So I’ve been slacking and haven’t written as much from this trip as I have from the last one… but it’s better late than never, eh?

I’ve been driving for about 6 days now. I stopped in State College, PA, to visit a friend… and then Cleveland to visit another one of my best friends. Because of that, I ended up taking the northern route to get to L.A…. meaning I hit Chicago, Nebraska, Wyoming, etc.

Chicago’s a pretty city (from what I saw)… the people didn’t seem to be the friendliest, but at least I got to go there and experience it.

Nebraska was AWESOME!! People that I met there were so freaking nice!

Wyoming – that state hated me. I thought I’d take an extra 30 minutes and go via Wyoming instead of Colorado.. but that ended up not being the case at all. It was snowing there (which I knew would happen, but I didn’t think it would be that bad) and the ridiculously heavy winds were thrashing my superlight Mitsubishi Eclipse around the road. At one point, I did 3 360 degree turns in a row and landed a foot from a median. As soon as I started moving, I realized I was about 30 seconds away from an SUV. That was RIDICULOUSLY lucky moment #1.

(Now – before you ask why I didn’t just pull over and stop when this happened… I DID, and I asked people at a travel center if the winds would stop the next day. They said it was going to be at least a week!)

The wind was nuts. As I was driving, it looked like hundreds of smoke bubbles were on the road because the winds were picking up the snow and torpedo-ing it all over the place.

There were cars and trucks stopped all over… one Penske truck was actually SPLIT IN TWO. All the contents of the truck were spilled on the snow.

Naturally, a few hours later, I ended up spinning around again. This time I did a few 360s, a whole bunch of snow was thrown up into my windshield, and I ended up trapped in my car in a snow bank/ditch.

Me being the nerd I am, I thought I could get out and shovel my way out (since my car’s packed to the brim with clothes, Brian suggested that I put socks on my hands and get to work. In retrospect, this is really funny).

By the time I tried to get out of my car, highway patrol came and told me there was no way I could do anything myself… and I realized that my car door wouldn’t open anyway.

I had to call a tow truck driver who came and told me that the wind even thrashes HIM around – and his truck weighs 4x my car. He also said a lot of the roads were closed because of how bad it was. Hahaha… he ended up giving me his card in case I needed him again. Talk about encouragement.

It was so interesting to talk to him though. I was sitting in his passenger seat and we spotted another car that got stuck in a ditch. Some random passerby was helping him out with a chain, and the tow truck driver said, “Those f*ckers… taking my money from me.” After I recoiled from the surprise of that, he complained again and talked about how he needed more Triple A tickets. It’s just so interesting to hear the mindframe of different people that you come in contact with…

(And btw, RIDICULOUSLY lucky moment #2 is the fact that both me and my car came out unscathed.)

I digress. After a few other non-stellar Wyoming moments, I finally got out and made my way to friendly, non-windy Utah, where I sit in my comfortable bed.

I’ve gotta say though – I’m a really lucky person. As soon as I landed in the ditch, I thought there might be some ninja trick or something that I could use to reverse out of it, and I immediately thought of 5 different guys that I could call that wouldn’t treat me like an imbecile (even though, again, in retrospect, I totally was being one.)

Haha… and I was talking to a friend the other day about “best friends”, and he asked me if I had one… and again, I immediately thought of a few different people. If I end up having a traditional wedding (I guess I’ll need the boyfriend to get started on that, eh? )… there’s 5 different Maid Of Honors that I’d have, because I couldn’t choose amongst them.

In short – I’m insanely thankful for my friends.

Annnyway, guess I’m going to wrap up some things on the to-do list and get going… in case I don’t post again soon, HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE!

So I’m back from Joe Polish’s seminar, and I had a FANTASTIC time.

I had to wait a day to make a blog post because I was literally braindead from all of the partying and learning… but it was SO worth it. And soooo fun!

