Hey, just got back from Tampa’s WEDU, filming a Florida This Week show. It will air tonight at 8:30 on PBS Channel 3 and again on Sunday at 12:30, same station.

I have a love/hate relationship with appearing on that show. … Read more »

But in the meantime, I’ll have to settle for Best Blogger “Finalist” … and I’ll have to settle for seeing it … not hearing it. Look what Sarasota Magazine just SUPER sweetly delivered to me today! And, yup, it’s going up proudly on my office wall. (Now, if only I could glow as radiantly as the woman on the cover!)

I’m NOT going to be on Florida This Week tonight … sorry! But I will probably be on again in June sometime.

Still, tonight’s show is bound to be fascinating (yes, even without moi!), so curl up in front of your favorite big screen with a glass of vino and tune in. I’m sure they’ll be discussing the ramifications of Governor Crist’s decision to run for Senate and the wicked wide domino effect of open seats that will probably come into play as a result. Should make for an interesting show.

Just when my fingernails were slipping from that freelance-free-for-all precipice, the Creative Loafing newspaper swooped in and offered me a paying gig. It’s just once a month, so basically, it will keep my cats alive … while I’m still diving dumpsters. Read more »

Yikes! Yippee! and Yowza!

Sarasota Magazine puts on an annual Best Of issue … and guess what?! Yours truly was voted a finalist in the blogging category in the Best of 2009 issue that just came out this week!

I just found out yesterday and honestly, am kind of stunned and more than a little honored. Read more »

Most of my life, I’ve been known for being WAY too serious. I’ve been notorious among ex-boyfriends and ex-husbands (of which there is only one) for never getting the punchline of jokes. I always said things like, “Huh? I don’t get that.” To which they would usually shake their heads and say,”Lighten up!!” If I had $18 for everytime I’ve been told to lighten up, I’m sure I’d have about $18,000 right about now.

So, it’s IRONICALLY BEAUTIFUL that I just found out this morning that not only have I won a Florida Press Association award for column-writing … but I won the award for a HUMOR column of all things!!

The only downside is that the humor column really wasn’t supposed to be funny at all — it’s a tragic look at the seedy underbelly (and I mean that literally) of my fight with the flab!

The column that won is called Ben and Jerry Take a Hike! So you can imagine what it’s about. But if you want to read it — you can get a peek into my physically psyched-out psyche by double-clicking on this link: Ben & Jerry Take a Hike and win MC a Big Award! (Hey, that makes the Michelin-esque aspects of my physique almost worth it! — notice I said ALMOST!)

Look out! Michelin-woman coming through!

I’m super happy about winning — I’ve wanted to nab one of those FPA awards since I launched the Reality Chick column back in early 2006. And, I’m grateful as well … to the editors at the Pelican Press, Rachel Brown Hackney and Anne Johnson, who are the ones responsible for entering me into the FPA contest in the first place. And speaking of the Pelican Press — I heard the paper won something like seven or eight OTHER awards from the Florida Press Association. So kudos all ’round to the editors and writers at that paper.

The FPA gives awards at four levels, I think. First, Second, Third, and Honorable Mention. I won’t know until July, I think, what actual PLACE the column won, but heck, it’s already been announced on their site, and I’m happy with any place whatsoever!

Now, um, where the HECK did I put my sneakers?!

So, yes, WSLR, Sarasota’s community radio station is conducting fund raising! I’ll be a guest on the Louisiana Gumbo Show at 7:45 tonight — Sunday, April 5th. Just for about a half-hour, I think, unless we’re deluged with callers and pledgers, then they might ask me to stay through 9 p.m. I’ll be chatting about WSLR and the importance of grassroots radio — now, absolutely now more than ever, when newspaper pages are shrinking and television is reporting on Madonna’s adoption efforts as if that is real news. Read more »

If anyone’s interested … I’m doing a book sale/signing of my book, Sideways in Sarasota,
at Circle Books on St. Armands Circle tomorrow afternoon from 1 to 3 p.m. It’s always a hoot being at Circle Books because the signing table is set up outside and you get a dog’s eye view of the street. Circle Books is located 478 John Ringling Boulevard, St. Armands Circle; pretty much right across the boulevard from the Foxy Lady boutique. (941.388.2850)

If you’re out and about, c’mon by and say hello, and yes, I’m giving away fabulously free kisses tomorrow to anyone who wants one … um, Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses, that is!

Last night the Village Bookshop in Bradenton was kind enough to have me in its bookstore for a signing of my book, Sideways in Sarasota. The signing coincided with the monthly Village of the Arts First Friday walk and the crowds meandering through the bookstore were OUTRAGEOUS! Read more »

In 2007, I wrote a column — see below — that later launched my book — Sideways in Sarasota — a compilation of newspaper columns from my Reality Chick days at the Pelican Press.

The Village Bookshop in Bradenton’s Village of the Arts is kindly hosting a book signing event for me this coming Friday night, March 6, beginning at 6 p.m. C’mon on out, say hello, buy a book, get my million-dollar (NOT!) signature, and get a glimpse of one of the most wonderful bookstores I’ve been in … in, well, nearly forever! iI hear they have a kickin’ open mic session beginning at 8 p.m. — I might say a few introductory words to get things going. Read more »