Category Archives: these are the days of my lives

Before:

You can’t really tell just how long it’s all hanging back there in this photo, but it was stupidly long.  Enough so that my hair lady chopped off a pony tail to send to Locks of Love.

After:

I am definitely pro-bangs.  I just wonder if I am pro-pseudo-Joan-Jett…

I was reading the latest Good Magazine about neighborhoods and their value to us as happy humans.  There were articles about about what makes a neighborhood desirable, and what characteristics were unique to specific places.  It gave some suggestions about how to make your own neighborhood more neighborhoody, and I decided that I am going to say “hello” to anyone I pass when I’m walking down my street.  It’s just a 3 block long residential stretch.  I’m too much of a nerd to try it down the commercial bits; there are way too many people there.

But I will say hello.

I’ve been here for 5 years now.  I’m not a native, but it’s long enough that I belong.  And long enough that I’m not still pretending that I should be moving back to San Francisco at any moment.  These are the neighbors that I get.  In a *good* world, these should be my people, and not the strangers that I ignore, eyes averted.  But it’s Oakland.  People are transient.  No one stays for long and there are no roots.  Except the roots that we make, and the way of it is, that you have to choose — to actively burrow, and  dig, and nurture, and reach to make these roots.

Maybe you are my neighbor and you will wave when you drive by.

Maybe you will give me a hand if I drop my bag of groceries.

Maybe you are my neighbor and we will never cross paths again.

Maybe you will think it’s weird.

But you are my neighbor and I will say hello.

I am having troubles putting down a little bit in writing.  Partially it feels like I’ve not got anything to say, but then I think about all the things that have happened and that seems crazy.  Or lazy.  Oopsy daisy.

Right.

So before I forget that these things have even happened, I’m just going to jot them down a little bit.  Maybe I’ll come back for more.  We’ll see.

I have another job interview tomorrow.  I’m not particularly optimistic about getting it, which also means that I’m not desperately wanting it.  I suppose I’m not also doing a super job of prepping for it, but scoff.  I am feeling a bit disdainful of all the work you’re “supposed” to do for a job interview and then they opt not to give you the damn job.

I got another nephew.  Leonard was born on April 10.  And while he might be called Leo, my brother chose to name his offspring Leonard and if that’s not proof that he needs a really good therapist, then there is no such thing as proof.
And then Leo had a thing with his bowel and he had to have surgery when he was 3 days old and there was a lot of unhappiness and worry about this, but it seems like he must be fine now.  I will go see him later when he’s less boring.

My very good friend Nina ran in the Big Sur marathon on Sunday, so the David and I went down to see her.  We stayed in a big old victorian mansion bed & breakfast and it was flowery^5 and cute and I liked it a lot.  It was a gorgeous sunny weekend, and a nice drive down, and the first weekend in months and months that I’d had the David at home, not in Tahoe, and not working all weekend.  Nina survived the marathon.  It was kind of a miracle.  To me anyway.

Lastly, peas are finally in season and I’m not eating another apple for 6 months.

We’ve just turned off the lights, and because he is a boy, David has fallen asleep almost instantaneously.  Because I am me, I am awake and thinking about completely random stuff.  Last night, I was remembering a story that David told me about a kid from his school who once snobbishly made some disparaging opine about those who overcook their pasta.

“David?”

“Mrphmmmm?”

“What did that kid in your school say about al dente pasta?”

“He said that people who cook their pasta more than al dente, he hates them.”

“He hates them?”

“Yes.  Well.  Something like that.”

Huh.  Well that wasn’t as interesting as I was imagining it might be.  This story that I was hoping to play out in my head a bit more has fallen rather flat.  Because that story about the pasta snob really should have been awesomely compelling.
But, I’m still awake.  Maybe I can get David to tell me something else interesting.

“What sort of people do you hate?”

“Me?  I don’t hate anyone.”

I have a long think about who the David might hate.  Surely there must be some group of people who incites his ire.

“What about bad mergers?  Don’t you hate them?”

“Yes, I hate mergerers.”

Did he just say “mergerers?”  Mergerers?  What the hell is a mergerer?

“No, not murderers!  Mergers!  Bad mergers!”

“People who won’t merge in lanes?  They annoy me,” he says.

“But you don’t hate them?”

“No.”

“Ok, but wait a minute.”

“What?”

“You hate murderers then?”

“I just don’t like them.”

And then I get the giggles.  Possibly David wishes that I would just be quiet.