I'm Just Sayin'

So in my quest to make the best time to and from San Francisco, which I did by the way, both directions, I finally got stopped. Here is what happened. I left SF on Saturday around 10:45- 11 am...and guess where I was at 2:15? That would be Santa Barbara, oh and I was going down the 101 as mentioned in an earlier post to avoid the riff raff on the 5. I decided to get out with my dog and walk around State Street...that sucked..waaaaay too busy and I didn't think I should have a pint at my favorite Irish pub on this side of the pond and then drive the remaining 80 miles home. When I got back on the freeway, it was more packed than the 405 on a Monday morning. UGH...so I called a friend to have her check sigalert for me. It showed nothing, but finally a sign post said there was a 3 lane crash in Thousand Oaks. In any case the traffic sucked and I was really hungry because I hadn't eaten yet. Finally the traffic broke! YAY! Zoom Zoom.. ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM to 90 mph, and I decided

Potential cover for my new novel!

I have driven across this country many times, and have driven through almost every state. I have driven from New York to Florida, from Tucson to Dallas, Los Angeles to Seattle, across the 90, across the 80, through Colorado and Idaho, from Wisconsin through the deep south and I have NEVER seen the complete craziness that is on the 5 between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Seriously everytime I am on it, my IQ drops 10 more points. It is like taking the Walmart-esque crowd giving them keys to cars, some drugs and or drug money and unleashing them onto the 5. They don't seem to know the rules of, slow driving stay to the right! If you pass them, on either side, 8 out of 10 times they will chase you down. You can see blow jobs, hand jobs, white trash at it's best on this roadway and all the while feel like you are in a game of Frogger with the Sopranos and Mario Andretti trying to survive. I honestly don't get it. Why this stretch of freeway? Why are people like this? The only

Thanksgiving! An excuse for everyone in this country to over eat and brag about it. Makes me a little sicker every year. There are people all over the world dying because they can't eat and yet in this country we brag about over eating, spending too much on food and becoming too full to move. I am once again sad to call myself an American when days like this are upon us. Yes we should be thankful for everyone and everything great in our lives and I enjoy that aspect, but like Valentine's Day (where men are forced to be romantic via the calender), why must we wait until the last Thursday in November to be thankful? We should be thankful every single day. We should help those in need and instead of pigging out on this day, the day we raped and killed the natives, kicked them off their own land, we should give back to those less fortunate. Tisk tisk America...this is not what we are supposed to stand for.

I have been going over and over and over what happened and can't make sense of it. I know the stats, I saw the film, I have read tons about this bridge, but it still sucks. I talked to her and I couldn't help her. I hope she is okay where ever she is now. I hope that it didn't hurt too much when her body slammed into the icy water 245 feet below. I wish that she had considered for a moment that her life did matter. I had posted all over one of my Facebook profiles, but took it all off today. I am pretty messed up about it and think that I needed to talk, or type, or whatever. I am having nightmares and wonder if this is how people feel when they lose a stranger all the time. Is there always such an overwhelming feeling of guilt? I went to the spot (79) that she was standing and ultimately jumped from today and it felt cold and dark even though the sun was shining bright. It is so sad that people do this all the time and I hope that someday I can make a difference for someon

How can something so strong and so beautiful be also so sad and so tragic? In May of 2009 I went to San Francisco. I stood on the Golden Gate Bridge then it shook and I was terrified. I walked quickly across and back. Later as I looked at it from Crissy Field I felt an overwhelming feeling of sadness come over me. Thus started my research into the suicides that surround this amazing place. In Nov 2009, I started writing a novel about a girl who drives from Los Angeles to San Francisco to jump off. I am almost done with it and it has turned into one of the most precious things I have ever worked on. I have many fictional first person stories from people who jumped, I have fictional stories from people who witnessed others last moments, I have paranormal activity and all in all, it is coming out better than I thought. Today I was in San Francisco and I looked at the live webcam and saw that the bridge wasn't covered in fog, so I drove up and was enjoying the beautiful weather, view a

Poor Mac is at the Mac Store getting ready to be shipped off to Houston for a week or more of treatment. I am so sad about it and hope that he is going to be okay so far away from his home. When he returns he will be all refreshed and back to his original self and then we will spend the day putting him back together. Hopefully this experience won't be too traumatic for us and we can get through it together. Instead of flowers feel free to send money, cards, dinners, whatever to cheer us up during this difficult time. We will also accept: cheesecakes, teddy bears, daisies or sunflowers and Butler's Irish Chocolate. His stand-in, PC is happily taking over for a week or so, and since he had recently been rebooted to do some Flash, he was ready to take on the job! Sadly he isn't so young anymore and sometimes gets too hot too soon, but we will manage. Thank you for your kind words and sympathy! We love you all so much!

I will be going to San Francisco for the holiday and to finish my novel, which takes place, guess where? Yep SF! As some of you know, these past few weeks have been a crazy whirlwind of emotions and I think my head needs a break...the break will be playing in SF and hanging out with friends and finishing my latest writing adventure. I am very excited about the novel, my screenplay, starting the next screenplay, writing an episode of General Hospital!!! (That is right...w00t w00t) and whatever comes next! I know that I always quote Titanic, the good and the bad, but I do believe that life is a a gift and worrying about stuff, especially the shit we can't change, is just a waste of time that could be spent enjoying life.

