Over a decade ago, I used to sling coffee for Peet’s Coffee on Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood. I learned a ton about coffee, tea, tastes, and cleanliness. I also learned that Almond Croissants cannot be eaten freely with no fear of consequence. After I stopped working there, I went decaf for a year just to purge my cells.

Before that, when I lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, I trained at Kikara, a kickboxing dojo. It was a belted system and I moved through the colours until I became an intermediate Green level. I even competed in a few intra-school competitions and medalled a few times. Today, you’ll see me down at Harbor Fitness in the boxing room knocking the heavy bags around and wishing I could still kick as high as before.

Even earlier in my timeline, after graduating with an undergrad in film + theatre during which my work-study jobs consisted mostly of organizing the theatre department’s costume shop, the first job I was able to find was as a costume designer for a regional professional theatre company in “Upper Canada” — Brockville, Ontario. I designed Annie, Snoopy, and a two-hander called Wrong For Each Other. Aside from forgetting to dry the socks once, and flooding my land-lady’s basement, it was a delightful summer wherein I learned that I did not want to be a costume designer for the rest of my life and promptly began an MBA. True story.

While an undergrad university student, I was home from school for the summer and my drive-thru position at McDonald’s was less than thrilling. Someone told me the local radio station was hiring a DJ and Overnight Producer for the summer, so I applied. And got the job! I spent three months literally cutting and splicing reel to reel audio tape in the morning — shows, commercials, ads — and doing the afternoon drive shift 2 pm to 5 pm on VOAR 1210 AM. Way better than greasy french fries!

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