Sour Patch Kids, Two Secrets, and an Apple a Day. ;)

melli@melliinc.com

 "SourPatch Kids" mark the spot.   The sweet and the sour that together, make up life.
       Sweet Secret:  It's always fascinated and elated me, to open the pages of a high end fashion magazine, and see the ad's, designs, colors, even the people, that a year prior, I knew would be there.
       I cannot see dead people...but if you needed me to pull together a collection, say for a new TV show...and have it ready tomorrow, and have it air a year from now... I't'd be nothing less than a straight on bulls eye.
       Sour Secret:  I'm really and truly kick-ass fantastic at getting it done right.  Ten minutes, ten actors, ten ill-fitting ball~gowns?  Bring it.  It's sour because it's not something "I want", rather it's something I'm good at, passionate about, and quite frankly, "I need".
       There you have it, apparently, I'm a Sour Patch Kid.
       A very well respected member of the community who, interestingly enough, is not on the way into, or out of jail, said something today that provoked me into sharing the above secrets, and below photo's.       After speaking with a very "big deal dude" at CBS, she gave me the advice he'd passed along.  "Get as much work as you can and buff up a resume".     Wow...such insight...this guy certainly eats his apple a day.
        I do apologize.  I adore, and respect greatly this woman, but am beginning to understand why this man has gotten the reputation of being an idiotic jack-ass.
       
         FYI: She did not tell me her friend's name, it's just my own gut feeling that  it was this particular man.
           I'd barely rang the bell this afternoon when she asked if I'd seen...and I cut her off.  "The Prada ad in Harpers?  Yeah I know.  The roses right?  Did you see the other ones, with the pearls? "  I'm not sure it's "allowed" to put up other designers' ads.  Therefor, YOU HAVE HOMEWORK.  ;)  Look at Chanel's Winter 2011/2012 collection online, Dior, Lanvin (try the Bergdorf's site)  and the November or December issue of Harpers Bazaar.  Oh!  And the January (I think) issue of Nylon Magazine too.  Pretty please, and thank you quite kindly ;)   Then take a look at these:

Quite Kindly,
Mell


66/50

A letter to the class.

melli@melliinc.com

"When Life Gives You Lemons... Use Them Wisely"  ;)

Dear First Grade Families, 

Remember in high school, those awful dreams where we'd accidentally come to school in our undies?  Yeah that's about how I feel right now.  :)  Because of your incredible kindness, I've decided to write this letter.    Just hang in here with me for a minute.  Pretty please, and thank you quite kindly.  

As parents,we want to watch our children smile, be healthy, happy and successful in all that they do.  For my Josh and his very young reputation, I'm telling you my story.  

Please accept my sincerest apologies for all the birthday parties, school events, family days and even just day to day "things" that we've missed... And that I myself have.   Most of you know, a year ago (September) I was in a monstrous car accident.  After being air-lifted to UCLA Trauma, it was discovered that I'd suffered massive brain trauma, but nobody could say how exactly that would impact me, or my family.   Often people ask how the recovery is, how am I feeling, how are the memory issues etc.  I've tried to politely reply to every body that I'm getting better, things are good and so on.  To be honest, it was just about six weeks ago, my Dr. FINALLY said it seemed my feet were finding their way back down to earth.  

I slur my words still if I'm tired, I fall down stairs regularly,  I've lost enormous chunks of my memory, and my vocabulary  (or lack there of)  is a constant battle and embarrassment.  They are all things I'm valiantly working on.  

Sitting and typing this, I'm reminded of so many people I owe calls too, piece's too, donations for school things...Gosh I am so very sorry to you and your families.  My heart is in the right place and my head is getting back to it...for real.  

IF there are any out-standing events I've been MIA for, please PLEASE call me, ask me, or leave me a note.  I want so much to be here, and to help wherever I can, and anybody that needs it.   And I value all of you so much.  It's a fantastic group of  people that make up our current class, and it's an honor to be apart of it.  So please pardon my seemingly obnoxious behavior, and know that going into the New Year, each of you is in my prayers for all good things.  

Thank you for your time, and everything else you've all offered.  While I may not remember it right away, I can assure you, the sweetness of first grade will never be forgotten.    

