a company changes the recipe of a coffee drink  (ice blended vanilla with soy) that I have been happily addicted to for 10 years, for no reason, I can not just stand by. Last year, I might have just noted it, and felt frustrated. This year I decided, every customers voice deserves to be heard….especially since this customer gives them about 1200.00 a year for my favorite drink. Why don’t I DO SOMETHING NEW and call the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf headquarters and ask WHY?? WHy did they change my drink?

I deserve an answer!  Click play and see what I found out………

Well, although I have not posted for a few days, I have stayed true to my commitment and have been doing a new thing each day. It was challenging to be filming 12 hour days on the Transformation infomercial, and still find time to film a new thing each day, but I made it happen. This is a good one. Since I am a TRUE American Idol fan, and am grief stricken Paula Abdul is no longer on the show, imagine how happy I was to find out I might have the chance to meet her in real life! And who knew she was all about Transformation! She loved Bill Phillips and his transformation program so much, (www.transformation.com) she wanted to come and speak at this event!  I even filmed a few of her wise words…..but I still had to figure out how I could get her to teach me a few Paula Abdul dance moves!  I cornered her her back in the green room , and click play to see what happens……

Well, you might not think this is a big deal, but if you had any idea how many people’s lives this man has effected, and if you went to www.transformation.com and clicked on the community section, you would see why this NEW THING TO DO might have been my favorite. I joke about the fact that my new thing was to have dinner with “a billionaire” but the truth is, if u make around 100 MILLION, it is a BILLION in my mind, and I did not care about that as much as I cared about the fact that I was going to have one on one time with one of the most inspirational people out there right now. I followed the program and book  ”Body for Life” back in 2001 and it changed my life, and now, somehow, I got to work with the man behind the book.  I have spent today talking with hundreds of people who are being transformed by this program www.transformation.com and the stories I hear are amazing. Not FAKE “infomercial” AMAZING. Truly, inspirational, heart breaking, eye-opening, amazing. The guy who lost his wife to cancer and did not want to go on, but through the steps and the community of www.transformation.com found a reason to get his life back, and the support to continue…..The woman who finally lost 200 pounds and is living a healthy lifestyle because as she puts it “I worked on the inside, and it transformed the outside’.  That is what this is all about and I am sooo excited to be a part of the stuff I have believed in my whole life. And for the first time when I told someone I got my Masters in “spiritual psychology” instead of asking if I counsel ghosts, they asked me to dinner and wanted to know more. Dinner conversation lead to talk of maybe co-hosting a radio show with him (Bill Phillips)  which would be pretty cool. Oh, and the Salmon was pretty friggin amazing as well.

And so, here it is…the transformational pre-dinner NEW THING TO DO video. I like this one.

Well here in Texas I am looking for something new to eat. BUT this new thing had nothing to do with Texas, in fact the fish I tried here is only found in the North Pacific. Still, I never had it before,and this is my favorite thing about it when I looked up what I actually ate….

In popular culture

Sablefish made an appearance in the HBO comedy series “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (Season 5, Episode 1) as an ingredient in the “Larry David sandwich” sold at a local delicatessen. The full recipe of the sandwich included whitefish, sable, capers, onions & cream cheese, and it sold for $8.95.

nuff said. If it was on my FAVORITE show “Curb your Enthusiasm” and was in Larry David’s Sandwich, even better.

Here it is…..A VERY new thing……the SABLE fish…..

Here is the deal, when I am traveling I have to get a little creative doing NEW things, and I never know when an NEW THING idea will pop up out of nowhere. I am in Dallas Texas shooting an informercial right now, and when I arrived yesterday I kissed the ground when I landed. The flight was so bumpy I never thought I would even get the CHANCE to mess with Texas Keeping in the grateful spirit when I landed, a simple thank-you was not enough….I had to find God and personally thank her for getting me back on the ground safe. BUT—Where does God live in the airport? Click play and you will see…..

oh yeah, I found out what Quibla meant by the way. It’s the direction muslums need to pray in. There is a reason for that but it’s not my new thing today to explain the Mecca, and the muslums prayer life. However, I did find in my research that there is an actual app for the i-phone that tells you where the Quibla is at all times. There is even a GPS that will help you find it as well. Love it.

