The show must go on

I came across a ticket stub in the bottom of my winter purse and I started remembering shows that I had almost forgotten about, so I thought I'd type them down.

• Rod Stewart (post)
  
• Stevie Wonder (post)
• U2 (post)
• Madonna (post)
• Cyndi Lauper (twice / article)
  
• Deborah Gibson (post)
• Howie Day (post)
• Dolly Parton (post)
• Dave Mathews Band (post)
• John Legend (post)
• The Police (post)
• Michael Bolton / Lee Ann Womack / Patrick Swayze / Nancy Sinatra (post)
• Bette Midler
• The Bangles (twice)
• Neil Diamond
• The Village People
• The Beach Boys
• Wayne Newton
• Jon Secada
• The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
• America
• Bare Naked Ladies
• Vertical Horizon
• 98 Degrees
• Keane
• The Foo Fighters
  

I still feel like I'm missing some. The Beach Boys and America came to me just at the last minute too. My favorite shows were Bette, Dolly, Rod and Cyndi because not only do I love their songs I loved their passion on stage. Worst: Madonna (eh she's all theatrics, didn't sing the hits and took long breaks) and Dave Matthews (read the post).

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Cupcakes For a Cause

National Cupcakes for a Cause Week is October 15-21, and participating bakeries across the U.S. will be proceeds from the sale of their cupcakes to help support CancerCare for Kids. The newly opened Crumbs in Beverly Hills, which is our next LA Cupcakes MeetUp stop, is participating as are shops from all over (full list).

Also, for every friend that you send a free virtual cupcake/e-card to, $1.00 will be donated to CancerCare for Kids. You also get to design your own e-cupcake, which is fun. Over there ---> is the official red velvet When Tara Met Blog cupcake.

Now if only I could eat it.

I'm also busy saving the pink Yoplait lids that equal 10 cents per seal for breast cancer research. Right now California is #1 with the most lids collected and Texas is #2.

PS: Here's a photo of my office mates all dressed in pink to show our support and fundraise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Check out my retro boots.

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Tara does Dallas

and so do crickets apparently--I'll explain in a second.

I'm visiting the Dallas office this week and after entering my first hotel room (I had to stay at two different ones due to a whole reservations fiasco, which had me taking several taxis and didn't get me into a hotel room until 2:00 in the morning, but I don't want to go there) I saw a printed letter on the floor that read:

As you may have heard or perhaps seen, we have been experiencing an unusual phenomena (should be phenomenon) in the State of Texas (state was capitalized as if Texas is its own country like the United States) so far this summer. Due to the unusual amount of rain we have experienced a large in-flux of crickets as of late. We currently apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced; we are taking steps to minimize the problem as much as possible by spraying the fields as well as the outside of the building essentially doubling our normal efforts. Although we do understand they can be an annoyance, the crickets do not pose any health risk. Our staff is working diligently to remove the crickets from the guest rooms on a daily basis, however if you encounter any crickets please call extension 57 and our staff will be happy to come and remove them.

Of course, I immediately started looking around the room for crickets and then put my ear next to the window to hear them, but heard and saw nada. I then had images of the staff that are checking daily for crickets to remove them and pictured them in Ghostbusters’ gear, lol.

Geez, what happened that they needed to write this letter? Did someone get attacked by renegade crickets? Health risks? I didn't even consider that, they shouldn't have even put that in my head. I'm glad I'm not the public relations person who was forced to have to deal with this "cricket problem," which apparently is like the Watergate of the hospitality industry, and write the copy for this crazy letter. Maybe I found the whole thing funnier since I was now so tired I was becoming silly, but I had some good fun going on cricket patrol in my room that I even had dreams with 30 foot crickets in them.

News: Invasion has Texans saying Jiminy, crickets! (Got to love the headline)

The next night at the next hotel, I had dinner by myself in the hotel's restaurant. Sitting at an outside table, still in my white suit from my day of work, I enjoyed a glass of red wine by my lonesome as I waited for my meal to arrive. I didn't bring a book or hide behind my cell phone. Instead, I just sipped and looked around peacefully. A bunch of men were in the hotel though for some conference and as a result the other tables were full of male colleagues, so it made me sitting by myself all the more noticeable. One guy on his way out even remarked to me "You're a brave one" playing dumb I responded, "For wearing white and drinking red wine?" they laughed and silently congratulated myself for successfully avoiding their pity or any invitations for company.

