Category Archives: Silicon Valley
Ready, Set, Go
My friend Konstanze helped me arrange my fish on the wall. When I first tried arranging them, I made the blue fish face the gold ones, but then it looked as though it was challenging them, and as though they … Continue reading
Can I Bubble Wrap the Moon?
You know how when you get a new PC at work, you crawl down under the darkness of the desk, blow away several years of dust, and start unplugging? The USB mouse-keyboard (green to green, blue to blue) and the … Continue reading
For Sale: Motorcycle with Memories Tangled in the Chain
Just home from Memphis yesterday, I drove into a traffic jam on 880, as cars crept by an accident. Lined up beside the median: one forest green minivan, one red sedan, one large man in black leathers lying on the … Continue reading
Some of the Men in My Silicon Valley Life
When you’re left to raise a child alone, it’s easy to feel resentful. Yeah, resentment goes down real easy some days, along with a feeling of failure on all fronts, exhaustion, and loneliness. But then you remember that the resentment … Continue reading
Empty
When my ex-husband first came to the U.S. in 1989, he had only ever been to China and Japan before. I thought he would love Monterey the way I did, with its quaint Victorian houses painted in pastels, its bright … Continue reading
Cicero’s
I won’t review the pizza. You’ll have to try it for yourself. What I love about Cicero’s is how much people love it. People drive for over 25 miles to visit this humble shopping strip restaurant across the street from … Continue reading
Star-Spangled Spandex
8 a.m. I thought Vasona Park would be peacefully empty.Never have I been so wrong. Half of Silicon Valley’s denizens have come out to jostle each other on this bike path. Quiet and determined, people of all ages, origins, and … Continue reading
Shifting into Maverick Mode
I’m back in Silicon Valley today. It feels so…Californian here. Succulent plants stretching brazenly in the sun, bright orange poppies, palm trees, scrubby desert trees, wide roads, high stress levels. People seem large and brash. In immigration, we had to … Continue reading
Kando-san’s Assurances
I have a colleague in Japan, “Kando-san,” who is the most literal person I’ve ever met. No metaphor can penetrate, no comparison illuminate. He does not read between the lines. Being a person who operates most comfortably in the abstract, … Continue reading
Starting at the End
I’m on the brink of many ends. I’m soon leaving Silicon Valley and moving to Osaka, Japan. My only daughter is approaching adulthood at the speed of light. And two weeks ago my father died. Somehow, when the guests are … Continue reading
July's Culture Medium 