Author: ruhlwrite

Fast and furious, the rain falls. Brianna Mercado, wearing a shirt the color of sunshine, is intently watching it through the living room window. There’s not a tear in her eyes. In fact, there’s a serene smile on her face. Brianna has a positive attitude. She’s not going to let it — or anything else in this world or the next — get her down. “I see myself as un-messable, which is a word I made up,” says Brianna, a tall woman with short auburn hair and intense…

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The bedroom, painted bright blue, looks like a little girl’s idea of a fairy tale. The fantasy furniture is covered with curlicues, and pictures of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella hang next to Broadway’s and . Loli, 16, just published her first novel. A sisterhood of American Girl dolls sits in a corner, staring at the spectacle. So it’s all the more surprising when 16-year-old Mariadolores “Loli” Alvarez walks in carrying a bunch of books about…

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Picky. It’s not a word that Stacey Ornstein usually uses, but it’s one that makes her plate too full. Stacey is the founder of Allergic to Salad. Picky. Stacey, who teaches after-school healthy-cooking classes to kids, wrinkles her nose when she utters the distasteful descriptive. “I have parents who tell me their children are picky eaters and are not going to eat anything we cook,” says Stacey, the founder of Allergic to Salad. “They say this in front of their kids,…

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The sound of silence in James Cruz‘ apartment is deafening. “Do you mind if I put on some music?” he pleads rather than asks. James fine-tunes the sounds on recordings. His apartment — home to him, his wife, Melissa, their 5-year-old son, Henry, and 11-month-old daughter, Stella, and thousands of CDs and vinyl records — is just too damn quiet for him to think even with a full cup of coffee in hand. James, a Grammy-winning mastering engineer, is used to listening to…

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The rush-hour regulars are lined up when John Zizzo steps behind the deli counter at Andrew & Frank’s Catering. John is the owner of Andrew & Frank’s Catering. He smiles, the happiness drawing little lines at the corners of his black eyes. There is no place he would rather be. In fact, there is no other workplace that he has ever been. Andrew & Frank’s and John came into this world together 48 years ago. Andrew, John’s father, and Frank, John’s uncle,…

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