Terrible Twos

My sister Pumla was about to come on vacation to The US. I was psyched! It was going to be my first time seeing a family member in person since moving to The US. The trip was meant to be to the East Coast but she was working on coming to the west coast as well. I crossed my fingers so hard, my entire hands fell asleep! She has been to Connecticut, Chicago and New York. It would be her first time in the West Coast.

Whenever I would see something fun, I would make a mental not to do it with her. She was planning on being here for a week to ten days. I told her we should try to go to Vegas during those days. I mean, only five hour drive, of course we could do it! Even if we were going to spend a day or two, Vegas isn't big anyways! I secretly had my own plans. She had always wanted to visit San Francisco. My plan was, if she's gonna be here for  days, we're going to San Francisco! It was going to be the trip of a lifetime! I was so excited! 

One weekend, Calvin and I had plans, I took the bus to meet him downtown because we were going to go to the beach thereafter, we didn't want to drive in two cars. I didn't mind taking the bus. The only thing better would have been for Calvin to pick me up but  I didn't want to be divalicious. It worked out because I called my sister while on the bus to check where she was. She had just arrived in New York! I was so psyched to hear it! Knowing she was so close to me, made me feel that much closer to her in so many ways. It was a great way to start my day! She told me about her fight and everything. She was staying right in Times Square. I had flashbacks of my first time in Times Square in . One of my favorite moments ever! We talked until I arrived downtown. After that, I was bouncing off the walls with excitement. Calvin told me he was going to meet me at the bus stop. Which was nice. I told him when I was close, he circled the bus stop until I arrived. I hopped off the bus and on his car as quickly as possible as there is never street parking Downtown LA. Calvin looked so cute, he had a nice navy and white Hawaiian shirt on. Not those in your face ones, a nice and calm one, thank goodness! You know, he loves Hawaii, I could only imagine how many more were where that came from. Anyway, the color of the shirt brought out the color of his eyes. Also, he had the right size shorts on haha, that made him look even taller than he already is. He has some giant clothes that Calvin! Some of his pants fit me and the guy is slim. You know me, I'm the furthest thing from slim!

We went to a Japanese festival type gig in Little Tokyo, Downtown LA. Very close to Carly's. She and I have been to Little Tokyo together. We found a parking garage, left the car there and walked to the Japanese thing. We had a few Japanese snacks in the square, watched an eating competition and then went inside to check out the bonsais.

Bonsai at the Japanese American Cultural Center

They were all so beautiful. They looked picturesque. I enjoyed the show. Calvin has a collection of his own, so he talked to the people more about bonsaing, I on the other hand was just waiting on the sidelines because I don't know the first thing about mini trees. I would have cropped it but I spent so much time trying to find these pictures, then realised I lost them, I may have deleted them the one time I accidentally hit delete before all the pictures sent via Bluetooth, thereby deleting all the selected to be sent pictures. I found this on my Instagram and just took a screen shot. Anyway, isn't that a beautiful tree? It looks unreal! 

After the bonsai tree, Calvin bought Mochi Ice Cream: golf ball sized ice pasta like, consistency, rice, filled with ice cream. It's very cold! I know it's ice but I think because of the texture,the ricey part doesn't melt in your mouth, so it seems colder than regular melt in your mouth ice cream. They have all kinds of flavors.

Mochi Ice Cream

We then headed out to a Hawaiian festival in Long Beach. It was so hot outside, I just wanted to stay in the Japanese place with the trees and chill in the air-conditioned room. 

We arrived in Long Beach, parked the car and walked around, checking out the stalls. It was your usual flea market, with handmade bags and shoes and other Hawaiian stuff. I felt like I was in Durban, South Africa. I love Durban, so that was a good thing! 

A week or so prior, I had asked Calvin, while at his place if he by any chance had a sarong, so when he saw one at the festival, he bought it for me. He told me to pick one I liked. Having lived in Durban, I had so many Sarongs in my past life, so I tried to find one in a color I never owned. We both agreed on it. It was green and black, green is Cal's favorite color. That and red, hashtag Christmas!

We had lunch at the festival, the food was good. I had something porky as usual and Calvin ordered sea food. The food lines were so long, you know how it always is at places like that. The food was good, we also had ribs. After eating, we headed out. Thank goodness, I was tired of digging my feet in the sand in the scorching heat. 

Long Beach, California aka LBC with Catalina Island behind me and my new sarong in my hand

The morning after the above weekend, I had a shoot in Calabasas. It was nice and early in the morning, so  I beat traffic, thank goodness for small miracles. I must have been the first or second one to arrive. I took out my tablet and caught up on my reading while waiting for everybody else. It was beautiful over there, mountains all around us. It wasn't a big shoot, maybe 20 people. some people didn't make it, they had to be replaced in short notice, one lady was two hours late.  We were going to do a choregraphed scene as well. I enjoyed it. I worked with a guy I had done a few commercials with before. We get along, he's crazy. 

