Reason Number 732 Why I Love Target

So as I've mentioned, one of the only things I miss in L.A. is Target. Some people do walking meditations -- I walk the aisles of Target and feel that all is right in the world.

So imagine my delight when I found out today that CE is officially one of Target's Top 20 Titles this week.
Yay CE!

Yay Target!

Yay Isaac Mizrahi wrap dresses that look just as great as Diane von Furstenbergs for 1/78th of the price!

If she wasn't so nice, I'd hate her.

Okay, so this weekend I signed at the Border's booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books which was a huge honor, even if it was nine billion degrees and I was sweating so much that when I stood up the front of my brand new dress was all wet. What I did not know until I got there is that I would be sitting next to Lisi Harrison, author of the New York Times bestselling series The Clique. It's not like I could tell you what I would've done had I known beforehand. I mean, it's not like I would have said "Oh, sorry, fine people at Borders, but I forgot that I had a previous engagement and won't be able to come sit at your booth." But when Lisi got there and I saw a) that Lisi was Lisi, bestselling author of The Clique; b) that she was tall; c) that she was skinny; d) that she was gorgeous; e) that she was hysterical; f) that she was self-deprecating; g) that she had a super cool and funky gold belt on and h) that there was a huge line of tweens waiting to get their books signed by her which not only did she do, but she did with so much warmth and humor, I almost wanted to crawl under the table in my brand new dress and hide. Which would have been difficult because it's a very colorful dress and sooner or later someone would notice me under the table and wonder what I was doing.

Anyway, I didn't hide. Instead I introduced myself and told her that I worked at MTV which is where she worked before she left to work on The Clique books full time. And so we talked about that, and about how hot it was, and she told me she liked my dress. So not only is Lisi Harrison a very good and prolific writer but she's also just all-around cool and sweet and someone I'd totally want to eat lunch with at the MTV cafeteria but that's not going to happen seeing that a) she no longer works there and b) she lives in California now and the cafeteria I'm talking about is in New York.

Oh, and then she gave me a very good piece of advice which wasn't about writing or book signings or anything like that -- it was something she learned from Tyra Banks which is that when you're getting your picture taken, say "Hey" instead of "Cheese" because it makes you look prettier.

So this is us saying hey.

The Real Michael Rosenberg

So if you've read the book, you know that the one and only date Cindy has been on was with this guy named Michael Rosenberg who is the son of one of her father's golf buddies. The date doesn't go so well, due to the fact that Michael doesn't know that the movie Lord of the Rings was based on a book and because he peppers his sentences with phrases like "Yo, check this.

The thing is, there really is a Michael Rosenberg -- and he's one of my closest friends and this is a picture of us at Chevalier Books on Larchmont Boulevard (the same street where Cindy meets Noah at Starbucks, and where she runs into Adam Silver at the yoga studio, and where she gets her makeover by Esta, and where she learns the shocking news about Noah at Cafe du Village). Michael and I have an agreement that the Michael Rosenberg character will appear in every one of my books. Maybe if he's really nice to me I'll make him a lead.

Greetings from L.A.

I had planned to blog a lot more while I was here, but between signings, school visits, seeing friends, eating at my favorite restaurants, yoga, and working (that thing they pay me for so I have a roof over my head and O'Neill can eat that special urinary tract formula cat food because he's a very sensitive cat), I've been a very busy girl.

Being in L.A. has been great for a variety of reasons; the most important one being that I've been able to see how NYC is now most definitely my home. I will admit it's nice to be able to not have to worry about how much food you buy at the supermarket because you can just shove it in the trunk rather than have to haul it back by foot to your apartment, but other than that, and my friends, and my yoga teacher, and Target, I don't really miss anything here.

Okay, so obviously I miss some stuff.

I read at Barnes & Noble in Huntington Beach last night and it was a lovely evening. I met a woman and her granddaughter who had both read CE, as had the girl's mother who was home sick. The idea that three generations of women read the book is just fantastic. They're going to send me a picture of the three of them so that I can post it.

Today I'm going to Harvard Westlake to talk to some students. Interestingly enough, it's the school that was the model for Castle Heights! Tomorrow I sign at the Borders and Penguin booths at the LA Times Book Festival and then I fly home at 7am (I know, I know, what was I thinking?!) on Sunday. As comfortable as my friend Amy's bed has been (she was gracious enough to let me stay at her place while she's in Florida this week), I'm looking forward to being in my own on Sunday night.

I realize this is a very boring post and I aplogize for that. I'm just a wee bit tired at the moment.

