It all began in a little city called Cedar Rapids, in the great state of Iowa. Amongst the slaughterhouses, the Quaker Oats factory, the ADP corn processing plant and the fields of soybeans and pigs, a baby girl was born, and the world would never be the same.

Some of the highlights of my childhood include spying on my Dad from the king maple in the back yard (alas, he never really did anything I could use against him) pretending I was stranded on a deserted island, and talking to my imaginary friend Elliott the dragon (I know, I know, copyright infringement, don't tell Disney, I don't want to get sued). I broke my leg when I was six. A morbidly obese teenager from down the street fell on me and my tibia snapped like a twig. The people at the hospital thought my Mom did it. I got questioned by a social worker and everything.

I spent a lot of time in my childhood having anxiety attacks about getting addicted to drugs (thanks Nancy Regan) and also about things I would read that I couldn't really comprehend. For example, I spent an entire weekend in second grade terrified that killer bees were coming, and we would all be dead by the end of the summer.

My sister joined me for the ride when I was 2 and a half, so she is a pretty central character in my life. Our brother was born when we were 9 and 6 respectively. He was an oops, but we love him just the same.

After climbing the academic ranks at the illustrious institutions of Grant Wood Elementary, McKinley Junior High and Washington High School, I moved down the road to Iowa City and got a degree in Anthropology from the University of Iowa. The year I graduated was also the year Iowa had its coldest winter of the previous 100 years. I was walking to work one morning in January and I got a little hot because the temperature was all the way up to zero. I am not kidding. Thus, I high tailed it south as soon as humanly possible.

After a couple of years of debauchery and bartending in Atlanta, GA I crossed the country with a U-Haul and a boyfriend and landed in San Francisco, where I have been living (and loving it!) for the past 10 years. Not sure where the boyfriend ended up…

Life is good! I have finally worked through the killer bee thing, and I have a fulfilling yoga practice, a cool job (I won't tell you where, but you might be able to guess if you look in the upper left hand corner of this web page) and more incredible friends than I know what to do with. I intend to see as much of the world as I can and I hope to spend some time living in another country doing something wildly interesting at some point in the future. But for now, I am kicking it gratefully and happily in the city by the bay.