Happy 30th

I spent last weekend in LA.

My cousin Kristen lives there, and she turned 30 last week, so I decided to fly out and go to her party.  She’s an amazing woman—goal driven, and totally does not sweat the small stuff.  She recently sold a 2-season pilot to AMC for which she’ll be the Producer, and I am super excited for her to have reached this milestone in her career.  Kristen is a connector — she is a sincere friend to the people in her life, and certainly has a lot of them (about 70 showed up to celebrate her birthday).  For her birthday, Kristen’s close friends came up with a list of “30 Reasons Why We Love Kristen.”  It was so funny and so true.  She and her friends remind me of the group on the show Friends—they all love each other and there is a just a true comfort and connection that sometimes seems rare these days.

Kristen’s friends were very welcoming to me too.  There were a few moments before I went on the trip that I wondered if I was going to feel awkward or like an outsider…but that never happened. The party was at Rush Street in Culver City, and the loft bar area was perfect.  The sliders and fries were pretty awesome too.  The next day, Kristen and I went to breakfast, ordered Bloody Marys, decided we didn’t want them, and then went to Malibu for mimosas at Moonshadows.

My point here isn’t really to tell you about my trip (although I’d love to tell you all about it because I had an amazing time, start-to-finish!), but mostly to reflect on relationships and their importance. There are studies showing that people who have better and deeper relationships are healthier and happier and live longer.

For those of you, like me, who sometimes like to be alone, don’t worry—this doesn’t mean you have to be around people all the time in order to be healthy and happy.  It just means that there is some part of us that is fulfilled by connecting with other people, and this positive energy seems to overflow into having a positive effect on our health and well-being. Maybe it has to do with stress relief or getting enjoyment out of connecting with others in a meaningful way.  Or maybe it’s more metaphysical.  Either way, there’s proof.  Based on this proof, I think Kristen is going to live forever!