Moving along
Long time no post. Tamu and I have travelled many miles--I've been feeling like my life is one eternal transition--from B'klyn to San Francisco to the hinterlands of bar review and back and then off to new adventures in Oakland. And that's just the geography. There's the being overemployed to underemployed to soon being hopefully gainfully employed. Of course there's the ever present sense of displacement from my vibrant and often happily dysfunctional peoples in New York. I keep thinking that things will slow down soon and then I can finally collect my wandering thoughts, make some phone calls, write some real letters/emails, catch up with friends, read, be more of a weenie, but none of that that has really happened. But enough waxing philosophical. Navel gazing is boring. On to the status report.
Last we checked in, I was preparing to move from my cat pee digs into a fun place in downtown Oakland. Thanks to a corps of amazing friends and family, we were able to pack a large uhaul, 3 cars, an SUV, a minivan and 3 kitty carriers to complete the move in one trip! I am so grateful for all of the help. I'm still kind of blown away at how people helped us schlep what felt like 8000 boxes. As karmic payback, I vow to be an enthusiastic moving hand to whoever asks. So we moved on Saturday and spent Sunday playing a wily combination of Tetris and Concentration with the piles of boxes and stuff. I half-way expect to find Yukari or Elaine sleeping between a stack of boxes. They came to visit us on the SF side of our move and they had to carve out sleeping caves within the forest of cardboard and crap during their entire stay. They win the Being a Good Sport While Having to Spend Their Hard Earned Vacations With Crazed Friends Moving to the East Bay Award. The prize for Elaine is that I get to beat her at Scrabble. Yukari's prize is a Vietnamese sandwich and corn dog. This whole move is overwhelming, but there are so many many exciting things about this neighborhood. Our friend Eddie took us to the farmer's market on Sunday and we had a celebratory bubble tea from the place down the street. Jack got his first walk around the block and Hama-chan took in her new estate. Tamu is undergoing behavior modification therapy through a stint in solitary confinement. After reading up on cat psychology, we're trying to make this transition smoother than the last.
Joannie and I would really like to shed our cat pee lady identities.
In the middle of all this excitement, I accepted a full-time job at the Law
Center for Families in Oakland. I'll be doing language access work and I'm excited about getting back into the work mix. More details on that in the next posting. For the moment, I've got to get back to work--still trying to finish up some contract stuff. A sincere apology to the folks who actually read this and who I haven't called back in a minute--it's been madness, but let it be known that I'll be in New York for a week at the end of April (exact dates to follow) and hope to have some time to actually just hang out with folks in the Bay Area before that.