ArcaMax

Mortifyingly satisfying.

Those were the words that came to mind as I drove through my old stamping grounds, places I hadn't frequented in nearly 20 years, while listening to Lithium, the '90s alternative and grunge station on Sirius XM.

Mortifyingly satisfying to hear Alanis Morissette belting out "Ironic" as I drove past the playground ...Read more

"I'm not sure she was too experienced," my mom said of the woman who had led her on horseback for her birthday hike.

I asked her why.

"Well, her saddle kept sliding to the side of the horse, making her almost fall off. I had to suggest to her that she tighten the straps."

"This woman works at the horse stables?" I asked.

"Uh-huh. She didn'...Read more

Tomorrow I teach my seventh class. It's easy to remember the exact number because that's how it is with trauma. The actual experience may fade into a haze of chalk dust, but the number of times you've experienced such agony remains.

Chalk dust? Whom am I kidding? There is no chalk. And that's part of the problem. These college students don't ...Read more

I'm failing at summer. One week in and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to make it to autumn with a passing grade.

This is my first summer in the terms that I knew it as a child. With my son completing his first year in elementary school, the seasons are once again dictated by the school calendar. Summer, those rogue months in which we break free ...Read more

"I came out of my apartment, and there he was -- trench coat wide-open, totally naked, so proud of himself."

This past week, one of my best friends came to visit, and along with her came a collection of stories from our time apart. We met while living in Los Angeles but grew up just 20 minutes apart on the other side of the country. It ...Read more

There is a story in my family that has been told and retold so many times that I'm no longer certain of the truth behind the tale. It sits in that amorphous place of being either 100 percent accurate or 92 percent false. And knowing all the players in the story, I couldn't even begin to guess the answer.

The story is about me, though I have ...Read more

"I'm so excited to finally get you on the phone. I've been dying to meet you," said a potential consulting client. "My son and I are obsessed with katydids."

I was named after the katydid, a long insect that looks like the love child of a grasshopper and a mantis. Most people aren't familiar with katydids, so anytime I meet someone who shares ...Read more

When my son was 2 1/2, we visited the zoo. I got distracted for just a moment, and when I looked up, my son was climbing over a wall and into the lion's den. One foot was hanging over the king of the jungle's water hole.

I ran to pull him back from his suicide mission as he wailed his discontent. The two teenagers who had been standing right ...Read more

They say to dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Apparently, I want to have the job of a stripper.

This past week, I have had the immense pleasure of being a panelist, moderator and mentor at the Atlanta Film Festival and ScreenCraft Writers Summit. My week began with a panel that I had pitched about entertainment development. We...Read more

Nothing makes you feel more like a parent than wearing wrinkled sweats, listlessly flipping through your phone and sipping on drive-thru Starbucks while sitting in your parked but idling seven-seat SUV waiting for the Target to open. That's where I was this morning.

The other parents, sitting in their own idling cars, would occasionally look ...Read more

When I was living in Australia, I heard about a girl who stepped on an old land mine while traveling through Indonesia. The blast threw her back, and to get better medical help, she was flown to Australia. Once she was patched up, she decided to continue her adventure by exploring northern Australia. Be sure to follow the road signs, she was ...Read more

The other night, I attended a branding session for my school district. Yes, branding. A letter went out, addressed to school district "customers" -- apparently not wanting to offend us by using outdated, totally unhip traditional names, e.g., parents and guardians, community members or moms and dads. Yikes. In this customer-directed letter, ...Read more

Children learn about love and the birds and the bees from a variety of places -- parents, guidance counselors, siblings. But I got my first lesson on love and sex from my pet rabbit, Surprise.

I had Surprise for about a year before I brought home a stuffed blue lion I'd just won at the fair. And it was love at first bunny sight. Surprise took ...Read more