PS~ As I'm still me for the moment, if I've missed any e-mails, would you be so generous as to pass this along?  :)

Quite Kindly,

Mell

A Poem by Yours Truly

melli@melliinc.com

The wind begins blowing

As dusk rolls in

For many an ending is near

My energy takes over

At about this time

For no longer do I hold fear

As darkness come strong

Night chills come along

Many people will soon take cover

When the light is no more

Shut goes the door

For me though now magic does hover

Sassy, Classy, & Sweetly Crassy...

melli@melliinc.com

Sassy, Classy, & Sweetly Crassy...The Magic of Melli...Oh My.


                                "Where there is PASSION, anything is possible.  
The world seems to be catching on not only to my talents, but to my passion.  I can make jewelry for any person, any style any time in any price range.  I can pull a photo shoot out from where the sun don't shine in no seconds flat.  I can figure out the make-up easily.  I don't panic on set.  I can take direction and I can give direction properly.   I can figure it out, whatever it is, whenever it needs to be figured out...silently even.  I'm good.  I've got "it" and I'm good.  The world is beginning to understand that about me.  Where there is Melli, there is intensely sweet, classy, sassy, quiet and sometimes crassy, passion".    

XOXO Murphy, Tilton & The Men's Varsity Basketball Team. ;)

melli@melliinc.com
twitter:melliohmy


Can I just say, Melli's got some major moxie...

Mr.Murphy and Mr.Tilton .  Two gigantic contributor’s to me being ME.  In some really ridiculous, muscle building, and fantabulous ways.   

It wasn’t unusual to find me digging through the props room.  I was the “stage manager”.  In  high school, this meant I was also the make-up artist, the costumer, the props darling etc etc etc.   And that was all fine by me!!!  A best friend (to this day) is  Benjamin.  He and I regularly stayed in that theatre painting sets far past our required dorm check-in time, and even past the official lights out time.  We had a blast.  I loved that theatre.  I love theatre as a general statement.  It’s magic of course, as so many sets are.  The following story occurred one chilly weekend afternoon, when the school was quite possibly empty.   And likely, so was the town.  At boarding school in the middle of the most beautiful part of New England, when it was quiet, it was dead silent.    So I’m digging alone, through the boxes…I knew the picture frame was there, as I’m the one that had put it back the previous morning.  When all of a sudden…

MURPHY:  Stomping up onto the stage, “Where in the hell is Mell???!!!   Dammit this was supposed to be done yesterday!  No, actually this was supposed to be done last week!   Christ.  Melissa??!!!!!"

ME: Scrambling myself up the steps, I replied sweetly as always.  “Morning Murphy…what can I do for you?”

MURPHY: Pivoting swiftly but with great balance, “ Why is THAT piano not on THIS stage?  I asked you to get it done two weeks ago!”  Despite him and I being in that very theatre, everyday for the last month, and him insisting he’d get some help and do it himself…I replied with  a steady voice to counter his furious one.

ME:” I’ll go find some help right now.  I’ll be honest though, there aren’t many people around…can you check for sta…”

MURPHY:” JUST DO IT!!!”   Well then.  

ME: “Ok Murph, I’ll see who I can wrangle up”…   Shit.  There really wasn’t anybody on campus…I debated even knocking on doors…but I didn’t have time for that.  So off I went…running through the theatres entrance, and then through the student lounge, and the cafeteria.   I was on a mission…maybe not from God, but from Murphy…and anybody with half a brain, knew that he was capable of being much worse…and still he’s the BEST!!!   Ok so anyway, I’m running…fast…just as I’m losing my own temper, I saw a couple guys walking up the back path…” Hey you!!!   I need your help in the theatre!!!   Please seriously, Murphy’s going to kill me …and I’ll do your laundry all week!!!”   They grumbled something, and seeing as they were nice though not large, they made their way into the theatre.  While I popped my head into yet another empty room upstairs…I heard Morgan yelling.

MURPHY:”Is she kidding me?   I don’t know you tell me, can the two of you lift that piano up onto the stage?  Because I’ve gotta tell ya at this point, I’m thinking of pre-recording the damn music” 

ME:”Fuck”…   Just as I bounced toward the next room I heard another sound.  It was a booming voice…but with a different strength.  “Oh you’ve got to be mother fucking kidding me NO WAY!”  This all from me, I didn’t swear, I did skip class but only because it was insanely difficult.  Never did drugs, never smoked, was a pretty good little thing in comparison.   So Murph is still shouting blah blah blah…   whatever whatever whatever…amd boom.  My saving grace.  TILTON!!!!!!!   Mr.T!!!   Seriously, my savior…and history teacher.  I ran up to him beyond breathless…

TILTON:  “ Miss Melissa…what brings you up here today…don’t tell me one of these guys is yours?  Athletes are trouble you know…”  He smirked and gosh what a guy!