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Flu shot on the rocks please

Cold and flu season is coming and it's that time again, for people to rollup their sleeves and get that all-important shot to protect them. OK that was the news lead that I used in recent outreach announcing that CVS Pharmacy’s are administering flu-shots this season, but yesterday I did in fact get a flu shot myself. My first flu shot.

I read all the literature beforehand in order to find some excuse that would let me back out. I did the same when I used to contemplate giving blood and would then to my glee find out that I couldn't because I visited a foreign country that year that was on the NO list and then there was the year that I got a tattoo, etc. Too bad the reason was never because I was under the weight limit though. Oh well. Anyway, I had no excuse when it came to the flu shot and since I was recently sick it made sense to do something about it this year. Being a fainter though, I was afraid it was going to hurt and then I’d pass out like I’ve done in the past when doctors took my blood or gave me needles. Giving blood though I'd surely faint, I even had to fight the urge when I went to the Red Cross to report on this story of a woman giving her 136th pint of blood, that’s 17 gallons.

But I had no excuse this year, especially since they were giving flu shots at my office, only a couple of feet away from my desk. Although I was still afraid that I’d faint at work. I walked into the designated room and saw a woman about to get pricked with the vaccine, so I entered like Frankenstein, my hands extended, waving my consent form around, grumbling, and all the while looking down at my feet. I was given a lollipop to calm me down. Cherry.

When it was my turn, I told the woman that I've never had a shot before, but she could have cared less. She pulled up my sleeve as I craned my head away as far as my neck would allow me. I felt a moist nap applied to my arm and then a quick pinch. It was nothing. I was fine. I let my heart race back to normal speeds, took a deep breath and walked out tall.

A day later though it now hurts! It feels like my sleeve is digging into the muscle and its sore when I move my arm. It's a little swollen around the target area too, but otherwise it's fine. Weird how it didn't hurt to get the shot, but it hurts a day later.

Disclaimer: Despite common misconceptions, those receiving shots will not have to worry about catching the flu from the shot since the vaccine is created from inactive flu viruses designed to produce antibodies, and these inactive viruses are not contagious. In fact, annual flu shots have been found to be about 75 percent effective in preventing the flu.

Flu treatments are usually a great idea in the long run, but flu shots can be painful if not done right though. Find a good doctor or nurse who can administer them painlessly and you should be fine. As always, if you a medical question about the flu or flu shots, check with your doctor.

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LA Cupcakes #6: Leda's Bake Shop

For my LA Cupcakes MeetUp group's sixth stop (we're now at 132 members!), we headed out to Sherman Oaks to visit Leda's Bake Shop. There we found mini cupcakes ($1.50 each) similar to the ones at Vanilla in Santa Monica, however these were much better and came in more flavors and with cute hand-made sugar fondant decorations on top.

Unlike the new comers that we tried recently, this shop has been open for over two and half years now and offers vegan cupcakes, which I thought I'd surely detest, but the Red Velvet vegan mini cupcake was surprisingly, sweet, moist and delicious. They do not use artificial red dye though, so although it tasted like red velvet, it didn't look it.

I also sampled their yummy lime coconut, which had a layer of lime curd underneath the icing and bits of coconut inside the cake. I tried their passion fruit cupcake too, which tasted like a yummy drink. Another one that I ate was the chocolate raspberry, which although I normally like in a chocolate bar, I found it to be just OK in cupcake form. I think I'm biased though since I prefer vanilla cake generally. Lastly, I brought home the Dolce de Leche for Raphael who quickly devoured the treat with no complaints.

Overall, everyone raved about the vegan red velvet, the chocolate chocolate chocolate, the espresso and of course the cute designs and mini sizes. One member commented, "The minis are the perfect size to assuage any feelings of guilt!" Oh and the bakery’s Blondie bars and chocolate chip cookies were yummy too, in fact several members purchased to go bags (more photos).

