My whole life I have been STRESSED.

I grew up in a South suburb of Chicago where my father insisted on being a Cubs fan, which was a
Cardinal on the Southside. I am the oldest girl of 4 and therefore the one who should have been a “boy.”

When I was 5, I wanted to be Barbara Walters but I was also REALLY good at
singing TV jingles. I’ve been torn ever since.

When I was 6, my Dad bought a beta camera. He regrets it to this day because
that’s when “it all went to hell”.

LEFT picture 3 years old. Right 23 years old. This is not my dad’s famous Beta camera, but my husband does call this my first director’s moment.

At 7 I decided I wanted to be the next Annie so I started vocal training.

When I was finally old enough to audition, Chicago cancelled the production.

I gave up the idea of acting and went to college at Iowa. I was going to
be an award-winning journalist like Tom Brokaw or get drunk and write like
Hemingway. Instead, I did both and ended up in TV.

I moved to Italy as my last Hemingway attempt. I studied film. I wrote. I
discovered wine. The END.

My first job after college was “America’s Most Wanted” in Washington, DC.

John Walsh and I

My supervisor told me I was a great writer! Then he told me to dumb it down and start writing for TV. So I pursued directing. My first gig was a rape and murder re-enactment that I also starred in. Sigh.

I eventually got my acting break on a TV Guide show. You only saw 1/3
of me because 3/4 of the screen was the channel guide scroll.

Another proud moment for my parents was a bit I participated in while working on the show “Girl’s Behaving Badly”. This was a snap shot from a prank we did about “Cheese” made from imported breast milk.

I decided TV sucks. I invented the light up “handbag” with my husband.

I was in magazines. I drank champagne. Then the recession hit and I
was broke.

E! The Daily 10

So I decided to make a movie about being broke.

Then my husband got cancer. After a few vodka soda’s I decided to change our lives and cook cancer’s ass. My husband is now fully in remission and kicking ass.

Then I became a mom and was super STRESSED again. I found myself in the ER and realized… LIFE HAS TO CHANGE.

So now I have devoted myself to Turning Life into Lemonade once again, by finding fun ways to combat the number 1 killer, stress.