ME:  “Hi, haha no, not any of your boys don’t worry.  I need a HUGE favor…and one day I’ll re-pay you…no idea how, but I might not live to figure it out if you don’t help me.”   A minute later, he blew his whistle.  LOUD!

TILTON: “BOYS!  Listen up!  Miss Melissa has a favor and your ALL going to help her! “  He looked at me and nodded to “the boys”.  Mind you at 61 inches with my head held up straight, these “boys” were all at least a foot taller than me…more like two.  The Men’s Varsity Basketball Team. 

ME:” Ok guys, I need help…let’s move!”  He blew the whistle again and yelled “GO” and it took every cell in my being to not jump higher than the gym ceiling and crack my skull…but I didn’t…I kept my cool.  How?  No friggin idea.  The two minutes it took us to walk ( single file) from the gym to the theatre had my heart thundering in my chest harder than any New England storm.  Really.  The pride I felt when I opened the theatre door, and saw the look on the three other people’s faces?  Now THAT was unbelievable.   “Hey Morgan.  Got some help…these guys should be able to do it.”  Don’t forget single file.   Because of the shading of the glass doors, it wasn’t until I moved aside that he could see them start filing in…dunking their heads as they walked through the door way.    TRIUMPH!!!!!   HA!!!

MURPHY:” Wow…Meliss…Wow.  This is unreal.  Your amazing.  You got Tilton to let these guys go?  Melissa how did you do that?  I’m…” he continued to stare back and forth at them and me in total shock.  Not awe, but shock.  Oh yes, Melli’s got MOXIE times ten!   So the team proceeded to move the piano from the pit, to the stage.  It took them all of thirty seconds, and not a scratch.  One day, I really should find those guys and thank them with something awesome…a pendent or something.  And one day, when I’m hugely successful, I FULLY intend too.

..."Like Magic, A Lid Appears"...

melli@melliinc.com
  Dear World,
               Many of you know that a little over a year ago, I was in a car accident.  I suffered a severe head injury.  It's caused me more than several ( times a day) slips down the stairs, ridiculous word replacements.  I.E. "Honey can you grab the washer so I can make the kids' toast".  Rather than microwave, for waffles.  Simple things, natural day to day things.   "Guys hush the vacuum so I can spell the baker"!  Rather than the TV, so I can hear the phone.  
              I found a photo that I pleaded to have taken.  "After the Clean-Up, Before the Shave".  I made it black and white, (less gore).   It was after being air lifted to the trauma center at UCLA and being literally cleaned up, before they shaved part of my head to stitch me back together.  I just wanted to see...somebody said I looked like Harry Potter.  My sister actually...whom I love more than the world.  My Ray of sunshine.   Tonight, I was talking to a friend, and sent her a very un-gory photo.  She said " The Boy Who Lived".    She then said  "You are not going to die...But FINALLY LIVE".  She and I went on chatting...she mentioned Nat King Cole...and I remembered something.  I remembered the dress Natalie Cole was wearing when I was twelve or thirteen and accidentally bumped into her at an awards show.  Then, I remembered what she was wearing when I again had the pleasure of seeing her at a department store right before the accident.
             I still slur my words, some people think I'm all over the place...  Like Aerosmith and my Grandmother have both said in the past "my get up and go, got up and went"... BUT IT'S COMING BACK!  
            It's not over, this part of the battle has just actually begun...but I'm going to win it.   I'm getting stronger, smarter, tougher...and I learn a little every single day.   I'm not so foolish as to say "I love you all", and gush~gush~gush...the truth is, I do remember a lot...good and bad, happy and sad.  A lot of things incredibly bittersweet.  Everything in balance, in good time, the right time...and just when you feel things are about to explode...almost like magic, a lid appears.  
            So, just so everybody is ready ~ I wanted to let you ALL know, I'm still at the airport, not quite boarding the plane...but my tickets are out, my bags are packed, and I'm on my way home.
            Peace, Luv, Rock n' Roll...
            Quite Kindly Yours,
                      Miss Melli Oh My.