I got to meet (and hang out with!) tons of incredible, successful people. It was fascinating to me… I keep saying it, but hanging out with all of those super-successful people is like being on a different plane of life. They’re all just so happy, friendly, nonjudgmental, fun and… good at life.

I have a trillion things to catch up on, but here are some pictures that Ralph (wonderful guy) from In Search Of Heroes took for the meantime:

Tim Ferriss and Jaime:

Tim Ferriss and I:

Jaime, Joe (awesome guy who works for Eben Pagan) and me:

Me, Richard (Joe’s brother who also works for Eben… and is very good at life), and Jaime:

Raha (aweeeeesome girl! She does PR for Chet Holmes), Vanessa (Love her! Joe Polish’s girlfriend), Jaime, and me:

So I’m finally home…

And I miss California!

On the bright side, though…. being home has helped me catch up on a LOT of my projects.

And it was nice to see my family and some friends… (I’m going to see the rest on the 13th for some kind of surprise. Hmmm… I’m excited!)

Since I’ve been home, I’ve been trying my best to get out and do my work at a Starbucks or Barnes & Noble or something… just to avoid getting into my workaholic “sit-at-my-computer” mode.

It’s been pretty fun, actually. I get to eavesdrop in all sorts of conversations.

I watched two people on their first date the other day (they met online)… I heard a high powered attorney confide in someone about how he wants to divorce his wife… watched a father playing “I Spy” with his daughter…

I’m so freaking nosy.

In other news….

###

After receiving repeated emails about Jermaine Griggs’ Nitty Gritty Marketing launch, I finally decided to look inside.

(I had been ignoring all emails so that I could focus on work).

I probably should have looked sooner… because Brian went to Russell Brunson’s DotComSecrets event and raved and raved about Jermaine Griggs, and said that he was the only speaker to get a standing ovation.

Anyway… I went inside, and it looks really awesome. There’s a lot of value inside… and anyone who signs up as an affiliate now not only gets $50 commissions to the people that they refer… but they also get $17/month every time an affiliate that they referred makes a sale! How ridiculous is that!?

If you’re interested… sign up here.

###

If you have an IM list of over 50,000, please get in contact with me at rachelrofe at gmail.com. Brian and I have a huge launch coming up on October 16 (under a partner’s name)… and we’re offering free sales letters to anybody who will mail out for us. We have some amazing testimonials that we can furnish upon request.

We’ll also give you access to check out the product/sales letter, of course. This is a recurring income product. We tested it out on The Warrior Forum and sold over 250 copies… from one thread.

###

I guess that’s it for now! Need to work on this launch!

I’m writing from Memphis, TN. My trip is almost over!

I could so do this for a few more months… but I have to be home by October 6 to meet with a partner for one of my membership sites. We’re going to a trade show to scoop up lots of leads.

Annnnyway, here’s what’s been happening:

###

Vegas was a great time! As I said, Jaime Mintun and Max came. They got along very well and we had a blast.

Not too many things to mention… just a few quick things (and not in order of importance)…

* I almost got married to Max (just as a random thing to do on my 25th birthday), but I found out that the annulment cost $800+. Rubbish!

* On the night of my birthday, a restaurant gave Jaime, Max, and I free wine and coconut cake in celebration. That was pretty awesome.

* Jaime and I have decided (for sure) that we’re traveling Europe. Soon. We’re going to go live in random cities and really just immerse ourselves in the culture of each place that we stay at. It’s going to be a-m-a-z-i-n-g. I can’t wait!

###

After Vegas, Max and I drove over to the Grand Canyon. It was BREATHTAKING. I’m so glad that we ended up going.

(I also saw my first coyote there!!)

###

From the Grand Canyon, we drove over to Amarillo, TX. The people in Texas were SO FRIENDLY!

###

Random note…

I find it absolutely hysterical that every time Max tells someone he’s from England, they immediately say, “Oh… from London?”

If they don’t ask that (or even if they do), they’ll ask him if he knows the Prince or the Queen.

