Man, You'd Better Hope So!

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Last Chance to Boogie

Photo of my sister Dre in one of her many fabulous costumes.

It's 10"30pm on a Sunday and I just got home.

Tomorrow is my first official day of work with the San Carlos School District. It's an orientation, a day-long meeting for all their new hires, so it's no big whoop. Anyway, at 4:30 I was getting all settled into my normal, humdrum Sunday afternoon when I received a call of distress on my BatPhone.

My sister needed me, or someone, to shoot the vid for her dance revue. Ummmm....maybe I need to do some 'splainin'. My sister Dre is a professional bellydancer and the Tannourine Restaurant in San Mateo is one of her regular performances. Froody and I had been there before a couple of months ago for one of Dre's dance revues, where she and other local/national dancers perform throughout the evening. They are all very primo, and the food there is excellent. (OK-plugs are in, now on with the story.)

So, I get this call for help and I decide to go. After all, what else was I going to do but cook chicken for Froody and I and then sit in front of the computer working on school stuff and stressin' out over it. This sounded much better and it was so much fun! It was one of the few times this summer where I got to be social without the husband. I met some of Dre's friends, worked the video recorder, which really consisted of turning it off and on. I also got to eat some awesome food. For free. Man, I wish you all lived up here, 'cuz then I'd tell you to go there and eat.

Oh, and my glasses of wine were also free. Can you tell I've been drinking? Maybe a bit? Dre was the final performer and at the end of her set she and some of the other dancers got pretty much everyone in the restaurant up and dancin'. Even me. (It's been a long time since I took any belly dance lessons, but I remembered a move or two.) That was fun! I think the owner got dragged in for a song. It was like being part of "teh dance party" at the end of a movie. I must have been pretty good, because a couple of people came up to me and asked if I was a dancer, too, like my sister. Me! Can you imagine?

The perfect way to end the summer.

Crock Pot Belly

I've heard people say on the WeightWatchers boards and meetings that they've dug out their old slow cookers and have made many low-calorie meals. I've read blogs (OK- one blog) where people raved on about the glories of their crock pots. Even the FLY Lady recommends using a crock pot to make your life easier.

So I finally gave in to my curiosity and bought a crock pot. A Rival, which regards itself as the "original" crockpot. Right now, it's kinda nice to cook dinner out of the Joy of Cooking and serve it up to Froody, but the first day of school is looming ever closer and that usually means stir-fry for dinner. Now, don't get me wrong; stir-fry is great. But not every day. Five days a week. 36 weeks a year.

In my mind's eye, I see myself chopping up veggies and stirring up sauces on Sunday or Saturday. Then, sometime during the ensuing week all that is tossed into the crock pot along with some sort of meat and the baby is switched on. Lastly, I arrive home to the sweet, sweet smell of my dinner being cooked for me. *ahhhhh*

My first recipe for the CP was one from the WeightWatchers website for what they call Chicken Paprikash. I would call it Hungarian Inspired Chicken. It was OK, not bad, but Froody wasn't asking me to make it again. Tonight I decided to use a recipe from the interwebs- Apple Sausage with Onion and Mustard Sauce. I did a little switcheroo, replacing some bratwursts for half the chicken apple sausage called for in the recipe. I hope it turns out.

Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?

Being a summer housewife leaves me much time during the day for observation, especially when walking. I'm always curious who else doesn't have to go to work. I guess you wouldn't be surprised to learn that there are other stay-at-home wives, most of them mothers. I also see nannies pushing strollers about, sometimes collected in a small knot as they chit-chat in front of the library or playground. Retirees also abound. Most of them are older but a few are about my age.

If I go walking in the morning before 10am, then I see the bike-commuters. Now, I'm going to use a stereotype here, but they do look like computer programmers. For one thing, they're all dressed like Froody. And, since we now live in/near Silicon Valley, it probably isn't a bad assumption. Especially when they're biking around with backpacks that say "Google" on them.

