IT ALL begins with coffee. At home I program my coffee maker the night before so that I can stumble bleary-eyed into the kitchen the next morning and find an entire pot waiting for me. Yet for eight years working as a flight attendant and, following that, almost as many years as a writer attending writers retreats and conferences, I crept into lobbies and cafeterias in my pajamas hoping no one would notice me as I poured that first cup, slinking
