By Laura Alber

When I first arrived at LAX, I was picked up and driven to the San Bernardino mountains, a beautiful city called Rancho Cucamonga. The first four days were spent working with a rock band I've known for quite a while now. I even went with them to the Nashville New Music Conference. Well, I went there to collect information for their upcoming website I'm doing for them, and ended up being part of the team. We all went to the recording studio Monday morning and spent most of the day there. That was a lot of fun in itself, watching the recording process, playing photographer for the guys and even getting to put on the producer hat when my opinions were asked for. 

From Monday-Wednesday, a lot of time was spent talking with the band about technical and legal issues. I was supposed to go to the Saturn Awards (the Oscars of the Sci-Fi world) Sunday night with my photographer and meet Steven Spielberg and many others, I was even on "the list". But, the band meeting lasted so long, and my ride to LA with the guitarist just didn't happen.

Wednesday: I was to check into my hotel in Beverly Hills Wednesday at 3:00. But...have you ever seen the traffic on the LA freeways? My ride and I opted to wait until about 7pm before heading out, which got me to the hotel about 8:30pm. As I was checking in, the lady at the front desk started laughing when I told her my name. I couldn't figure out why, until she started making me a "LIST" of messages! No rest for me that night, instead I spent the evening calling back directors, my photographer and a couple of actors I was going to meet up with that week. Needless to say, by 11:30 when I finally finished...I crashed!

Thursday afternoon was spent with my wonderful photographer, Albert Ortega. We dropped his wife off at WireImage, where they both work, and then just kind of "hung out". We had some lunch at a great little place in Hollywood. 

For those of you who are wondering about star sightings, I'm afraid I'm not much of a celebrity watcher. I don't get starstruck I guess. I was happy to be able to report to my grandmother however, that I did see Nathan Lane crossing a street (one of her favorite actors). I also saw David Allen Grier at another corner crossing the street. Al and I hit the world famous "Golden Apple Comics". Then we went to his house to burn CD's of the latest Red Carpets for EZ! I managed to get Matrix Reloaded, X2, and Bruce Almighty out of him. (what a sweetheart!)

By 5:00 I had to be back to my hotel and ready for a meeting at 7pm, and a dinner at 7:30. After a very quick meeting, I had a new client and was off to dinner by 7:30!

This was probably one of the highlights of the trip. The dinner was with Daniel Schweiger ("Date or Disaster"), his girlfriend Penka, and Richard Elfman (Director, Father-in-Law of Jenna 'Dharma' Elfman, brother of musical composer Danny Elfman and soon to be brother-in-law to Bridget Fonda). They took me to this great Moroccan restaurant complete with the whole atmosphere and belly dancers! Dinner is served in 8 courses, one plate which everyone shares, and NO silverware. Very interesting. Then comes the belly dancer over to our table with her scarf around me, trying to lure me up to dance. Who am I to say no? Of course I belly danced! I didn't say I was good...but I gave it a shot! It was definitely a night of much fun and a lot of laughter.

Friday, I had a little time with nothing on the agenda, so I went walking through Beverly Hills. Yes, Rodeo Drive was only one block away so it was on my route too! I managed to get all my gifts to take home that day, so it was a nice "peaceful" afternoon. That night the band came to "my" place to hang out and visit before I left.

Saturday I was to check out at noon. I felt I had bugged my friends for enough rides, so I scheduled a car from the hotel to the airport. 11:00am, I get a frantic call from Chase Masterson. (Deep Space Nine) She had been in England and had just gotten my email that I would be in town. CHANGE OF PLANS! Chase came out to pick me up at the hotel, and we hit this really cool sci-fi restaurant at the airport for lunch. I've known Chase for a while now, but only through emails. They didn't do her justice. She is one of the sweetest people I've met. We talked for hours and we have quite a few great things lined up for The Entertainment Zone. (Be sure to check out her CD review on EZ also!)

All in all, it was a great trip. I loved finally meeting people I had been talking with forever on the phone or email. I was sorry to have missed some though who were out of town, or there just wasn't time on this short trip. I'll definitely catch everyone next time around! (which will be very soon!!) Thank you so much to everyone...I was treated like a queen and had a blast! Can't wait to see everyone again!