Catherine Gigante-Brown

8. Educate, don’t fixate.

I immediately developed a hot-and-heavy girlcrush on the wild, wacky, brash, candid, feminist, rubber-faced comedian—and you should too.

Alas, I am the lone female in a house full of men. Only two men, but they take up a lot of space.

My husband and I agreed: raising a child with an independent spirit who made decisions for himself was a good thing.

BCBs are loud and proud and refuse to go down easy. And quietly. We have things to say. We have things to teach. We still have life to live. And damn it, we are and we will. With one breast. With no breasts. With reconstruction surgery.

TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) has been around for at least five centuries –– there’s got to be something to it.

I know it’s not a politically correct one, but I’ve got a confession to make: earth-friendly hotels stink. There, I said it.

I fumbled with my lace bra, hoping my silicone form wouldn't fall out from the left cup. I wasn't exactly ready . . . yet I was.

Why, when I'm cool with being a salt-and-pepper chick, does it so clearly unnerve others?

I left Cuba in 1949, when I was 11 years old. Back then, I didn't understand why my mother sent me away. I still don't.