Sunday, October 23, 2011

Encinitas

I just moved again. Whoa. Two moves in six months, one across country. I'm getting good at this. I think I gave away more this time than when we moved from Madison. Something about the company paying for all our shipping costs made me hold on to more shit. Anyway, when I had to pay for this last move myself, I cut to the bone. I imagine myself somewhat of a pioneer girl, although certainly my crap could still fill a wagon train. Have you seen Meek's Cutoff by the way? The pioneer outfits in that movie are to die for. Seriously. You gotta see it if only for the fashion.

My new house is modern condo style. Can you believe it? I have never lived in a home built before 1912. Southern California. Lots of horrible houses. Think Weeds. It's not that there aren't some old houses around. The first place I rented was a cute little cottage by the sea. But it had mold issues. Alas. And it cost $4 grand a month. Thus the move after only six months!

Most of the homes here are what I call faux dobe. Adobe wannabees. They're awful. Again. Think Weeds (little houses made of ticky tacky). I rented this condo because the whole place is super neutral and clean with bamboo floors and high ceilings. Low maintenance. Did I mention the place doesn't smell like mold or dog? You can't believe how many places smell crappy the minute you walk in them. Anyway, our new rental will serve as a blank (clean) canvas for us while we try to figure out these new surroundings. The gated community shares a pool and hot tub, which the kids love, and two tennis court areas. My street is called Tennis Match Way. Can you believe that? Where's the creativity, people? Swimming Pool Approximate Way? Right Next to Trader Joe's Way? A Hop Skip and a Jump to TJ Maxx Way? I better learn to play tennis in any case.

Everyone says this is a great time to buy in California, but I'm not seeing it. There are way too many for sale signs around and the prices are crazy when you look at what people really earn. I feel like the current low interest rates are a last gasp attempt to fix a really broken system. The 30 year mortgage is a huge noose around your neck. You're stuck for 30 years. Blah. Boring. I feel like our generation and the ones coming up after us might prefer to let the baby boomers choke on their ridiculous equity and all of it. I don't want to bail them out. And that goes for wall street too. I got my money in my mattress. Oh yeah. Buy gold and toilet paper.

That's it for politics because my current passion is navel gazing. That's right. I am in yoga bliss. Encinitas. Yoga capital of the USA. Someone in Madison once made a snarky comment to me about how Southern California was obsessed with yoga and fashion, as if I don't LOVE those two things. I am finding both very satisfying. Things I could talk about now with a straight face after only being in California for six months: reiki, the soul, crystal bowl healing, the Mayan calendar, the word mysticism, the many limbs of yoga, kirtan (aka yoga sing-alongs), crystals, hot tubbin', and the healing power of laughter. All fun stuff. I've stopped eating meat.

Of course, Southern California is also the place where everyone should have at least one screenplay in the works. I am no different. Just took an adult learning class and jump started my first act. Now I need to write the second and third acts on my own. Naturally, I am writing about Hinckley, Minnesota -- the scariest town ever to grow up in. They say you should write about what you know, so I am digging deep into small town horror. Bottom line -- an empty social calendar begs for adult learning classes. Next class? Bonsai gardening? Deep sea diving? Stay tuned.......

The boys and I are still involved in the LA project. I am learning that the whole business is really more of a marathon than a sprint. And the kids both have braces right now, so there's a certain disadvantage to that. We go up for commercial auditions every other week or so and Henry is enrolled in a class every Saturday. The competition is intense and they have yet to land a gig, but we are in for the long haul, especially Henry. LA is super entertaining to me, so the trips are actually a welcome adventure. Last week I spent two hours shopping for fabric in the garment district while Henry was at class. It was like I was on Project Runway or something. I am still obsessed with a number of podcasts, so the driving is no problem. The other day I got home and Jimmy had decided to give his bangs a little trim (wtf, right?) and my first thought was his agent is going to kill me. This part of our lives is a little whack I will admit.

The boys are both doing K12 online school. The curriculum is pretty awesome and I am impressed by the efficiency of the whole system. Jimmy, for example, has completed a year of Spanish in just two months because he likes the subject. Henry is able to rock out math and science at his own pace. They can do independent fitness. I don't think it's the answer for everyone, and maybe not for my kids all the way through, but damn I am thankful that it exists as an alternative choice to the box schools. My whole thing now is to think about education as a blend of choices and to expose my kids to as many styles as I can and just see what sticks. I hope they learn from this to be flexible and not attach themselves to any one identity based solely on what type of school they attend or whatever. There's nothing I have less patience for than school pride hoopla. K12 is much like my new condo now that I think about it. Clean. Efficient. Doesn't smell. Low maintenance. Much less than $4k per month!

The boys' totally open social calendar means we all have a lot more family time. I know at some point they will want to make friends and have a life outside the family unit, but for right now I feel like we were given this extra time to all hang out, like on an extended family vacation or something, and it totally rocks. I felt like in Madison it was starting to get tricky. I always had an extra kid or kid's social engagement to wrangle, and I found it really exhausting. Right now we all just have each other and that makes things really simple.

All for now. Thanks for getting this started. Quite fun writing to you this way.

We miss you!

Love.
Abby

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