• Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Favorite Things,  Food,  Friends,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments,  Something That Could Change Your Life,  Travels

    My LTYM Travel Season, By The Numbers

    Yesterday was Mother’s Day, and it also happened to be the last day of the 2015 LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER season. Each year I have driven to see some other shows, not only because I like hearing the stories live but also because I like to see how other cities do things (every city, while having to stick to certain national guidelines, creates a show that reflects their community), and it’s a way for me to support my fellow producers and meet up (on their own turf) with some of the teams I’ve coached as the LTYM National New Cities Mentor. This year, Jim was slightly astonished when I told…

  • Amazing People,  Childhood Memories,  My Mom Has Mad Skillz

    Go Big Or Go Home Didn’t Start With Me

    I would be hard-pressed to find just one favorite picture of my mom, because there are so many. There’s the one that used to hang in my Grandma’s house: mom wearing her ballet shoes and posing on pointe so beautifully. There are the black and white ones: her wearing knee-high white boots with a skirt/blouse vest outfit that is so 1960’s it hurts, and just hanging out with my dad next to one of their many VW Beetles. There’s the one that was staged by her wedding photographer: mom, the young bride, pulling twenty-dollar bills out of my dad’s jacket pocket. There’s the one of mom, my sister and I…

  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  Favorite Things,  Fun in Chicago,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Pretty Pictures,  Proud Moments,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    All Over Again.

    It’s all over, again. Every year, the experience of bringing a LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER show to the stage in Chicago seems to fly by with more speed. On Sunday, our fourth show took place at the beautiful Athenaeum Theatre and, while it was about ninety-five minutes long, it seemed more like ten. Add the three actual hours of pre-show stuff (photos, run-through, etc.) and you have…about twenty virtual minutes. Each year I find myself trying to figure out how to freeze time a little bit. Each year I also struggle to write a recap that adequately captures everything about show day, and frankly it’s impossible to do so. Expressing…

  • Amazing People,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Donna Day: Raising $$$ For Pediatric Cancer Research

    Today is the 4th annual Donna Day and I am joining a huge group of bloggers in promoting a special event meant to raise money for pediatric cancer research. Donna Day is named for the daughter of my friend (and 2013 LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER CHICAGO cast member) Sheila Quirke, who blogs under the name Mary Tyler Mom. Sheila and her husband Jeremy, who also have two young sons, lost their beloved Donna in 2009. Donna’s Cancer Story is documented in a series of thirty-two posts that Sheila wrote. Their story is hard to read but I think it’s so important to read. No family should have to go through…

  • Amazing People,  Friends,  Music

    On Being In Tune With Teens & Their Music…

    I was in Columbus with Momo this week. Spending time with my friends is, of course, one of my very favorite things in the world. Spending time with my friends’ kids? Also a huge favorite. I love swooping in and spoiling everybody for a few days, like a very young, super cool, and extremely attractive grandma. Actually, let’s say “Aunt”, since that’s how Momo’s daughter thinks of me (She said so, and I wanted to jump across the table and hug her brains out!) or even “second momma”, which is the high honor bestowed on me by Liz‘s kids. One of the coolest things is that I became acquainted with…

  • Amazing People,  Blessings,  Childhood Memories

    To Grandma’s House I Go

    I’ve been thinking about my grandmother a lot lately, especially as I toss around ideas for the essay I will write for this year’s Listen To Your Mother show in Chicago. Memories of her come and go, and sometimes she hangs around in my brain for an extended period of time. I don’t mind at all; in fact, I rather enjoy it. My Grandma was a huge presence in my young life. We visited her house all the time, and she spoiled her grandkids like crazy. She was one of the kindest, most generous people I’ve ever met in my life. I’m often in awe of the fact that she…

  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Family Fun,  Something That Could Change Your Life,  Travels

    Neverland

    This was originally going to be a Throwback Thursday post but as it turns out, yesterday was a crazy work day and two things happened since then which will help this be a better post. It’s all good. First, last night, many of my friends were watching “Peter Pan Live” on NBC, which is something I probably would have tuned into if our antenna would allow the Peacock Network, but it doesn’t and so I lived vicariously through everyone else. I enjoyed reading everyone’s tweets and Facebook posts, and thought fondly about Peter, Tinkerbell, and the rest. It’s a great story. Second, this morning, I overheard part of a conversation…

  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  Fun in Chicago,  Proud Moments,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Get Ready For Listen To Your Mother 2015!

    Things are getting exciting all up in here (again!); on Thursday, the LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER 2015 season kicked off with our city announcement. This year we’re bigger and better than ever with twenty-nine returning cities and ten new cities! We’ve come a long way from that single show in Madison, Wisconsin back in 2010, don’t you think? (*high fives Ann Imig*) As the National New Cities Mentor, I’ve been working with our new production teams behind the scenes for the last month or so, all while they were keeping the news of their selection under wraps. That’s DIFFICULT, you guys. Like, you don’t even know. Over the past four…

  • Amazing People,  Blessings,  Friends

    #BlogHer14: It Was About The People

    On Sunday night I returned home from San Jose, California and the tenth annual BlogHer conference. This was the sixth BlogHer conference for me—the second as a team member—and while it was exhausting, it was also just SO GOOD. I’m still recovering, in fact. Reentry, the adjustment back into my everyday life, is the very worst part about attending this conference for lots of us; for me it begins when I say goodbye to my friends and continues as the exhaustion—which has been building for months and approached breaking point last week—sets into every pore and then doesn’t leave for days. FOR DAYS. I expect to regain the ability to…

  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Travels

    Balancing Act. (Or, Bringing This Full House Home With Me. Sort Of.)

    For the past three and a half weeks, I’ve been attempting to make some minor tweaks in how I operate during the day around here. It all started when I was in New Jersey with Liz last month. I did a lot of thinking about how relaxed and happy I am when I’m there, even though it was part vacation/part work week. Obviously a lot of the major endorphin spike I experience in New Jersey is purely caused just by being there with her and her family, who I positively adore, but there’s something else. Routine. I mean, you can’t expect a family of six (ahem, SEVEN when I’m there)…