Born on a rainy day in 1970s New York, I grew up in the rolling hills of central New Jersey after a brief stint in Holland. I am the daughter of a doctor (hence my hypochondria) and a foreign language teacher (hence my inability to speak anything other than English), and I have a younger sister who is several inches taller than me.

Permanently scarred by various things that occurred between 1972 and 1990, I left the comfort of my mauve bedroom for college in suburban Boston, where I majored in malaise but met some of my closest friends. It was then on to a notable journalism school in New York and a series of jobs at a small newspaper, an obnoxious PR firm, a magazine for military wives, an auction house and a public television station. 

In 2004, I went into exile and lived for 30 months on the Michigan tundra and in Philadelphia, where home was the luxury building in which Ben Affleck and J. Lo resided while filming the box office smash ”Gigli.” Highlights of my time in the City of Brotherly Love included getting married and divorced; living two doors down from a Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and one door down from Luther Vandross’ mother; housebreaking a Wheaten terrier puppy named Ollie; decorating a Christmas tree with strings of popcorn; moving in with a handsome gay couple from Texas; appearing in the Philadelphia society pages; and racking up a million Amtrak Rewards points.

I am now back in New York, where I work for a company that makes animated educational movies for kids and struggle to find the perfect combination of skinny jeans and high boots.