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Hanging with the Cast of Heroes

On Friday night I headed only 1.6 miles away from mi casa to see some Heroes (literally) at Demetrios Mavromichalis' Venice Grind Print & Art Gallery for the opening exhibition of “Hollywood Most Wanted,” an art showing of celebrity mug shots turned pop-art with enhanced colors and printmaking techniques. Zachary Quinto, the actor who portrays "Sylar" on NBC's television show Heroes, hosted the gala and as a result other Heroes cast members were present too. I was invited by Bungalow PR, who was responsible for the this hot party and with whom I do freelance work for.

The tiny gallery was packed with TV celebs and being fans of the show, Raphael and I were in our element. In fact, I couldn't help but be momentarily frightened when the bad guy, Sylar, walked in the backyard party area, which had an open bar sponsored by p.i.n.k (vodka infused with caffeine) + Bluecoat American Dry Gin, plus appetizers being cooked outside by Nourish catering. Not having had dinner, we filled up on the bite size portions, which were all divine.

While viewing the displays we spotted, Neil Patrick Harris, i.e. Doogie Howser, who has such baby looking skin that he looked not only young but pretty. He was there with another handsome guy, who I'm assuming was his date. Here's a photo though with Neil, Zachary and the artist Rachel Schmeidler.

Then Raphael noticed Hero's sidekick "Ando," actor James Kyson Lee, who hammed it up for his friends in front of the portraits. We took the opportunity to snap a photo with Raphael's iPhone, and James then turned and smiled right at the camera:

We also saw Heroes' dad, Jack Coleman, who we briefly chatted with by the bar. He shook my hand and shared that he liked the art show. He was the friendliest of all the stars there and looked handsome and generally comfortable in the crowd. What was really interesting though was to see that he and his on screen daughter, a.k.a. the cheerleader played by Hayden Panettiere (who I saw at the Tribeca Film Festival last year too) interacted as if they were really father and daughter. It was cute. In fact, when she entered the party in a short and stunning golden dress, she immediately ran right to Jack for a hug and to join in the photo opp with Access Hollywood, which was also there with a reporter and camera crew. I'm going to tape the show this week, in case I'm in the background ;).

Later Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) arrived as did actress Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars), who apparently is the latest addition to the cast this season
.
For more photos check out WireImage and here. The exhibit runs from now until Nov. 4 at 12222 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90066. Update: I saw the coverage on Access Hollywood, short and sweet but no moi in the background. Ah well, at least I was there.

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Across the Universal

Early this morning, I headed to an HD DVD press conference on the Universal lot. So early (6:15 a.m.) that I saw the sunrise from the highway and there wasn't any traffic on the 405 or 101-- nothing like small miracles to bring a smile to a sleepy face.

This is the third studio that I've had a walk-on pass for since being out in Los Angeles. I had attended Sony Studios in Culver City twice for a taping of King of Queens and then watching the filming of a TGIF commercial and also twice to The Warner Bros lot for screenings of The Brave One and The Astronuat Farmer.

Anyway, the lot was pretty standard with golf carts driving around, catering trucks too, security and sound stages. I walked past Stage 3 where an episode of Desperate Housewives was being filmed inside. I hear you can view Wisteria Lane inside, but that wasn't allowed via my pass, which by the way read "Terra Settiemere" (how they got that from Tara Settembre, even when in possession of my license for 5 minutes, I'll never know).

Link: What the? Who thinks of this stuff? DontSquat.com

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Turn, turn, turn

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

It seems that I can't make a big change in my life without everything else changing as well. For example, last year (yes, it has already been a year) not only did I leave NYC for Los Angeles, I moved in with Raphael and started a new job. Now, not only did I get engaged, but Friday was my last day at my work, thus the hookah party on Thursday with my co-workers.

I figured the timing now was right for a change at work, too. For the last three and a half years I've been in tech PR and although I'll still be doing tech to a degree, I'm going to be moving into more consumer public relations, which is new and exciting for me. All around this change should be good for me.

I'd like to go into more details, but I find there is so much I want to say on my blog that I can't because of the close people reading it. Which is a pity, because when I have news, my blog is the first place I want to go and write all about it. After three years of blogging, It's how I process/cope with the different things in my life.

Link: Have you seen the photo book, Porn for Women, with images of hunky men cooking, listening, asking for directions, accompanied by steamy captions like: "I love a clean house!" or "Well, I can't offer you any solutions, but I am a good listener." Hmm I always did like fantasy, lol.

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