That’s right–we finally have a home! After 8 months of bumming around Palo Alto and East Palo Alto, crashing with friends, and sleeping in my sleeping bag, I am the proud (if somewhat cynical and ironic) new resident of an old but well-kept apartment in Palo Alto. I’m living with 4 other guys from my community, as we were able to get two 2-bedroom places right next to each other, and indeed in the same building as our beloved married couple.
Ever since the idea for the large community house in East Palo Alto didn’t pan out for a number of reasons, I’d been more discouraged about our interactions for the coming year, but now it seems my fears were unfounded, since we’re basically all ending up in the same building anyway, sans 1 or 2 in a house about a quarter of a mile away. So really there’s not a lot to complain about. We are in ritzy Palo Alto of course, paying an exorbitant number of dollars for rent, and far from the realities that most of the world experiences. But, we hope that we’ll remain untainted by the glut of rampant capitalism that surrounds us (please don’t take that too communistically) and not get too sucked into Silicon Valley culture and indolence (while affirming and remaining inspired by the innovation and other great properties of the place).
I’m also excited to be back close to my Stanford stomping grounds, which is great for running and cycling and playing on Stanford-owned fields and courts (which we do quite happily even though none of us are really students anymore. In fact, I was driving over from EPA about once a day, whether to visit people or play sports or whatever, and that was about the only driving I was doing since I work at home. This means of course, that on an average day I will no longer need a car, since I’m within a mile of all these places! That’s good news for me.
Of course the talk about sports is a bit ironic, since a week ago I was playing Tennis with Justin and had a little fall which resulted, I thought, in a broken ankle. After 6 hours in the emergency room, I learned that it was only a bad sprain, which was quite a relief, but still puts me out of commission for about 4 weeks. I was even on crutches for a few days, which was a new and interesting experience for me, and which I rather liked, but it made just about every action take twice as long. I also learned a great deal more balance, as I had to take my long showers whilst standing on my left foot the whole time.
Another great irony of the week is that our move in day is today (Saturday), but am I even in California? No, I’m in Wisconsin. I left on Thursday for Florida, and braved the airport sans crutches, hobbling along rather self-consciously, as the only way I can currently walk is to not bend my ankle but treat my leg as a big stump, from hip to heel. I spent one night in Orlando, then had another day of traveling with my family to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where I’m sitting in my hotel room at the moment; we’re here for my grandmother’s 80th birthday party.
But it’s ironic because moving in in Palo Alto was to be one of the crowning moments thus far of our little community, and a very symbolic act, and because it took us about a month longer to get a place than planned, there was no way to avoid being gone for the move in. Ah well, the other guys are taking care of things while I’m gone.
So, there’s a lot of excitement right now, and I am looking forward to getting back and setting things in order, and finally feeling like I have a home in California. I’ll be sharing a room with Justin, which will be a little tight, but will hopefully also have my own little desk area downstairs where I can keep all my computer and work paraphernalia (which is a massive amount of trendy technology, let me tell you).
Well, I just wanted to celebrate that important milestone in my life at the moment. Here’s to the coming year!