And another random note… did you know that only 1 in every 5 Americans has a passport? Isn’t that crazy?

###

From Texas, we drove over to Little Rock for a night, and then Memphis.

I had been to Memphis once before, but it was on a weekday. We went to Beale Street last night, and it was SO COOL!

(Before we even got there, we asked some guy for directions, and he ended up just driving us the 1.5 miles or so to get there. I think it’s because everyone trusts Max because he has an English accent.)

Before entering Beale Street, you had to be carded. When we got in, there were hundreds and hundreds of people just dancing in the street with alcohol in their hand. There were fireworks going off… and the vibe was just incredible.

We had a really good time!

###

We’re going to go to Elvis’s house today, and then drive towards Washington D.C.

###

In other news, the weight loss site’s going amazing. Random things keep happening that are going to make it better and better (I just got an email from a HUGE guru that worked with one of my friends and they made $40k from an hour teleseminar…. he wants to promote my weight loss site!).

Brian and I are also working with J.D. Swanson to promote Mafioso Marketing, which has been working out incredibly as well. More on that later.

…Off to go get my first oil change of the trip!

I got to Vegas last night. I went in one straight trip from Reno to Vegas (and in 6 hours, even though my GPS said it’d be 9 and Google said it’d be 8). Speeding is my friend.

I knew I wasn’t in California as soon as I went to a mini-mart to grab something to eat. I asked if there was any fruit, and the clerk said no. I asked if there was anything healthy, and she said “…Nope.”

Awesome.

###

I got pulled over for the first time on my trip last night! I knew it was just a matter of time. I forgot to turn my brights off when I was passing a cop (I forgot that I had them on), so he pulled me over. I thought for sure that I was going to get a ticket, having a Pennsylvania license in Nevada… AND the fact that he was a sheriff… but by the end of the conversation, he was telling me where I should go if I wanted a hotel and how far Vegas was. I am freaking lucky.

(Side note: I think my streak might be coming back. I was just telling Stan (John Carlton’s partner) that a while ago, I got pulled over 12 times without getting a ticket… and then I got 2 in a row. This is the second time since those 2 tickets that I’ve been pulled over and haven’t gotten a ticket. In fact, the last time, the cop ended up driving me home because I was so tired. It either pays to be a female, or I’m ridiculously lucky. Either way, I’m not complaining…

And yes… I really am that bad of a driver. It’s speeding mostly, though.)

###

John Carlton’s Copywriting Sweatshop over the weekend was great! Brian and I met a lot of great people. Besides John, his awesome team (they really were great!), and the seminar attendees… David Garfinkel and David Deutsch were there! How ridiculously awesome is that? I got to talk with both of them… very, very cool and a great surprise!

At one point, David Deutsch accidentally ended up on my blog (we were trying to show copy that’s hidden elsewhere in the site but the address was hard to type and he ended up on the main blog part). After Brian and I’s “Hot Seat”, David came up to me and said “Happy Birthday” because he had been reading my blog! That made my weekend!

Other great things that happened…

*Fabulous information! Brian and I definitely picked up some great tips that are going to take our sales letters to a new level.

*I sat next to David Garfinkel the first day…and went to lunch with him, Brian, and two other attendees!

(Side note… John says exclamation points are kind of like “padding”, and you don’t really need them. He’d probably go into convulsions if he read my blog.)

*Our copy hot-seat wasn’t even a fraction as bad as I expected. Not only did we not feel slaughtered… but we were happy at the end, because John said some really good things! (Don’t get me wrong… he also said we needed to change quite a bit. )

* John said that there are different states of people. “White” (this is most people – mindlessly going through their day-to-day jobs, in a permanent funk…), “Yellow” (being aware of your surroundings, doing things to make changes…”, and “Red” (being hyper-aware and constantly on guard).

He told us that all copywriters need to stay in at least their “Yellow”… but mentioned on the last day that I’m always in “Red”!

I know, I’m a nerd, I acknowledge this. But I was pumped!

