Ever committed to something with a mixed sense of dread and wild anticipation? When my first grandchild was born, my son made the following observation on vulnerability and parenting: it’s like throwing your heart out the window – into a highly trafficked street – and hoping it successfully dodges all the cars. Tee hee. I Continue reading

Want to rile people up? Ask them how they would feel about having a physic reading? Here’s some highly censored reactions – edited for good taste:      I’d be freaked out      I’d be too afraid      Creeps me out      No possible way So when a certain gut feeling urges me to get one, Continue reading

Sometimes, less is more. I’m sure you all get that. Hence the brevity of this week’s newsletter. Our family has two milestone events this week. The first one occurred just 11 hours shy of the new decade. Our youngest son and daughter-in-law gave birth to an adorable baby girl on December 31st. Our oldest granddaughter Continue reading

It may seem a rather negative way to kick-off a New Year’s column, but let’s face it, big bad stuff happens: A teen-age daughter develops Tourette’s     A toddler begins stuttering     A beloved relative passes away     A spouse cheats     A career ends in infamy     A home Continue reading

Who wants to plow through paragraph after paragraph about a first-time staged reading of a play based on a self-published book  – being “performed” in a small, nondescript theatre far from Hollywood’s glittering glamour? Oh well – here goes: Setting: 6pm on a cloudy evening in a 46-seat theatre on Victory Blvd., Burbank, California. Program: Continue reading

Thanksgiving fell on November 28 – pretty late this year. The outcome: not only six less days to squeeze in holiday shopping, but six less days for organizing and executing in-home parties and hosting get-togethers. We can’t speed-up Amazon deliveries even though ordering extra early helps. But we can streamline our entertaining routines. Below is Continue reading

Thanksgiving bingeing is over. Shopping is upon us. Oh boy. More stress. Many people have particular foods that they habitually make during the holiday season. My mother made white chocolate covered Rice Chex, which she packaged in small bags and gave as a take-home gift to each family member. Here’s the Recipe: White Chocolate Covered Rice Continue reading

Six Months Prior: I’m trying something utterly new and foreign. I’ve hired two female playwrights based in Los Angeles to transform my book, The Secret Life of a Weight Obsessed Woman, into a play. This endeavor is about as comforting as trampling through a snake-infested swampland. I’m finding the whole process – the contract negotiations Continue reading

I don’t excel in the kitchen. No magnificently stuffed, basted and roasted turkey will ever emerge from my seldom-used oven to my gleaming Lenox serving platter – unless someone else makes it. I must confess: I am more interested in what goes on around the table rather than what dishes get placed on the table. Continue reading

What’s your reading routine? I tend to be an episodic reader. I either don’t read at all or whiz from the title page to the last page with as few distractions as possible in between – losing or missing nuances and subtleties along the way. One of my “besties” approaches reading in an entirely different Continue reading