Anyway, as nice as it is to be here, I'm ready to be back on the subway.

Finally

Just finished the revision on the new book and sent it off to my editor.

I'm never given birth to a real live baby, but I now get why women scream for epidurals.

Seriously.

I think I'm going to call my agent and have a provision put in all future contracts that the publisher must provide me with one as well.

I'm not quite sure the book is written in English...in fact, I may have made up an entirely new language in those last few chapters, but hopefully Penguin can find a translator.

And with that, I'm going to go take a nice long walk in Riverside Park and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Do you miss me?

I don't think we're in Manhattan anymore, Toto
Ocean Avenue
View from my hotel room
I miss you.

I know, I know -- I don't write anymore, I don't call...

But I can't help it. I'm a busy girl.

Last I wrote, my wallet had been stolen. And returned. All in one day. Then I figured out that the people who returned it were most likely the people who used the cards, which is beyond screwed up. But, hey, I'm just glad it's back because I certainly wasn't looking forward to spending a morning at the DMV getting a new license.

Went to L.A. last Sunday and came back 24 hours later. Weird to be back there --felt like a foreign country in many ways on Sunday, but by Monday felt like I had never left which was a bit scary. Very much enjoyed the sunshine, and the bathtub at Shutters On The Beach, the hotel where I stayed. Going back again on Friday for 10 days.

So, yeah, have been writing nonstop and am sure I am technically braindead and should not be allowed to operate heavy machinery. But once the book is done, I promise I will resume my semi-regular posting.

Welcome To NY

So it's the first beautiful spring day; I finish the first pass of the revision of my second book; I go to yoga; I try not to think about the fact that I'm going to have to take a 6 1/2 hour plane ride to LA tomorrow morning only to have to then turn around 28 hours later and take a 6 hour flight home; I get my nails done; I stop at Citarella on my stroll home to get an artichoke and goat cheese sandwich; I'm walking down West End Avenue enjoying the sunshine and my sandwich; I reach into my purse to get my iPod so I can have a soundtrack for the beautiful spring day/delicious sandwich and I realize....

My wallet's gone.

I run back to Citarella, telling myself that I'm getting all bent out of shape about nothing; that of course I just left it there and of course I'll walk in and the cranky woman who rang me up will have somehow transformed into a happy woman who will give me a big smile and say "You left your wallet" and hand it to me but that's not what happens -- instead I run in and the cranky woman is still cranky and when I ask her whether I left my wallet there and she gives me a look like I just asked her for her kidney and gruffly tells me no, I did not leave my wallet there.

This whole thing -- from checkout to the time I ran back -- has taken about seven minutes. So I run to my bank and the woman who helps me says "I betcha the first thing they did was run to the subway and buy MetroCards" and sure enough that's what they did -- $600 worth of MetroCards. Plus about $400 worth of other stuff on one of my credit cards which I still don't know what it is because the charges are still pending. So I spend an hour at the bank closing my regular checking account and my business one, and then I have to call all my credit cards and cancel those, and then I have to call the credit bureaus and report it so I don't become one of those people on Dateline you see who have had their lives screwed up by identity theft. And then I start thinking about the fact that I have to go get a new driver's license, a new MTV ID card, etc. etc. Plus, by this time the cold I've been staving off for days is about 50% full blown.

And then I get home and Jesus, one of my doormen, shows me a note from a gentleman named Richard who said that he found my wallet near 78th Street and that he'll come back to return it later. So I hang out and wait for Richard, but he doesn't come, and then I go to dinner with my friend Heidi, and when I get home, there's my wallet....

With everything in it other than the $2 cash I had in there.

Everything.

Credit cards, bank cards, driver's license.

Moral to the story: it totally sucks that there are people out there who steal wallets and it's totally amazing that there are good, decent, kind-hearted people who will go out of their way not once, but twice to return a now almost-75%-full-blown sick woman's wallet.

And now I'm going to bed because, as you can imagine, it's been a very long day.

More rain

Okay, enough of the winter-like weather.

I know April showers bring May showers but the cold is hurting my bones and the lack of light is hurting my mood.

Meanwhile, I'm in the home stretch of the revision of the second book and once I resurface I will start blogging again because I'm sure all of my many readers (or at least the two I know about, my dad and my friend Amy) have missed my posts.

I'm going to L.A. on Sunday morning and coming back to NY at 4pm on Monday. Way too quick of a trip, but I get to stay at Shutters On The Beach which is a very cushy hotel with fabulous bathtubs. One of the perks of working for a large corporation.