You see, in November, I was invited along by a coworker of mine at my salon to attend this Jerseylicious taping that was being held in Queens. They were holding an event at a banquet hall, and it would be full of hairdressers from all over the tri-state area. At that point, I’d never even heard of Jerseylicious before, but with a name like that, I knew it couldn’t be all that great. Still, I went along for shits and giggles.

Who knew it’d land me an opportunity to be on TV?

Granted, I was just one of the many in the background at the “CPSA mixer” half of the episode, but my unique haircolor at the time gave me an advantage. Spotting myself in the crowds was as simple as looking for the bright colors in a sea of blonde, brunette, and auburn.

So if that’s to be my 15 minutes of fame, so be it. It was fun, and actually being on television has given me some kind of ridiculous ego boost. XD

I adore Kayla’s work as a photographer and an artist, and I wish we weren’t both total flakes and were able to work more together. The last (and actually, first) time I worked with her, my friend Billy ended up dead and disemboweled in a bathtub, and that was nearly a year ago. That whole shoot was a blast, even though my cuticles were stained from the fake blood for nearly an entire week afterwards.

She’s got another project coming up soon which focuses on the elements, and she wants me to model for her again. It won’t just be pretty makeup this time though, there will be a twist. I can’t wait! ^_^

Since posting all 500-somewhat pictures that made the cut (I took over 650) here would be nothing short of insane, you can check out the highlights from each day of my trip on my Shuttercal, where I’m currently posting a 365 project. (And in case you need specifics, my trip was from January 18-25.)

I saw the landmarks of London: Buckingham Palace (though I missed the changing of the guard), Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Big Ben and Parliament, the London Eye, and Harrods. I visited the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert museum, and the Museum of Natural History. I saw The Lion King Musical and Wicked. I drank tea, I ate fish and chips, I rode the tube, and most importantly, I partied it up with the gays in Soho.

The nightlife in London is quite different from the nightlife here. Over here, it’s not unusual to go out to a bar or club and stay out until 4 or 5 in the morning, sometimes even later. In London (and I’m assuming the UK in general), the bars close at midnight, and the “late” clubs are open until 3am. But, there, you’re allowed to have alcohol out in the streets. Here, it’s a ticketable offense.

I also stopped into a few salons to find out what are the requirements of working as a hairdresser. It seems to be a lot easier than it is here – you don’t have to actually go to school for it there, you just start assisting/apprenticing at a salon. I’m going to work on getting more established/having more experience here, and then I’m going to look into obtaining a work visa.

I stayed at a hostel while I was there, in the heart of central London. (Piccadilly Backpackers, for anyone interested.) For 6 nights, it was $200, and I shared a room with 5 other people that I had little to no interaction with. Aside from my roommates being a little on the sloppy side, the room and the bathrooms were clean, the place had decent security, and I would definitely stay there again. I was a little apprehensive about staying in a hostel at first, especially with the stigma surrounding it, but it wasn’t bad at all.

There are a few things I would do differently next time. I decided against bringing my laptop along because I didn’t think it was necessary, but it would have been immensely helpful, because the hostel charged to use their computer cafe. Instead, I trekked to the Apple store every time I wanted to check facebook, my email, or whatnot. Also, the hostel didn’t have any cooking facilities, but next time I would put more time and effort into grocery shopping instead of just eating out every day. It was unhealthy and expensive. And lastly, I am bringing business cards with me next time. I met a few people in bars and clubs – some of them in industries complimentary to my own – and because writing my email down on a scrap of paper obviously got lost along the way, those contacts were lost forever.

But, other than those few things, my trip was amazing, and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!

I realized that with the wiping/restarting of my blog, I wiped everything I’d ever written about Eric. An ex of his (henceforth referred to simply as M) recently got in contact with me, because she’s trying to get a protective order against him and needed my help. He’s since roped in some poor other sucker who’s just going to end up like the rest of us, and she won’t heed any of M’s warnings. I hope that with the mention of his name, this post ends up on Google’s front page for anyone searching for info on Eric. He’s a vile, evil, soulless person – who happens to be devilishly charming – and there isn’t nearly enough in a quick Google search to prove this fact to someone.

I was Eric’s second wife. We were together from October 0f 2005 to March of 2009. We were married for a year, and I left him after he was arrested for assaulting me. It wasn’t the first time he’d hit me, and wasn’t nearly the first time he’d hit a woman. To say he put me through hell is putting it nicely. He maxed out my credit card, drained my bank account, and put me into debt. He abused me mentally, emotionally, physically, sexually… you name it, I probably suffered it. He pawned off my personal belongings to feed his drug addictions.  And in the time I was with him, he scammed and fucked over EVERY SINGLE person he had business dealings with. Pro wrestlers and their promotions, UFC fighters, comedians, small businesses, musicians, I can come up with a laundry list of names of people he fucked. And now, I’m being told, he’s scamming children’s charities.

If you know him, you’ve probably heard him brag about how he’s worked for WWE, UFC, or Sirius Radio… none of these affiliations are legit. He’s probably also told you about his house on the beach in California or his ‘Vette stored at his mother’s house… none of those are true, either. He has two social security numbers and a criminal record in New Jersey. It’s only a matter of time before his bad karma and sour business dealings catch up with him.

And Eric, if you’re reading this — I know you are, because M told me that you keep internet tabs on me — you can bitch and complain and continue lying to yourself and others all you want. This is the honest to goodness truth. Keep telling people that all the women you’ve been with that have spoken out against you are crazy psycho lying bitches. The truth is in your actions, and it rears its ugly face to EVERYONE. Even if you have them blindsided at first with your charm, your true colors always shine through.

