End of Summer

I hate it when the summer ends. I wish it could stay daylight until 9 pm all year long! Anyway here's some of the random stuff we've been up to.

A few weeks ago, my lifelong friends Jill and John visited from Burgettstown, and we had three days of fun, driving all over Los Angeles and gorging ourselves. We had a great burger at The Counter, an excellent Mexican meal at La Sirena, and of course, a classic In N Out burger. But the highlight was our splurge at Gordon Ramsay at The London.



The food was amazing -- but I did send some fish back. It was, well, you know, too fishy. I was hoping Gordon Ramsay would come out and call me a F**$@*NG DONKEY but instead the waiter was really nice about it and took it off our tab. What a letdown!

Brian and I were invited to an X-Games party in Hollywood. We're still not sure how we ended up on this guest list, but it was a blast. Right in the middle of Vine they had motocross riders doing tricks (that greenish blur is a guy flipping through the air).



We also got free t-shirts, hot dogs, drinks (yeah, open bar!) and a concert by Mike Ness. They had Guitar Hero Aerosmith and an old-fashion barber shop set up right in the middle of the dance floor where you could get a shave. Brian passed on the shave, but happily partook of the Guitar Hero and free drinks. Wonder why he kept going back to the bar...





Then we headed to Kentucky for my beloved cousin Dena's shower. To be more accurate, it was a co-ed "stock the bar" shower for her and her fiance Sam. We all greatly missed the presence of Samantha, but we still had a great time. Sam's dad brought some apple pie-flavored moonshine and I slurped it down like Crystal Light. That's the main reason why all of the photos I took are blurry.

Kelli with my Aunt Deanna saying "Bring me more moonshine, please. Do it!"



Brian making a gesture meaning "I need to consume more. Nothing's as great as flying cross country with a massive hangover. Bring it!"



My dear cousin Berni thinking "I think I am smiling normally, so take the picture! And bring me some moonshine, now."



Wow, here's a photo that isn't all that shaky, and the people in it look semi sober! This is gorgeous Dena and her badass bridesmaid Ashley.



Hey! Another one where we don't look so hammered. But appearances can be deceiving. Oh, except for my cousin Kelsey -- she's only 17 so of course she did not have one single drop of moonshine, fruity shots of vodka punch, Rolling Rock, or the specially-concocted Hurricane Dena (blended by her clever bridesmaid Severin). Right? Not one drop!



My poor brother Lee stayed sober all night. That didn't stop me from trying to drag him into my drunken web.



Ahhh. And a good time was had by all.

Back in LA, I went to see Extreme with three friends from "back in the day". I thought it might be cheesy. Instead, it was astounding! Okay, it's true, a lot of the crowd was kind of stuck back in the 80s. But I guess you gotta admire these people for sticking to their roots. Regardless of the number of acid washed jeans or mullets in the room, the band was incredible. Nuno Bettencourt is one of the best guitarists I've ever seen in my many, many decades.



This reminds me of a story from this past Christmas. I got my brother and sister-in-law tickets to see Van Halen (with David Lee Roth!) in concert in Las Vegas. My mom knew about the gift and as a special bonus, she got Lee a "vintage Van Halen t-shirt" from eBay. Well, when he opened it on Christmas day, we all got the laugh of the year: it was a Van Halen shirt featuring Gary Cherone!! I laughed so hard I think I had an asthma attack.

But honestly, after seeing Gary Cherone perform this past week, it isn't as funny as it was before -- he's fabulous! But still, nobody can take the place of David Lee Roth. Anyway, hang on to that shirt Lee, it's probably a rarity!

I leave you with a joke courtesy of my Uncle Dean. It's funny because of its accuracy.

A 3-year-old boy examined his testicles while taking a bath.

"Mom," he asked, "are these my brains?"

"Not yet," she replied.

(photo of Mr. Testicles from the Male Cancer Awareness Campaign)

Kind of Cool

Well over a year ago, I was interviewed by a woman who was writing a book about the way advertising affects women. I kind of forgot about it, but yesterday I was ego-surfing on Amazon (I admit it, I searched for "Dellapina" to see what would show up) and whaddya know, the book pops up!


http://www.amazon.com/30-Second-Seduction-Advertisers-Flirtation-Manipulation/dp/1580052126

If you click "Search inside this book" on the left under the cover image, you can read the two pages where I'm quoted (pp. 77-78).