They gave me an apron and pointed me to this as my first position

Peace of cake! I've done this kind of a character so many times, it's become second nature. I don't know if any of you spotted me in a commercial that ran for a very long time on SABC (South Africa), usually during Generations (a South African Soap opera) where they had a woman selling fruit and vege. I was that woman, I saw it one day when I was visiting my sister in Cape Town. She was like, what the heck! This has been running for a while, I never thought that was you, lol. Of course she knows what I look like, she just didn't expect that to be me. Anyway, I put on my apron and went to town!

Fruit and Vege Stall

This was more contemporary because they let me wear my tank top and leggings still. The stall has drawers, so I was able to have my cellphone with me and chat with my boyfriend the entire time. It was great! 

There were a bunch of contemporary dancers who danced during this scene, I was doing my selling thing while they were dancing in front of me. 

Lunch Time! 

The food was great! It almost always is on set. We all sat and bonded at lunch 

In between Takes. The three who got the yellow memo.Haha, just a coincidence

It rained a bit that day as well, nothing major. I mean, it is LA after all. It never really rains. The two things you'd be hard pressed to find in LA: Rain and parking. 

After lunch, we did the 'dance scene'. It was my first time doing choreography, I enjoyed it. It wasn't hard. I wish I could find the clip and see the outcome and share it with you. 

That's me in my apron, holding a flower, doing choreography

After lunch, the two hour late lady, went to lie down on the porch. I called my sister in her hotel room. It was nice to talk to her in a landline without having to worry about buying credit for my phone. All of a sudden, I heard roaring! The two hour lady was snoring up a storm! Oops!

The blue abd blackness you see is the snoring lady. She was far but I could hear her!

During the dance scene, they kept telling us, guys please but your bags and sweaters away, they're in the shot. There was this person's stuff that was sitting there with nobody touching it. Eventually, one of the lead dancers, just grabbed it and put it away, angrily. I had a feeling it was the snoring two hour lady's stuff. There was just something so off about her. I couldn't put my finger on it. Or should I say, I could? A few minutes later, we're rehearsing, I look down, bam! A giant pad made out of toilet paper full of blood on the ground! The two hour lady was on her periods! Yikes! I had had it with her shenanigans by then, I just rolled my eyes, looked at her and pointed to the ground. She quickly picked it up, without too many people seeing it. I didn't want to see where she was going to shove it. I had already seen enough!

After filming, I headed toward my car to wait for traffic to die down a bit. I considered to go to the house where they film The Bachelor. I have the address. I wanted to see how much of the house I could see from the street, without, you know, trespassing! I was chatting with the guy I have worked with before, when out of nowhere the two hour lady popped up and asked me for a ride. In that moment, I felt bad for her because she had clearly had a rough day. I said yes. That place is in the middle of nowhere. I am not sure why she submitted her name for it, to begin with. She told me a story about how she tried to get closer the night before by booking a hotel room closer to the place. I know the hotel wasn't in Calabasas because they weren't paying us enough to afford that! She told me it was a long story. I didn't want to dig because I didn't care, really. We sat and chatted about random stuff. She asked me a lot of personal questions and told me about herself too. Her rich sisters, the stuff she owns, apparently, she is quite well off. I honestly don't care, but I guess she felt the need to tell me. 

I dropped the two hour lady near my house, it seemed like she was comfortable, she didn't want to go home. We aren't friends, I didn't want her in my car let alone my home. I have her a ride to give her a break from what seemed like a weird day for her. But enough was enough. She asked for my number, I took hers and told her I would call her. I never did. Sorry, but for what reason?

On Set at Union Station, Downtown LA for a different shoot, talking to Calvin on the phone

In Other News

After accidentally spending the night at Calvin's from out kayaking date, he called in to work the following day and told them he wasn't going to make it. He wanted to spend a little more time with me. I thought that was sweet. We were famished because we didn't even have dinner the previous night. It was around 6am when we wanted to go out for breakfast and everywhere was still closed, except good ole Mc Donald's. I was like, whatever you do, do not take me to Mc Donald's, that's not cute! We found a Mexican spot that was open and had pig skin burritos. They were very filling. Both of us couldn't finish them.

I left around noon. I didn't want to overstay my welcome. I drove home thinking, did I just go on three very successful dates with the same person? Yay, me!

A few more things that happened around that time in my life:
- I found a sh*t load of Law Of Attraction videos on YouTube and plaid them to death. They're awesome! They put me in high spirits! I read a wad of books. I haven't stopped reading since I started towards the end of 2014 in Vegas.
- I was booked (background work) in Whittier.