Anyway, besides road bikes some of these commuters also use fancy-ish bikes like recumbent bikes or folding bikes. I have never seen so many folding bikes in my life! I used to associate them with RVers, but a folding bike makes sense for urban commuters as well. They fit neatly in your office or cubicle.

Of course, there are those who drive to work. A lot of these commuters do own fuel-efficient cars like the Toyota Prius, Honda Fit, and Toyota Yaris. I have even seen a Tesla parked in someone's driveway, all plugged in for the night! (And, yes, it was the roadster. Did you see the pricetag on the website???)

The people in my neighborhood seem to enjoy drinking coffee and eating Indian food. They also like gourmet pizzas, Hagen Dazs, and buying organic groceries. They don't like using plastic bags. Except at farmers markets. But, they do clean up after their dogs, a big plus. :-)

In the end, these people, my neighbors, seem to be alright. They are a lot like me, I suppose.

We're in the Money

I think I told you all that Froody has a new job. Now that he's working 5 days a week instead of 4 he is bringing in more money than before. Natch. Once I start working I'll be making money as well. Not only that, but I'll be earing more than if I had stayed in my old district.

Let's do a little math, shall we:

Froody's income + my income = a ton of money!!

I'm finding it hard to wrap my head around how much money we'll be earning. On the other hand, the money explains what I'm doing here in Menlo Park which, for some reason, feels ritzier than Santa Barbara. I'm surrounded by people who make a lot of money. The homes are very nice. The stores are very, very nice. The neighborhood is clean and beautiful.

Part of me feels like I don't belong. Living here feels surreal.

I do remind myself that we don't really have much more disposable income than before the trip. Any "extra-earnings" are going to the higher rent and etc. we're paying to live here.

I do think I'll get over it, however. The signs are good: I've got my eye on a pair of fancy Dansko shoes I'm trying to convince Froody I need. :-)

Home Sweet Home At Last

Froody and I just spent a week in New England visiting his side of the family. It was a nice, long week and a chance for Froody to finally relax, which he hasn't really done since we've gotten back. We spent a few days with his parents in their huge RV at a campground in rural Massachusetts. One afternoon, we went to an alpaca farm. It was kinda cool. Even Froody and his dad enjoyed it. Man, alpacas are so soft, no wonder I love knitting with their wool!

After that, it was off to my sister-in-law's house. She and her husband had a baby a few months ago so it was so nice to finally meet my new niece. :-) She is very adorable! Of course, it was good to re-establish ourselves with our other niece and nephew. We also managed to meet a couple of old friends of Froody's for dinner.

One really nice thing was getting on the plane this morning and realizing that we were actually going HOME. I think it's the feeling we didn't have when we returned to the US.

The difference was that we had our own place in our own neighborhood in our own climate we were heading for. It so feels good to finally be home!!!!

Back in teh US of A!!

Now that we've been home for 5 weeks, I can finally say that it feels so good to be home.

It didn't start that way.

Don't get me wrong- nothing bad happened or anything. It just didn't feel like home at first. It just felt like we were in another country where we happened to speak the language. And understand what was going. And knew some people.

Some of my initial reactions to America were mainly in amazement at how RICH everyone is! Yes, even you are one of the many rich people in this country.

There's also a lot of white people here. I guess everyone else in the world is right- Americans are white.

American's are also spoiled, spoiled, spoiled! Yes, even you! Even me. There is so much strife we never experience. I know, we've got plenty of problems and hardships, but, we live in a country where people spend $5 a day on large choco-caramel coffee drinks with extra-whip.

We also live in a country where people pay. to. pick. fruit. People, we PAY real MONEY to do this. I mean, what? srsly. No one outside of the Western World would even think to have a business like that.

But, now that I've been back and Froody and I got jobs and we got a new apartment and moved our stuff from Southern California to the Bay Area and visited my family and visited his family and unpacked and Froody started his job, NOW I feel like I'm home.

Although it still feels weird.