Waking Up from The American Dream

Bouncing Back chronicles the redirection of Laura Seitz, as she remakes her career and launches a new business called, “Cheeky Quilts.”  This is the story within the greater stories about bouncing back. 

Cranes, Cheeky Quilts

The Garment District

I love going to the LA garment district.  Or I should say, I have come to love it. There were many obstacles to be overcome – where to park, where to shop, what to pay.  I started going on Sundays when street parking is free and the stores are not so crowded. Little by little, week by week, fueled by the desire for a bargain, I walked every street, went in every store, and touched every bolt of fabric. I was unusually friendly and outgoing, asking people’s names and remembering them the next time I went in. Ari, Javier, Fidel, Gloria, I don’t have to take notes to remember them or what they are good at, some brain chemistry of enjoyment makes it easy.  I practice my negotiating, not easy for a WASP like me. After my shopping is done I indulge myself with street food; there’s so little of it in LA. I get juicy spears of watermelon from the family on Maple and churros from across the street when I am jonesing for something sweet and greasy. I have tried most of the hot dog vendors, and my favorite is on Wall Street between eighth and ninth, they have spicy mustard and the best grilled onions and peppers and bottled water, not just sodas, and a cute baby who reaches out to me to hold him. I am in my village, saying hello to my fellow citizens as I stroll. I have never known anything like this, I’ve never been so comfortable in grit and confusion and litter. It is not a chore, it is a pleasure. I take surface streets to get downtown instead of the freeway, Pico going east and Venice going west. It’s like a trip around the world, past the golf course and through the Bagel Belt, into Salvadoran neighborhoods and the edge of Koreatown.  I can see the mountains behind downtown and the Hollywood sign to my left.

This is the world I hoped for when I was a girl living on an island in Michigan, watching the freighters go by.  It is not my idealized world of clean streets and plenty of parking, populated with people who look like me. I have had to expand to embrace it, I’ve had to learn to feel safe in what can be a threatening environment.  I had to come into my own, and I’ve done it. I’m humming to myself as I head home, glad to be here now.

The Birth of a Notion

Starting a Micro-business: Cheeky Quilts

Laura Seitz:  Boom, Boom, Pow!