Whittier Country Club. Gorgeous! 

 Kind of a drive from where I live, fortunately, I found someone on Facebook whose daughter was booked for the same gig. They live 2miles (3.2km) from my house, so we carpooled. We used their car, less gas.She's a nice 18 year old girl who says she's shy and quiet but we talked about all kinds of things on our one hour drive to set. She's a cool kid. I always get along with kids, all ages, from infant to infinity. It's fun!

Might as well pose!

The shoot was ok, there were a lot of people, they fed us lunch at the end of the day, more than 7 hours later. At least, they paid us meal penalty to make up for that.

Cameraman, Brook haha

- I worked on a set in North Hollywood, on a plane with dummies that look like plane crash victims that were not found for years.

That's me...and them

 It was eerie.

Here they are again

 That was a nice gig, I was booked for two days. I could use more of that!

They booked me off my headshot and asked me to wear the outfit I had on in the headshot. Fortunately, I still have it. This was me on set.

- I worked around Hollywood and had a nice time, meeting new people, catching up with old folks I've worked with before.
- My three month popsugar subscription expired. I must have only used three things from all three of the boxes I got from them. I'm glad I didn't pay for those three months.
- My beloved Vogue sunglasses I got from my Vegas landlord broke, I still mourn their loss.

That's me with them on outside the Kardasian store Dash

Outside Lisa Vanderpump of the Real housewives of Beverly hills restaurant SUR,also featured on Vanderpump rules

- I subsequently got a pair from popsugar, one of the few things I found to be useful, I wore those everyday, for about three days, they broke on around the third day. So much for that!

Before these newbies broke, they have a nice matte finish frame. On my way to set in Hollywood

- Two or so, more of my sunglasses broke. I wear sunglasses almost all the time, so.

Just left The Doctors taping in Paramount Studios - Hollywood. New sunnies

- I bought a nice pair of Rocawear sunglasses, they were really fancy! The kind that looks like a mirror. They broke at the end of week one. I paid more for those sunglasses than all the shades I have. Oh well!

New Rocawear Shades, on the way to set in Hollywood

- I went to American idol, randomly, got lucky to find the last free parking spot near the Kodak theatre. the odds are incredible! I knew that the episode was going to be a concert, but then aren't all episodes of Idol? Turned out, it was going to be a real concert! JLo performed! PitBull Performed! Ricky Freaking Martin performed a mashup of all his hits, #treat ! And most of all, Chris Brown performed!

American Idol Wrist Band

Not that you didn't already know this but Chris Brown is an amazing dancer and JLo has a great body. That was my second or third time seeing JLo.

- My kitchen sink got blocked. I think it was the food dispenser. Time for a repacement! 

Leaking food dispenser

I tried to fixed the clogged sink myself while waiting for management to send plumber

As you can imagine, that wasn't a nice smelling situation. I am capable of taking care of most things around the house, so I had to try. I wasn't going to wait forever whose house is not smelling, or is, to come and take care of it.

I managed to get rid of the smelliness. I took the food dispenser apart and put it back up

Unfortunately, all my work didn't fix the sink. The plumber came over in about three days of reporting the issue. He fixed it in no time flat!

- This happened!

Leaking tap / faucet

I had to send for a plumber for that as well. They took care of it much faster than the drain. They just replaced the leaking one with a new one.

- As I was taking care of my Beverly hills apartment's renovations, clearly! I was also taking care of my condo in South Africa. I was waking up at odd hours of the morning to catch people while they were still up and in the office, or whatever the case may be. A log of work was done in my condo last year!

- I drove around the neighborhood for the heck of it.

 

On my way home from set. Wilshire Boulevard. 

I will definitely miss this neighborhood when I no longer live here. It sure is beautiful!

Beverly hills library. I think the city hall is behind me

Next door. I want this car! Navy Porsche Carrera Cabriolet. 

- One day something said to open the cupboard above the fridge in the kitchen, so I did and guess what I found?

Great Find!

Remember the prophet I told you about that I met doing background for Pharrell Williams' Music video for Freedom in this blog?

The prophet and I

I had my black lipstick on for that shoot.

Black Lipstick

We did a church scene where we sang along and did what you do when the spirit moves you. We had to look like we were sweaty, so...

Fake sweat. Real on my face and the rest is fake

-I drank a lot of smoothies, made with all kinds of concoctions.

Chocolate shake and pear

Strawberry, banana and yogurt

- I went to the talk a couple of times or so. It was ok.

At CBS in Studio City. The Talk

It's always nice to see celebs you never dreamt of seeing. One of the days at  The Talk, I saw Lisa Kudrow, Phoebe from friends. She's so beautiful and so slim. 

