Let's Do Something New!

I  have big heart for strays. I always have. Ask any of my homeless x-boyfriends.  However, I have never gone on vacation, and ordered a special meal for a stray cat before. Some might try rock climbing, or snorkeling as the Aruba “do something new” activity.  I chose to feed a stray cat. Mostly, because it made me feel good.  And I didn’t have to get wet. Or exert much physical effort. However, my best friend Kimberly just happen to walk up to my table after finding out that I charged the meal to our room, the meal that the stray cat (I call her Lindsay Lohan) had devoured was pretty expensive. I am not sure that Kimberlys’ new thing would have been to charge an expensive fish meal to our room, for a stray cat. What can I say, I think it is a small price to pay for a very HAPPY Aruban stray.

enjoy  the feel good newthingtodo video

Well, we DID find a star in Aruba—-the first night—it was Richard Gere!!! But that did not seem enough, and my new thing was really REALLY find a star…..no matter how long it took….and guess what??? we did it. we actually found a STAR. Pulled it from the ocean, and then let it back into the ocean, but for that moment, we came face to face….with an aruban STAR. FISH.

Here is the moment and I was so lame I forgot to ask for her autograph…….. and yet I knew, she still appreciated the moment of our adoration and photos………..she will totally pass them on to her team, and the next thing you know, I am caught with a star fish, which is why I am single and have not worked in the ent. biz for some time.

Blamin it all on the shell fish.   B.P. …..what have you to say about that??   take away my fans, and I am NOTHING>

In the meantime……here we  are with a star. Fish.   No name dropping needed.  enjoy this video…..

I will never forget it.

Well, Our first day on the island of Aruba, and itseemed as if Hollywood followed us there!!  We checked into the Hotel and Lo and Behold,  there was the 1st ever ARUBAN Film Festival going on right down the street……and Richard Gere was being honored with an Aruban Humanitarian Award….strange looking gold statue…..but a hot and classy looking Richard.

As real and kind as Richard Gere is, even he was not too terribly impressed with Aruba, and said ” After I landed today in Aruba, I looked around and saw that this island really has potential”  Potential?? LOVE THAT!! God bless you Richard. Nobody can argue with potential.

I might steal that one when I am trying hard to be nice. Yes, this food has …..potential. Yes, that song, it really has uh, has potential. Why thank you, this wine , umm…well, it…….really has potential!!!

Could this be a new thing? Stalk Richard Gere on the island of Aruba? The ismland is small enough, and this would be a fun NEW thing to do!! So, I grabbed my camera and it did not take me and Kimberly long to go and track him down and stand and stare in awe….As pretty as the stars were in Aruba, this star definitely shined the brightest. So thank you Richard, for making my first night in Aruba a night to remember.  Here is a tribute to….well….to you…

Well, I decided to randomly take off for a week and go to Aruba with my best friend. This in itself was a NEW thing. We picked an island in the Caribbean, and booked a ticket. Only problem was, I forgot that Aruba is actually ANOTHER COUNTRY. My passport had been expired, so I had to pay 400.00 to rush order a new passport (an adventure in itself) and barely got it in my hands 24 hours before I took off. And by the way, from Los Angeles, it was about 18 hours to get there. Should have gone to the island of Tonga. Would have been more of an adventure, and maybe closer in distance.

Once we arrived, my best friend apparently had a death wish, and felt the need to get on a floatation device and be pulled by an Aruban who was totally stoned. She kept telling him to go faster as I kept telling him to slow down while my death grip was slipping from the 95 mile an hour tug and my neck muscle atrophy.

This was my new thing. Inner tuben pulled by an Aruban.  I still do not have full function of my finger and neck muscles. Here is to doing NEW things!!! Click on the highlight if you wish……

Okay, this thing called croquet I have not done since I was 8 and bored in Michigan. I remember it was actually really fun to play with the neighbors on the lawns in the summer. (This might have been before video games were invented.) Since then, the only time I have seen this played is in really really rich hotels on the lawn where the wealthy people with pre-nups have weddings where they pretend they are going to stay together forever……Wow. Bitter, table for one??

Anyway, this was a fun retro- moment for me, and as an adult, although the rules have changed…(I changed them ) it was a NEW THING to go back in time and re-visit a childhood game!!

