It isn’t that often you meet a guy like Yogi Bair. And yeah, you might have to hike 11 or so miles uphill into the backcountry of the wilds to find him…but it is so worth it.

I met Yogi last summer when Katie (see www.katiearnoldi.com) and I spent a few days at Bear Paw in the Sequoia Mountains. And Yogi is unlike anyone you’ll ever meet…and not just because he lives the majority of his life in the wilderness (and could probably fight off an angry mountain lion with stick)…but also because he is genuine, cool and hilarious. I wrote all about him here:

http://www.mayasloan.com/goin-to-the-backcountry/

At Katie’s urging, Yogi wrote a book about his adventures living in the backcountry…and I swear it will blow your mind. He’s what Hemingway – “roughing it” on a weekend camping trip or traipsing on safari with a battalion of servants – only wished he had the guts to be.

Yogi went to the outback to escape society…and he ended up staying. This is a man who spends months surviving on his own in the wilderness…and this book could only have been written the kind of guy who doesn’t give a damn what the world thinks of him or what deems appropriate. The book is raw and honest. Not to mention hilarious and emotional.

So meet Yogi Bair…and read his book. This guy is the real deal.

Yogi’s website

Nazy was a member of our family.  Not by blood, but it didn’t matter…she was part of us.  She posed in family portraits, she was there on every occasion that mattered.  When people learned that she was sick, they’re response was always shock.  “But she’s so young…she looks so healthy.”  And honestly, that was a choice on her part.  I’ve never seen someone fight so hard against a disease.  Nazy never gave up.  She was funny, sweet, cheerful, loving until the very end.  This is her final Facebook post, less than a week before she passed:

Nazy Baskin what can I say, life is always a challenge!

Right before she died, my brother asked Thomas to draw her a picture.  My brother builds motorcycles, and Nazy loved them too…she also loved elephants.  Greg wanted a picture to put on his motorcycle…something cool and funny that would make her laugh.  “A memorial,” he told me.   “I want to show it to her.  It will make her happy.”

I was shocked.  “A memorial?  But she’s not dead!” I said.

“She will be soon.  You have to face that.  I have.  So has she.  She’s happy now.  She’s happy the struggle will finally be over.”

It was just hard to imagine Nazy actually dying…until the end, she chose to go through life seeing the goodness around her.  Even when she was dying, she chose to be alive.

When I think of Nazy, I will always come back to this word:  grace.  She was one of those rare women who were born with it.  Grace, beauty, style, eloquence in everything she did – in the way she smiled at you, in her laugh, in her approach to the world. I’ve been told, even in the end, despite the pain, she was still the Nazy we all loved – warm, hopeful, kind.  She went out this world like she lived in it.

I will really, really miss her.

Facebook is weird because you smack headfirst into your past…whether you are looking for it or not.  Ex-boyfriends, people you went to school with, that goth dude you used to hang out with in food court of the mall…

And sometimes it sucks.  But then, sometimes, it is kinda great.

So, I’ve been wondering where Carl and Remy were all these years…

Over ten years ago, when I dropped out of college for a year and moved to NYC, I auditioned for a group called CITYKIDS.   CITYKIDS is still going strong to this day.

CITYKIDS WEBSITE
In 1985, cultural activist Laurie Meadoff founded CityKids as a non-profit, multicultural youth organization located in New York City. She began by working with a group of 10 young people from across the City.  Since then, the CityKids Foundation has grown to service over 650 youth directly in CityKids programs every year, led by CityKids staff and senior youth participants. CityKids performances, workshops, and mass media productions touch the lives of an additional 75,000

some famous CITYKIDS alums

I’d never lived in a place like NYC…and I didn’t know shit about the world…and lots of the kids in CITYKIDS were real citykids…born and raised in NYC.  And even though I was some white chick from Oklahoma who didn’t even know most of their slang or the cool basketball players, they were my friends.

To graduate to the CITYKIDS rep, you had to perform a final show.  I had no dance training, and could not get the moves for the hip-hop dance we had to do…and Carl stood in front of the mirrors and showed me, step by step, for four hours.  He was so damn patient while I stumbled around.  When I’d get frustrate he’d just say, Okay, calm down, you’ll get this.  I promise. And I did.  I mean, it wasn’t necessarily pretty…but I got it, graduated, and was in the rep.

I’ve looked for Carl since then…Googled him, asked around…but I heard so many different things.  Then, boom, I run into another CITYKID, Remy, on Facebook.

Maya and Remy then

Now he's married with a gorgeous wife and children …and he's a businessman!   You did good, Remy. I swear, though, you'll always be a kid to me…remember when you took me to Harlem, Remy?  I mean, way before it was gentrified.  You showed me the Apollo, Studio Museum…I was the only white girl I saw there, but that was okay…you made me feel like I was safe and belonged.  I’d only read about Harlem, and you actually showed it to me…and though your eyes I understood it was beautiful.

So, through Remy, I found Carl again!:

And then, out of nowhere, Laurie Meadoff (who started CITYKIDS), posted this picture of us online:

Maya and Carl then

Crazy, huh?

So y’know that sterotype about people in publishing being stuffy, boring old men ?  Well, let me prove that whole concept outdated and wrong…look at these hot chicks:

Megan McKeever (editing genius),  Erica Feldon (publicity goddess) and Kerrie Loyd  (marketing guru and OKIE!)

Yeah, these ladies are my team at Simon & Schuster…yeah, that’s right, I got a team.  And my team took me to Sak’s for lunch, got me drunk on S&S’s dime, and made me laugh hysterically…and  besides being hot, they are pretty damn brilliant.  So f— that old sterotype about publishing being full of boring pretentious idiots…’bout time publishing got exciting, and these are just the chicks to do it!

And PS, I’m not saying this to suck up, ‘cause I already got (and spent) my advance…I really had the best time and feel so lucky to have these amazing woman helping me on my book!