So I’m leaving dance class and an older woman of a certain plush size says to me: “I wanted to quit when I started but I saw how amazing you look dancing even though you’re keeping it low impact and it kept me going this whole year. Thank you for being brave enough to be at the front of the class.” And I said: “Us big girls have more to shake.” And I did a bit of a belly dance in the lobby of our gym which made her laugh and that made me happy. This was the second hula of the

I’m heading into Year 2 of my “gym every day” journey and here are the things I’ve learned that I wish I’d known back when I started exercising. I jumped into gym protocol and body awareness late in my life due to a combination of Nerd Genes and some untreated chronic issues like asthma. Nowadays, I consider myself a gym vet and this is some hard-earned knowledge. If it took three months to achieve noticeable advances in strength or muscle tone in your twenties then the same

Cars are good and useful tools that I enjoy. No one on Earth can parallel park a GMC Suburban in Beverly Hills like I can. And no one loves a road trip as much as I do either. I’ve traversed the USA in various vehicles, done the south island of New Zealand, zipped back and forth across southern France. I’m a road trip fiend. Here you see me thrilled to set off from Los Angeles for a grand, four-week long road trip. So I tell you from personal experience that Americans have a

New York City is a silly place. It’s a place where I want to stop into a store to investigate a cute side table, but I can’t, because it’s Jonathan Adler’s store and he’s there throwing a private event at that moment. Or I’d like to go see the opening of a new movie, and I can choose to go see it with the director and star doing a Q&A at BAM if I’d like to brave the crowds. Tiny, ill-tempered dogs no one trained. Watching the little dogs fight each other every time they meet.

I was sick this week. I had a nasty virus that caused all sorts of gastrointestinal issues and I didn’t eat a bite for nearly six days. And I know, without a doubt, that you could break my spirit with torture in about five seconds because it takes only a few hours of a stomach bug before I’m praying for death. I am weak. When I was finally better I was REALLY better. I mean, I felt great. I couldn’t figure out why I felt so fantastic after five days of misery. Then, I realize