Is it your life story if no one's there to hear it?

If you drink schnapps at 56 degrees below zero, be careful. Unless you warm it in your mouth before swallowing, you will burn your throat.

After a lousy first date, a sweet grace period

First time on the market in 24 years. Good bones. Needs TLC.

He wasn't the marrying kind

From the well-lighted Argentine restaurant — my suggestion via Yelp — to the 70-degree night, all is well on this second date....

A Westside story shifts to other parts of the city

As a kid I rarely found reason to venture beyond L.A.'s Westside. But as a new college graduate, I found my birthplace suddenly felt vast,...

A real connection in a fabricated situation

There is the real L.A. — smog, traffic, crime. Then there is the other L.A., pockets of life that have nothing to do with reality....

Treat me like you treat your friends — nicely

I have been married to my husband for 10 years. He is still my favorite person in the world. But sometimes I look at what time has done: I...

A night to forget being a single mom and just dance

I had to be one of the oldest patrons at the Wilshire restaurant in Santa Monica, completely out of my element, a woman in her 40s in a...

Sliding off the balance sheet

I've never been hung up on dating rich men. Sugar daddies don't cross my path too frequently. Sure, we all want to date gainfully employed...

A power play on the dance floor unsettles the score

Being swirled around the ballroom was different from how I approached life: in control. But there I was, being blindly guided to step, turn,...

A fly-by at the gym, then a long workout

Like so many romances in this town, ours started at the gym.

True love, just as she was about to spike it

Crying my eyes out the morning after, I replayed over and over the events of the previous evening when Mr. Latest Flame had calmly stated...

A glutton for love and other delicious dishes

I was 45 minutes late to our first date at Osteria Mozza when the Cute Gardener took one look at me over the rim of his glasses, pushed a...

Love gives answers to life's trick questions

Quick relationship quiz:

A short walk that crossed worlds

My daughter Peyton is nonverbal and severely challenged by autism. I once believed she'd never experience a meaningful romantic...

Treasure beyond diamonds

An engagement ring is an expensive, seemingly indestructible version of those red tags taped to furniture that say: Sold. Move on,...

The can't-miss first date

I pride myself on my instincts. I can tell my roommate is avoiding her chores by her walk. My predictions of early television...

Studying the percentages

I have now become the Ellis Island for bisexuals. I tried to avoid it, but they are drawn to me.

A wreck and sick bride were inauspicious beginnings

It started with a car crash.

A Christmas Eve night to remember

It was our first Christmas together, and I was determined that it would be special.