Let’s review the last month since Easter Sunday. I took my son and three of his friends to Catalina Island for spring break and we all had a great time. They got lost on a big hike, spear fished, snorkeled and caught fish off of Avalon Harbor with veteran fisherman Rich Knowland. After settling back into the regular routine I took my mother to her DAR meeting in San Juan Capistrano and met an artist named Monika. Now I am representing 2 Monikas and their art, more about that later. Went to a Relay for LIfe Meeting at El Cholo (event is June 2nd at the Great Park) April 17 and on April 18th had my last PBS SoCal Gala Committee meeting. Later that day on the 18th I met the most amazing man through Mona Nesseth (my WOC jewelry lady). His name was Richard and he owns the Newport Beach Winery. I told his funny Catalina Island buffalo story to my nephew and his friend, that is great one! That same night we moved on to the Trefethen Winemaker dinner at the Balboa Bay Club. The winemaker dinner was great, as usual, and Hailey Trefethen was adorable and talked to us about the history of her winery. Love their Chardonnay! It is almost as good as our “Cougar Crack” Rombauer Chardonnay…
That was a busy day and the next day, April 19th, we had our Women of Chapman event at Shady Canyon with Cathy Whitlock. Cathy lives in Nashville and wrote a beautiful book, “Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Direction.” On the 20th I had an event at Chapman’s Dodge College called “Women in Focus”. I was invited to the luncheon before the talk and met so many interesting people. The panel discussion included Debra Martin Chase (The Princess Diaries, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Cheetah Girls), Leslie Dixon (grandaughter of Dorothea Lange) who wrote so many screenplays, including “Limitless.”, Nina Jacobson, Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2 highest grossing female director), Stacey Snider (Steven Spielberg’s partner), and Dawn Taubin, the moderator who is now a Chapman professor. It was so interesting and I did not fall asleep at all!
The next week included a neighborhood dinner party on the 21st, bunko, and a lovely dinner hosted by Dean and Kaly Corey of the Philharmonic Society at their home. Box Ladies on May 3rd was an opportunity to get together and put together 10 boxes of college goodies for our kids at school. We then had our PBS SoCal gala on Cinco de Mayo. It was a blast and I ended up giving my home made gala mask to Marcia Cross (the beautiful redhead from Desperate Housewives). I’ll have to show a picture of us together. The next night we went to Big Canyon Country Club for our annual Golden Baton award for the Philharmonic Society. Big Canyon overlooks the golf course and has great sunset views, and good food and wine. On May 8th we had dinner at Scott’s Seafood and went to a concert for the Philharmonic. Now this week is very busy! Newton Winemaker dinner Tuesday May 15th at the BBC was one of the best. Chef Josef outdid himself with wine paired halibut and a huge short rib. We ordered some chardonnay of course. On Wednesday we had our last meeting for the Women of Chapman and our Christmas at the Ritz meeting. After that I went to the Philharmonic House of Design in Laguna Beach. It was a long drive up a winding road to a very modern house. The house was 11,000 sq. ft. with panoramic ocean views and the shops were great. Too bad they ran out of food and the shuttle took forever up and back from Dana Point. Had a nice glass of wine with the 2 Monikas, that was very fun! After that we had another dinner at the BBC for a farewell to Beverly Ray. She owns the club and is one of the most amazing women. More on her later. The history of that club needs to be updated, especially since it is sold. On May 17th we went to a spectacular Chef Yvon Goetz dinner at the Winery Restaurant. Had some 2 Sisters Pinot Noir and Rombauer (did I mention cougar crack?) and his famous pizza. Yesterday, May 18th, we had our first scholarship luncheon for students at Chapman’s Dodge College. We ended up giving $5750 to each student because they were all so enthusiastic, smart, and had such potential. Sheri Nazaroff and Dean Bob Bassett have done a great job with the film school and it was such a pleasure to be able to give students money to help with their student film projects. Picked up nephew Andrew for chocolate chip cookies and then on to dinner at Shady Canyon for the Philharmonic Board retreat. Tonight is another gala – the Black and White Ball for CASA. What to wear???
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