Fight Club of One
Last month I learned how to ski in Canada, at the same place where 12 years earlier I learned to snowboard. In those days, at 30, I suspected I was too old to learn how to do something like ski or snowboard. Still, I put on my helmet and hoped no one would guess my ...
Tales of Marriage and Baggage
Last week I was lucky enough to tell a story at The Moth ”Marriage” show in Santa Monica. I’m not someone who moved to Los Angeles to be an actor, although I love my actor and comedian friends and go to as many of their shows as I can. I don’t really want to be ...
To Live and Drive in LA
I read an article on “mindful eating” the other day in the New York Times. It’s about applying the principles of mindfulness and meditation, being in the moment while eating. I couldn’t figure out whether to laugh or cry, since I practice the exact opposite of mindful eating. This practice of mine is not ...
Flowers and candy
Here are the ghosts of Valentines Days past: 1. My first Valentines Day when I had a real boyfriend, circa 1987, Eau Claire, Wisconsin: Dreamy boy, great friend, fun. He presented me with a small box of candy and five wilted maroon roses he picked up at the grocery store (the last ones in stock) ...
Free to be (crazy) you and me
This week I am starting a class and working on a deadline. So far in 2012 I’ve been meeting all my deadlines, but I don’t want to gloat lest I start missing them! Instead of a new post, I am re-posting the following entry from June 3, 2011. Thank you for reading, friends. A New ...
This Dog’s Life
These were my two dogs, Genji (left) and Saki (right), in 2004. Genji was five years old, and Saki was two months old. It wasn’t the best time in my life for a new puppy. Although I was in my 30s, I had an 18-month-old baby and was remodeling our kitchen and bathroom. For three ...
The Meek Squawk of the Chicken Mother
Much has been written about The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, the book by Yale Law School professor Amy Chua. If you are not a parent, or are not Asian, perhaps you have not heard of it, except possibly from your friends with kids. They probably either hate the book and wish ill to ...
The Big Move (B.M.)
My husband and I lived in the same townhouse for over a decade. The place suited us beautifully for about seven of those years and was too small for the last three, but we loved it. Last fall we moved into a new home, and though we are perpetually nesting (think Hobbits, but less hairy), ...
Swim (me) part deux
Last summer, I posted Swimmies, about my kids’ swimming despite the fact that I hate doing it myself. Nothing earth-shattering has changed between then and now. But on a recent trip with my family, I was trying to keep up the exercise routine (Run. Get sore/injured. Repeat.) when I discovered that I hate swimming slightly ...
The dreaded list
Lists of new year’s resolutions are the devil. The act of writing them down practically dooms the endeavor to failure. Keep it vague, and it’s just magical thinking, an amorphous wish to wake up with a new personality. Get too specific, and it becomes the incredibly detailed list of things you won’t do. At least ...