I invite you to think about a game you might have enjoyed as a kid, and play it now as an adult! (although some might argue how much of an ADULT I really am)

click and enjoy a 1 minute visit back to a fun game I played as a child….a bored lonely child…

Just when you thought all L.A. parties were full of  Paris Hiltons and Lindsay Lohans, you have not seen a REAL party here in L.A……. and you have never been to the party scene I am a part of.
This is what really goes on at a good party in Los Angeles.
We gather. We sing, we play instruments…..and of course have sick talent that is just too amazing for words….
So Do something new and  try this at your next party, oh, and by the way, when someone comments on how cool it is that you have a piano, that is musician code for “CAN  I PLAY FOR YOU????”

If you just have a few people around the piano, you might be surprised at  how many people can sing and how fun it is to pretend you are one of them!!!

This is one of my all time favorite things to do……..so enjoy a 2 minute version of a 6 hour sing-a-long night   I really hope it inspires you to live life to the fullest, which in my world, involves singing your HEART out!!!!

click play and enjoy!!! ( and forgive that I was way  too close to my i-phone video camera)

Okay, so after living in Los Angeles for 16 years I am tired of every woman talking about how PILATES was the BEST thing ever, and changed their body. I am wanting to learn more about doing new things to help me stay in shape, and not feel so bored with working out.

My good friend (click on his name to see who he is) John Ducey who is a major celebrity ( I am considered a MINOR celebrity) with such credits as Will and Grace, My Name is Earl, Malcolm in the Middle a regular on SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH, Desperate housewives, How I met your mother and currently played the father in THE JONAS BROTHERS(called JONAS) and many, MANY more. Enough about his MAJOR celebrity career, He is a friend of over 14 years, and I am currently in a competition to win him back as his best friend. ( click on this podcast where I fight to regain the “best friend slot”) just click on this to listen to the podcast of me trying to convince him that I am truly the ONLY one that should be in the running for his search of a new best friend……….click on episode number 10 to hear my case…….just click on this podcast link that is gray and is underlined to hear my case…….episode number 10 remember……

Rachel trying to regain the best friend of John Ducey

Anyway, if you have no interest in listening to a podcast with me  begging to be best friends with someone, ( I give away a LOT of personal information)  but if that is TMI for you,  here is us taking a stab at pilates. If you do not feel like going to pilates for yourself, then letsdosoemthingnew, and take a 3 minute peek at what it might consist of.

I would love to hear if you have ever done it, and what is your experience of it??? comment and let me know!!!!

here is mine!!!!  click play and enjoy!!!!

I have been cleaning up my blog and making it more sharable (and more purple) so if you ever want to share a post, click on the widgets under SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS, or if you want to subscribe for free, you can do that too! That is why I have been off the site for a while, but I am back to doing something new everyday, so stay tuned!!! We are back on track!!

This new thing was something I always wanted to learn more about and try. It is called Qi-gong,( but I think it should be spelled chee gong.)  I knew nothing about it except that it is very healthy, was invented by the Chinese, and adds to the wellness and peace of your life. My good friend David Sampson is an expert in this practice, and gave me a lesson , and a tiny bit of insight into this really neat, healthy and good for you NEW THING!   Check it out!  (even howie my dog got into his own form of  Chi-dog meditation)

See if you might want to try it as a healthy new thing for yourself!!!

I never thought I would see the day where people gathered from all over the city, to celebrate and taste….grilled cheese sandwiches???  My friend Camden told me about this festival that goes on in Los Angeles once a year, and it’s all about tasting every kind of grilled cheese sandwich you can imagine. A new thing for me??  YES. A new thing for society? maybe. A healthy thing for the world? Not really.  But oh so much fun, and oh sooooooo tasty.

