I've been preoccupied with fashion since
        I dropped out of school on my sixteenth
      birthday and started working on Seventh  
    Avenue as a sketch artist. Fourteen years
  and quite a few jobs later (designer, 
 stylist, writer, model agent, fashion 
editor, publisher, even bartender),       
I still can't get it out of my system.
 My boyfriend David has always been 
   supportive of my fashion endeavors
     and has always made sure I ate dinner
       during countless lean periods when
         that check was "in the mail."
            
             
             

                            
  We've been together nine years.
    You can imagine all the changes we've
      both gone through in that time. One
        change in particular profoundly affected 
          us both. It was David's journey down
           a spiritual path which eventually 
            brought him to Buddhism.
     
           I didn't understand it at first--
          I mean, David is your (semi-)typical
         New York Jew. Whereas I had completely
       shunned my Protestant upbringing, 
      David still went to temple and could
    even understand what the fuck the
  rabbi was talking about.