Laguna Beach City Hall isn’t our first choice for nightlife, but that’s where we ended up one recent evening.  “Watching our tax dollars at work,” we joked to the neighbors. Actually, we were supporting a remodeling project on the other side of our alley, but even here in the more liberal part of conservative Orange County, it’s customary to talk about government the way people in Berkeley talk about Richard Nixon: If you don’t sound a little snarky, it’s just awkward.  As it happened, our tax dollars were working like little mine mules. What with the hearing and the gadflies ... Read more

My friend Lennie makes this jam that’s insanely delicious. I’m actually eating it out of the jar as I write. Every spoonful reminds me of some adventure we’ve had in our three decades of friendship: the time we ate grapes in the sun at a market in Italy, the time we grilled figs and sausage in the back yard with our husbands, the time I was heartbroken and she soothed me with hot lemonade and Mozart, the times our kids slept over at her house in Fullerton and awoke to hot chocolate-chip waffles. Eating her jam makes me feel rich ... Read more

The other day, driving down Coast Highway, I detoured down a side street in Corona del Mar. Left at the diner, left again after two short blocks—I had driven that route a thousand times, back when I’d first met my husband. He was a single father then, living in a little gray shack with his preschool daughter. I would come up the front walk to see them, and open the door to a trail of toys and socks and books and banana peels and half-eaten muffins. Inside, they’d be sprawled in front of the TV, a guy and his kid, ... Read more

Newport Harbor never stops being pretty—blue water, white sailboats, bright Christmas lights. The other day, I saw a couple clambering down from a yacht the color of a cream puff. “Nice boat,” I called, feeling upbeat. “Wanna buy it cheap?” they replied. Yes, these are less-than-upbeat times, even in pretty places. One in three California mortgages underwater. Double-dip recession in the air. Rich folks ducking calls from nonprofits and hospitals. Churches and schools desperate for donations. I had a conversation not long ago with a guy who makes his living dredging private boat slips and he said that, this year, ... Read more

Years ago, in search of a “real” autumn, I went with my future husband to a college football game. We rose early to make the drive from Orange County. (With all due respect to Chapman University’s fightin’ Division 3 Panthers, O.C. fans only recognize two kinds of college football, and neither the USC kind nor the UCLA kind is played here.) It was a long drive to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Still, I was excited. I was up for a California-style take on America’s fall tradition, and what said “fall in O.C.” better than the ritual pilgrimage of the ... Read more