A note about my last post - I meant to give props to my Aunt Carmie for being one of the brilliant psychologists who helps those "hurt people". Thank you "Anut C"!!

More on Intervention

As you all know, I'm an enormous fan of the A&E show Intervention (which was nominated for an Emmy, truly deserved). I just watched an episode that kind of blew me away (most of them do, but this one was... WOW).

One thing I've noticed about Intervention is that 95% of the addicts had some kind of childhood trauma. Every once in a while you'll get the guy who just started partying in high school and didn't stop. But usually it was something that really messed them up. Probably half or more of them were molested.

The addict on the episode I just watched was Allison. She and her sister were molested when they were really little, like 5 and 3. She was so unbelievably messed up, I really didn't think there was any chance for her. She was addicted to inhalants, cut herself, and was anorexic.

I won't tell you how it turns out because I want you to watch the episode instead. Watch here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8EFb_SeXjg


When I went to the taping of Intervention After Treatment, Jeff Van Vonderen said something that I cannot forget: "Hurt people hurt people." Is that not true, simple and profound?

I'm not sure that people who hurt kids realize how enormous of an impact they have on the rest of the kids' lives. I have an idea to make a website that pervs would find when googling, but then when they get there it's actually this episode of Intervention. I'd do it if I didn't think I could get arrested.

In a happy footnote, one of my best friends just (as in, while I was writing this post) got hired to work on the show. Yeah!!

So please watch it, think about it, and if you are one of the "hurt people" break the cycle!!

Happy August

Thanks to everyone who sent their condolences and warm thoughts about my cousin Samantha. Believe me, those of you who reached out -- it was noted and very appreciated.

So lots of stuff going on. A few weeks ago Brian and I took a trip to Monterey. We stayed at one of the most beautiful hotels, with the most thoughtful, caring staff. It was called Bernardus Lodge.

Brian told me about a restaurant where they have tables right in the creek! We didn't eat here but we checked it out.



We enjoyed lots of wine tastings at a couple of cute vineyards. You can see from this photo that we did not hold back much!



Back at Bernardus, we had an incredible dinner at their ultra-schwanky restaurant, Marinus. I wore this dress, which I got on RueLaLa.com. It was Carmen Marc Valvo marked wayyyy down from $300. I took this picture to show Samantha my RueLaLa success, and sent it to her via MMS. It feels kind of creepy to me, to show a photo with no head, but the point is the DRESS, not my face!



Over July 4 weekend, we went back to Kentucky for Samantha's viewing and then on to Pittsburgh for her burial. She was buried in my hometown of Burgettstown, next to our grandparents. Afterwards, Brian, Dena, her friend Darci, Aunt Carmie and I did a nostalgic tour of Burgettstown (including Langeloth and of course Francis Mine - oh my, what a sad little place) and then headed to downtown Pittsburgh. It was beautiful, especially the view from the Incline.





My favorite show is, of course, THE SHIELD, but my second favorite show is INTERVENTION. So I was thrilled when I saw an invitation on the A&E website to be a member of the studio audience for an Intervention "reunion" show. It was an incredible experience. It will be on in early September and it's called "Intervention: After Treatment". I asked a question and the brilliant interventionist, Jeff Van Vonderen, answered it so eloquently. Maybe it will be on the show!



And last but not least, I went to Comic-Con!! That was truly a bizarre experience.

Our good friend Adoni was there, signing autographs (he was Abu Fayed in 24 last season -- but he's really much nicer than Abu).



I got my picture taken with the Ugly Dolls! Who doesn't love Ugly Dolls?!



I asked this person if he was a Steelers fan! I thought he'd speak like the dark evil overlord of some far away planet, but no, his reaction was a *giggle*! He said "That's not what I was going for..." but I told him he'd make a good Steelers fan regardless.



I leave you with a photo of an outstanding parking job I achieved recently. I tell ya, this car is too big!!!!!! And to think I wanted an SUV...