###

There are so many random stories that I should’ve blogged about. I need to make a “Road Trip Hall Of Fame” thing when this is all over.

I’m off to go meet one of my friends, but next time, I’ll have to write about…

* The crazy dude in the San Diego hostel that kept waking me up throughout the night and asking if he could sleep in my bed with me…

* The fact that I got a parking ticket in every major California city that I was in…

* How Brian embarassed me by pretty much auctioning me off to the highest bidder at the sweatshop… (we have such a love/hate relationship )

… but if I keep blogging, I won’t have time to go make more memories!

I really need to be better about blogging more often.

Anyway, I’m still in San Francisco and leaving this afternoon for Reno. I’m going to pick up Brian McElroy from his friend’s house, and we’re heading to John Carlton’s Copywriting Sweatshop for the weekend.

That’s going to be AMAZING. Carlton has always been a bit of an “untouchable” to me… so to work with him, Brian, and only EIGHT OTHER PEOPLE is going to be RIDICULOUS.

After that, I’m headed to Las Vegas to celebrate my 25th birthday (on September 25)! I’m really pumped because I’ve just invited random people that I’ve met throughout my travels, and two of my three favorite people from the trip will be there!

Jaime’s going to be there (she’s the amazing girl that I met in L.A.) as well as Max (a great guy that I met at the hostel in San Diego… he’s from England). It’s going to be a great time!

(If anyone feels like coming, let me know! The more, the merrier. )

So, what else has been happening…

###

My business partner Brian McElroy lived in Haiti for a year after college, where he taught at a university. Ever since, he’s been passionate about helping raise money for young people to get into the nation’s first (and only) university.

In trying to spread the word, he (and two other guys) made this great film that they’re submitting to Sundance next week. I went to the “unofficial viewing/last minute feedback session” last night, and it was AWESOME.

The film is really, really good. I kind of expected it to be a “Feed The Children” type format, but it had so much more depth than that. One of my favorite lines was from a woman in the film, and she said something like “Everybody loves to depict Haiti as a poor country. Yes, we are poor people, but we’re so much more than that.” The Haitians talked about how they don’t just want people to throw money at them… but they want to learn what to do (you know the slogan, “Give me a fish, I eat for a day… teach me how to fish, I eat for a lifetime.”)

And here’s an incredible fact: When Haitian women try to get business loans, they have to pay an interest rate of 49%. Ridiculous, eh? But listen to this… 98% of the women are able to pay it back completely! All they need is access to a little bit of capital.

It’s really quite astonishing.

There were 14 of us watching the movie and for the entire 35 minute duration, everyone was completely transfixed There was no fidgeting at all.

If anyone wants a copy, leave a comment. I have 2 extras on me, and I’m sure Brian will mail out more if I ask. I strongly recommend it, and consider it an honor to work with Brian!

# ##

I’m getting used to those San Francisco hills! Not only can I drive them with no problem now, but I was singing and taking pictures as I went on the steepest ones yesterday.

San Francisco’s a pretty amazing town. It took a little bit to grow on me, but I do like it. The people here are great, the energy’s incredible, and there’s a lot of health conscious places.

I still prefer L.A. and San Diego (better weather), but I’m glad I came to San Fran.

###

I went to World Internet Main Event over the weekend. Unfortunately I had a lot of work to accomplish, so I didn’t get to talk to people as much as I should’ve or could… but the people that I met were incredible!

First, Brian and I met with Joyce Jackson, a #1 bestselling author. She gave us some tips on how to get to #1, and really motivated me to go ahead and get started with my book. I was going to originally write a book for small businesses that wanted to get involved with Internet Marketing, but I decided to change my mind and write a book about calorie cycling. That’ll be great lead generation as well as establish me as an expert.

Joyce is a wonderful person. She just kept saying, “If I can do anything to help, I want you to let me know.”

I already bought my recorder and plan on writing the book by the end of October.

