I was in my early twenties, still working as a fashion writer at the San Jose Mercury News, when I lived with a couple talented art students by Ocean Beach. Cassie was studying illustration and teaching ballet on the side. Mary was majoring in graphic design and moonlighting in marketing and PR for a local magazine.
It was the typical twenty-something roommate pad–a cute but ever so rickety San Francisco house a little too cramped for our mishmash of stuff. Our dining room doubled as Cassie’s bedroom, and she had a feisty Shiba Inu named Kiva that we dubbed our unofficial mascot. We were all carefree single girls, living it up in the city, constantly inspired by each other’s creativity.