Well Craig Gummer, you got me to do it again…..Never liked mushrooms as a kid, but now…well, lets just say I am learning NEW ways to turn food I used to hate into an amazing delicious experience!!!

With the help of my own personal “chef Bernard”, check out my easy, EASY recipe for the best mushrooms ever!! Let THIS be the new way you  SHROOM out!!!  click play and  enjoy!!  It’s less than 4 ingredients so ANYONE can do it!!!

Sometimes you get a great job on t.v.  Sometimes that job involves acting. Which is not such a bad thing. But sometimes it involves day after day of just plain lying. Then you lose a little bit of yourself each day. You might still be on TV but you are not happy and you do not know why. You worked so hard to get to this place. But what is this place? A place where you have to remotely say rehearsed lines that are the same every episode. Leaving out humor,leaving out personality, and most the time leaving out the complete TRUTH.

At the end of each episode of HGTV “designed to sell” I had to go over the receipts with the designer and say how great it was that we designed 3 rooms for under 2000.00 !!!! This was not always the case. After about 30 episodes of being forced to act happy that we “reached our goal” I finally lived out a fantasy I had for a long time of just saying the whole truth, and nothin but the truth so help me God. How refreshing. How completely NEW.  If you do think this was funny…..it’s because humor is most often found in TRUTH….and that was about the only thing in this episode under 2000.00

This new thing is dedicated to Jamie Edwards Helle, who asked me if I could learn how to change my oil for a NEW THING. Since I already know how to do that, I thought I would take it ONE STEP FURTHER, and learn how to change a flat tire! I can not believe it has taken me so long to learn this, but sometimes it takes an entire new blog idea to force me to learn things that take me out of my comfort zone. I would say I have always felt too TIRE—D to even try to learn this, but that is just an excuse (and a lame joke.)

Well, leave it to my lovely 2006 BMW 325 to give me plenty of chances to learn how to change tires,since this would be the 3rd one I have gone through since I got the car.

But thank God for Arshak and “The Best Car Towing Company” to help me learn this NEW THING which apparently might come in handy if I decide to keep my car. Click play if you TOO would like to learn how to change a tire in less than 3 minutes and 53 seconds….

This new thing suggestion was from TIMOTHY KELLY, who suggested that I do a “random good deed” for a new thing to do. I loved the idea, but was not sure how to execute it. My car got a flat tire a few nights ago so I went to a deli nearby to wait for the tow truck. Then I met a humble beautiful woman who lit up the place she worked (Jerry’s famous Deli) and I knew this was a moment to give back. I thank Timothy Kelly because it made what would have been a frustrating night for me, a beautiful experience. Sometimes just stopping for a second and noticing a hard worker who puts smiles on the faces of everyday customers, and who never usually gets recognition for it, is a good thing to do. But it’s even more fun to surprise that person with a tiny gift.  Here it is. Click play to watch the random good deed played out. And thanks again to Timothy Kelly for the idea.

This was a suggestion from  Craig Gummer–that I try something as an adult that I HATED as a kid!  The first thing that came to mind was BRUSSELS SPROUTS.  I could not imagine EVER liking these horrible things. I used to hide them under the carpet when I was forced to eat all my “vegetables”. (thank God we had a dog) They were repulsive to me back then, and just the thought of eating them now made me angry that Craig should suggest I be put through that torment all over again….BUT–..my good friend Angela SWORE by a recipe that guaranteed I would like them if prepared as instructed…….I did not believe there was even  a WAY to cook brussel sprouts that would make them edible unless you fried them and covered them in chocolate….

BUT—With the help of my good friend (and secret chef) Bernard, we executed this NEW THING challenge with grace and ease,…(and garlic)….Press play and see if I am now a fan of Brussel Sprouts as an adult…….did my feelings change???  Craig this ones for you….