Reflections of a stormy petrel

Yes, one of the reasons why I stopped working in Hollywood was when I got pregnant, and I realized I didn't want to raise my kid in that environment. I used to pass by the casting office on cattle call days, and the room would be filled with hard-eyed women and their five year old daughters squeezed into tight jeans, with spangly tight tops, their eyebrows plucked, lips smeared with glitzy goo, finger and toenails scarlet (or green or black), hair frizzled out into Marie Antoinette elaboration. Variations on "sit still!" would hiss venomously as the poor children tried to move about a little in their boredom.