I was born in what was a small town at the time called Zemun, now a part of the capital city of Jugoslavia, Beograd (Belgrade). My father moved us to the USA when I was 2 years old. We first stayed with my uncle in San Francisco until my father could find a job and make enough money for us to get our own place. However, my father & uncle never got along, so my father got as much work as he could, including at the San Francisco landmark Tadich Grill restaurant, and shortly after we moved into our own flat on Parnassus Avenue, near U.C. Hospital. I have vague recollections of having, not tea, but "Coffee Parties," making my own coffee by mixing dirt & water in the backyard because it looked to me like the thick, dark Turkish coffee my father liked to drink and creating gourmet meals of raw, dry beans and cat food.  I guess you could say I was a bit "adventurous" and creative,  even back then . . . Not surprising it ended up including writing, eh!? ; ) 

~ Award for Achievement in Poetry, National Library of Poetry

~ Certificate of Achievement, S.F. Children"s Opera

~ Honor Role (English Dept,), Galileo Institute of Technology, S.F.