Life of JEM: My Life In The Inland Empire

A BLOG ABOUT THE ZANY CHILDHOOD AND ADULT ADVENTURES OF A GIRL FROM THE INLAND EMPIRE WHO MOVED OUT OF THE INLAND EMPIRE ONLY TO END UP BACK IN THE INLAND EMPIRE.

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Big 40

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I turn forty in three weeks. Forty is supposed to be the new thirty, but it doesn't necessarily feel that way. There are some days whe...

Friday, August 26, 2011

girl time

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Tonight, watching a rerun of "Sex and the City". I am struck by the accurate way it portrays female friendship. As the four wome...

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Food Wise II

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On July 5th, I had my weight loss surgery and now, some seven weeks later, I am down forty pounds. Forty pounds. That is the weight of a s...

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Food Wise

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My relationship with food is complicated. The problem with food is that it is not something you can give up. You cannot go cold turkey o...

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Heartburn

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How does a marriage end? It is with a word? Is it a compilation of a little million pieces of disappointment? Is it with the thought of s...

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Surgery day

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I opened my eyes at three a.m to the sound of my alarm. The hospital had pushed my gastric bypass surgery up from ten in the morning to fiv...

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Mickey

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I had a cousin named Mickey when I was little. Mickey was fat. Very fat. He probably weighed over six hundred pounds. Obesity was less c...

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About Me

Juanita E. Mantz (JEM): JEM's life story is the stuff that memoirs are made of. JEM went from punk rock high school dropout to corporate lawyer to rock star deputy public defender and nonfiction writer. JEM's stories, blog and video podcast document her journey so take a look! Her YA memoir, "Tales of an Inland Empire Girl", is available via Los Nietos Press (and through all national retailers). Her book tells the poignant story of her chaotic YA life growing up in the IE. Her chapbook, "Portrait of a Deputy Public Defender, or how I became a punk rock lawyer", was also released in Aug 2021 by Bamboo Darts Press. JEM is married to her wonderful husband Adrian who is a dentist. They have two Shih Tzus, Frodo and Chewbaca (Chewie to his friends). Her work has been published in Aljazeera, The Acentos Review, The Dirty Spoon Radio Hour, Entropy, As/Us, Inlandia, & Mutha magazine, among others. Go to her author website for more info at https://juanitaemantz.com. JEM is in the creative writing MFA low residency program at UNO. She has presented at AWP, Beyond Baroque and the UCR Punk Conference.

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