BOOKS, ESSAYS AND SHORT FICTION

"My second grade teacher was right." That's my six-word memoir, so I guess that you means you don't need to buy Not Quite What I Was Planning just to read my contribution. But you should buy it anyway, since it is the best bathroom book ever.

ALTARED: Bridezillas, Bewilderment, Big Love, Breakups, and What Women Really Think About Contemporary Weddings. My essay takes a look at how my husband and I survived the registry process, and why the gift-giving process at weddings reflects back our most idealistic and unrealistic fantasies about married life.

"Passionfruit" - Available online, a coming-of-age story that was published in the terrific Los Angeles literary magazine, Swink, in 2006.

VOGUE

Granny Takes a Trip - A personal essay about baking pot brownies for my dying grandmother. (PDF)
May, 2006  

The Men's Club - Remembering how a college romance inspired a sense of style. (PDF)
January, 2007  

NEW YORK TIMES

In Los Angeles, Strip Mall Dining Is Way Cool
August 20, 2003  

A Home to Its Owners, A Museum To Its Fans
June 16, 2006  

How the West Was Overrun
Sept 20, 2002  

In Tequila's Home, A Wine Region Comes of Age
May 1, 2005  

Restaurants On The Fringe, And Thriving
March 12, 2003  

Better Homes and Granola
Nov 20, 2005  

Baby, You Can Park My Car
March 27, 2005  

For Screenwriters, Inspiration Smells Like French Roast May 16, 2004  

In a Corner of Costa Rica, a Beachhead for Luxury
February 3, 2006

A Night Out With Juliette Lewis; Rock 'n' Acupuncture
Dec 31, 2004

Their Little Secret, But for How Long?
March 7, 2003

Experiencing Cabo, Without the Tequila Shots
April 15, 2005

SALON

Brother, can you spare a dime for my Gucci bills?
Cyber-begging fuels the new philanthropy, in which brand, beauty and instant karma matter most in raising funds.
10/02/2002

"The winner dies"
A Web-based pro-anorexia movement provides a bizarre support network for starving girls.
07/23/2001

All-American soft-porn sweats with a twist
The Juicy Couture tracksuit is the height of haute in L.A., a uniform for starlet and wealthy wannabe alike.
1/14/2003

Porn provocateur
Lizzy Borden, whose ultraviolent films feature women being beaten, raped and doused in vomit, insists that she is a gender pioneer whose repellent movies are morality tales.
06/20/2002

Searching for speed in Silicon Valley
The glory days of geek drag racing may be over, but hotshot hackers are still revving their engines.
01/26/2001

Here come the buns
Butt cleavage is not just for the plumber anymore.
05/28/2002

Over my dead body
Activists are flocking to the West Bank to serve as human shields, protecting Palestinians and protesting the Israeli occupation. Are they part of the solution or part of the problem?
1/15/2003

Why drug tests flunk
If the Supreme Court rules in favor of drug testing in public schools, will students come clean? Kids at schools in Indiana, where drug tests rule, say no way.
04/22/2002