If she hadn't grown up so close to the rolling blue Pacific, Carrie Westcott might not be a woman obsessed. As it happens, Miss September lives for the water: "I love the ocean. I love to walk in the rain. I love hot tubs, bubble baths and swimming pools. There's something about being naked in water
...." Her voice trails off but her smile tells all. This southern Californian sticks close to the water's edge, taking vacation breaks from her work as a model and aspiring actress in Hollywood to roam the shores of Mexico, Jamaica and the Bahamas. Carrie's call to the water probably began with her childhood in Mission Viejo, California, 50 miles south of Los Angeles and half as far from a decent beach. It was tantalizingly near and yet out of reach -- the stuff obsessions are made of. She was a loner as a young girl, writing poems and playing records, awash in daydreams. By the time she hit her teens, her family had moved 75 miles up the freeway to a dusty valley town flanked by the scrub-covered San Gabriel Mountains. "I was not a happy camper," admits Carrie, who longed for brighter lights and a bigger city -- or at least a shopping mall. "Canyon Country was the complete boonies back then. There was nothing to do and nowhere to go. Kids would go to the mountains to party. It was keg city every weekend." The life of many a mountaintop fete was budding beauty Carrie Ann Westcott. "I was a rowdy party girl in high school. And I still am," she adds, laughing. Carrie spends most of her nights club-hopping in Hollywood, where she rooms with her best friend. "Musicians are my weakness," she says. "When a guy writes lyrics, practices and performs -- that's sexy. I always said I was going to marry a rock star." Lately she's been thinking more about her own career than a potential boyfriend's. Print modeling has blossomed into work in commercials. Can TV roles and movies be far behind? "I'm finally getting serious about independence. For a long time my identity depended on whom I was with. I was whoever he wanted me to be. I'm ready to take charge of my life."