I also met a great guy named Scott Tousignant (the “Fit Bastard”). We’re going to work together and do interviews for our respective blogs, which’ll be great. He’s a very positive and fun guy, so I’m ecstatic to have met him.

Nikhil Parekh was another great guy. He’s a ridiculously nice super-affiliate from Australia. I think we’ll be working together soon.

I also met two and interviewed two new copy clients. One of them, Jeff Wellman (yes… Keith’s dad) was great to talk to. He’s just so genuine and such a nice guy… it’s going to be awesome to write copy for him.

Anyway, as I said… there were a lot of great people there… those were just some of the highlights.

###

Woman’s World contacted me, and apparently I’m not going to be on the cover any more. I’m still going to be on the inside and it’s still going to be a cover STORY… but apparently the editor in chief decided that she didn’t like the way the pictures came out and there wasn’t enough time for a reshoot.

I asked if there was something that I could do, but they said no.

I’m kind of disappointed, but I’m going to look at it as positively as possible…

1. It’s still a cover STORY in the 50th busiest publication in United States.

2. I hopefully inspire people to do calorie cycling.

3. I’ll get tons of business leads from it.

4. My photo shoot pictures will still be in there.

5. If I hadn’t heard about the cover, I would’ve been ecstatic about just being in the magazine. Besides, this is just the beginning of many new opportunities!

6. All of this gave me a newfound energy to really get the site going in a super-quick way.

I decided to work with a great programming team to really make my site an amazing one. We’ve had a few phone calls already, and I’m very excited about how the site’s going to come out. The team has some great ideas and they’re really proficient. I can’t wait!

###

Okay, I have to answer some emails and start making the outline for this book! Next time I write, it’ll be from Nevada!

I’ve walked on tightropes before.

I’ve done extreme obstacle courses.

I’ve driven cross country by myself.

I’ve lost 100 pounds.

I’ve gotten in many near-death accidents, including one where I flipped off a median, went across 3 lanes of traffic, and went head-on with a tractor trailer.

I’ve broken an arrow against my throat.

I’ve worked 70-80 hours a week while taking full time classes at university.

I enlisted at a Warrior Camp by myself (and if I told you about all the crazy things that I did there, you’d be blown away).

I made somewhat of a snap decision to quit a cushy full time job in order to go into business for myself.

For a 24 year old, I’ve been through a bit.

But NOTHING has prepared me for…

Driving the hills of San Francisco.

HOLY CRAP!

I was driving to find my hostel today, and let me tell you, it was RIDICULOUSLY SCARY!

People had tried warning me about them, but I always kind of ignored them, because people are always warning me about the idiotic stuff that I put myself through.

I tell you though…

Those hills are nuts!!!

As the self proclaimed worst driver in the world, I acknowledge that some of it could be my fault. But… you drive up those hills, and you have no idea where you’re going. You come to a flat stop at the top, and you kind of end up hanging off the top… because you can’t drive further (if there’s a red light), but you don’t want to lay hanging down on the hill without any sight of where you’re going.

Oooor, there’s traffic lights right in the middle of those godforsaken hills. Every time someone got close to me when we stopped, I started getting nervous, thinking that I was going to back into them once I hit the gas.

The downward ones aren’t any better… once again, you have no idea where you’re going to end up, and you keep thinking that you’re going to hit things.

I literally yelled when I encountered my first uphill. I wasn’t expecting it! A guy on the corner looked at me like I was a lunatic.

And the drivers aren’t exactly the most empathetic.

…and that’s all I have to say about San Francisco for the moment.

I’m still in San Diego and absolutely loving it!

It’s so laid back here… I definitely really dig the vibe. People are awesome and everyone smiles at each other on the streets. People are telling me that I’m going to like San Francisco even more than San Diego, which is hard to fathom, but I guess we’ll see!

