Nobody Knows Anything

Welcome to Diane Patterson's eclectic blog about what strikes her fancy

Home again home

Posted on Written by

We came, we ate, we left. Never took Latin, can’t give you the cute version.

We had a splendid time down in Los Angeles. We stayed at Maureen’s magnificent house, where Sophia and Rebecca played for 14 hours a day (clearly Sophia was trying to make up for lost play time) and no one got any sleep. We visited with a few of Sophia’s friends, including Tamar’s Damian, and we had dinner with Fernando (he of the plaintive comments in the previous entry).

On Saturday I took a 4 hour nap with Simon while Sophia played with Rebecca. It was heaven.

Driving back yesterday was not quite as much fun as driving down was. For one thing, I knew what I was in for this time. For another, we were doing it in the middle of the day, so the kids were awake and vociferous. The hour or so stretch where they both napped was lovely, because it happened through the Pacheco Pass, which when not at a complete standstill is a very beautiful drive.

I learned a few important things while I was down in Los Angeles. One is, I miss my friends from down there more than I knew. (And I didn’t plan this trip at all well—Michele couldn’t make time to see me because the visit was so last minute. Waaah.) Two is, I don’t miss LA at all.

Despite the various hardships of this move (yes, yes, I know: on a scale of “the life of an heiress” to “life is Appalachia” this move is closer to the former than the latter), Silicon Valley really is better for me and better for the kids. As I drove down Ventura Boulevard I thought, God am I glad I don’t have to drive this every day any more. There are huge open spaces near where we live. I often can’t tell where I am on the freeway because there are too many trees. I always knew where I was in LA because you can always see the buildings.

So now if I could only get all of my friends to move up here…

Road trip

Posted on Written by

Friday I was doing what I usually do, which is try to fill up the day with as many things to do as possible before it’s time for dinner, preferably with Daddy but, you know, if not then not. Whatever.

So I talked to Darin Friday afternoon about what we should do for dinner and he told me, “I have to work this weekend.”

“Oh,” said I. “Maybe we’ll go to LA.” I’ve been talking about wanting to come down here, and Darin thought that a weekend when he’d be busy would be perfect.

I called my friend Maureen and she said, Sure, c’mon down.

I called Darin back to tell her that we’d go down on Saturday when he laid it on me that he’d be working late Friday night too.

“Just a sec,” I said, and I called Maureen back. “Can we come down tonight?” I asked.

“Sure!” she said.

So I tossed some clothes in a bag and threw the kids in the car (albeit gently, and with proper strapping into their car seats) and headed off toward LA. A trip somewhat hampered by the fact that we left at 5:30pm, and also by the fact that the Pacheco Pass (the highway connecting 101 and 5) was a parking lot. Literally. The standstill was so literal that everyone turned off their engines and quite a few people were walking around. I still don’t know why.

Instead of getting in to LA at 10:30 we got there at 12:30am, and I realized that I’m not exactly built for spur-of-the-moment roadtrips any more. (Note to self: when possible, bring a co-pilot.) But the kids were pretty good companions and so far we’ve been having a blast seeing the old ‘hood and the friends Sophia talks about incessantly.

The past five weeks (It’s been five weeks! How can it have been five weeks?) have been difficult on everyone—Sophia hasn’t had her preschool or her circle of buds, and I haven’t had very much adult companionship. I’m not the most gregarious of people (she said with obvious understatement) but during this move I’ve been accosting other moms in the park—”Hi, how old are you kids? Belong to any mommy groups? Are there any other parks around here?” And so on.

Sophia starts preschool and dance class soon. Help is on the way. Life will become normal again.

What’s funny is, though I lived in LA for 6+ years—the longest I’ve lived anywhere since leaving my parents’ house—I don’t exactly feel being here is natural. I had to fill up my car Saturday morning and I couldn’t quite remember where the nearest gas station was. I drove by the old homestead and thought, Hey, I used to live there. It didn’t immediately bring up nostalgic feelings.

In a few days we’ll head back home (or, as Sophia put it when she was getting sleepy and cranky this afternoon, “Let’s go back to our new house now“)…hopefully with no parking lot on the Pacheco Pass. I’m glad to be back here in LA. But this isn’t home any more.

Addendum: This morning, as Maureen was getting a small passel of gifts together, I discovered today is Father’s Day. Darin isn’t exactly the Hallmark type but…what a weekend to go away. Happy Father’s Day, dude! Don’t stay up too late playing Zelda every night.

Dial-up vs. DSL

Posted on Written by

I mentioned on my mailing list that one of the reasons I haven’t been updating here is that I’m still using dial-up to get the Web, which is a pain in the tuchis and most of the time I’d rather not bother until we get DSL.

Well.

Ex-cuuuuuuuuuuuuse me.

A number of people wrote me to ask what my problem was, since dial-up is clearly just as good as DSL.

And all I have to say to that is: go get DSL, use it for 6 or 7 years (which is at least as long as Darin and I have had it), and then get back to me about how great dial-up is.

Dial-up is slow. Dial-up leads to pages taking molasses years to load. Dial-up leads me having the time to take Simon upstairs, change his diaper, tickle him a little, take him back downstairs, check in with Sophia, and get back to the computer before some pages have loaded. (Don’t even try to the California DMV site on dial-up. Completely not worth the time.)

Dial-up uses your damn phone line.

With DSL I am on the Internet. With dial-up, I have to wait for the modem to dial-up, connect, and stay connected.

Yes, it’s great to have dial-up available. But a comparable substitute for DSL? No way.