At the time of my article, I was training in the Brazilian martial art and dance form capoiera. I knew guys who were also training in Gracie jiu jitsu. At one point, someone gave me a classified ad: An anonymous donor wanted to pay two women to fight for him, on tape. Did I want to answer it?

It has been great to get back into the classroom with face-to-face contact with students. No one wants to talk about the pandemic anymore, except that I think we talk about it all the time beneath the surface. I'm conscious how much it means to show up, in person. I have been trying to bring a lot of energy to the classroom, and perhaps as a result, or perhaps just because I came back, one of my students suggested that the student paper write an article about me. I kind of assumed would just be a squib on the fact of my return, but they published an entire full page feature. Can you hear me blushing? Sports Editor Olivia Nunez put real care into the writing. I'm honored and touched.

Steffie Nelson, Stacie Stukin, Jori Finkel and I read from our essays about Joan Didion at the Santa Monica Library — Stukin is with me above.

Also, around this time, The Atlantic where a reporter visited some of the locations that I had discovered were connected with Didion, in my primary reporting on the Didion family’s holdings.

Said other reporter may have been encouraged, perhaps by someone in a fact-checking position, to cite my work directly—which she did.