One evening, as I managed my way through the crowded bar at Birds in Hollywood, this guy stopped me and asked if anyone had ever told me I looked like Maya Rudolph. “No,” I said, not sure how I felt about being compared to Maya Rudolph. Not that I think she’s… Read full post »

 After a six-month, self-imposed dating hiatus, I decided it was time to get my feet wet again and reactivate my online dating account. So, I totally gutted and updated my profile.

This time, my goal was to make it brief and witty. Brief, because experience has taught me a lot… Read full post »

So, lately, I've been working on this essay about dating that I plan on submitting for publication in the Los Angeles Times. My essay prompted me to reread parts of one of my old journals. This particular journal was from 2009, about a year after my husband and… Read full post »

It’s funny, how, at the end of his first term, everyone is so disappointed in Obama. What did they expect, a loaves and fishes kind of miracle? I love how people conveniently forget Obama inherited a country that was so incredibly broken, beaten within an inch of its life, stomped on,… Read full post »

I’ve never been one of those people who could quote the Bible chapter and verse. Nevertheless, I’m pretty familiar with the New Testament, particularly the Gospels. I mean, I certainly get the message. I must admit, I haven’t picked up my Bible in quite a long time. I’ve had t… Read full post »

The other day, a lifelong friend left a comment my Facebook page: You sound so full of contentment these days. Indeed, it seems I have entered a period of sublime contentment I haven’t experienced in a very, very long time, if ever.

While my daughter spent the weekend… Read full post »

"You're insane."

This is how my daughter, Olivia, greeted me the other morning. I shrugged and muttered, "Yeah, well. You know how it is." She sighed heavily and went off to brush her teeth.

The insanity to which Olivia refers is my current jigsaw puzzle obsession. You see,… Read full post »

There he is, every week, the elderly African-American gentleman sitting outside Trader Joe’s with his little wooden red lockbox, collecting money for homeless women and children. Every week, I hurry along, avoiding eye contact, and mumbling apologies on my way into the store, and more apologies… Read full post »

I don't know what came over me the other night.

I'd been thinking about what I wanted to say to in my Yelp review of this cool, new bar I went to last Friday night, and while in the midst of doing dinner dishes, a poem spontaneously erupted in my… Read full post »

It usually begins in kindergarten. The weeks leading up to this day of love are laden with pink and red propaganda. Classrooms are decorated with paper hearts and children are instructed to bring a Valentine for everyone, so nobody feels left out. Retailers go all out with their… Read full post »

I went to a kid’s birthday party the other day. As a rule, I hate kid’s birthday parties. I always have. I don’t enjoy manufacturing small talk with people I don’t know. And frankly, I’m bored out of my mind at these things. This was a milestone 5^th birthday, however, an… Read full post »

Franklin Canyon

Being a dog walker doesn’t pay much, but it certainly has its perks.

Every Saturday and Sunday morning, I walk Bernie, a lively, wiry Jack Russell terrier. Bernie, quite a privileged canine, lives in an exclusive, celebrity-populated… Read full post »

My hair has always been fine. Fine and frizzy and cow-licky; the kind of hair that tweaks out in wet weather and goes utterly limp in dry heat. I’ll ply my hair with product formulated for my kind of hair and spend time blowing it out with my ion blow dryer,… Read full post »

It was inevitable I'd wake up one of these mornings with a little post-Christmas anxiety.

You see, I wasn't sure how I was going to afford Christmas this year, but by God, I was gonna make it happen. And somehow, some way, I did. I worked it, boy. I schemed.… Read full post »

I didn't make my bed today.

Like the swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano each year, I make my bed every day.

But I didn't make my bed today.

You have to understand that for most of my life, the very first thing I've always done is… Read full post »

The day before winter vacation was this former elementary school playground supervisor’s nightmare-- when the holiday boutique collided with restoring-one’s-faith-in-humanity holiday performances and students ran amok, still dressed in their now soiled holiday finest, faces smeared with f… Read full post »

Our little tree.

Here I am, barely eking it out, and what do I do? I plunk down sixty bucks for a Christmas tree. Yep. Instead of heading over to the big box home improvement store to pick up a  $40… Read full post »

One by one, they fell-- the independent bookstore. One by one, they closed-- the mall bookstore. Fare thee well, B. Dalton. It was great while it lasted, Waldens. Then, like Goliath being felled by David, big literary superstores, such as Borders, began shuttering their doors. Pushed out by… Read full post »

The following post was inspired by Margaret Feike’s post, The Handyman and the Mystery of Faith, and Diary of a Hopeful Starving Student’s post, Too Hot Too Handle. Thank you, ladies, for your frank and honest posts.

***********************

To say I was once a devout Catholic would proba… Read full post »

I read in the LA Times the other day that for the first time in a long time, there are some people who have a little extra cash to spend on the holidays this year. Isn’t that nice? I’m glad somebody can spend because I sure know it won’t be me.… Read full post »

Guess they couldn't wait until the door opened.

Back in the 80’s, when Black Friday rolled around, my mom would rise before dawn, put on one of her… Read full post »

So, I was reading the LA Times last night. They had an article about how the demand for free-range, organic, and heritage varieties has steadily risen over the last several years. A Whole Foods market representative said, "sales of organic turkeys have tripled in the last three years and… Read full post »

 For the purposes of this post, I will be referring to God as God and as he/him. Although I believe God is known by many names and isn’t necessarily male, having been raised Catholic, it’s simply what I’m accustomed to.… Read full post »

WARNING:

The following post contains material of a sexually explicit nature. I preface this post as such out of respect for the more proper OS ladies.

Nothing brightens my day more than discovering a new issue of Cosmopolitan in my mailbox.  The cover of… Read full post »

As he lay dying, my mom, a life long Catholic, expressed several times to me, her concern that my father-- a Jew, who was not spiritual or religious in anyway—would not go to heaven. She kept referring to that New Testament Bible verse that says something like, the… Read full post »