Busy and wounded from the election, I’m sorry for the slow updates. I don’t know what is happening, but I’m busier than I have ever been before. I thought now that Vince is launched, I would have more time and I do have more time, but there is still lots to do and lots to learn. I’m having a good time.
The day after the election, I met up with Deb at our favorite Panera. It was warm enough to sit outside and chat for a couple of hours. I think Deb is my most covid-impacted friend. Still very reluctant to sit inside restaurants and go places without a mask. I’ve been trying to meet up with her for lunch at our favorite Panera for over two years, patiently waiting for her to be ready. And she was ready last week and, as it turned out, we could sit outside.
On Thursday, two days after the election, Jeremy flew to California to attend the board meeting of the California Air Resources Board. This meeting was purposely scheduled right after the election so no one would pay attention to it and I suppose it did serve that purpose. Jeremy was not excited to go, but his comments were well received (2 minutes – did it feel lame to fly across the country to do a two minute talk? maybe) and actually, the conversations he had around the meeting were invaluable and bolstered his mood and confidence moving forward. He’s exploring how to contribute his talents over the next four years.
There was sign holdings. If you look closely, there is a sign with cow poop on it. Sometimes, depending on my mood – if I’m cheeky -, if you ask me what Jeremy does, I’ll answer, he’s an expert on cow poop. And he is!
He had his own sign that someone made for him.
He took the opportunity of being on the west coast in vicinity of Vince to visit him, Dani and Dani’s family. They all went out to dim sum on Saturday morning and then Jeremy took the kids on a nostalgic tour of the courtship of Doris and Jeremy (they wanted to do it!). Our beloved ChemE building where we first kissed.
The turtle pond where I spent a lot of time crying about how much I hated grad school. Vince was like…Caltech is so….beautiful. Yes, it is a lush and beautifully manicured campus. It takes a lot of work and money to maintain beautiful gardens in the depths of geek-dom.
They explored a bit of downtown LA – the home of the LA Philharmonic. what do they call it, the Disney Performance Hall?
The kids went to a KPop concert on Saturday night and Jeremy stayed with Julia and had a really nice time there. Sunday morning, Jeremy went to UC Irvine to see Vince’s lab. Which is very nice – lots of natural light for the offices and labs. Vince’s apartment, though relatively new and school-owned, does look a little prison-like – they spend zero money on charm and/or beauty.
A very nice lab.
Then they drove to Rancho Palos Verdes to visit Keyla and kiddos who moved there in the middle of September from Dallas? Houston? I get those two cities confused. They moved because of a fortuitous job transfer that brought them to the same neighborhood as Mark’s family. So now they are like two miles away from grandparents and siblings and where it’s not 108 degrees every day.
Keyla, as usual, is completely remarkable. I mean, sometimes people tell me, I don’t know how you do it (re Edda), but I mean, I don’t know how Kelya does it with Zoe – who is so beautiful here! I can be moody and upset and depressed and overwhelmed for long periods of time, but I don’t vibe any of those feelings from Keyla. I mean, I know she has these feelings because we do sometimes touch on those topics when we talk, but she has an optimism and practicality to it all and – dare I say – fun-ness about her? It’s kind of magical. She meets each challenge with courage and a smile and also somehow manages to mural paint a room with stars or flowers.
After having lunch with K and the kids, Jeremy drove the older kids back to Irvine and got to meet Dani’s birds. Mango and Fatty tuna. Otoro is his real name, but I like to call him fatty tuna which is what otoro means.
Meanwhile, back at the homestead, I watched while some folks demolished our driveway.
I’ve never hired folks to do such a massive home project, but the drainage on the house needed fixing and I hesitated for a long time because 1. it was going to be expensive and we were still paying for college 2. I dislike hiring folks because I don’t know how to choose and 3. I was/am afraid of making a mistake, in hiring and/or execution and or whatever else there is to be afraid of. But I also really want water to flow away from my house.
But I hired people I like and they are doing a great job. And I had them destroy the driveway when Jeremy was out of town which is also somewhat of a big deal for me.
It’s good that they are doing it, we have extensive water damage below part of the driveway, two stone columns (probably more) were just resting on the dirt causing them to sink and will need reinforcing with concrete and rebar.
Sending love to you all.