My hometown of Detroit, Michigan, ensured that I not go forth meekly into the world. Detroit is a mug-or-get-mugged kind of town, if you hadn't heard. So I took my Motor-City-Mama self off to college in Kalamazoo, where I wrote a plethora of papers about books I had to read. Exciting? Hey, it beat biology and was easier than calculus.
    To my misfortune, Kalamazoo was not as fun as it sounded, and after three years, I had to scoot. So I took the end of my education down to New Orleans and whooped it up as I finished my English degree.
    Four years later, I had finally gotten my fill of the southern hospitality and aimed my trusty Corolla west. After a year of ocean-side San Diego living, I spent another three years in the vicious sprawl that is Los Angeles. And now, I've returned to my northern roots, settling again on the steep streets of San Francisco.