"With storytelling chops honed over a decade of performances with Chicago's 2nd Story storytelling series, Stielstra explores the messy, maddening beauty of adulthood with wit, intelligence, and biting humor. The personal essays in Once I was cool tackle topics ranging from beating postpartum depression by stalking her neighbor, to a surprise run-in with an old lover while on ecstasy, to blowing her mortgage on a condo she bought because of Jane's Addiction"--P.[4] of cover.