Fast Fiction

LA Insight from LABlogs.com’s topic of the week: Family Values.

1. How far do you live from you family?

They live in Ohio and Pennsylvania. I usually fly into Pittsburgh, as it’s pretty much equidistant from those in Southeast PA and those in Ohio and of course dead center for my brother in Pittsburgh.

2. How often do you see them?

I usually go home three times a year. Sometime in February or March, then August and Christmas/New Years. This year I’ve had a horrible time connecting with them and have not been home since Christmas. My sister did come out in May though. My mother comes out once every year or two. My brother hasn’t been back since he moved away in 2000.

3. Do you have a large or small family?

I think it’s small. I have an older sister who has two nearly grown children (no longer minors but still living at home) and a brother who two small children.

4. Are family gatherings something that you look forward to or dread?

Well, first, they read my blog. I look forward to them, actually. I have a good time, it’s not a vacation, it’s a visit. Sometimes we do cool things like one year we went down to Falling Water after Thanksgiving. Mostly we hang out around the house and eat a lot and make great recipes. There’s a lot of driving involved too and it sucks that the holidays come at such a bad time for driving and traveling in general. I don’t actually dread the visits, I dread the travel. I really never cared for flying and I like it even less now.

5. What kind of support to you get from your family?

Whoo! They’re the best. For my birthday two years ago my mother and sister came out for opening night of my play in Hollywood. They’ve travelled all over to see my plays (I had one production in West Virginia that my mom and sister came down to see) and short film (the film was shown at the Cleveland Film Festival so my mother came to that and then it was at the Harrisburg Film Festival and my sister and father came to that.) And that’s just support for my career and passions. There’s all the other talky support. We’re a pretty close family, really. But easy-going and pretty non-judgemental overall. We have tiffs, but I think that’s normal with people who love each other.

6. Have you adopted any local family, either because you or they or from out of town?

Well, I’m married. So I’ve got a wonderful family in-law. We go to see my in-folks once every two weeks down in The OC. Then there are visits from my brothers in law which come a few times a year. We host a huge Thanksgiving at our house every year with 10 people.

7. Who do you love more, mom or dad? Ha, just kidding. What did you learn from your mom?

Jeeze. A lot of things. Like the difference between a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of salt is enough to ruin a recipe. That you can’t tie your self esteem up in another person or your job.

8. What did you learn from your dad?

That I should take good care of my cars (I didn’t necessarily learn that by example). I think the best thing I learned was don’t make things a problem until they are a problem. I remember once when I was sitting around with him at work one day there was a flurry of calls coming through (I think he was executive director of the Democratic State Committee at the time) about a flag burning amendment and some of the field people were calling in for advice. He asked them something like this, “When was the last time you heard of a flag being burned? Now, when was the last time you heard about a real crime, like robbery or embezzelment. Let’s not go legistlating for things that are the least of our worries. Maybe they wouldn’t want to burn the flag if they had something to eat.” I’d like to think I focus on the problems I can fix.