Thank you

Hi, Everyone. I just wanted to write a quick note to say thank you for continuing to be interested in this blog, even as I admittedly write less interesting things. I'm hoping that, at some point, the inspiration will come back. Blogging has been one of the single best things I have done over the last five years, and you guys are undoubtedly the best thing to have come out of it. It means a lot that you all are sticking around.
Love, Lori

Seasons change

Wow. So, as if cued by Daylight Savings Time, the seasons here seemed to have changed overnight. It's been in the 80's the last few days, and 60's -70's at night. I went from turning the heat on on Saturday to contemplating taking my fan out of storage on Monday. My pale feet have been liberated from socks and tights and thrust back into spring and summer shoes, invoking painful, but not unwelcome, blisters. I could get used to this.

As much as you know I love the warm weather, I'm actually not thrilled it's here. Time just seems to be moving so fast these days. I guess I say that every year, but usually by the time the seasons change, I'm dying for summer to come, and now, well, I guess I'm just dreading turning another year older. Not that that's happening tomorrow. It's just out there.

Sally: I'm gonna be forty.
Harry: When?
Sally: Someday.
Harry: In eight years.
Sally: But it's there. It's just sitting there, like some big dead end.

Of course, we still have a few more months of cold and gray and gloom before I turn another year older and it officially turns into beach season. I just wish I could slow things down a bit.

As things are, it was five years ago Thursday that I picked up and moved to LA. Five years. And that seems to be about the average amount of time it takes for a once-hit TV show to officially jump the shark. Which is why I think it's a good time to admit to you all that I think I'm officially out steam for this blog.

I'm all about being official around here.

Part of it is simply that I'm out of material (same home, same job, same social status), and part of it is that I'm over the urge to write. Over the last five years, material hasn't always been plentiful, but I've always found inspiration, always had a voice editorializing in my head, imaging how the most obscure or arcane scenarios could be storied in print. Now, even when I have good material - celebrity sightings, dating warfare - it's a struggle to string together interesting sentences. I just think I need a break.

I'm going to leave this up for the next few days, so people can read this, and then set the blog on Private, with the intention of writing at best, once a week, but more likely, monthly or even less often. I don't expect many of you to keep up. But if you'd like to, please send me your email address and I'll add you to the list of private recipients so you will be notified and have one less thing to check everyday. I love that my friends and family check in, unprompted, to see how I'm doing, and I'm not entirely ready to lose this channel of communication.

To all of you who have kept up, and chimed in over the years - thank you. You have made this experience so unbelievably rewarding. I can't currently imagine my life without Lori MacBlogger, but right now I just don't feel like I am doing her justice.

And with that, I guess this is all I have left to say:

Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you

I know I've been slacking on the blog, but you didn't think I'd let Corey Haim's death go unaccounted for, did you?

This here is what's left of my VHS library - carried with me across the country and through numerous apartments in New York - even though I haven't had a VCR on which to play them for at least seven years.

Lucas, as denoted by that decrepit piece of masking tape marked with my 12-year-old penmanship, was one of my favorite movies growing up. I had recorded this off one of the movie's many airings on HBO, and watched it all. the. time. throughout my teens. It had a great cast: my girl crush Kerri Green, Brat Packer Charlie Sheen, a barely-adolescent Winona Ryder, an already-balding Jeremy Piven, Courtney Thorne Smith, and the guy who would go on to play Jason Bateman's best friend on The Hogan Family. I never saw License to Drive until sometime last year, and never saw The Lost Boys at all, but this movie was enough to permanently enamor me to the fairer Corey.

While we're rifling through my drawers, let me tell you about the other components in this technology time capsule:

1. Today's Summer Hair: Did I ever mention I was on The Today Show? Getting a makeover? One of the perks of working in beauty PR is that anytime any of us got a segment or a story for one of our clients, we would need "models" to shoot. I've been in the New York Times getting my hair colored, in Harper's Bazaar getting facial injections, and this time, they needed curly haired girls for a segment on managing summer hair. Since everyone else in our agency was getting Japanese straightened at the time, I thought I was a sure thing; however the client didn't think I was pretty enough to represent him on TV. Awesome! Regardless, he didn't have a budget to pay for real models and I had already been approved by the producer, so I got to have my moment on national TV and a VHS tape that I watched exactly never, since I think I had already moved on to a DVD player by that point.

