• Inspiration

    Begin

    Guitar in hand, he rode the escalator up and down for hours. Music blared from the speakers below while he lip-synced and strummed.  It was 1989. I walked from Korea Town to Wilshire Blvd. to catch a bus to The West Side Pavillion. It was there that I secured my first LA job folding clothes for The Gap. I stood watching and listening to the mystery man with the guitar. When a coworker joined me, I asked her if she knew who he was. She looked at me with the same expression I give anyone who says they’ve never seen Schitt’s Creek.  “It’s Tom Petty.” Every time I hear the…

  • Inspiration

    How Bed Bugs Taught Me to Face My Fear

    Are you ready to laugh? Picture me balancing on top of my mattress, my head dodging the dangling light from the ceiling, steam cleaner in hand, pulling the trigger sending puffs of hot steam everywhere. The comforter, pillows and blankets are baking in my car. The smell of Lysol so strong I’m forced to open the windows and let in the Florida heat. Die bugs, die! So much for the pacifist in me. The cats were hiding they didn’t want another bath or more flea meds, the dog was drying on the lanai, and I was mopping, laundering, bleaching, and vacuuming everything in sight. The next day, I woke up with more…