Brødre (2004) was an amazing film. Period..no if and or buts about it. The film staring Connie Nielsen, Ulrich Thomsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, was brilliantly acted, just brilliant, beyond brilliant and I am appalled that Jim Sheridan (who I do love as a director) would even attempt to remake such a remarkable film. WHY ? WHY? WHY? Look, I know there are remakes that are good, but when you take such an amazing film and remake it only 5 years after the release, I am baffled. Susanne Bier is one of today's best directors and so is Jim Sheridan, but I really don't understand this move. Susanne's film was so amazing, that after just seeing the trailer I studied my Danish like crazy just so I could watch it and understand it (I was living and working in Copenhagen at the time) and I did. I can't talk enough about how amazing this film was. The acting was crazy good, and the emotions were real, you didn't know which brother to cheer for, because they were both fucked and the

.....and tortured her into a slow and painful death.... OMFG!!! Yes, F......what is with people and the lack of ability to smell?...I have to rant a bit and it is my blog so I am going to... 1) Not showing for days on end and then going to an event where you are sitting close to people-NOT OKAY! 2) Wearing old and dirty clothes that could otherwise show up without you in them-NOT OKAY 3) Dipping yourself in perfume or cologne until the entire state of CA can smell you-NOT OKAY 4) FARTING in public-NOT OKAY! 5) Cooking nasty ass smelling veggies is okay, but open a window or something... Seriously? Seriously!!! I am just sayin'!

Yesterday on my last day of work (EEK!) at a freelance job a couple of friends and I were talking about jobs we didn't get for one reason or another and we joked about the "could have been resume" so here are a couple jobs that didn't happen, or hasn't happened yet for whatever reason. (Strikes, shows being canceled, parts being canceled, production slowing down, my not being 16 at the time, etc etc...hahahaha) Stephanie Olivieri Daytime Writing Fellow ABC Television Staff Writer Grey's Anatomy ABC Television Freelance Writer Dirty Sexy Money ABC Television Staff Writer Traveler ABC Television Head Writer Welcome to My Life HBO Productions Showrunner The First Year Showtime Animator Every Feature Film in Europe Actress Sarah Horton Days of Our Lives Actress

After having a discussion about the Godfather, Goodfellas (two of the best films ever made, especially Goodfellas and my hard on for Scorcese!), Casino and the Sopranos I started thinking about what it is about these stories that I love and I have to add one into the mix. Wait for it. . . General Hospital, yes a soap, a daytime drama. Can you believe it? I have been obsessed with GH this year and I joke about Dominic Zamprogna (of Battlestar Galactica) being the reason, but good looks only get me so far. It is the storyline of Sonny Corinthos that is so amazing. Maurice Benard does an excellent job of making this mob boss lovable. Yes he orders hits on people and yes he makes all his money through extortion, robbery and drugs, but we still love him. We, the audience care about him. Why? This character is so well written that you can't help yourself. Like Tony Soprano, Sonny is all about his family. This is a family man. There is nothing he won't do for his family and the show i

New Moon delivers the goods on an emotional level. Oh My God!!! Congratulations Chris Weitz for taking an otherwise boring as f*#@ book and making it a GREAT flick!! Seriously...with the exception of Breaking Dumb, er, I mean Breaking Dawn...I love the Twilight series. I can get past the sparkling Vampires and enjoy the Romeo & Juliet of it all. I love it actually. They are great fun. The first film was fun, w/ the exception of some of Edward's dialogue and stupid fx for his super fast vampire running-not his fault btw, but still...New Moon was great. I loved it. I didn't like the CG wolves though, just like the Golden Compass, they were almost distracting from the film, and I still don't understand why some films-LOTR can handle CG and others can't. In any case, if you can get past some bad animation you should like this film, if you like the franchise all together. The book was a stepping stone, in my opinion, just to get us to Eclipse, where the story picks back

I have complained about this before, but people still don't seem to be getting it. Yes I am an artist and yes I can draw and you can't, so if you want me to draw something for you, you have to pay for it. Got it? Good! A work colleague told me that she used to ask the local plumber for his rates and then when someone asked her to do an art project with no idea how much to pay, she would quote the plumber's rates, and that is a good idea. Would you say to your local plumber, mechanic, doctor, roofer, contractor, or other; I can't pay you, but it will be great exposure? No! Especially if said professional has over 15 years experience. Look, to my friends, I am happy to do a drawing for you on occasion, it is easy, it is fun, but you then can't expect me to do it for free all the time, or make a gazillion changes to my free drawing for you. Yes this happens to. I get this all the time...."OOOOOHH I love your work, will you do a drawing for me? Please?" and th

This isn't going to be a long post, but rather a very short story. I was craving Jamba Juice on Tuesday and it was hot hot hot hot outside, so I didn't want to walk the 6 blocks to get one. I decided to drive to Pavillions in Burbank and when I got there, I saw Flash Forward trucks and Joseph running around with a gun! Needless to say, I didn't get a Jamba, but it was fun. Only in Hollywood!! Love it!!

I think I sold my screenplay yesterday. I say think, because in Hollywood you never know anything, and this doesn't seem to matter in what area you are working. It is all the same and a deal is never a done deal until that check is in your hand, in the bank and cleared! So in the meantime I am perfecting, no mastering the art of making my finances work for me and doing a little dance that I affectionately call, the Credit Card Shuffle. Here is how it works, you pay your credit cards the amount of bills and then pay your bills with your credit cards, and thus you spend way less out of pocket money. It works, example? Okay, your phone bill is 100 bucks, your credit card min is 70, so you play 100 to your credit card, and 100 to your phone with that credit card, two places get paid and you only lose the extra $30, basically you paid two bills with one payment. The credit card place is happy because you paid more than your min and then you charged it up again and your phone company is