Everything around her is a silver pool of light

The last week has been quite busy but very interesting and fun and different from my normal routine. A brief recap:

Thursday night a friend of mine flew in from New York to visit. That night was low-key, but kicked off a weekend that was anything but.

Friday we were set up on a tour of Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank. The tour took us around various lots, into the soundstages, and through exterior sets for everything from E.R. to the Gilmore Girls. We passed director James Cameron riding by on a golf cart, but sadly, none of the Ocean's 13 cast members who were filming that day. It was truly amazing to learn how many movies and television programs have been produced on that lot, but the tour itself fell a bit flat. Regardless, it was a fun day and just makes me want to work in television that much more.

Friday night I exercised my social skills and organized about 15 friends getting together at one of our new favorite bars. I felt extremely loved and loving, and excited to see a quasi-celebrity - this guy from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Saturday, we headed up to Santa Ynez Valley for a weekend of wine tasting, where I am thrilled to admit I managed to avoid the flu, this time. We stayed at the Chumash Casino Resort, which I had started calling the Cheesy Chumash before we left, but ended up being much nicer than I had expected. The casino itself was kind of sad - some of the saddest looking people you've ever seen in your life, perhaps - but the rooms and the hotel were great.

We headed back on Sunday and took the PCH from Oxnard down into Malibu, where we shot some amazing pictures like the one I posted yesterday. We then had dinner at Duke's before I dropped my friend at the airport and came home and crashed.

When I woke up on Monday I just couldn't fathom any more driving, and exercised one of the many sick days available to me. (Seriously? I am so anal. Do you know that I haven't called in sick when I wasn't in over 7 years! Well, until Monday.) I spent most of the day watching TV, drinking coffee, catching up on my blog reading... but let's go back to TV for a sec. I'm loving The View now that Rosie is on it. They should honestly just change the name to Rosie's View - it's totally her show now. I caught up on GH, and then got sucked into Oprah, which, as you may know by now, was mainly about, to use her word, poop.

Sure, the show was billed as "Dr. Oz answers your most embarrassing questions" but 75% of those questions were about poop. Again, her word. But the last 15 minutes of the episode featured a gynecologist to answer the 25% of embarrassing questions that had nothing to do with poop. And that, my friends, was my doctor. Lisa Masterson, MD, of Cedar Sinai Medical Center, on Oprah. I'll be lucky to get an appointment with her ever again.

Monday night I had plans to see my friend's boyfriend sing at a club in Los Feliz. I've heard one of his songs on MySpace but was truly blown away by his talent for singing live. It was a really nice experience, and one out of the ordinary for me, as I rarely see live music. What's more extraordinary is that I am going to see yet more live music on Saturday, when another friend is dragging me to see one of her favorite bands play at a place on Sunset. It's not something I would normally do, but I am excited to go and try something different.

I love weeks like this - when energy is heightened and friendships and plans are in abundance and there is a random celebrity-sighting or coincidence that crosses your path. I believe the energy is contagious, spreads like wildfire, illuminating the scenery in a way we hadn't before imagined.

The problem with that metaphor is that, in energy's case, I don't want the fire to burn out.