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Classic Column: Love Bites

Mosquitos love me.

I’ve always believed I get an inordinate number of mosquito bites, but I never said it out loud.  Everyone feels this way.  Brandish a bottle of OFF! at any summer barbeque, and five people will proclaim that mosquitos love them with equal parts self-pity and pride.  It’s almost a humble-brag, as if mosquitos are real aesthetes, the blood-sucking playboys of the insect world.

The subtext is: “There’s just something about my exposed skin that attracts all species, whatta hassle!”

Then I recently came across an article explaining mosquitos actually do have a “type:” they’re most attracted to humans with the blood type O.

My blood type.

I wasn’t imagining it, it wasn’t some messed up version of vanity, it was science!

Upgrading the Macaroni Necklace

When it comes to giving a gift to your mother, kids get a pass for a long time.  But when your mother has a milestone birthday like sixty, a macaroni necklace will not do.

It was time for me to get my mother a grown-up gift.

This is not to say that I haven’t gotten her nice things in the past, but this year I wanted it to be really special.  Maybe because I know that my mom is single, I wanted to get her a gift as nice as a husband would get. 

Not one of her husbands—a really good husband.

I got in my head that it had to be jewelry.

Column Classic – Mommy’s Day Out

The last time my mom came to visit, I lost her.

It was like that movie Baby’s Day Out, except with my parent.  I turned my back for one second, and the little rascal got away from me. 

I imagined her crawling along an I-beam at some high-rise construction site. 

But she’s afraid of heights, so more likely she’d be in Times Square, telling The Naked Cowboy he isn’t dressed warmly enough.

Column Classic – Sniff Test

My passion for perfume started long before it became the inspiration for my new novel FULL BLOOM, out August 5th and available for preorder now! Consider this Classic Column “Sniff Test” a certificate of authenticity for my fragrance obsession. Maybe some of you can relate…or I hope it makes you laugh!

Column Classic: City Slicker 3: The Legend of Bandana Napkin

They say you don’t really know a person until you travel together, but is that true if the person is your mother? 

I asked myself this on our recent trip to Arizona, our first mother-daughter vacation in almost ten years.  We had an amazing time and got along great, but I noticed some new quirks, beginning as soon as our first flight. 

“Can you open the window?” she asked.

“Sure.”  I slid the shade up and squinted into the light.  “Wow, you can see—”

“Nm-mm,” my mother grunted, and I noticed she was shielding her eyes.

“Sorry, too bright?”

“No, I don’t want to see how high we are, it scares me.”

Now I squinted at her.  “You asked me to open it.”

“Yes, but I don’t want to see!”

Pose

By Francesca Serritella As many of you know, for the last ten years I’ve been working on a novel. I’ve done many drafts and much growing up during that time, and at long last, my book is being published by Random House this May 5th. I should avoid cliché, but I can’t say it better, … Read more