Chan

I hadn't seen Chan in quite a while (3 years to be exact). But sure as you'll find stripes on a zebra, as I turned a corner at Design Alliance LA's new showroom in Pasadena, she says: "My Son! You are my Son!"

I quickly jumped at the opportunity to sit next to her as she cupped my face to confirm that her Son before her is indeed the young man she released into the wild 3 years ago.

When Chan talks, everyone listens. And when Chan talks, every single word clamoured like gold touching the rim of the pirates chest. She uses words like "bestowed, sexy, fortitude" the kind of words that make you want to carry Webster's Dictionary around.

She speaks of truth and wisdom. Love and art. Picasso and Dali. Salvador Dali. At a tender age of 16, as she remembers, she waited around the stalls in a Paris bookstore in order for that rare opportunity to meet Dali. She couldn't afford the expensive classes or to be trained by the classics so she tried a different tactic: stalk the shit out of him and woo him with the bat of her eyes. She didn't fail.

"Let me be your apprentice. I will clean up after you. I will cook. Let me train under you."

And she did.

She followed him to New York City. Part 2 of the story will soon follow - once I get the chance to see her again.

She is my mentor. And I didn't have to stalk the bookshelves in Paris for her.