• Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  Fun in Chicago,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments,  Shameless Promotion,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Listen To Your Mother Chicago: Countdown To Showtime!

    For the last nine days, Tracey and I have posted countdown pictures on Facebook. I think these pictures both excited and terrified our cast. Today is the big day. More than six months in the making, the very first LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER CHICAGO is finally making its debut, at 7:00 p.m. tonight to be specific. Where am I, mentally? So calm I can’t even express it. If you know me well, you know that “calm” is not a word I EVER use when I’m this heavily involved in a project. (Okay, or, uh, EVER. At all.) I know that I will be nervous as showtime approaches because I am…

  • Proud Moments

    I Have An Announcement.

    It has been quite the week around here. On Sunday, Tracey and I held auditions for the Listen To Your Mother Chicago show (with some invaluable help from my City Half, Margaret). It was a long day, but it was a fun day. On Monday evening we auditioned a few more on Google+ Hangout, my new favorite technological wonder. We loved everybody’s pieces. We had some tough decisions to make. When Tracey and I tossed our hats into the ring and applied to bring LTYM to Chicago, we really wanted it. We had a few pretty good reasons why we wanted to do it, all of which were outlined in…

  • Best Thing Ever,  Music,  Too Funny To Ignore

    Lenny Kravitz In Chicago: A Summary In Tweets, Pics, And, Of Course, A Few Words…

    It seems like months ago when I first wrote about the Lenny Kravitz concert in Chicago for which I, at the time, only hoped our family would be able to procure tickets, but it’s been less than a month. In that time, my sister and J got the tickets for us (two in the fifteenth row on the floor and three on the second row of the front balcony) while Jim and I were on our cruise by setting up an elaborate “Lenny Ticket Headquarters” which was made up of several computers, with phones on standby. They worked really, really hard to get those tickets. After they got the tickets,…

  • Chicken in the Car,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments,  Shameless Promotion

    The Little Author That Could

    “How’s the book going?” It’s a question I get all the time from friends and family. While I appreciate their interest very, very much, I nearly always give the short answer: “Great! Thanks for asking!” The long answer is–frankly–really, really long, and I can’t just say half of it and expect the person I’m answering to fill in the blanks, so the short answer has to suffice under normal circumstances. Here is the long answer, though, in case you’re wondering: My book, considering it was published just last spring and I’m doing the bulk of the marketing for it myself, is doing pretty well for where I’m at on my…

  • Childhood Memories,  Something That Could Change Your Life,  Travels

    The Love Boat

    Back in the late 70’s through the mid 80’s, my sister and I were always in the same place on Saturday nights: in front of the television, watching “The Love Boat”. The weekly adventures of Captain Merrill Stubing (Your Ship’s Captain), Julie McCoy (Your Cruise Director), Issac Washington (Your Bartender), Doc Brinker (Your Ship’s Doctor), Gopher Smith (Your Yeoman Purser), and the parade of special guest stars that appeared each week (like Charo, Meredith Baxter Birney, Florence Henderson, Sonny Bono, and so many others) kept us glued to our seats from the intro song–which, at nearly two minutes, was clearly created in the days when the powers-that-be weren’t concerned about…

  • Working On My Fitness

    Weight.

    I used to love my arms. I used to train with free weights on a pretty regular basis, and my arms had some really nice definition. They weren’t arms of a bodybuilder or even what I’d call a “gym rat”, but they were just…nicely toned. I don’t even have a problem embarrassing myself by admitting to you that I used to gaze at my arms in the mirror just because I liked the way they looked. Unfortunately, I haven’t been very disciplined over the past four or five years about resistance training. Wait, scratch that. Let me rephrase. I GAVE UP resistance training about four or five years ago. I…

  • Random Thoughts

    Merry Christmas To (Most Of) You!

    Here we are…Christmas weekend 2011! I want to wish all of you who celebrate it a very, very Merry Christmas. I hope you enjoy it to the max whether you’re spending it with family, visiting friends, or hanging out solo in your robe and fuzzy slippers on the couch, watching movies like “Elf” and “A Christmas Story”. As usual, you know what MY family will be doing… Want to make this a long-term commitment? Please subscribe to my feed by clicking here.

  • Random Thoughts

    Life In The Fast Lane

    I’m happy to report that the loading problems that Suburban Scrawl was having due to being on an antiquated server have been taken care of, it seems! (I trust that you would let me know if you were still having trouble!) My hosting company actually completed the migration on Friday in a matter of about two hours or so, which made me insanely happy. (

  • Proud Moments,  Shameless Promotion,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Listen To Me: I Have An Announcement! (Then, Listen To Your Mother!)

    I am beyond excited to FINALLY be able to talk about this online, after six days of knowing about it. Six days that seem like six years, that is! I, along with my friend Tracey of Just Another Mommy Blog, will be bringing the “Listen To Your Mother” show to Chicago in 2012! What IS the “Listen To Your Mother” show, you ask? It’s a showcase of local writers who read, for a live audience, one “performance” only, their words about motherhood. The first show, in Madison, Wisconsin on Mother’s Day in 2010 was conceived (get it?) and produced by Ann Imig, who is now the National Director. This year,…