Saturday, January 05, 2013

Happy Birthday, Grandson #1!


Hard to believe it's been six years since James joined our family. Now he can put together a Lego set all by himself. he also can let one of his little brothers pose with him with teh finished product.

I'd write more but I'm exhausted after a long drive back from Sacramento in the rain, and a long search for a parking place.

The teens worked hard to make the birthday party a success -- last night decorating and today running games for the many kids on hand.

That's family.

-30-

Thursday, January 03, 2013

All right, then, welcome to a new year

As the supposedly momentous turn of the year completes its gradual cycle, given that many people are not working or re-attending school until next Monday, I'm finding each day to be a blur, much like the day before, and no doubt the day after.

Yet there are moments. My friend J, now living in NOLA, returned for a brief visit and yesterday came by. The best part is she and the kids got to reconnect for the first time (in the boys' case) in seven years.

With no steady partner the past decade, I love it when my friends and exes get to see the teenagers now. They are all tall, lovely and articulate; funny, smart and kind. She was good and natural with them, and as she left, paid my youngest a complement: "You are a beautiful young woman."

That beautiful young woman and I then proceeded to fight traffic across town to Kaiser, where she was due for a checkup. Her doctor, a lovely young Asian woman, told me she is now at the 84th percentile in height (nationally) for her age, which came as no surprise, and that she has grown almost three inches taller over the past year.

Thank God for hummus!

Dinner with two dear friends on a cold night. Writers and intellectuals who care about ideas, mourn the loss of opportunity for those of us who continue to do so, but have not given up hope yet.

Back home to the silence of my flat. Sometimes this silence is comforting. Last night it was. I had too many conflicted feelings and hopes swishing around in my brain.

Today I started sorting it all out. Do I wish to be connected, intimately, with another adult in what time I have left or not?

Will I try to write the story of my life or not?

Should I add up the numbers, and realize how dire my own financial future may or may not be or not?

Or shall I just live in the moment, forgetting all of these momentous issues, and write whatever foolishness comes into my brain.

If you've read this far, you certainly recognize that the choice has already been made.

Welcome to 2013. Who knows where it will take us?

-30-


Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Me and Biggie

The cat my kids adopted, Biggie, has two lives.

One is when he is with me, alone in this flat. In that life he is shy, usually hiding in corners or other safe places.

The other is when my teens are here, when he comes out and moves up next to them on the couches or beds, lets them pet him and even occasionally purrs.

But when it's just him and me, I never try to force him to change his patterns; I figure that over time he will figure out I am also a harmless, shy creature, not really all that good at social interactions, at least not when I have to initiate them.

So I suppose I get where he is coming from, and maybe he is gradually getting to know my shyness as well.

Quite honestly, I do not know how to handle another creature living here with me. The only others who have stayed here with me, besides my kids, have been human females.

Now, I am much more comfortable living with females than males -- humans or animals. Who knows why or who even wants to know why.

But since no female I know of wants to live here with me, or is likely to take the action necessary to make that a reality, I guess I am stuck with Biggie.

It's just him and me, two awkward males without a clue.

Sometimes that's how life turns out, in the end...Strange roommates.

I do wish he would pay his part of the rent.

-30-

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Rosemary, Mint & Year's End

As we prepare for a likely fall over the fiscal cliff, the doomsday warnings remind me of December 31, 1999 and the y2k theory. I remember filling our car up with gas in Maryland, where we lived at the time, before traveling around the Beltway to my sister's house in Virginia that New Year's Eve.

Predicted disaster did not ensue that time around.

This time it is not a technology issue but a political one. Competing theories of government's role in a capitalist economy have come forehead to forehead, with neither side inclined to blink. Watching CNN tonight, I can see that the rhetoric chosen by Democrats and Republicans is still aimed at nothing more than public relations, as whatever backroom deal they may be negotiating succeeds or fails to pass the House, in the only vote that matters.

The Senate has had the votes to pass a reasonable compromise all along. Inside the Beltway, it is known as the house of Congress where the "adults" work, as opposed to the other chamber.

Be that as it may, the House is theoretically more representative of the nation, since every state, large or small, has two Senators, regardless of population. The House, by contrast, has 435 members allocated by the population distribution -- thus California has the largest delegation in that chamber, followed by other populous states.

From my time in Washington, covering the political system up close, what I remember most vividly is how image-oriented all the politicians I met were. There was the occasional policy wonk, who cared more about what would actually change things for the better, but most seemed far more concerned about looking good, raising money for their next election cycle, and cutting down their opposition.

During the brief time my roommate was a U.S. Senator, I learned just how much of his time had to be devoted to raising money and/or talking to donors. Basically, it was every available hour outside of actually meeting with his caucus or with the Senate as a whole.

Nothing I saw in D.C. increased my confidence in our federal government. Don't even get me started about our state government in Sacramento, which I've also witnessed up close.

I actually have more faith in local government, which despite many problems, remains most closely in touch with citizens and their concerns.

Not that it necessarily does a good job of addressing those concerns much of the time. But we have a fairly responsive government here in the city of San Francisco. Come to think of it, I must find someone at City Hall to discuss the mess DPT has made along my route from here to Bernal.

They've messed up the intersection of Bryant and 24th. I know this is TMI for most of you but as I drive this route a thousand times every year, it really matters to me. More than the fiscal cliff, if you want to know.

I don't earn enough money to pay taxes and I don't rely on any publicly funded services, other than Medicare, so if they go over the cliff, I doubt it will matter much to me personally. On the other hand, like most Americans, I'm thinking of my country as a whole, and wondering whether it really cam be a world leader much longer with such a dysfunctional political standoff, led not by leaders but elected officials reluctant to lead.

Happy New Year?