Last Comic Standing's Tony Baker and I at the Improv comdey club that day!

Kayaking

The weekend came and it was time to go on my third date with Calvin.


Calvin found out from a conversation we had that I ha never been kayaking. He took it upon himself to take me. It's one of his hobbies, he even owns a kayak that he got on one of his vacations in Hawaii. He told me that he was going to use his kayak and was going to rent one for me. I had done my own research on kayaking and knew by then that we could get a two person one. I would've felt much safer that way considering I can't swim. Plus, I thought that would be romantic. I pitched that idea and he liked it. He hadn't thought about it. See, Cal! You need me!


I was to meet up with Calvin at his. He was going to drive us to Sunset beach. I was looking forward to it for more reasons than one: I'd always wanted to go to Sunset Beach because I followed the soap opera, Sunset Beach. Have you? I still remember Meg and her eyebrows and the hot Ben and his evil twin.


I arrived at Calvin's nice and early. He made us breakfast on the barbecue. We had talked about prickly pear before. I am from a part of Uitenhage fondly called eTolofiyeni (prickly pear in Xhosa - my mother tongue), named after all the prickly pear that grows naturally in that area. Calvin being the plant doctor that he is, he knows all the trees in the world. He  made us nopales, I didn't even know you can eat that! I only know it of it's medicinal purposes, it's an anti-inflammatory, you warm it up over some fire or the stove, wrap it up on a thin cloth or napkin and put it on the swollen area. These are the 'leaves' of the prickly pear tree, not the fruits themselves. When they are completely dry, off season, they are great to start a fire. They are nice and light and airy. That's the farm girl in me, not the Beverly Hills side. Never forget your roots! No pun intended. I enjoyed the cactus, it has a very different taste. I can't compare to anything I ate before.  I sent pictures to my cooking sister, she asked for the recipe. She wants to try it too, because, like me, she didn't know you could cook it.


After breakfast, we headed out to The OC. That's where the beach we were going to kayak in is. I was anxious. I really cannot swim. Now, I'm gonna have to ride it out in the middle of the ocean. Is this a good idea? Fck yeah!  Why not?


We went and rented safety vest and a kayak. Calvin bought himself a new vest to replace his. Apparently he lent it to someone who never returned it. Poor blue eyed, Cal! We took off our shoes and got on the boat. Oh Lord, have mercy! This is it, Brookie, do or die! We kayaked in the Huntington harbor. It's nice and quiet over there, just kayakers like us! I was excited to be, once again, doing something I had never done before. And to be with this guy that I was getting more and more fond of my the minute! It was a good day.


Calvin taught me how to paddle, I did ok. We then did it together, I did one side, while he did the other, like one was doing left, the other was dong right. It was fun. I felt like I was on one of those cool The Bachelor dates. Only, I already got the rose on a previous on-on-one haha. Yeah, I just quoted reality TV.


We kayaked deeper and deeper into the see. We passed one or two bridges over us. It was cute. Kinda like being in Venice under that romantic bridge. I still need to go there, by the way. Have you been?


After a nice round of kayaking, before we went too deep, I was ready to turn back. While on our way to, Calvin took over the paddling and paddles so fast, the boat was rocking so hard! I was so scared. I was that person screaming so loud, when everyone was having a chill time. It would have been embarrassing if I embarrassed easily, but I don't, so all good! I did freak the freak out though. I was certain, I was about to drown!


After the kayaking experience, check! we returned the kayak and my safety vest and headed to the reggae place. It's a nice restaurant not too far from where we were. We found a nice parking spot, saw a clothing rack outside a store, went to check it out. They had a 50% off sale on some of their items. Calvin told me to pick something I wanted. I didn't want anything, plus they had nothing in my size. I told him that I would have loved a sarong if they had one, but they didn't. We saw a nice, vintage Lincoln parked close by. Calvin's first car was a Lincoln, he still speaks fondly of it, so he posed for pictures on the random one we saw in the parking lot. Nice shots with a couple of palm trees in the background. I made one of them black and white. It looked even cooler. I later sent it to him.


We walked into the restaurant. It was packed. It's really cool inside, it has fish ponds, if I remember well, they have fake plants around the fish pond, it looks very like you're on vacation somewhere, so, of course, we posed for pictures in front of all that. I was wearing this house dress, that I had taken along with me to get comfortable in after out date at Cal's. It was turned out to be too hot for the outfit I had on, so I immediately changed as soon as I got to Cal's. That's what I ended up having on all day. We had drinks in the restaurant, by the bar. My gosh, it was so packed! I had virgin Pina Colada, Calvin had something exotic, he always does. He knew I don't drink, so he took a sip in my drink to check if there was no alcohol before he passed it on to me. I thought that was so sweet. The drink was delicious!


