PREPPIES OF THE APOCALYPSE

(Report on yesterday’s earthquake: Everything’s fine, of course. Just a few seconds spent standing in the doorway thinking, “Hey, this isn’t going to kill me or anything, right?”, followed by an afternoon spent reassuring my kitty that the world wasn’t ending.)


On Sunday, I went to a friend’s baby shower at a demure restaurant on the Sunset Strip. I hoofed it there and back, about three and a half miles each way. I stuck to La Cienega on the way out: a gradual slope up to Santa Monica Boulevard, then a dizzying incline the rest of the way. I arrived at the dainty, girlish soiree sweaty and frazzled, though I soon revived, thanks to the restorative powers of a couple of mimosas and some tasty chopped salad. I walked home on San Vicente, past the vivid green and blue glass monoliths of the Pacific Design Center, the cheerfully monstrous Beverly Center, and the ever-burgeoning sprawl of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

I’ve logged some serious miles on foot lately. I’m unemployed, an…

Big changes in recent months: the cute little title insurance company at which I’d worked was bought out by a big, glamorous title insurance company, which shut down our corporate office and sent us all packing.

At first, I had a pretty plucky attitude about this. I badly needed to stop dithering and shift back into the entertainment industry (a film degree isn’t good for much, but it’s a whole lot more relevant in television production than in title insurance), and sudden unemployment provided me with the perfect opportunity to do just that. Also, the unemployed downtime would, in theory, give me an opportunity both to launch into a big new writing project and to focus on getting an agent for Charlotte Dent.

The best-laid plans of mice and Morgan: it hasn’t worked out that way. Here are things I’ve done since getting the boot:

Rediscovered how shamefully wretched I am at job-hunting. Extensively rewrote and reworded my résumé. Applied and applied and applied for production jobs onl…

I found myself in Spokane last weekend.

It was an unplanned visit, mostly. My sister was flying out to Spokane from New York to visit a few of her old friends. I had nothing in particular going on, so at the last moment I flew up and joined her.

I was born in Spokane; we were both raised there. Our parents moved out of Washington right after I graduated from high school, so we haven’t found much reason to go back. We both like Spokane, we really do, but there have been other priorities.

This wasn’t the best weekend to visit. In addition to having record-breaking heat, Spokane was also in the middle of hosting some monstrosity called Hoopfest. Hoopfest bills itself as the world’s largest three-on-three basketball tournament; while I have no reason to doubt this statement, I do sort of wonder how many other three-on-three tournaments are out there. In any case, Hoopfest was a big honking deal, drawing 24,000 players and monster hordes of spectators. Hotels were booked, restau…

Wondered if the world really needs another Punisher movie.

Wondered if the world really needs another Mummy movie.

Decided not even my secret guilty love of Talladega Nights can get me to see Stepbrothers.

Got my hopes way up from the cool opening sequence.

Decided Wanted could really do without James McAvoy’s inane voiceover.

Thought about plugging my ears and humming softly to drown out the voiceover.

Wondered if any voiceover in the history of voiceovers has ever improved a movie.

Wondered if the red stapler was an homage to Office Space.

Decided Wanted is no Office Space.