Melli D went VIP ;)

melli@melliinc.com

          I LOVE Halloween.   I find the ghost stories captivating.  I like the legends, the intrigue, and the probability (rather than the otherwise typical "possibility") that something magic could happen.    I make a wish at midnight on the thirtieth, and then the following midnight I do the same.
         This Halloween, we began with what's become, our tradition.  My sister and brother-in-law took my boys to the pumpkin patch.  A few days after they come back and we carve pumpkins...99% of the time it's my sister and I...which we love because it gives us "us" time.  So then, this year was a little different.  I had no idea how much so, until Later Friday night.  My friend was going to a place in Hollywood with a small group of people.  I offered to lend her and another girl (that's become a friend now too) some jewelry for fun.  I also offered to do their make-up.   That's something fun for me.  I've always loved getting people ready...even just to go to the market!  Putting a smile on their face, making them feel good inside about how they look outside is very cool.  It happens that neither of these girls needs any help in the department of beauty... it also happens that both are my friends and were going to humor me by letting me help.
          So, Friday night, I get a text ~ not un-common.  BUT...what she said to me was one of those totally superficial, completely and shamelessly, ridiculously exciting things that makes people want to do a cartwheel.  Difference being, I actually will in fact do them.   So I'm silently bouncing in my cartwheels down the hallway so that I don't wake the boys, or my husband, or the neighboring town for that matter.   I was completely stoked out of my mind.  She texted me to see if I'd go with her on Saturday night.  So ok, I got invited to go out in Hollywood with one of my most favorite people...I'm almost a hundred percent certain that she's secretly an angel.  Not only that, but it's in a limo, and how cool is this?  Pauley P from NCIS is the hostess!   Well holy shit.
         I was so excited...until Angela said "costume required"...I died...then I revived myself, and decided ok...I got this.  The ONLY hat that I can wear that isn't a beanie, is a witch hat.  Boom.  I'll grab a capey thingy somewhere, a hat from the grocery store, and I'm done.  Ok so this is me, I'm a girl...I got three dresses, two capes and two head pieces...got home, pulled three more dresses, and two more completely different options out...and transformed myself into this kind of "Gypsy/Witch/Funky?Hollywood?Fortune-Teller.   It worked.   It was so fun to dress up.  Squeezing in the limo was interesting... like being in high school again...
         The ONLY stupid issue was the norm for me, I got dizzy.  Still struggling with the car accident...getting better though.   So most of the night...into the early morning the room, or my head, were spinning.
         It's wild to meet one of your favorite celebrities.  Even seeing them across a room is cool.   Being their guest, VIP guest, at a party with people that are actually your friends?  Wow.  AND when the famous person suddenly becomes a real person it's spectacular.   Ok, she's tall, and thin and beautiful, and she has that "Magic of Hollywood" Sparkle...but she is truly a sweetheart.  She's respectful and courteous of others, and it was a little surreal.   There's actually security guards, and a velvet rope and I was on the side that I secretly have always wanted to be on.   It didn't feel wrong, or strange...it was just fun to be there...and to see my friends having fun.
         Around three AM I think, it seemed time to go home.  So I hugged my friends, and I sorta waved a cool "Thank You Bye" to Pauley.  But she insisted on taking me literally, by the hand, and walking me with a security guard, back to the limo, and made sure he knew where he was taking me.  It was amazing.
         A VIP, with a real VIP, my friends, and in a very cool place in Hollywood...how many times have I said Hollywood?   Yes, always it's in my dreams.   Anyway, I don't drink...I'll go all out on Shirley Temples, but that's it.   So assuming my memory doesn't mess up, I have the capacity to remember everything.  And I remember my friends and I having fun.    I met a bunch of people...all so nice...and one of them, Ginger Coyote who began what is now PunkGlobe.com   She was very awesome, and took a liking I think to my jewelry.  Angela was wearing a bunch, I was wearing a bunch, and somebody told her that Pauley had worn a piece on the show.   So I'm making her something, and she's doing a little write up on me...which will hopefully grab people's attention.
        It's been stated so many times, but in truth, I want to be successful so that I can be happy inside...and make the world smile.  First of course, come my guys...and then every charity that catches even the corner of my eye.   ;)
Picture time loves...

Pauley Perrette & I

 

 Angela & Maggie

Yours Truly 

Angela & I 

Ginger Coyote (& Pauley in the background). 

Maggie & Angela 

Yours truly. 

Pauley P  

The graceful bust of Angela 

Yes...my head-piece. 

And the (gag...) base metal ridiculousness I put together to go with my Pearls.  ;)

QUITE KINDLY YOURS, Mell