Waiting for Avalon to open?
This place? No. My boyfriend’s graduating from Apex Tech today. He’s almost 20. I’m a cougar!

Wow. How did you meet?
I was on my balcony and saw him in my neighbor’s pool. I had a dog and he had a dog.… We started talking and hanging out and next thing you know, we were together almost every day. It’s been three years.

Sounds like something from a movie, except usually it’s a man watching a younger woman swim.
Yeah. I mean, if these guys in their fifties and sixties can go out with 20-year-olds, why not a woman?

Hell, yeah. Do you ever feel like you mother him?
I don’t. He’s like a drill sergeant.

I’m sick of the word cougar. Got any new terms? Cradle robber doesn’t have a very nice ring.
[Laughs] Child molester? Nah. Pedophile—no. [Laughs] How ’bout a real person who looks at people for more than just their age and career? You have to see a human being as a human being. I practice Wicca: I believe we are all from the earth.

Do you hold séances?
No. I have psychic abilities, though. Things happen after I dream them. It freaks me out. It’s kind of like The Sixth Sense.

You see dead people?
[Laughs] No, but I used to sense shit when I walked into places. It scared me, so I shut off my inner psyche.

Do you cast spells?
I don’t. Believe me, I’ve made bad things happen just by wishing, and I felt terrible. If you send out negative energy, it comes back to you.

More thoughts from Brenda

“I’ve been a waitress for 25 years. A while back, a man left me a $5 tip on an $8 egg order. Next he left me, like, $10. Eventually he goes, ‘Listen, I know you work very hard, and I want you to have some spending money for yourself.’ And he handed me $300. Wherever I work, he follows.”

“My mother was a Sicilian stay-at-home mom and my dad was the party guy that went out and drank and had girlfriends on the side. They fought constantly. I’d never get married or have kids because I saw how she had to live.”

“I have a wild spirit. At 15 I was using hallucinogens and all kinds of pills, and used to carry bottles of tequila in my purse. I hung around with a lot of hard-core bikers; I would fight guys and everything. I didn’t care if I lived or died.”

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