It's an odd little moment when you contemplate what you picked up along the way and from whom, and what of it lasted. First Love gave me my affection for

• typography
• John Waters
• early Pedro Almodovar
• religious iconography
• potato guns
• disco
• early grrrl films (Dykes on Bikes, Faster Pussycat!, etc.)
• Factory-crowd biographies
• unnatural hair color and the process of obtaining it
• sauerkraut

We met when I was 15 and hung out for a few years. I’m 31 now, so I’ve kept these things for half my life. There's lots of stuff that didn't stick, of course. Like being vegan.