bio   by Lila

I was born in Metairie, Louisiana (a suburb of New Orleans) in 1977. I love New Orleans. It feels like home when I go there. Even the lady at the Popeye's drive thru cares about you. "Hi, dawlin'. Sarry fa makin' y'all wait!" That is a direct quote. I only wish it were possible to get desserts made with agave there. But I guess that would be an abomination.

I grew up in a middle-class neighborhood near Lake Pontchartrain. I used to run around in the street barefoot and do cartwheels down the levee. In retrospect, we probably didn't have a lot of money.. my parents got married young and had three kids.. but it never seemed that way. I took dancing, piano lessons, played sports, ate a ton of candy.. all the important things were covered. Anything that could be classified as a "hardship" never seemed that way, and now I appreciate those things, because strife builds character! And perspective.

When I was young, in addition to physical activity, I loved art. It was my favorite thing to do in school, although we only did it occasionally. And when my across the street neighbors and my brother and I used to play "store"*, I used to sell the pictures I drew.

I also loved acting. Anytime we'd do an aloud reading of a play in school, I was excited to participate. Whenever I saw child actors on TV, I thought, "I can do that!" Although I never thought of acting or art as career choices. Maybe they were too fun. I'd used to say I wanted to be a lawyer.

*"store": a game my across the street Nicaraguan neighbors and my brother and I made up where we would distribute equal amounts of Monopoly money and then run fake stores selling random stuff from the around the house, like jewelry, etc.

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