Hometown: Saint John, NB
High school: Saint John High

Hometown: Ottawa, ON
High school: St. Matthew Catholic

Sonic Youth. Kim Gordon was everything I wanted to be...if I could play an instrument halfway decent and didn't sing like a duck.

Almost exclusively British. I loved the Britpop bands—Blur, Pulp, Suede—and not just because they had good hair. The Manic Street Preachers were my favourites for their tragic punk aesthetic, spray-painted T-shirts and literary lyrics that were high on angst, and low on pretension. (Or so it seemed at the time…)

The Princess Bride. Holding out for true love became my mantra.

Some Kind of Wonderful. I still think it has the best kiss in the movies.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I still read this book at least twice a year.

On the Road, which thrilled me.

Still waiting for an out-of-town transfer.

Single, but full of crushes.

Murray, the boy down the street. In elementary school, he'd buy my Brownie cookies and taught me to play basketball, by high school he was my closest confidant. Only a true friend would warn you about sitting with the bad kids during math class and tutor you when you didn't listen.

Jillian, my best friend since I was three. By 16, we'd dissolved our Cha Cha Cha Club, but we still rounded up our younger sisters to put on musicals in the basement. Our most ambitious project? Frog Prince: The Next Chapter. Yikes.

To travel and fill a book with notes and pictures from each place visited. Still a work in progress....

A thousand different ones changing daily, but the constants were to learn to write well and how to make an Opera cake.