2. Class of '94 Video Yearbook. Pretty self-explanatory. I'm sure we thought we were so cutting edge, filming a video yearbook in addition to our printed one. Calling Donna and David... we were so West Beverly High. I don't think I've seen this since probably Thanksgiving break of my freshman year of college, but I would LOVE to see it again. And then probably burn it.

3. Alice in Bodyland. My fourth grade play. This tape dates all the way back to 1986 (!!!) when video cameras were still a real novelty, and it was a big deal that the play was not only filmed, but ran on our local cable station. It was a small cable station - the one that normally played only our soccer games or announced school closings - but it was a huge thrill, at 10 years old, to see yourself on TV. I think the tape had some issues the last time I watched it - many many many moons ago. While I might want to burn my video yearbook, I'd like to bronze this tape, or at least have copies made on DVD, Blu Ray, You Tube, etc. It might be mortifying but it's absolutely brilliant.

4. And, finally, The Wizard of Oz. I think my dad got me this one year for Christmas. (Thanks, Dad!) Knowing how much I loved that movie, he also bought me the DVD years later. (Thanks, again!)

I also still have Aladdin on tape, but the plastic case was too large for the drawer.

Why do I keep these so long, when I don't even have the technology to play them? Sentiment, I suppose. A reminder of my childhood. Memories, like Corey Haim, John Hughes, Andrew "Boner" Koenig, that I'm not quite ready to let go.

Sat on our barstools like bookends

This was the third weekend in a row in which I had an old friend come to visit, and as such, was the third weekend I found myself playing tour guide. Tom was one of my good friends in college, and one of the first people I knew to move from school to NYC. I wrote, years ago, how he stayed on my aunt's couch those first few days, and he always remained part of my New York social circle.

Tom came out partly for work and part for pleasure, so we made plans to have lunch on Sunday. I woke up early to a sun-filled morning and figured - since lunch would likely include drinks - it would be a good idea to squeeze in some exercise. I'm never much of a morning runner, so thought a brisk hour walk would suffice. Until I got outside, and the gorgeously clear day and sweet-smelling air filled my lungs, and I don't know what came over me, but I just got the urge to run.

"I just felt like running." - Forrest Gump

I ran to the top of the hill on my regular route, where, on a clear day, you can see the beach to one side and the Hollywood sign to the other. Sunday, not only could I see the Hollywood sign, but I could see the majestic snow-capped mountains behind it, 100 miles away. It was nothing short of breathtaking. I tried taking photos with my iPhone, but the effect looked much farther away. In that case, then, I decided, I should keep running east, towards Beverly Hills, West Hollywood if I had to, in an effort to get a decent shot of the sight. This was the best I could do:

And it really does not do my view justice.

Anyway, I ran out past the border of Beverly Hills before I decided to turn around and head back. I walked/ran home, feeling alive and enthused and so unbelievably blessed about my life.

Since it was such a nice day, I suggested we head down to Venice Beach, have lunch by the Pier, and take in the crazies on the boardwalk. It was great catching up, and Tom was a competitive player in my favorite game of making every possible geographical reference to the original 90210. "This is where cokehead Colin lived." "There's where Kelly's rehab-roommate-stalker hid her suitcase when she was on the streets." "Why yes, Pasadena is the home of the Rose Bowl where Donna competed on the Royal Court and learned her mother got pregnant out of wedlock." We're both watching reruns every Saturday morning. The day could not get any better.

1997


2010

Why yes, those are crows feet by my eyes and gray hairs on my head. I much prefer the ponytails.

All in all, it was a fantastic day. Fortunately for me, I have one more week of Old Friend Fun in store. My college and NYC friend Heather is flying west this weekend, and we'll be hanging out with Cara in San Diego. Four weeks, four good friends. No complaints over here.