In the Beginning...

   The thing that I remember about being a kid, is that I don't remember it at all. Or at least never feeling like one.  That smallness, youth, innocence, endless questioning and wonder that other people are always writing about in memoirs and autobiographies....
...When was that? Or was it at all? I felt as if somehow, I was born, and instantly I knew everything about the world!...(I was absolved of this delusion by the time I was about 9)...
But I "knew" how things worked, why they did - or if I didn't know exactly...I just made it up, and...there, that was the truth! It took way too much to impress me as a little kid. Nothing phased me, I had seen it all before I'd said goodbye to pooping in my Pampers.


   I do remember, that while growing up, I didn't dream of being a nurse or a school teacher, or a secretary, or anything even moderately normal for a young girl in the 1980's. No, no.  At the ripe old age of 5, when people asked me "Katie, now what do you want to be when you grow up?" I very confidently and plainly stated, without a blink in my eye,  "I'm going to be the first woman president of the United States". Then when adults would laugh, pinch my cheek and reply "Well good for you!" at my apparently obvious cuteness and naivete - I was always confused and frankly, a little annoyed, that they clearly did not understand just how serious I was.


I learned about irony much later on...

You see, I was born as the last child of five, to actor Laurence Luckinbill; the youngest child of three to entertainer Lucie Arnaz and the only granddaughter to Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz - they did some acting too. 

When my older brother Joe was born, (now the 4th boy from my father, and 2nd from my mother) my mom contacted Katharine Hepburn to alert her that, had she had a girl instead, she would have named her Katharine, with an A, in her honor. Ms. Hepburn lovingly replied on her personal  stationary that perhaps it was best to "let Joseph Henry do his stuff" as "the position of women was still in a perilous state!"
Just 2 years and 11 days later, after hours waiting and watching the Ms. Hepburn in The African Queen, my mother got her wish. To this next announcement Ms. Hepburn replied, "Poor girl, that 'A'. Well, at least it will teach her to fight!"


Perhaps she knew something I didn't...because, truer words were never spoken. 

Here I Go

For many years people in my life have told me to write. 
Family, friends, strangers (seriously, strangers. No, seriously) Many, many times I have sat down at my desk, pen in hand, or fingers ready to tap tap tap those keys, creative juices flowing, and then....nothin'. It's was like every time I wanted to write, I instantly got terrible memory loss and forgot every detail of my life. Like nothing had ever happened to me. 


Well for anyone who knows me...even a little bit, this is clearly not the case (more on that later)


So about a year ago, I sat down in the blistering summer heat, in an apartment in Washington Heights with a few creative-genius friends and brainstormed about a show - a cabaret - that I wanted to put together. I was single at the time, and dating (A LOT) and let's just say, I had a few anecdotes. Well the show was created, it went off without a hitch, a huge success, a major triumph in my career and professional life.(Thank you Lilli Wosk & Robby Sandler. Michael Alden! Lucie Arnaz, David Friedman, Ron Abel, Ben Luckinbill, Sidney Myer, Sam Lazzara & David Ostrem!) But then...I met someone, I stopped dating, and so many of the stories I had once remembered so clearly were starting to fade...becoming distant blacked out memories of a time long since past. All in all, this effect was probably best for my self worth and sanity...but for my creative writing...a complete disaster. 


What would I possibly write about if not the ill-effects of online dating on my digestion and self-esteem?! What would I do without perpetual nights alone and confused about why boy number 6 or, 36, said he would call and DIDN'T!?! How would I ever find creative fire again!? What was I supposed to write about??! Being happy and in love??? Gross. Vomit. Puke in my hands. Who wants to read that?


But then...a lightbulb. 


Ding! (or whatever sound a light coming on would make if we could hear them...anyway...)


I am more than my dating history.
I am more than just a face on OK Cupid. 
I am Katharine Desiree Luckinbill. Goddammit. 
I have the mouth of a sailor and the observational skills of an FBI agent. 
I (might) know shit! 
I have seen shit!!


And I wanna write it all down. 


Starting now.