Tag Archives: California
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
Goldilocks and the Three, Um, Colleges
Okay, she has dark brown hair, and we visited four colleges, not three, but it still had that feeling of trying out beds, porridge, and cultures for fit. College 1: “This college is too impersonal! Cars drive right through campus, … Continue reading
It Must Be SoCal
Okay, I haven’t worn a string bikini in public in over twenty years. This is Southern California, though. I’m with my glamorous 17-year-old, and there are palm trees and a Jacuzzi. If not now, then when? We’re here for two … 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
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