After that, we went towards the side where they play live music. We had to pay to go in there. We arrived just as the band was setting up. Apparently, the band is from the same town Bob Marley is from in Jamaica. Do that info what you will! I have heard that when some South Africans come to The US, they claim to be related to Nelson Mandela, so hey. I had ribs for lunch. So, so good! They were falling off the bones. We were the first ones in that side of the restaurant. It got packed in no time there too! In about an hour, the band finally started to play! Just as they did, Calvin grabbed my hand and took me to the dance floor. I loved how he didn't even give me time to think about it! We danced and dance and danced. We danced to about three songs, none stop. It was a great! A lot of the people were on the dance floor, there were a lot of interesting dance moves, but who's to judge? all clean fun!


We stayed for about an hour after the band started playing, most of which was us waiting for the waitress to bring the check (bill). We, or should  I say, Calvin paid and we headed back to LA. It was a day well spent.


We arrived at his place. I was already comfortable in my house dress.


Calvin's friends came by. They went straight to the backyard. He has a nice situation in the back, big park table with attached benches, they all sit there and chill. I laid in bed and told Cal to go enjoy his friends and wake me up at a certain hour. He would keep coming in to check on me every 20 minutes. That was sweet. I would sometimes pass out and feel a kiss on my forehead while I was in lala land.


That evening, he came to lie in bed next to me. I was gonna get up later and drive home. I don't know what happened but I woke up from a deep sleep at midnight with Calvin passed out next to me. I went, 'Oh my Gosh!' He woke up and said, "Oh my gosh!" I told him it was midnight. I couldn't even ask him why he didn't wake me up, he was out as well. He told me not to drive home at midnight but to spend the night. We got under the blanket and went to sleep. Like two babies.

Sleeping With The Enemy

Life's good, I've been to two successful dates with a guy I adore, I have someone helping me with rent, who's never home, I'm getting jobs here and there. What more could a girl ask for?

Working as a Librarian in a shoot in UCLA. Nice and short shoot

Playing a passenger, Ontario Airport

My sister made me these earrings. Check out her food blog here

Brian, my airBnB was still here, why not? He's never here and he pays me a chunk of money for it! He always booked for a night, two or three, maximum at a time, which ended up being way more than I would have made if someone had paid once off for staying the entire month. I wasn't complaining. It's my job as a business person to inform you beforehand what I charge and yours as the customer to take advantage of that. He didn't, I smiled all the way to the bank. Brian's dad was paying for his rent, that's probably why he didn't care. After Ramadan, the alarm stopped going off at 4am, which was a blessing for me. It was such a blessing, I felt like I was entering my own Ramadan!

Photoshoot for headshots at Carly's when I stayed there. Carly took the pictures

Making love to the camera ;)

One day, Carly and I were chatting on email, because I didn't give her my new number in efforts of trying to cut all ties. When she couldn't get hold of me on my old number, she started emailing me. I emailed back, I was in high spirits, I was excited about Calvin. We talked, she told me about her problems, sought advice, I advised her, you know the drill! Then she asked me what's new on my side. I told her about Calvin and I. I told her that the conversation was so organic from day one, nothing forced, blah blah blah. I told her about the first date. She wanted to know what he looks like. If he has blue eyes, what about long hair, etc. I must say, it was good to see she had been listening all this time. She told me that it's time she found herself a boo. She didn't want to be left behind. Fair enough!

More goofing around

Heeeeyyyy!

One Saturday, I got an email from Carly, she was going to be in my neck of the woods. She wanted to know if I wanted to go along shopping. I was working, so I couldn't. I was like, you don't even need more clothes, what are you doing? She told me that she was bored, she had been making lots of money, left, right and centre, might as well spend it. She also told me that maybe, if she bought first date outfits, someone would take her out. I couldn't argue with that. I guess she was practicing that Law of attraction stuff I always do.

Setting the table for two and trusting that the universe would send me someone to 'fill the void' which it did!

Speaking of setting tables, remember Jen? The lady who stayed here for a week? Very healthy, right?

Spring cleaning the couch after Jen moved out. Gotta get that smell out!

Day after I turned Carly down from the shopping trip, she sent me an email about a guy who was staying at hers through AirBnB. She told me that the guy was just her type, so hot! He turned her on, 'OMG, I just wanna jump him'. She was into him! She thought that he may have been interested too because since he moved in, he had been buying her dinner and not wanting her to pay her back. I told her that that could mean he's interested in her that way, or that he is polite and generous. The only way to know for sure if he's interested, was to see if he would ask her out after he moved out. She told me that she had a good feeling about him. I was like, hey, what do I know about relationships. Do your thing, boo! Just don't be disappointed if you don't hear back from him.