(Actually, I think I might like L.A. slightly more than San Diego, but it could’ve just been that I was with Jaime the entire time. I’ll have to re-evaluate. )

I’ve been staying at a hostel in San Diego, which is really interesting. It’s so weird how people refer to hostel-mates as “The Australian Girl” or “The Norwegian couple” or whatever. I really love meeting all the different types of people, though… I’ve been having a lot of fun with that, and getting myself into all sorts of new situations.

Hmm, so what have I been up to… went to the San Diego Zoo, Mission and La Jolla beaches, the outlet centers, Seaport Village, the Horton Plaza, and Balboa Park… had a good time in all of them. I really, really loved Balboa Park.

I actually met this fascinating man at Balboa Park one day. His father has written 17 different books, and has been a professor of psychology for over 40 years. I got his phone number (!!!!), and I’m going to call him and hopefully get to discuss some of the 493 million questions that I have for him.

I think I decided that I’m going to go to Europe for a lot of months. I mean, I’m paying $23 a night for a hostel, which is $6xx per month. I might as well just get a new apartment in a new city every month in Europe and/or South America, and just explore to my heart’s content.

Being an Internet Marketer is amazing!

What else..

Ohhh, I’m stopping in Laguna Beach on the way to San Francisco. I stole the phone number of the guy with the elevator in his beach house (I’m really good at that) and gave him a call… he invited me back to his house, and they’re going to have a BBQ when I come up. How neat is that!?

I don’t think there’s too much else to report, although I probably should be more religious in my blog postings, as I’m sure I’m missing a ton.

Ohhh, and Happy Birthday (although it’s a day late… but I did call on time ) to Jason Henderson (aka Mr. Sexist!)

Edit: If anybody wants to come to Las Vegas for my 25th birthday on September 25th, let me know! I expect it to be an amazing time!

Unbelievable.

There’s no other way to describe everything that’s going on!

I guess I’ll start from last night, and then backtrack to L.A. and San Francisco, and then some new developments in San Diego (and I’ve only been here for an hour!).

Okay, so here we go.

I was driving from L.A. to San Diego last night, and stopped in Laguna Beach to get some gas. I decided to go to a bar called the White House…. it looked fun, and it was a “sleep-in-my-car” night, so I was in no rush.

Anyway, I met this guy there who told me that he was on vacation and hanging out at his friend’s place. He kept telling me how amazing the place was, and asked if I wanted to come over… but he had been coming on far too forward the entire time, so I kept telling him no.

I started talking to his friend though, and it turns out that he’s a very successful entrepreneur from NYC. He’s very big into real estate, and also owns a gigantic nonprofit company that raises money for other nonprofits.

Listen to this… he works closely with Bill Clinton, the Pope, and other huuuuge people. He goes to these global meetings all the time (HAS to go actually!) and meets all sorts of high profile people.

(We figured out that we had the same birthday, and we mentioned that both of us had never met someone with our birthday before. I ask him if he’s ever met Barbara Walters (she has our birthday too), and he nonchalantly says yes. Is that not crazy!? He knows everyone!)

Okay, so anyway, I was getting slightly frustrated by the first dude, the one that was coming on too forward… so I asked if I could take a picture with him and be on my way, and just remember it as a night at a bar in Laguna. My camera batteries died though, so Steve (the entrepreneur) tells me to come by his house for a little bit, charge my batteries, and leave whenever. I’ve been trying to listen to my intuition more, and something tells me it’s a good idea, so I do.

DUUUUUUDE! I got there and he had a freaking ELEVATOR inside his house. It’s a BEACH HOUSE, and it has an ELEVATOR! Are you kidding me?! The house was just insane! It was a 5 bedroom, and he had mini-bars inside the bedrooms… and told me that the only rule in the house was the rule of “Yes”… if I wanted anything, the answer was “Yes”.

Oo, and he had an AMAZING view of Laguna Beach. Absolutely breathtaking, and there were multiple telescopes throughout the different levels of the house to check things out.

He asked me if I wanted to crash there (and volunteered the fact that there were locks on the doors), so I agreed. It’s 10x better than my car obviously, and the place was SWEET!

