Previously in this series. What I've Learned: If the man you're on a date with indicates that you're welcome at a major jazz musician's Calabasas house for his birthday party but it turns out that said musician has no idea who the man you're on a date with is... BE. FINE. I can count the times I’ve been ASKED to go out on my hand, and still be able to pick my nose. Meh.

Previously: Gorgeous ex-boyfriends, the LA rental market, and auditions. What I've Learned: Men away from home at trade conventions...are awful. I thought about making that sentence less definitive, like saying "can be awful," but no. I said it right. They are awful. In college, I was a cocktail waitress at the Blue Max lounge in the basement of the Hyatt in Nashville, Tennessee. I thought nothing about applying for the job. I had been…

What I've Learned: The look on a person's face seeing a green-eyed black girl for the first time after speaking to me on the phone can be daunting. A Los Angeles rental story. In 1988, after my dream apartment fell through, I went looking for another. This was before the internet, kids, so I did it old school:  scouring the newspapers' want ads, circling in red those that looked interesting or driving around a neighborhood…