My heritage is southern Italian. All my life, I’ve struggled with too much hair. Those cute dark curls I had as a little girl became increasingly problematic as I grew up. My brother quickly learned my weak spot and could bring me to tears with just a few words: “Cousin Itt”, “unibrow”, “mustache”. In high school, I wanted hair like Mary Travers in the folk group Peter, Paul & Mary (long, straight, optionally blonde). Instead, I had hair like Alice the female engineer in the Dilbert comic strip (wavy and wide like a pyramid).
Cousin Itt
Mary Travers
Alice
Last night, I joined Howie Shareff at the Urban Ministries women’s shelter in downtown Raleigh where he conducts a yoga class two evenings a month. This was my first experience with 
As a single woman who likes to ski and travel, I often signed up for group trips with a ski and outing club. Double-occupancy rooms are the norm with these organizations; if you are not going with a friend or partner, you can either be assigned a roommate by the trip leader or pay an extra charge. When I was younger and my sense of adventure was greater than my discretionary income, I would gamble and take a “pot-luck” roommate. Sometimes I made a new friend. Other times, the only positive outcome was a crazy story to tell. Here are two memorable events.
accidental goddess 