We are always just grateful to be born and alive, with all our arms and legs. Our baby fingers and baby toes, too. Unless there is a bizarre twist of fate? In my case, that bizarre twist of fate was called the “RH Factor.” I can only put that into short terms: The mothers’ and babies’ blood types mix when you have “variant” blood types at the time of birth when they prick you with a needle when you are still in the uterus.

When you are a kid, you just get in the car and do what you are told. You pack your stuff and just leave, even if you are headed to the suburbs of Chicago during one of the most massive blizzards of the century. Welcome to Illinois! We had Charlie, the aging dachshund, and Miss Poovy, a long-haired gray cat.

I promised myself that I wouldn’t go backward. I hate books where the author leaps and jumps and you don’t know where you are in time. Writing this book has been a whirlwind of emotions. But it wasn't all bad. Leeza and I had some pretty good years.

After years of looking like a rather fat Valerie Bertinelli, I finally came into my own. Leeza always said I looked like the famous Valerie Bertinelli from the TV sitcom One Day at a Time.

Do you know the worst part about arriving in Manhattan? It's the dormitory. They said the dorm was “pre-war,” but I wondered which war. Adam Sandler lived on the same floor and played his guitar and Hanukkah songs.