After a crazy couple of days..  GOOD NEWS.   Two of my scripts "Ace Academy" and my spec Arrow "Second Chances" advance to SemiFinals in Final Draft's Big Break Contest.   Fingers Crossed!!


http://store.finaldraft.com/big-break-contest.html#currentwinners

I’m not sure if it was the Cathy cartoons in the 80s, Ally McBeal in the 90s or Liz Lemon in the 2000s, but every single girl at some point fears becoming a crazy cat lady. Except Taylor Swift. She seems to totally own the whole cat thing.  But then again she’s Taylor Swift.  She can buy and sell the world, so I guess at this point being a cat lady isn’t a big deal.   And, normally, I’m more like Taylor on the whole “I don’t give an ‘F’ I’m gunna instagram the crap out of my pet” attitude.  Yet lately I have found myself worrying about my cat lady status.   Below are my top moments when I’ve worried I might becoming a crazy cat lady.  In no particular order because, frankly, they are all a bit sad.  

1.  The night I spent four hours making dog bows.  Granted it was a Wednesday in the summer aka TV Wasteland, and I was using Chanel ribbon, but still a possible red flag.  Actually, the fact that I was using Chanel ribbon to make dog bows is even more of a red flag.

2.  One time I returned to LA after a long visit to Knoxville and my UPS man check up on me because he had nothing to deliver in weeks.   This was alarming for several reasons.  

•  My UPS man is the person checking up on me when I go missing.  I know I wasn’t actually missing, but if I was, how sad would it be if Nancy Grace reported that it was the UPS man who first noticed my disappearance. 
  
•    I had a brief, yet very real, thought about asking for his contact information so he could become my local “in case of emergency” contact. 
  
•   How bad is your online shopping when your UPS man knows when you are away??? I blame Amazon Prime and Gilt. And EBay and Kate Spade Secret Sales. 

3.  When I looked into Life Alert after slipping in the shower, but my Kardashian sized booty saved me.  I passed on the Life Alert, but I’m not entirely convinced it will not show up in my Christmas stocking this year.

4.  My fondness for my maintenance man.   I even asked him about his retirement plans. I think our time lines sync perfectly, so that when I am ready to buy a house, he’ll be ready to retire…. in my guesthouse.   He seemed totally cool with this idea.  To be fair, I’m not entirely sure he understands me, but he smiled a lot.

5.  My habit of walking Maddie while in my robe.  At first I thought, if anything, people might think that I have a very Hugh Hefner type lifestyle. Until I saw the resident crazy lady walking her dog in her moo moo and I started to worry.   I’m still not sure what one is supposed to wear in the early morning/evening to fight a chill while walking his or her dog.  Some might say a jacket, but a jacket with pajamas, that just seems silly.

6.  Any time I go to the grocery store at night on the weekends and am surrounded by college students.  My Raisin Brain next to their Natty Light on the checkout line makes me sad for both of us.  And the Future of America, but that's a whole another story. 

7.  I bought a gorgeous new TV recently and right before I could drive off into the sunset with Sony, the Best Buy guy asked, “You do have someone to help you unload this right?”   Finding this to be a Beyoncé “Single Ladies” Feminist type moment, I lied and said “Of, course.”   It turns out that the two-person icon on the box was not merely a suggestion, but a requirement.  The night ended with me covered in bruises and asking out loud “God, why don’t you want me to have nice things?”  I later got help and I am happy to say Sony and I have had many fond nights together.  That sentence itself could be another reason.  

8.  And finally, the fact that I spent two hours last night making/photographing Maddie’s "Arrow" Themed Halloween Costume. 

So maybe it is a lost cause. Maybe I am destined to be a crazy cat lady walking Maddie in my robe.  But as my fellow Cat lady soul sister Taylor would say, “I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake.  I shake it off, I shake it off.”

1. Arrow (Wednesdays, CW 8pm EST)
If you have spent a solid hour around me in the past year, I probably have mentioned this show.  Maybe 30 minutes.  Okay, five minutes.    Yes, the action is good.  And yes comic book shows are all the rage, but the reason to watch is OLICITY.  The pairing of Oliver and Felicity is a thing made in Tumblr gif heaven and worth the season pass.   Watch them and believe in love again after "Gone Girl" destroys your belief in it.

2. Scandal (Thursdays, ABC 9pm EST)
It got weird last year.  Like Huck licked Quinn's face weird, but I'm hopeful for this season. First off, they don't have to cover Kerry Washington's pregnancy bump, which means  finally the return of the fabulous fashion.  When I first binged watched this show, I immediately bought a signature Olivia Pope white suit.  Unfortunately, as Abby learned last year when she tried to pull off a white coat, white is not a redheads' color. But it wasn't just the wardrobe that was lacking, but the stories too.  Normally, "procedural" is a dirty word for me, but in the first two seasons Scandal did a solid job of using the procedural case  "B" story to heighten the soapy drama.   So here's hoping for some crazy scandalous Washington stories for the gladiators to handle.  Also, if Liv doesn't want Captain Jake Ballard, I will take him.  I would have also taken Noel Crane, even though I was a Ben/Felicity fan.  Oh, that was a confusing love triangle.   Basically, I will take any version of Scott Foley. Will he ever get the girl?

3.  New Girl (Tuesday, FOX 9pm EST)
I didn't like last season.  I didn't hate it like some people, but Nick and Jess together zapped the tension right out of the apartment.  Schmidt went from loveable douchebag to just a douchebag. The douchebag jar must be overflowing after last season.  Now everyone’s single again, and the show can get back to basics.  The return showed promise with the characters bemoaning over save the dates on their fridge and having to go to yet another summer wedding.   These are the hijinks we want to see because aren’t we just looking for some twenty something friends whose jobs are jokes, are broke and love life’s DOA?  That seems like a winning formula. 

My potential new BFFs (aka the Silver ones)

1.  The Flash (Tuesdays, CW 8pm EST)
I'm already on board.  I've been on board since Barry Allen made the Green Arrow, Oliver Queen, green with envy last December.  Then I saw an advanced screening of the pilot, and I was hooked.  It’s lighter and funnier than the Arrow, but with the same action pack we have come to expect week to week.  It also has my all time favorite Broadway musical, Rent, alum Jesse L. Martin.  As of right now, it doesn’t have anything quite like Olicity, but neither did Arrow till episode three.

2. Jane the Virgin (October 13, 2014 CW 9pm EST)
 Maybe I’m drawn to this because ever since I learned of the Immaculate Conception during my Catholic school days I was petrified that that it would happen to me.  So "girl gets artificially inseminated by accident" logline jumped off the page for me. I also saw this pilot in advance at the same Paley event that I saw The Flash pilot.  Now no one at that panel was there to see Jane, sad but true.  They all were comic book Flash fanatics. Jane was something they just had to get through.  Never the less, the laughs were big and the gasps audible.  If it can win over that crowd, you should check it out.   Also, it has a progressive and unique way of bilingual element.  Univision did beat ESPN in the ratings for World Cup, so that’s something to watch. 

3. Gotham (Mondays, FOX 8pm EST)
Ok, so I’m not as excited about this show as I was two weeks ago.  The second episode was not my favorite.  I still think though once they figure out who to focus on this show could be great.   Right now the world seems a bit bloated with Jada Pinkettt Smith being the dead weight.  Also, it has not yet figured out if it wants to be dark "Nolan" Batman like the pilot or more goofy 80's Batman like the second episode.  These things take time and hopefully all the kinks will be worked out, and Gotham will earn its place as new BFF.