When Tara Met Blog
and I'll have two if I want to. As a result, my friends Sarah and Amber, threw me a combined shower and bachelorette night in L.A. last week. It started out at her their place with a loaded bar, cute decorations, some fun games and gifts. The first present I opened was lingerie, which came from my co-worker. I couldn't help but think, hmm that's interesting, but then when the next two presents also reveled some scandalous nighties, I slowly caught on to the secret theme. Safe to say, I don't have to do any shopping for the honey moon now. One less to do on my list. Armed with a bunch of dare cards and dressed in a sash and veil that had condoms and cupcake stickers stapled on to it, a group of 12 of us did a pub crawl on Main Street in Santa Monica. On one of the dance floors along the way, this annoying guy kept tugging on my viel as I danced. The first time he laughed and said he couldn't help himself, so I excused it. Three more pulls later, I wasn't amused, which is why when he absconded with one of the condoms I didn't try that hard to tell him that they had been stapled on, thus rendering them useless. I wonder if he'll name his future baby Tara. Nah, don't worry, the guy didn't look like he had cause to use the thing anyway.
 On Friday night I headed to the Hollywood Bowl to see Donna Summer in concert. She hasn't released an album of new material in 17 years, but just recorded a CD called Crayons, so her performance consisted of old and new songs. The diva sang her hits though including "She Works Hard For the Money," "Bad Girls," "Hot Stuff," "MacArthur Park," "Dim All The Lights," "I Feel Love," "On the Radio" and of course ended with "Last Dance." However, she didn't sing her first big hit "Love to love you baby," because apparently she has sworn the sexy song off now that she became a born-again Christian. Her new songs consisted of a Reggae beat to R&B and one was a political and powerful song about Darfur. She was quite a bit heavier, but the diva is a grandmother now and mother of three, yet she still has her pipes and stage presence. If you didn't know, Donna is considered the voice that ignited the disco generation. For the disco haters on the blog tho, here's something that should impress you about Summer, she is one of the most successful female recording artists of the 1970s and 1980s, and still holds the record for having three consecutive double albums hit #1 on the Billboard charts. She also became the first female artist to have four number-one singles in a twelve-month period. My mother used to go to Studio 54, so I grew up singing these songs and a disco bitch (I have the button that says so too). As a result, I dragged Raphael and his niece and nephew along to the show with me. My favorite thing about the Hollywood Bowl venue is that you can bring your own food, so we packed a fun picnic basket of goodies and a delicious red wine.
 Move over Shecky's Girl's Night Out and hello Pamper Me Fabulous, the ultimate female outing! On Sunday I spent the day doing mini spa treatments at the Pamper Me Fabulous event in Downtown. Featuring LAs best spas and salons giving mini treatments: manis by OPI, Es celebrity Janae Alt spraying guests with Sunset Tans, heavenly massages by El Leon (named the BEST massage in the country by Allure Magazine), stylish cuts from Neihule Salon, facials / brow waxing from celeb cult favorite/skin guru Christopher Watt and his team. Then add in pink champagne vodka cocktails and mochi treats, plus an awesome beauty swag bag, and I was in heaven. 31 days until the wedding and it was just what the doctor ordered.  I tried the brow waxing, which was done with wax that hardened once applied and then when removed so is the unwanted hair. I'm a big baby when it comes to any form of waxing, but it didn't make my eyes water although it helped that I had just tweezed. However, the next day I had a little breakout/irritation, grr. The facial done by the same place was great though, my skin feels incredibly smooth. I also managed to squeeze in a makeup session after the facial, which left me wanting to go out for the night since I was already dolled up.  My favorite treatment though was from Cote d'Azur in Pasadena. The appointment list was already filled up but they managed to squeeze me in via a chair massage. It was unlike any massage I've ever had though, since it was more about aromatherapy and pressure points. They also used cold stones around my forehead and it was really soothing. I was told and not for the first time, that I carry all my stress in my shoulders. When the masseuse started to knead in, she exclaimed in bafflement "what do you do?" I told her PR and she said, "everyone must come to you and you store all of that tension here." Her recommendation for easing that stress is taking deep breaths throughout the day and relaxing my shoulders. I'm just remembering this now so am only doing it for the first time since Sunday. It wouldn't hurt to make a little routine once in awhile though
 It had been awhile since the last cupcake meetup, but the other day my LA Cupcakes MeetUp Group had its 18th get together at Essential Chocolate Desserts Company in Culver City. Living so close to this bakery, I only had to peddle my pink bicycle there, effectively jostling the to go cupcakes on the way home though. This bakery and coffee house provides handmade desserts, brownies, moonpies and baked goods to cafes and restaurants throughout Los Angeles--The Abbey, Alcove, Aroma, Sunset Marquis and Pit Fire Pizza. Essential Chocolate was also one of the winners in the Cupcake Challenge a few months ago for their Blood Orange Fudge cupcake, which I absolutely love. Their "Jumbo" sized cupcakes are normally $4 each, but our group received a special group price of $3.50 each, they also had some extra flavors available for us like Dulce De Leche, which was very rich. All of their icings were especially great and their chocolate cake seemed more of their specialty though as per the name of their shop would suggest. We also had a great turn out of 27 people, men and women.  
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