this is an apple I got from Amma
Exactly two days after I wrote the post titled "I like where I am now" our landlady gave us notice to vacate the premises. Mind you it was more than thirty day's notice, which was awfully nice of her. And she is actually a sweet lady from Taiwan who has given us pomegranates from her tree and fresh eggs from her chickens...But since we are leaving town for two weeks, and the holidays are coming and all (I haven't even been able to think about gifts), and I still hadn't even unpacked completely in the new house I am now living in (had been in for eighteen whole days when she gave us notice)...well it was a bit much, despite the brimming baskets of pomegranates I'm gazing at at the moment.
Of course to add more fun to the last several days, Gary left town the very next day after we got notice, so I am now looking for housing, on my own, with Sky as my co-pilot as Annabel and Shawn attend school. I have four days to figure this out before we fly back home for the holidays. We return to California January 1, and then we still have a few weeks to look if we haven't found a new home.
Thank God for GoogleMaps, since I am still getting to know my way around these here parts. After all it has only been months we've been here.
Someone asked me if I was stressed about having to move again. Of course it's a pain, but what good does it do to get overly stressed? You just have to do what you need to do, and deal.
I think I found us a place. It's in a more urban setting, around the corner from a gas station, a Marshalls, and an otherwise typical American strip mall, something we Americans are most proud of with all its charm. But the townhouse itself is nice and clean and has space for all of us, and our instruments. This currently includes drums, three guitars, a bass, and a keyboard. Because, after all, these folks I live with aren't quite right if they don't have their instruments.
I'm just bummed because, as you remember, "I like where I am now," and the main reason is that I am in the countryside, where I can see trees everywhere I look and take a walk and breathe fresh air. I don't care it it's cold outside. I don't care if it rains. Eventually the sun shines because this is California people. And the sun always shines in California...eventually. And when the sun comes out after a rain there is this glow to everything here. The plants are vibrating with joy as if to say, "Look at me, I'm alive!!!"
Oh well. Living here has been good so far.
Annabel has a free math tutor who is some techie genius, she sees him often for marathon sessions on weekends, because in case you didn't know dear reader,
math is fun!! She is also starting a band called Axiom, it's Annabel and three guys because she is just plain cool. And the guys are good players. They recently played at a school talent show, they were the final act, and they were great. Annabel is taking physics, math, theater, history, Spanish, PE, and creative writing. She is getting good help with college prep. She has made a ton of friends and always has something new to do on weekends, including ice skating last weekend. Mostly she likes galavanting around University Avenue with her friends, getting sweet tea with tapioca, and playing her music. Her alternative rocker chick friend from across the bay comes to visit occasionally, and they connect. I like to see the outfits this girl chooses.
Shawn is also happy here. He is in a great school, and after a stint with a girlfriend, and a break up with said girlfriend, he has become part of a group of boys that have banded together, and Shawn seems to have been instrumental in this organic formation. He's quite popular. Last Friday I picked him up at one of the boy's houses and I walked into a scene of a group of boys in the middle of a nerf gun battle, pizza boxes everywhere. It was so up his alley. Good for him to be with boys. He's twelve after all. I had to drag him away but only after I talked to the dad, who is a Stanford child psychiatrist, for an hour. We talked shop for awhile and I remembered I had a brain, and all the things I used to know and do when I worked in mental health came back to me. I realized I really miss working. I met one of the boy's moms whose husband works in music, and we all talked about music, as the psychiatrist has a recording studio that he works in for a hobby. Because everyone in Silicon Valley does things, and does many things, and does them well. We all laughed about how we were talking about music when most folks in these parts are scientists and engineers. We decided we needed to have a potluck multi-family hangout night, and rock out.
Sky is doing well, and figuring out her next step in life and how this move fits into her plan. She is interested in nursing, music, theater, art, sewing, dance, anatomy. She is taking this time as a gap year after graduating high school. She got really sick last year so she needed this time to rejuvenate. She is doing fine now. She is a strong girl and having her around has been fun for me.
Gary is busy with work and his music. There is a company in Chicago interested in re-releasing his music, the old stuff and the current stuff. Pretty cool. He likes to watch sports on the weekend and I like having the television on in the background. It reminds me of my childhood. He is my mostly companion.
I am making friends here. It is so nice. I have two new friends, one from India and one who is French Canadian. People are warm and welcoming here and want to connect. I like that.
I have an idea for work brewing...and I want to teach meditation to the stressed out middle schoolers and high schoolers at Annabel and Shawn's school. Both of my kids think it would be cool for me to offer that. I have no idea how I have escaped them being embarrassed of me, and my interest in all things alternative, but I have, at least with this.
One of the doctors we saw a while ago told me meditation is considered hip among teens in Silicon Valley.
So we shall see.
Onward my friends, onward.
