My fantasy was to escape from the corporate grind. After a taste of freedom and months of hare-brained schemes, I begged to be captured again.

After leaving the Children of God, I was so proud to join the Army. But then I had to ask myself: Was I trading one culture of blind obedience for another?

Halfway through my gig on an ocean liner, a guest mysteriously disappeared — and I had to keep everyone laughing.

I was a zoo volunteer when my boyfriend became a star pitcher for Taiwan's version of the Yankees. But when I traveled to visit him, I might as well have been Kim Kardashian.