Carly had had a guy contact her before that one. The previous guy wanted to stay there for a few days while they were fixing up his place. Carly looked up the guy on Facebook, she added him. they got acquainted over on FB and before you know it, he invited her over. This was before the guy moved in with Carly. Carly accepted and drove over to the guy's then place. It was just the two of them in this big house, I don't know who owned it. They ended up in the backyard by the pool. The guy wanted Carly to strip and get into the pool. She wasn't feeling that. At some point, he tried to kiss her and she turned him down. I was like, why would you turn him down? Clearly you were interested in him if you're gonna go to his place and hang out with him in your very first meeting! Anyway, the following day, the guy posted pictures of himself with another girl. Carly took it personally. She told me she thought that that guy was trying to make her jealous. The guy ended up being a no show. He had already paid for the few nights he was going to stay at Carly's. Carly took the money. 

She went ahead and told the new guy that story. I was like, dude! What are you doing? Are you trying to have a bad reputation? The new guy will think that that's what you do: hook up with guests! She told me that the had tons of conversations, he wouldn't think that, she trusted him. He wasn't judging her. I was like, ok! 

As we were chatting back and forth about how amazing that guy was and how turned on she was blah blah blah. I asked her to send me a picture of the guy. I was curious,. She replied, 'OMG, Brook! I can't! The guy is right here! I'm lying on his chest as we speak!' I was flabbergasted! Why would you have such conversations about a guy while lying on his chest? Do you really believe he can't see on your phone? Come on! Apparently, they were watching a movie, on the guy's bed, the bed the previous roommate was sleeping on. She left all her furniture for Calry, when she moved in with her boyfriend. I couldn't help but wonder how the guy must have felt with his landlord taking over his bed. I know from experience that Carly was always on my couch, when I was renting her couch. She would lie there, or sit with me and work on her computer etc. I told you this. I couldn't help but think that this was all her idea. The guy probably just wanted to go to sleep but this horny woman would not leave her alone. 

Nothing happened between the two of them. The guy was going to move into an apartment not far from Carly's but when he moved out, he first went to Palm Springs to a party. 

One afternoon, I went to Walmart, downtown LA. It was really close to Carly's. I told Carly I was in the neighborhood. She came by to meet me. She was gushing over the guy who had stayed at her place. She told me how excited she was that she found the one. Don't I think it's amazing that we both found our true loves around the same time. I had always wondered when she was busy telling me the stories about these men she was throwing herself at at the same time that I told her about Calvin, if she wasn't doing that thing that she does of competing with me. Love is not one of those things you can compete about because it's not entirely up to you. The other person has to be into you, if he's not, it's over. Otherwise you are going to find yourself in a very sticky situation. No pun intended. 

When she told me that about us finding out men at the same time, I told her to call me after her first date with the guy. She seemed to be disappointed that I didn't have faith in her new blossoming relationship. I told her that they didn't meet on a dating site where everyone was looking for love, the guy was merely looking for a place to crash at night. I wanted to see if he was gong to call her now that he was no longer staying there, now that he no longer needed to kiss her ass.  She told me that they spoke since he moved out, I asked who initiated the conversation, she told me she couldn't remember. I was like, chile, please! 

She told me she was tempted to call him and ask him to hang out or to see his new place or offer to help him move. I was like, girl! This is not even you! Inasmuch as Carly is as clingy as she is to me, she is not that way to men at all. Instead, she is the opposite, she will turn down the hottest guys. That's why I was suspicious when she started acting the way she was after I told her about Calvin. 

After a week of not hearing from the guy, Carly got depressed, she would message me and ask me why it is  that the ones you love the most would always break your heart blah blah blah. I told her to stop flirting with her guests. 

Not long after that, Carly and her friends planned a trip to Palm Springs but Carly told them she would rather go to Malibu. This was just after I went to Malibu on the 4th of July. 

Calvin wanted to take me to a live reggae place the following weekend. I was looking forward to that.

Orange County Fair

Day after the first date, I was on that phone telling everyone about it! About the date, about Calvin, the works! I had been dying to do so for weeks anyways! The entire week, I was reveling in the it all!

I felt like it had all come to that one moment, when we finally laid eyes on each other. All the bad dates, all the ridiculous relationshits, all the online dating profiles, all of it! The fake it till you make its of sending myself emails, texts, imagining being with my man at home, making drinks for two when he wasn't even around to drink the second cup until one night, I looked around my house and there were two empty cups where someone actually drank from the second cup. It was marvelous! I didn't wash the cups that night, I wanted to wake up to the reminder that my man was here the previous night. He left half his water in a water bottle he had brought with him. I tell ya, I kept that for weeks to come! I finished the water and recycled that bottle until I couldn't use it anymore. It was something Calvin had left at my place. It was a sign that he was here. That he exists now. It was awesome!

