If you ask women to name components of a perfect date, I have a feeling “good hair” tops the list. My hair looked good as I met my writers’ group after work. We headed toward the Valley and decided to take Ventura Boulevard until something reasonable and somewhat healthy presented itself. I love cruising Ventura. It reminds me of my “Valley Girl” days. We landed at Le Reina Plaza and ate at Pomodoro. We were met with a quick, friendly server, who knew we had a show to get to. Continue Reading »

Recently, I heard Elizabeth Gilbert say, “You should write with someone in mind.” She said she could have written, “Dear so and so,” at the beginning of Eat, Pray, Love and ended it with “Love, Liz.” (Come back for more on my night with Elizabeth Gilbert and Anne Lamott.) Today, Raymond, my boot camp instructor asked about my blog. Excitedly, I told him, “I have a new entry.” He knew that, but was interested in hearing more about boot camp. I told him, “I do write on subjects other than boot camp.” After all, man and woman cannot live on boot camp alone. Continue Reading »

My mother called me today to tell me that Elizabeth Gilbert was on Oprah’s show. On the voice mail message, she said something like, “Maybe you’ve heard of the book…you would like the book…she’s really interesting.” I just walked in from a parent/teacher conference when I got the news. I immediately called my mom back and said, “Apparently you haven’t read my whole website yet, I love that book!” Continue Reading »

One evening I was thinking about the happiest moments of my day. I heard about this exercise from an Oprah show that featured author Elizabeth Gilbert. Oprah raved about the book Eat, Pray, Love and confessed to being as excited to meet Ms. Gilbert as she was to meet Bono. She even claimed to be quivering. Now, Bono is someone I’d quiver about meeting as well. The show was not only a joy to watch but very inspiring. The author suggested writing down the happiest moments of the day as a practice for going on an inner journey. That day one of my happiest moments was when I discovered a spiral journal that says “The Promise of Heaven”on the cover. Each page has a quote either from the Bible or from such people as Teresa of Avila and C.S. Lewis. A beautiful book that cost $2.99, what a wonderful place to start memorializing the “happiest moments of the day.” Then I had an obsessive thought that almost stopped me in my tracks. “Linda, you have one more page left in your old journal.” Continue Reading »