So, once again, I hope anyone searching for Eric’s name on the internet stumbles upon this, and that they’re clear-headed enough to see through Eric’s lies. He needs to be stopped before he hurts more people.

Oh, and in case you want a laugh, here’s a screencapped archive of the livejournal that Eric kept shortly after I left him. It clearly shows his manic nature, he openly admits to stalking a guy I was seeing socially, he harasses and threatens my friends who try to stick up for me, and he slanders me for being an alcoholic and a cheat. Come to your own conclusions.

To say I am stoked is a severe understatement. I am also nervous and anxious, but my excitement far out-shadows those  negative feelings. This is my first time traveling to a foreign country (outside of Canada, but they didn’t require passports when I went, so it doesn’t count), and only maybe the third time that I’ve traveled via airplane by myself.

I plan on just doing a lot of sight seeing while I’m there, and taking lots of pictures, but my dear friend who lives in London will also be treating me to entertainment and nightlife. I’m staying at a hostel in the heart of London, so I’m bound to make new friends while I’m there, anyway. I haven’t really set up an itinerary, so I took some guidebooks out of the library and I’m just going to wing it. Maybe I’ll formulate some loose plan while I’m waiting for my flight in the airport, since I always make it through security so breezily and have hours to spare.

I’m torn on whether or not to bring my phone with me, though I’ll probably end up bringing it anyway and leaving it on airplane mode. The roaming charges, I found out, are $1.49 per minute, with $0.50 for outgoing texts and $0.20 for incoming texts. On the flip side, my phone serves as my watch and alarm clock. Ah, decisions…

Anyway, I will see you, my lovely blog, when I return. I’m sure I’ll have much to regale. Until then, cheers!

Tonight, I have a hair client coming over for highlights. Tomorrow, a hair client for a color makeover. Friday morning I’m working at the salon and Friday night I’m at Walgreens. Saturday I’m at the salon all day, Sunday morning I have a client for highlights, Sunday night at Walgreens, Monday night at Walgreens, and Tuesday all day at the Salon. I leave for London on Wednesday evening.

So, as you can clearly see, free time for planning my itinerary (which I probably should have done right after I booked my airfare, but I’m quite the last-minute maven) is non-existent. Last night, I got myself so worked up over all that needs to be done before I leave that I almost gave myself a panic attack. I made myself an itemized list of things I have to buy/get done.

I’m relieved to see that I’m almost halfway done with my list, and I have my best friend by my side today to maintain my sanity (which she did quite well when I found my debit card missing this morning). Even so, I’m still feeling anxious and hard-pressed for time. Maybe it’s the sheer amount of work I’ll be doing in the next week before my trip, maybe it’s the realization that in only a week I’ll be in another country, across the ocean. Whatever it is, I don’t think I’ll actually be able to relax until I’m well into my trip. Here’s hoping anxiety doesn’t get the best of me before then!

Anyway, I’ve been practically living off of soup, tea, mentholated cough drops, and Alka-Seltzer Plus for the past couple days. It’s been helping, but I’m still dreadfully congested. I’m hoping to be all cleared up by Saturday.

In other news, I’ve recently started watching Sliders on Hulu. Man, oh man, I’ve forgotten how much I loved that show. And how much of an obsessive girly crush I had on Jerry O’Connell.

Well, Japan was promptly out of the question.

Then I started thinking about other places I’d like to go. Sure, there are plenty of domestic destinations that I’ve yet to visit that are on my list, but I have a passport that expires in 2015 and I’d like to start making good use of it. England, I thought, that’s an easy start. It’s only an 8-hour flight and they speak English there, so I won’t have to learn any completely new languages, just some new lingo. I also have friends who live in/around London, so I wouldn’t be completely alone.

I proposed this to my mom, and after finding a round-trip airfare for $600, it was a done deal. I found lodging at a particularly-nice looking hostel smack dab in the middle of London, and for 6 nights it comes to ~$200 USD (the original price was in pounds, so I just converted it quickly), which is what I’d pay for one night at any regular hotel in the area. And because my mom is funding half of all of this, my total cost for the flight and lodging of this trip is $400. I’ll be on my own with money for food, entertainment, etc., while I’m over there, but I’ve got that covered.

I think it goes without saying that I’m super excited. This will be the first time I’ve really traveled internationally (Canada – before they required a passport – and the US Virgin Islands don’t count), and it’ll be the biggest trip I’ve ever taken on my own.

I’m going to the library this week to check out some London guidebooks and stuff. For anyone who lives/has been there, can you give me suggestions on what to see/do while I’m there?

In other news, I hate this weather. What month are we in? December? I’ve yet to see a snowstorm this season (or really any snow at all), and the temperature has been hovering around 60 degrees. What the actual fuck? I want cold! I want snow! I want a typical New York winter! Is that too much to ask, Mother Nature?

Finally – my little bit of positivity – I’ve started re-reading Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and every other sentence reminds me why I love Douglas Adams.

Amid an admittedly white-person-problem dilemma this morning, I posted on facebook that I had the hankering to bake cookies, but didn’t want to forage out to buy ingredients.

One cup peanut butter, one cup sugar, and one egg equal the best peanut butter cookies, Ashlee told me. When I asked her if she was serious, she replied, “I do not kid about cookies.”

Ashlee is probably the most knowledgeable person I know when it comes to sweet, sweet confections, so I took her word for it, and not fifteen minutes later had these tasty little morsels to show for it.

The spicing up that I did was to add a heaping tablespoonful of Nutella to the batter. These cookies are beyond delicious, and a must for every peanut butter lover out there.