We continued to talk and text daily. I could feel our connection getting stronger by the day. My sisters were so pleased for me when I told them about him. When I came back from San Francisco, I had to get a new phone. I did so on the very day I got back, they asked if I wanted a new number or to keep the old one. I had intended to keep the old one but the lady told me it was going to take a while to port it, she told me I could do that at home as well. I was like, ok, give me a new one and I will port at home later. Just as I walked out of the store, I thought to myself, this is the perfect time to get rid of people I no longer want in my life, change numbers and don't give the new one to anyone other than family at home. Calvin was the first person in The States I gave my new number. Maybe my friend from New Jersey as well. A lot of  my friends are friends with me on Facebook as well, so we just chat there, no big deal.

I got a good deal on a decent phone, it as on sale and I got further discount because another store had offered me 20% off or something. It was great! Unfortunately, I didn't stay with my service provider so the month free they offered me went in vain. I was no longer using that phone. I had linked my phone to my computer, so the month they paid for kinda helped in that texts were still coming through to the computer, so I was able to see if I wanted to give those people my new number or not. I love having my phone linked to my computer for texts, there's an app that you download on the phone and the phone or tablet. As long as your phone is on, the texts also come through to the pc. Sometimes your phone is charging in another room or in your bag or you don't know where it is but it's on, you can always reply to the texts on the screen. Sometimes, you phone is on silent, it's not where you can see it and a call comes through while you're either reading on the tablet, in my case, or doing whatever on the pc, you can see the call coming in, and just find the phone and take care of it I like it. I have had that app since Vegas. You link the phone using your email address not your phone number, I think when you change numbers, and reply to someone who texted you to the old number, and reply, they automatically get the text from the new number. Watch out for that if you don't want that person to have your new number. Let me know if you want the details of the app. I am not trying to do free promos on my blog!

Calvin asked to see me again the following weekend. He wanted to take me to the Fair in Orange county. I thought that was so romantic, no one has ever taken me to the fair before. I had actually never been to a fair, I've been to a carnival many a times in Uitenhage. Aren't they the same thing?

I got my nails right and got ready to head out to Calvin's. He asked me to leave his car at his place, he was going to drive us to the fair.  I had to think a little bit about that. I also didn't want to be difficult, he told me that the place was closer to his house than mine. I think it's the same distance but I just went with it. He told me he wanted me to see where he lives.

Getting my nails ready for my date. I don't know what I was watching on the tablet lol

I was kinda nervous. I washed my car the night before and parked it in the street. I park under a tree that used to poop on my car at my place. I didn't want all my work to be in vein, that's why I parked in the street. The following day, I got up, Calvin called, we chatted for a split second, I got ready and headed out. Calvin wanted us to leave around noon for the fair. The fair is an hour's drive from his place, I still had to get to his and have breakfast with him. He told me he was going to prepare something for us.

I was listening to nice music on my iPod in my clean car. It was hot as heck out, I had my windows and sunroof open, it was a good morning! As I got further and further away from familiar territory, it was sinking in that I was going to Calvin's house. I was going to see everything that he had told me about the place. One afternoon, he called me as I was about to check out a new Dollar Tree. We usually talked in the morning and evenings, he would text me throughout the day but would only call those times. It was nice getting a call from him when I least expected it. He told me that he was home already. We literally talked about nothing. I remember mentioning that most Americans are renting storage, I asked if he has one and proceeded to tell him that if he does, he needs to get rid of whatever is in it. He told me he doesn't, he has a shed in the backyard. I asked if the shed is packed to the brim, he told me that it wasn't. I asked what he keeps in there, he was like funny you should ask, I am in the backyard as we speak! He went into the shed and went through the stuff that's in there. I liked that he wasn't too cool to do that. Someone else would have been. I think. He has some cool stuff in there, bicycles, a kayak, surfing board, skim boards, cool stuff like that.

As I was getting closer to Calvin's the buildings got shorter and shorter. We're not in Beverly Hills anymore, I had just passed downtown. They have more houses than apartments over there. In '0.2miles, turn right, then keep left', said the voice on my GPS. 'Turn left. Turn right and your destination will be on your right.' Oh my goodness! I'm here! There were two cars in the parking lot. One of them the car, Cal came to see me in and the other one is his cool 1960's truck that he had done up. I was really there! A dude came out from behind the cars, towards the house. He was putting on his shirt, he said hi and walked right past me. Double You Tee Eff? I called and told Calvin I was there. I had a beige top on, pleather leggings on and was carrying a red handbag. Calvin came out in khaki cargo shorts and a red top. Basically, we were matching. It was awesome!

He gave me a hug, a kiss and carried my handbag for me as I got out of the car. I felt so welcome!

