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A while back, a friend of mine told me that her mother’s aunt used to stand in front of the stove, cooking dinner, wearing a full-length mink coat and her best jewelry. This is my kind of woman. Not just because she sounds slightly insane and obviously doesn’t care if somebody breaks a tooth on a diamond brooch in the meatloaf; but because this kind of behavior represents a “live for today” attitude that I [...]

Sorry for the delay in new postings - had a death in the family. Finally back!

I work on a movie lot. Those of you who don’t probably envision it as one nonstop MGM-type glamourganza – hundreds of extras in black tie and tails doing the Lindy down the street, while gladiators and nuns hang around outside soundstages, smoking Chesterfields and reading the racing form. It’s pretty much never like that, although one sixty year old grip did point out the area of the old Love Boat stage where everybody used [...]

I was driving to work the other day, enjoying the beauty of a sunny Southern California winter morning; admiring the leafy trees and cloudless blue sky and silently thanking God for not having to live in the snow bomb belt, when some numbnuts in a BMW ruined everything. Obviously having carefully contemplated what jackhole move would get him the most bang for the buck, he decided to cut me off, and then SLAM on his [...]

Driving to work in LA is an exercise in impulse control. I consider it a good day when I’ve made the round-trip, 90 minute drive without attempting – via bloodcurdling screams or iconic finger signage – to inform some selfish idiot that he should be killed. It's not that I'm some Type A driver attempting to accomplish an hour and a half drive in four and a half minutes. Quite the opposite. Friends call me [...]

Last weekend, in a cruel and, I might add, unsolicited bid to bulldoze the tenuous façade of self-worth I have so carefully constructed over the past couple of decades, a friend’s son came to visit. This young man, Chris, is not, sadly, an adorable four year old. He did not require an Elmo doll and an adult escort when deplaning at LAX. He’s not even a hilariously awkward teenager whose feral mood swings and conviction [...]

I had a plan to keep this all under control. I kicked off our first night together with a wine and cheese gathering for the six of us in my parents’ room. And, like the inspirational story of the loaves and fishes, one glass of wine miraculously turned into three bottles; so by the time we stumbled over to the restaurant for dinner, we were all slightly tanked. This: a) quelled my nerves and b:) [...]

For those who’ve read Where’s My Wand, you may remember that Christmas at the Poole home was a cavalcade of gifts, as if The Price is Right showroom had exploded in our basement. As such, I wanted to create a memorable trip for my parents as a nod to the dozens of Christmases at which they had so diligently pulled out all the suburban stops. I got them a suite at one of my favorite [...]