AAAAND… the forward guy from the bar ended up doing a complete 180 when we got to the house, and was 100x more fun to be around. He woke me up at 3:30ish a.m. and we went and watched the lunar eclipse through the telescope!

I left while Steve was sleeping (had an early appointment in San Diego), but I did write down his cell phone number that he had listed in his elevator, so I’ll call him and thank him again. How cool is that though!?

——————-

Los Angeles:

I left Jaime’s house yesterday afternoon. I’m going to miss her!

After that, I met with Raam, which was very interesting (in a great way). We met online and were business partners on a site, but I had recently left the partnership (on very good terms). Since I was going to be in L.A. where Raam lives, I asked if he wanted to get together and finally meet.

Not only did he want to get together, but he told me to let him know if I needed a place to stay or a car to drive around in.

(I have the most amazing freaking people in my life. Who leaves a partnership and still gets that kind of treatment?)

Annnnnyway, we went to a really cool cafe and walked around for a while. It was wonderful to finally meet him! He’s a great guy, and definitely an inspiration to me.

——————-

San Francisco:

To sum it up… I got a little too… erm… buzzed… talked to Tim Ferriss for a while… go to put my phone number in his cell phone, and somehow decide it would be a good idea to call my phone from his, to “steal” his number.

What the heck was I thinking?!?

I woke up at 7:30 am, wide-eyed and completely shocked at myself.By the end of the day though, I had to think about the bright side… at least I’m his most fascinating groupie, right? I bet nobody else has ever stolen his phone number! (For the record, I felt bad and deleted it.)

——————-

San Diego:

I found someone on Craigslist who was going to barter a few weeks worth of office space with me in exchange for my building him a website.

Anyway, I ended up telling him a lot about different aspects of web marketing… and I guess kind of exposed him to lots of new things (it’s so interesting, this is the 2nd time that I’ve done this with a small business owner. I love how they get when they learn new things. I really want to do more consulting. Brian and I are thinking about it. I digress…)

I tell him that I pretty much want the office space so that I can crash here at night (I’m fine working out of Barnes & Noble, but I need somewhere to sleep ). He asks me if I’m a morning person and if I like kids, to which I reply yes for both.

To make a ridiculously long blog post somewhat shorter… I’m now going to be a “nanny” for two hours a morning, and he has a basement bedroom that I can sleep at…equipped with a shower and everything. What an upgrade from the showers at L.A. Fitness!

And the even better part – drumroll please – he has an extra apartment that he owns right near San Diego… and he said that if I help him with his marketing and he can get some new customers each month… I COULD STAY IN HIS APARTMENT INDEFINITELY FOR FREE.

San Diego. Free.

Could I love my life more? I think not.

Geez, I have so much work to do. I found some new spy tools, I’ll post them later.

Here’s some pictures…

The bar on the fourth floor…

The outside view of the house (and Steve designed the adjacent houses)…

The lunar eclipse through the telescope… not an awesome picture, but whatever.

Amazing views…

I don’t mean to sound so sickeningly positive all the time… but wow, it’s only 8:30 am and I’ve already had quite a few GREAT things happen so far! The power of “positive mindset” is HUGE.

I was having a miserable morning… slept in my car last night, and could only sleep for 3 hours, despite the fact that I was exhausted from the past few weekends. I was cranky because of that, and also because I had to drop Jason James off to the airport the night before. We were having so much fun and I didn’t want to go back to being by myself!

I went to go find the gym around here (I ADORE LA FITNESS! Because I’m a member, I get to go to any LA Fitness in the country), and ended up inside a parking lot, which I couldn’t back out of. I was cranky because I didn’t want to pay for a parking lot for my gym in the first place, and also because I didn’t think the gym was even open. I was going to work on my laptop until the gym opened, but I didn’t get any signal from my Verizon wireless (even though I do in other parking lots). Anyway… you know how they say that once your day starts going bad, your mindset changes and everything goes bad? That was definitely what was happening…. I tried to leave the parking lot and ended up slamming my car against a wall… asked for help and met rude people… couldn’t figure out how to get out of the parking lot… ended up staying there anyway while people looked at me like I was crazy…. waited till gym time… had to go up an elevator and across a bridge to get into the gym, had to find the locker rooms which ended up being in a building outside of the gym (so weird)…realized I forgot my sneakers, had to do it all over again… etc. etc. etc. Anyway, I was getting crankier by the minute.

