Away

This has been my first official week in my new home away from home. I lucked into a small makeshift studio behind the garage of a client's in-laws' home.


On day one, no hot water. On day two, 5 minutes of hot water. Perhaps I need to take shorter showers. Overall, I am happy to have my own tiny little place rather than various hotel rooms.

I bought some groceries, made my first dinner, watched some TV...did I mention the WiFi doesn't really reach my studio from the main house?

A few bumps in the road but...I am glad to have an actual home away from home.

Politics of a Party

Birthday parties. Why is this hard for me? Max is turning 6 yrs old and wants to have a Lego Star Wars party. Fine. I can make a Lego cake. I can create fun activities and games. I cannot for the life of me figure out the proper invitation etiquette.

OK, so for those of you without kids or without kids in this age range, please keep your snickering to yourself. My issue is that I don't want to hurt any little person's feelings. We are not going to invite his entire class over. We need to choose up to 6 to 7 kids but then, they talk and then they ask why they aren't invited....awkward.

So yes, I will make a birthday snack for the classroom to dull the rejection but still, I feel sort of bad. Where do you draw the line? And, there are kids I want invited and those I don't but its not my party. But, I am the mom. I am assuming this will all be so clear and easy when I get here with Aiden. Right now, it takes me back to wedding invitations and who gets left out.

And no, I did not bake and make that "Troy" birthday cake. I just put it there to show you what I am up against. I thought by taking a stand against big pricey parties I had this thing beat. I was wrong. Its easier to just say, invite everyone, but then its chaos, just as expensive....

I need some corn chips.

Driving

I know. If you aren't supposed to text while driving, you certainly aren't supposed to be snapping pictures.

This one makes me nauseous just looking at it. Which is kind of how I felt. Sick just descended on me yesterday afternoon while in Shafter, CA.

Over the last few weeks, I have been experimenting with how to stay engaged, awake, alert while driving long distances. I listen to different radio stations, the news, podcasts, books on tape and I call friends and family (not very often as I have to look at the phone to dial-not so safe).

Some favorite podcasts, lately, are: The Rachel Maddow Show, Bill Moyers, New Yorker Fiction, Planet Money. I just finished listening to My Life, written and read by Bill Clinton. Really good and very interesting. Yes, he cleaned his story up a bit BUT he really gives a great insider view of Washington, being the President, and how things really go down (yes, he discusses Ms. Lewinsky). A bit depressing but it deserves first prize at keeping me safe on the road for many hours.

I am also listening to Pandora but need to branch out from the same (and favorite) girly sounds I have been listening to. Suggestions welcome.

Oooooo spooky

This is how I started my day.

I finally got to experience this famous "Tully Fog" that everyone warned me about. The main thing is that you have to drive very slowly. And it means I can't text message as I drive. Speaking of....(calm down, I'm partially joking), speaking of texting while driving, did you realize that this is just illegal if you are under 18 years old? What kind of new law is that?

Homeward bound

During my last hour or so of driving home from Bakersfield, I got to see the sunset. So, its not so bad, all this driving. I might have missed this beautiful sky had I already been home.

What a ball!

January 20th, 2009. Barack Hussein Obama become the 44th president of the United States of America.
Max took an oath of his own:
Last night we had or own inaugural ball.

And it was really fun. Even the most cynical got pictured with our new president. And why not?


The Teelings:
Gwen and her sock:


Mario and Monisha:
Maria and Luciano:

OK, so the arts and crafts table at our party was more of a hit with the grown ups.


Not to be outdone, Max corrected the image of his new president.

The standard line at this point is, "so now the work begins..." but I'm thinking, we HAVE been working, and it was great to take a break to celebrate, break some bread, drink some wine and breathe a sigh of relief.

I may have to go to Tulare today, but I still have a bit of a skip in my step.

Surviving week 1

289 + 282+ 176.4 = 747.4 miles in one week. That's just three days of driving. My new territory. So, I am trying to see the positive spin on this and for real, there are a few upsides of being away from home and sitting in a car for many hours at a time.

1. Sightseeing
2. Learning about new cultures
3. Meeting criminals and gathering great stories to tell at some later time (over many drinks)
4. Learning to text safely while driving. Oh, that's right, its illegal.

So my first stop last week was in Fresno.
I got there pretty quickly, under 3 hours and had a few meetings, shaking hands and meeting a few new clients. While there, I dropped the name of my new landlord-to-be (the guy who is renting me a room in his lovely house starting toward the end of the month) and my clients went silent. Then nervous laughter.

Does Grand Theft Auto mean anything to you? Well, to me it just brings up images of silly movies but there are people in real life who steal cars professionally, in bulk, if you will. So that is kind of the deal with my almost landlord-to-be. Too bad. He seemed like a nice guy, but I guess he's going away for a bit and will be wearing some striped clothes pretty soon. Do guys in jail still wear zebra clothes?

Next stop, Bakersfield. I arrived at night and was exhausted. It wasn't until morning that I smelled the manure. I am a city girl. Just spoiled. I'd rather smell coffee brewing, or chocolate or even bread baking (as if I ever smell bread baking). Ah well. I spent a good part of the day in this very far away city and then drove and drove and drove home. Do you realize that Bakersfield is almost LA? Shit. No, apparently still manure.

Final new city for the week was Oakdale,

which, I am not sure qualifies as a city no matter what they tell you.

I am very excited to report that there is a Cowboy Museum which I cannot wait to investigate and, the town/city has an annual rodeo every second weekend in April. This seemed VERY exciting to me, the ex-New Yorker, since I have never been to a rodeo and I thought it would further bond me perhaps to BZ and his parents since they are from Rodeo country (Texas, right?). BZ asked if I knew what a rodeo was really like and if I was sure I wanted to set up this family outing for real...apparently they make Barnum and Bailey look like the good guys.

Next week, Chowchilla (that's just fun to say), Fresno, Clovis and Modesto. I'm bringing Netflix, knitting projects, Audio books ....and a sense of humor.