"I always wanted the reboot of Ghostbusters to be four girl-ghostbusters. Like, four normal, plucky women living in New York City searching for Mr. Right and trying to find jobs--but who also bust ghosts. I'm not an idiot, though."*

            I’m not always sure what this blog is supposed to be, so sometimes I have trouble knowing if I have to worry about veering off topic or coming across like an infomercial. All my life I’ve been way too concerned with what people will think of me, and my blog is no exception. But the beauty of my blog, I have to keep reminding myself, is that I can pretty much write about whatever I want. No one has to read it (though I desperately want people to not only read it but love it passionately and want everyone else to love it passionately with them. And maybe a little/enormous part of me wants people to love me passionately by default...). And I’m not holding a gun to anyone’s head, saying, “Listen, you! You better get amused right now or else!” So, I can write whatever I want and as long as it’s not totally depressing, I’m not guilty of false advertising or betraying my artistic integrity. Right? Right?

            Okay, so what’s this all leading up to? I want to do a shameless (and totally unsolicited and probably unnoticed) plug for a book.

            I just read Mindy Kaling’s book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns). You probably know Mindy from her role as writer, producer and actress on The Office (she’s the insane and delightful Kelly Kapoor). The main reason I wanted to read her book is because I think she’s one of the best television writers around (and one whose work I can easily identify). This is no small feat since most staff writers for television get little to no credit on TV or imdb.com. And most of them are men. But anyway, I digress.

Mindy's book.

            I like reading books about people’s lives and their embarrassing stories and anecdotes and most deeply personal fuck-ups. I love David Sedaris, Sloane Crosley, Laurie Notaro and Angela Nissel. I just like the possibility that the personal essay as an art form has for me personally and the world at large. And Mindy’s stories come the closest to where I’ve ended up with these blogospheric shenanigans (word “blogospheric” made up right now by yours truly. Copyright 2012. Unless I go online and find out someone else had it first, at which point I will, yet again, shake my fist at the sky!).

Mindy as Kelly.

            In fact, when I read this book, I feel like she’s who I want to be. Perhaps more importantly, part of the reason I read the book is because she has the job I want: writer on a television show who also acts sometimes. And who is also incredibly adorable (I've always wanted to be adorable, but I think I'm actually somewhere between "not ugly"** and "cute.").

            Anyway, her book is so funny and insightful and witty that I thought I’d give it a little shout out here, on my blog, which is (obviously) all of these same things. She talks about things like what it’s like to be not skinny but not fat (yup), what friendship means (you have to listen to all of my drama), the difference between boys and men (age not being one of them) and most importantly (to me) what it’s like to be a writer for a hit TV series and how she got there. She has a lot of other unique perspectives on a plethora of other topics, but I’m trying to keep it simple here.

            You can read a few excerpts for free on Amazon.com (which is what I did, prior to purchasing, though I knew all along I’d buy it).

*The quote above is from Mindy’s book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), (Crown Archetype, 2011).

**My friend, Lucia, who you may have heard of in previous posts and whose first language, to be fair, is NOT English, once said to me, "You know, Lacey, you're not ugly. You're kind of pretty." It sounds worse than it was. When she said it, I laughed. But it does sting a little.