On the way back to the gym again, I reminded myself that my day would continue getting worse if I didn’t change my mindset. When I got on the treadmill, I forced myself to work really hard. I ended up having a GREAT workout… much needed after spending so much time in my car!

After I showered, while I was straightening my hair, I asked a woman if there was a Barnes & Noble nearby. She told me where that was and then we ended up talking for a while. To put it shortly, she’s going to introduce me to her friend in San Francisco. He’s apparently a really cool guy with a “sense of adventure”, and we’re going to hang out. I’m excited, she said he’ll show me around the city!

She also told me about this great Farmer’s Market that I could head to before B&N opened… I’m actually sitting inside of it right now. It’s such a nice area, I really love it.

After I left the gym, I asked someone about how to pay for my parking ticket. While he was telling me to go visit some clerk, the lady that I had originally talked to heard the conversation and told me to go back to the gym, because they validate the tickets. Parking ended up being free, after all.

Anyway… maybe not huge significant things, but going from my absolutely abysmal morning to sitting in a beautiful Farmer’s Market with happy people all around me is big enough for me!

In other news, like I said, I had a ton of fun with Jason (and Brian McElroy when I got to see him ).

On Thursday, we walked through Beverly Hills. We got to see Rodeo Drive and other assorted neat things. At night, Brian, Jason, and I went to Pink’s – an apparently infamous hot dog stand in L.A. that everyone raves about. On Saturday, Jason and I went through Hollywood Boulevard. We went to a wax museum (pictures to follow), saw the stars on the “Walk The Stars” sidewalk, went to the Chinese theatre and saw the handprints and footprints, got some fun pictures with Borat, and drove on the hills to get closer to the “Hollywood” sign. After that, we went to a cool seminar where people were teaching guys how to pick up women. I’m so fascinated by psychology, it was an awesome time.

After the seminar, Brian, Jason, and I went to grab something to eat and then to a bar. We ended up not getting in anywhere (long story)… buuut, I did get to try my very first “In N Out” (Jason kept raving about it).

Since Brian went home early on Sunday (:(), it was back to Jason and I on Sunday. We went to the Santa Monica Pier, which was BEAUTIFUL. There were all sorts of neat street vendors and performers… an amusement park… and just an overall great time. There were some vendors doing handwriting analyses, or people who would carve your face out of clay (Jason got that done to him)…. and lots more, but I don’t want to say in case the person that I bought a gift for reads this.

After that, we drove to Palos Verdes (gooooorgeous beach). We went on a top-secret stalking mission after that, and ended up successful. I can’t say much more on my blog, but I will say that we’re super sleuths!

Anyway… Barnes and Noble is about to open and I have a lot of work to get done, so without further ado, here are some of the pictures that we took (the ones of Jason are on his camera):

He’s in love with me, he just doesn’t know…

This man’s sign was funny. I gave him $1 and he asked if I wanted a picture with him. I found that somewhat demeaning… but asked if I could take a picture of his sign, and this is what happened:

He had his own star!

He was AWESOME:

We kept sneaking behind the cautioned off areas and taking pictures with the wax people…

I got to meet him after all!

This should teach you not to mess with me (ignore the fact that my hands were completely not in the right position ).

And for the Philly folks…

Okay, off to B&N!

BTW, I have a ticket to go Deal Or No Deal tomorrow, and Price Is Right on the 28th!! I have a Jeopardy one, too. I don’t know if I’ll end up going to all of those, but yay anyway.