So allow me to take you back to the days your mom made you a grilled cheese sandwich and cup of tomato soup. You are about to see many types of grilled cheese sandwiches that will be NEW for YOU as well.  Oh, and a word of caution…..please be careful not to watch this video if you have not eaten , or better yet, make yourself a grilled cheese and sit down to enjoy 5 minutes of the grilled cheese festival you really have to see  (and taste) to believe.:)

Just when I don’t think life can get any more exciting and full of NEW things to do, I get a real surprise…….I was lucky enough to fly to Vegas this weekend to see Jerry Seinfeld perform live at Caesar’s Palace, and then after that have dinner with him and a few others……..but the best part was getting to experience a mentalist (who refuses to be called a “magician”) this guy blew us all away. He was bending spoons just by looking at them, he guessed someone’s ATM pin number, had Jerry think of a childhood friend, then he guessed the name, and continued to read our minds in many different ways…….I managed to get 2 of these moments on camera……

The funny part is, when the mentalist needed a quarter, I was the only one at the table who even knew what a quarter looked like  (high rollers don’t walk around with change in their pockets, but minor celebrities like me do)  So the mentalist took my quarter, gave it to Jerry and, well…..just click play to see…You have to see it to believe it, and I STILL don’t….

This was just a brilliant and fun thing to do on your home computer, that I had no idea was even possible. All you have to do is  youtube your favorite song, then punch in “karaoke” in the title, and most the time it will pull up the lyrics with the music! All you have to do is sing along! I happen to have a microphone plugged into my computer for voice-over work, so I was able to add some bad karaoke echo, which made it so much more painfully fun to try to teach my friend how to sing ……..previously I had tried to teach him how to sing harmony, without realizing he kinda needed to learn how to sing  melody first.

So thank you Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock. We did the best we could.

Well, although it has been a few days, I have been doing one thing new a day!!! I took a trip to Vegas last week, and I was finally was able to gather a few of the NEW things I did there, that did not require me to gamble, eat too much at the buffet, or get into trouble. Here is a clean, fun and invigorating activity to do in Vegas, and something you might never have even heard of!!!!! Check this out!!!  I recommend taking note of cool things as you walk by them, and maybe do something new and spend a few bucks trying a thing that you might just write off as a gimmick……..because this little water massage “gimmick”  never felt so good………..click play to see why!!!!!

Happy Earth Day everyone!!!! How could I find something NEW to do on EARTH DAY? I could recycle, walk to work, or hug a tree,……yet I just felt as green as those things are, I wanted something to do a NEW THING that would blow me away. A new “Earth Day” thing that would be fun, that would be surprising, and something I had never even seen before…..and I found it!!!!  The EARTH DAY fair in Topanga Canyon provided my favorite NEW THING to do to celebrate this special day…….if you can believe this, it is a bicycle generated smoothie maker. Although I felt a little bit like Fred Flinstone startin up the car, I couldn’t believe how delicious riding a bike could actually be, not to mention I got my heart rate up, and never once used electricity  Check out this video!!!!!! Cheers to the EARTH! (and to banana strawberry smoothies)

Well, there is a magical restaurant that opened in Los Angeles in 1922, called The TAM ‘OSHANTERN and every month they have an amazing wine pairing!! I have always enjoyed wine on its own, but never realized that pairing really good wine with really good food, could be such an incredible venture!!! I was so excited when I found out that there was a wine pairing happening at the OLDEST restaurant in all of Los Angeles, and that this could be my NEW THING for today!!!!! I have never tried such amazing bites of food, with amazing sips of wine, if you never did this kind of thing before, I would recommend that you look up in your local paper where there is a place that puts good wine with good food, and let the magic begin!!!!!! This was a NEW THING that for me was like a taste -bud orgasm, and I will NEVER forget it!!!! Life is so beautiful and it has such spectacular things  to offer!! It is just up to US to seek it out and ENJOY these NEW THINGS!!!!!!! Here is what it is like to throw yourself into a professional WINE PAIRING!!!!  BEST TASTING NEW THING OF THE YEEAR!!!!!!! Could I possibly use any more exclamation points?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, if you can’t save MONEY in Vegas, here is a great way to save TIME The moment I landed in Vegas, I had my camera in hand, ready to play my hand at DOING SOMETHING NEW! Moments later I was filming a new trick I learned, that might save people A LOT of really important gambling time.

If you want to know how to surpass any taxi-cab line in the Vegas airport, or any airport for that matter, (and believe me, even during the WEEK the line can be up to 2 hours, just to get a CAB!!!!)  Here it is. I am a little nervous letting this trick out, because the more people that know about it, the more that it will make my trick no longer serve it’s purpose! However, for the sake of DOING SOMETHING NEW and for my Blog followers,….here it is……click play to learn my FAVORITE Vegas trick. I hope you can use it.