Sex Talks

You guys know Pinterest , right? The online image-board hub where you now spend 75% of your procrastination time? Then you probably know that Pinterest has a Wedding category , right? The place where the life-long DIY challenged go to fool themselves into thinking they can build their own photo booth using cardboard, smelly markers and fishing wire? Well since getting engaged I've come to LOVE and HATE Pinterest on a whole new level. I have literally not been so torn about a single thing since super high-waisted jeans came back in style (I love them, they hate my thighs). It's just SO MUCH amazing information and inspiration, but also TOO MUCH information and inspiration. Here - in another in this new series of wedding-related posts - is precisely what I love and what I hate about this completely optional not-at-all necessary Internet tool that I now visit 20-50 times per day: LOVE: You can very easily share all the ideas for your wedding with you family back east! HATE: Unle...

Last week I had a white wine and four $1 oysters with a friend of my second younger sister Sara. We were chatting about the things that all older sisters discuss with their younger sister's friends: how to survive your early 20s (generally speaking), how to change your career during your early 20s (more specifically speaking), and why none of that will matter once you're pushing 30 (experience speaking). Then our conversation turned to the topic of writing. I'm not saying that I try to convince all people who show a speck of interest in writing to become a writer, but it's pushing 75% at this point, especially if the people are a funny, interested and interested as my younger sister's friend. But this was the first time the chat turned to the all-important and rarely asked question of: how am I supposed to figure out what I want to write? I give sister's friend endless credit for broaching that seemingly obvious issue. It is not obvious. Well, I take that back...

I've been hesitant to write this post out of fear that my secret, sacred spots would become overcrowded by the no-doubt thousands of people who read my blog. Then I took a gander at my site meter, and, well, here we are, though if my strange patch of readership in the U.K. happens to take a collectively field trip west, we're in trouble (Cheerio friends!). As a writer I spend a good amount of time in coffee shops. This is mostly because they offer space to write at the (sometimes) small fee of a cup of Joe, but it's also because I feel far less cool sitting at my kitchen table in my pajamas every day, and feeling cool is a major part of being a successful writer. Over the course of my three years as a L.A. based writer, I've developed strong opinions on the many cafes that allow people to sit for hours on end without ordering a second beverage. Here are those opinions for your reading and hopefully writing (but not on the same days and times that I'm writing, or if ...

Tomorrow I am pitching my first original TV show concept to a production company interested in taking it to a studio that might eventually sell it to a network. At least, I think that's how it works... So far all I've been required to do is pour my entire heart and soul into an eight page document explaining my vision for a 1/2 hour sitcom. And if that weren't tricky enough, the show is about the fact that I was once in love with my now gay best friend who I lived with at the same time I met my current fiance. Suddenly the process for selling a TV show seems simpler, right? I've been thinking a lot about this whole concept of writing what you know lately. I have essentially been doing that for the past six or so years on this blog, and I'd say I'm pretty open and honest about the goings on in my life. I have written things that were difficult to write. I have said things I didn't think I had the courage to say. But - and this is obvious but no less important...

Registering was one of the things I was most looking forward to about being engaged. I think it's one of the things everyone is most looking forward to about being engaged. How could you not be excited about a 100X-the-gifts-Christmas in which you pick every single item...using a super neat-o electronic gun? Add to that the fact that shopping is among the things I do best in life - wrapped baked brie in the shape of things, give dating advice I'm unqualified to give, write the dialogue of sassy gay men and shop - but shopping is top among that impressive list of very necessary life skills.  Registering is just shopping on a more awesome, exciting, life-changing scale, I thought. You're not searching for an outfit to wear to some lame event, you're on a mission to discover a dish pattern that you and your future husband will use to eat all the meals of your life! This isn't some quick trip to the Payless to pick up Christian Siriano's latest dirt cheap design; t...

...sort of. College kids are "sort of" totally over hooking up. It's kinda like how they feel about Vera Bradley bags. It's like , "enough already," but also they're pretty reliable and everyone has one, so... This topic came up thanks to an article Chicago reader Laura sent my way (thanks LL!). Why College Students Don't Like Hooking Up As Much As You Think I hadn't really thought about it for awhile, so I didn't know how much I thought they did or didn't like it. Luckily Donna Frietas has been thinking about essentially just that for the past I-don't-know-how-many years because she wrote a whole book about the issue. It's called The End of Sex - which is a little misleading because it's actually about how the prevalence of casual sex has left a generation, "unhappy, sexually unfulfilled, and confused about intimacy. So really she should have called it The End of Good Sex , but probably nobody buys that book, right? Her...

I sat down to write this blog post at 10AM...last Thursday. I was going to write about the top ten things that happen after you get engaged, but then I typed, "you realize that venues book up for Spring weddings faster than you can find venues to book for your Spring wedding, " and panicked about booking a venue for my Spring wedding then spent the next, hhmm, it would appear five days, trying to find the perfect venue. People warned me about wedding brain, but I ignored them. I'm a high energy multi-tasker who is surprisingly decisive when it comes to big ticket items. I've had a "Someday..." Pinterest board going for quite some days... There is only so much money I can spend on this blessed event, and frankly so much time I can commit to figuring out how to spend it based on everything else on my plate. I was going to be an easy-going, care-free, just get 'er done bride. Aanndd then I spent three and a half hours last Friday afternoon searching for fre...