Last week, I took two weeklong summer immersion classes at the Second City Training Center in Chicago. The historic Second City theater opened its doors in 1959, and is known for launching the careers of comedy icons such as Bill Murray, Chris Farley, Mike Myers, Tim Meadows, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and my personal false […]
Hey, world. Things are pretty bad right now, huh? As a person who measures stress with her body like a barometer, my body says: yes, they’re bad as hell. It’s not that something “new” is happening that wasn’t happening before. Hate, murder, and violence seem to be among this planet’s inexhaustible natural resources. But many […]
Rise and shine! What a beautiful day you have ahead of you to spend inside where it is always cold. I mean COLD, unlike this pesky comforter, which is pretty much DESIGNED to keep you in a cocoon of warmth not unlike your mother’s womb. Who needs THAT? The last thing you want to do […]
I’ve survived February — barely. Is it just me or does that month have a kind of Napoleon complex? By the end of the shortest month, I’m out of whack. My hair is a bundle of dried wheat. I have scales and flakes where my human skin once was. My body aches all over from trying to […]
I went on an amazing vacation recently. Snow-capped mountains, warm and sunny days, and a new pair of skis for my birthday. And for a not insignificant chunk of that trip, I was unnnnn-comfortable. Everyone has a comfort zone, and I was three nautical miles outside of mine. I was sick with a cold, then altitude […]
Ever had a bad day? Ever felt low energy, or just low? No? Then get off the internet, you charlatan. Seriously, sometimes life hands you not lemons but 10-pound lemon-yellow bowling balls covered in the gunk that makes movie theater floors so sticky. And in these moments, it’s important to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps […]
“I was fun, once.” Please imagine me hoarsely croaking this at you from a shadowy corner, staring at you through the hazy smoke from my own cigarette in an old bar that smells like regret. That’s how I feel sometimes — like a retired fun person — especially when talking to younger people, or to my […]
Happy New Year, everyone! Despite strong evidence that, globally, 2015 was a garbage year, I really enjoyed mine. I had novel experiences, made new friends, paid my rent, and consumed many meals and beers. That, in a nutshell, is the recipe for happiness. 2015 was also my first full year running this website, and it […]
As I prepared to type the sentence “I love celebrating things,” I had to stop and remind myself not to be dumb. That’s like saying I love breathing or sleeping. Everyone loves celebrating things, don’t they? So let’s just say I especially love it, and will come up with darn near any excuse to do so. This weekend, though, […]
This week, a very funny – and for some people, painfully true – post has been circulating from Washington Post humor columnist (and DC-based playwright) Alexandra Petri. In response to actress Jennifer Lawrence’s short but sweet Lenny Letter on why she is paid less than her male colleagues and how she’s done trying to find the […]