Calvin asked if  I was hungry. He made bacon and eggs for me. We went around the house, he showed me his trees and stuff. The mangoes were ripe and smelt amazingly! I saw his collection of bonsais. Everything checked out! He was the person he said he was on the dating site and over the course of out chat-ation. We finally went inside, shoes off, first! The house was spic and span! The tiles looked brand new! The house is cosey and romantic. I sat at the table. It's a small table with two chairs, that was cute! There was one plate with bacon and eggs. I wondered why he ate without me and dug in regardless. That's when I realised that he didn't eat without me, those two eggs and three or so bacon strips were for us both. Oops. I was almost done with the bacon! I felt so embarrassed and apologised profusely. He told me not to worry about it. We were going to eat where we were going anyways.

I had mentioned that I needed a massage in passing. I forgot all about that, probably because I must've gotten the massage from my chair but Calvin didn't. He quickly gave me a massage at his place before we left. I thought to myself, smooth! Very smooth. But it ended there! In fact, my leggings, kinda dropped as I bent over in front of the bed for the massage, I was like, oops, can you pull them up haha. Which he did, without being creepy about it. After the massage, we got into Calvin's car and headed for the OC. I hadn't been to Orange County since 2012 December. Calvin had thought of everything. He remembered that I love Elvis Presley, so he had Elvis' CD in the car for me to indulge. I loved that!

We stopped halfway for water, I mean, it's not even that far, but it was fun. It felt like a real road trip. I love road trips! Cal asked if I needed anything from the gas station. I didn't. We continued on our merry way until we arrived at the fair. My gosh! There were so many people! It was so big! Much, much bigger than I had ever expected! On our way to the fair, we passed The happiest place on earth; Disneyland. Calvin asked if I had been there, he told me that he considered to take me there instead on the date. He told me that the fair was only going to last for a short time, he could always take me to Disney at a later stage. I was excited that he had future plans for me. I felt like I had a boyfriend. It was a wonderful feeling.

Orange County Fair. I need to try those frog legs advertised on that banner

We parked our car, I took out my cute polka dot umbrella with a pink handle and we went to get ourselves tickets. We got in, took a few pictures and walked around. There was a lot of walking around involved. I am glad I had comfortable shoes on. We stopped for something to eat. I had a piece of pork. I thought it would come with a side or something. Nope! It came on a stick, that's it! It would have been more scrumptious if it weren't so dry. Calvin had a meal, it was a bun with beans and pulled pork. I had some of his food. It was good.

Pork Chop on a stick

I saw people eating the biggest turkey drumstick I had ever seen and wanted some with my eyes but there was no room in my stomach. Calvin told me that he would buy me that in September during the LA County fair. This was in July! I thought to myself, great! I will still have a boyfriend in three month's time! I'm loving this!

We held hands, it felt so natural, so amazing, so everything. I was into it!

Calvin got us tickets to the rides. I was praying not to be that embarrassing person who throws up on a ride. The first ride was ok, very high,  but not fast or anything crazy. I had been on that kind of a ride in Port Elizabeth forever ago. I can't remember if we did go on the second one.

Not too long after the rides, we checked out the animals. I hadn't seen those animals in a while, goats etc. They also had a lima. I had only seen one at The Talk,  in person.

Testing my new lipsticks, pink and orange

We looked around for our car.Calvin and I gave each other turns carrying my handbag. Not that it was heavy, it was hot out. Nobody wanted to be bothered with a handbag. I remember him saying, while we were trying to find the car in the parking, omg! Please take your umbrella back, there is nothing manly about this look! He was carrying my handbag on one arm and the pink handled umbrella with his other hand. It was hilarious.

I  sent Calvin this , when he saw me for the fair, he told me thought I was gonna wear this orange lipstick

I really enjoyed out second date. Cal wanted to go to the beach afterwards. Newport beach was not far from where we were. I wished we could go because that's where some of the Real Housewives of OC live, e.g. Heather. I was too tired and too hot to care. I asked him to take us back to LA. He obliged. He was like, 'wanna go back home and watch a movie?' Yup! We made it back to his safely, rented a movie just around the corner from his. I took off my shoes, changed into a dress and made myself comfortable. We rented James Brown's movie: Get on up. I passed out before, during and after. I couldn't stay up for sht. It was a complete catastrophe! I was pooped.

At the fair

I don't know what happened to the movie, but I woke up later, we chatted some, then went out for dinner in the neighborhood. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant. I had something delicious, Calvin had noodles. My meal had pork in it. Again! He took me back to his, I got into my car and drove back to the Hills of Beverly!

Vietnamese dinner

We had breakfast, lunch and dinner together. My kind of date. The date of my fantasies. It was a good day!