much...in a nutshell

I will attempt to semi-catch up on my crazy goings on. Perhaps after that I can begin to muse on subjects - as many an interesting thought has crossed my mind and I'd like to share.

Life changes have been in constant supply as of late. Earlier this month, my grandfather passed away. My Poppo will be dearly missed. I sometimes like to think of him as a cowboy - which he kind of was, I guess. He did keep a ranch. I first rode a horse, drove a tractor, drove a truck, and drove a vintage car with my Poppo. He also pierced my ears and gave me my first diamond (He was a jeweler). When I was young I loved to go with him to the old-fashioned soda shop around the corner from his jewelry store. When I got older I liked to step into his world in various ways - checking out his latest project in the garage, playing cards, listening to old music. I love this picture - he's in his garage, which of course he needed his own stove because he spent so much of his time out there inventing and such. We were finishing this "chicken" that I had welded and my dad had transported up to Montana for us to finish gluing rocks onto. I needed to take it back with me to San Francisco so Poppo proceeded to cover it's long 7 inch spike designed to stick it into the ground with a PVC pipe and duct tape it in place. After finding an appropriate carry-on size luggage bag he no longer needed and putting the chicken in it - he declared it safe for me to carry on the plane! (I checked it of course.) I remember it so fondly because it was so like Poppo to invent some creative solution to something. Most of the times his inventions worked, albeit not always completely conventionally.
I was able to get up to Montana and spend some time with him and other family this month. He was not doing too well, but still anxious to get up and about doing something. At one point, when I was sitting beside him without shoes on, he felt the callouses' on my feet and made me go get his foot cream so he could rub it in for me. He had some problems with his feet and didn't want me to follow suite. Always looking out for me. I smile when I think of him, and always will. I am lucky to have had the love and affection of such a grandpa.

After getting home from Montana it was time for me to start packing up my apartment. As mentioned earlier, I've moved back into an "intentional community." I found the group of people whom I'm now living with quite unexpectedly. One of them is part of my anti-trafficking group and mentioned she and her husband were thinking of moving to my neighborhood in MacArthur Park. I replied "I'll move in with you if you do!" And her jaw dropped, because although she hadn't said, that was one main objective of the move.
Soon after I began meeting informally with the people thinking of making the move and began the process of figuring out if we were headed in the same direction with our thoughts/intentions of living in community. Very quickly I felt welcome to express my heart, thoughts, and vulnerabilities and it wasn't too long before I saw that we all had a shared purpose of making justice and God's love the foundations of our personal and common lives.
When we weren't able to find a living space suitable to accommodate the 6 of us in the MacArthur Park area, we found this terrific house in Boyle Heights, a neighborhood just east of downtown LA. The neighborhood is less urban then my previous one - which has both it's upsides and downsides. Most notably "up" is a front yard, laundry room, my own room, and storage space. I had a very hard time telling my neighbors I was leaving - but have found it very nice to be able to stop by and say hi - and am excited about making new neighbors (everyone seems very nice) on my new street.The day of the move (which was 3 weeks ago now!) was quite long, and as can be seen we still had much junk sitting out front the next day! It's a lot of work combining 3 households into 1. My new community members are...Matt, Shirley, and Adia: a married couple plus a 3-year old, Justin and Don: two single guys in their 20s, and Me! Last weekend we finally got the house cleaned and settled, just in time for our open house on Sunday. It was great to get everything done and welcome our friends over. And this week I've just been relaxing some and trying to get back to a normal life rhythm!

The weekend after the move I was away on a trip to New Jersey with my best friend Kim (who yes, I just left as a roommate - another sad part of the move.) She being from NJ has always wanted me to go home with her, and after nearly 8 years of friendship - I finally did. Never having been to NJ - I found it quite interesting and also beautiful. She grew up in quite an affluent neighborhood with lots of grand colonial-esqe houses, big green lawns, and white picket fences. Being a California girl, I was very surprised to find the large house that her mom lives by was built in the 1800's! Crazy?! Other then spending Mother's Day and an afternoon at the Bach Festival with Kim's mom we also got to make it into NYC for a day.


What does one who's never been to NYC do there when they only have a day!? We began at Times Square of course, made our way over to the Main Public Library (I love libraries...this one was superb), passed Rockefeller Center and St.Patrick's Cathedral on our way to meet Kim's college friend for lunch. Then spent the second half of the day eating, catching up, strolling around the village, and eating some more. Our old friend Bay - from the Bay area - lives here and met up with us for dinner. It was great to see him. As much as it sucks having friends spread across the country and world - it sure is good to reunite.

Back at home, the Studebaker is getting along nicely. I did have a little issue with the carburetor - which was resolved easily enough. And I've also set to work learning how to do little jobs on it. The hose from the gas nozzle to the gas tank needed replacing (see the hole in accompanying picture...not good to be spilling gas on the pavement when it's nearing $4/gallon!) I happily did that job and while I was at it, decided that inside of the gas door was a terrific place to get some more pinstripping practice. I'm quite happy with my freehand design. Still need practice in getting my lines even, but it's not too shabby I think! And Tommy, my mechanic, has graciously helped in showing me how to change my oil and my brake cylinders this past week!

Oh...what adventures will come next?