June in Santa Cruz

Zen's High School!! Santa Cruz High
(Remember you can click on the photo and see it closer)




Now, if Zen doesn't get to play enough basketball he has to put his energy into something else "boys will be boys" as they say~~


















Here's another strange Santa Cuz-ian sight! This man walks and walks and walks all over with the cross out in front of him- warding off all us evil forces! And I DID it- I got him on film without having to actually cross his path.

From PA to CA (to Pennsylvania and back to California)

Well here's MOM!! The woman who's made our lives possible!!!! She's with another of her trusty companions Rosco, the MOST obedient creature in her life I do believe!!! Well, I'm close behind~~ when she tells me what to do- NOW!!
This trip was the first in 5 years to the East Coast for me. This home Mom and Frank live in in Pennsyvania is new to me. They moved here about 3 years ago, and it's a lovely minature size home very much like their last home in Pennsylvania. (That English sounds funky- Mom- I can depend on you to help me fix that!! xoxox)



I went East for my sister especially. The doctor told her she has perhaps less than a 25 cent coin size amount of her liver left. Therefore the jaundice. She has been on painkillers for her swollen feet, and many vitamins... but able to eat again. If only her partner would give up alcohol as well. A nice man and great cook and housekeeper but... we're all afraid about the temptation Jan will have to drink again.





While in Pennsylvania I could visit with two old girlfriends. Michelle is my best friend from boarding school, George School. With her sweet, sweet hubby (one thing we have in common- our pretty much younger hubbies!) and their SEVEN animals, I stayed at their home one night. We had the best time, but animals-especially SO many of them=asthma attack, which happened in the middle of the night. And fool me, hadn't brought my emergency inhaler. Thank goodness her neighbor had one which I could use the following morning so I could get on with the last day of my time in PA..



Just the animals were SO gorgeous- I LOVED hanging out with all of them, and watching Michelle and Bryan with THEIR dependents!!! xoxoxo Also, having been able to have a few hours to catch up, and have delicious pizza, and a YUMMY beer I wish was in California- we had the best night. I'd do it again- but WITH my own inhaler!!!




After leaving Michelle's heading back to Jan's I could catch up with another awesome old friend. She's so funny- she recalls how I used to write the longest notes to her in school that she would have to put whatever on hold for half an hour to read my notes to her! Amie. Amie- another amazing woman- we became friends around 5th grade, but then she and Janet became the best of friends. Tastes in music and guys were more similar for them, oh and the sort of parties they went to. I used to go to disco dances and Jan and Amie- well... hmmmm. Philly folk festival with Harley Davidson riders, Budweiser beer, Marlboro cigs- were their sort!!
Now, Amie with her two daughters and horses, and a mini farm of their own- she's loving having Jan "back" to her old self too.

I returned to California, sometimes I have to think twice where I am, where next I am going, where I've been- all the connections- I'm so grateful to have been able to take this trip (THANK YOU MOM AND FRANK!!!). AND to not have had to cook for a week while away!!!

Sunday May 18th, '08 Santa Cruz

I had to take this photo- in Zen's room, and it's not propped up like that either. It was just such the epitome of Zen, well of him growing up! He IRONS his own (I've never used that board!).




Hey, and check out this SHOWER curtain I had to go back and buy! I thought it was a little steep at $25.00 but I couldn't forget it and went back three weeks later (to San Jose) and splurged on it! Isn't it great?!! You want one too now don't you?! Let me know!

My niece Jessie, my sister Janet and Mom on Mother's day.

I'm going to Pennsylvania to see Janet May 19th-May 24th.
Janet's really sick, you can tell by her jaundice. (There's a beautiful photo of her and me further down the blog from 7 years or so ago).

By next week Taka should be able to drive again hopefully. It was a trip, I'd been on Taka's case to get the shocks done in our car from like two or three weeks ago. We had also spoken to our repairman, Pedro, who test drove our car and knew we REALLY needed new shocks too. Friday night, driving Taka home from the hospital, I tried to go SO slow- because EVERY bump HURT him!! Seeeee! I called Pedro Saturday morning- he says he had called me two or three days earlier about those shocks- but I didn't get the messages. So- what timing, eh?! Saturday we did get two of the four shocks in the car. It does make a difference!

Mother's Day weekend for us!

Yes, that's Taka there in the Emergency room Friday evening. And true, Zen sits there smiling- because he/we knew no other organs were hurt. However, three fractured ribs will keep Taka moaning and groaning for a while- sudden yelps and grimaces... We don't laugh AT him, we laugh WITH him though he CAN'T laugh because it hurts.



Yes, they had to cut off his shirt. He was on a three legged laddre, on uneven ground with a power tool trimming a tree. He threw the tool WAY far away and tried to fall "carefully" though he got this hurt.



So Taka didn't have to stay in the hospital. He came home, but walking is VERY tedious and painful. Futons are not fun to get down on to... he started out with our driftwood cane, though we've "moved up". He's borrowing Grandmom's cane now.


It also was Grandmom's birthday Friday. Unfortunately she had a hard day that day too. She has diabetes and perhaps over insulated, and had a low. Wore her out... Her 89th birthday! She's here with Pattie- Peppermint Pattie (she also has Charlie Brown who can't jump up on her lap like Pattie!)


And a little look into Santa Cruz weirdness. Check out the car I found parked at the Courthouse! "Midget Mobile"! If you click on it you can get an even closer look at all those little- what do you call them? those TROLLS!!! - a trip of a car!!!

May 6th 2008

Zen's doing awesomely. He's been playing for this basketball league team, West Valley, and have already flown to COlorado and Las Vegas this past month.



Even better yet, Zen's hanging SO well at school. He has never complained. It makes being here really good.


Actually Taka too. Taka finally got the raise we've kept hearing he should get! The guys he works with are all so very cool. Because of those guys he works with, Taka's chosen to not pursue architecture work, but stay with this landscaping job.



I drive a lot to get over to Grandmother's house. I take this route by the Santa Cruz Boardwalk (which Zen disses for being "nothing" compared to FUJIKYU HIGHLAND in Japan!).

One day when our car was being worked on I biked it to Grandmom's and finally got photos of this picturesque area! If only you could smell it too. The epitome of Santa Cruz. Eucalypus trees and Jasmine. Pretty much every day the smells I smell here sink deeply and make lots of nostogic memories surface. Remember I lived here from 18 until 20 going to College?





I have an old friend named Forest. He also went to Nishio Japan around '87 to visit us. His wife saw my old e-mail address on this freecycle (recycle) site I was on, and asked Forest- "Isn't this your friend from Japan?" (my old thiamaki@japan-net e-ddress!) and Forrest e-mailed me!! We could catch up again after- how many years?! This is his organic strawberry "front yard". Across the street is the ocean. They are the next town North of us.





Oh, then this last photo- with my even older friend Nalu! She's lived by San Francisco's Haight St. for as long as I have lived in Japan.


This is a photo of her two daughters (not their baby) Kaya- Sheon's age, and Ayumi, a little older than Ischin- they have Japanese- and Japanese-Korean fathers. Looking beautiful, healthy and so very well too. Nalu can smile as much as I!


Oh, and news about my sister- at least- she hangs in there. I have tickets to fly East from 5/19- to Pennsylvania (for the first time...in how many years?? Seven?). I'll go see my sister then. For a week- and see a couple of friends, stepmom Eleanor, and Mom-mom...Reading about the Meth drug scenes have made me feel... not just tired... but weary- like for Grandmom too (cause of the on going saga with her daughter too) and weary about this sort of drug life in the U.S.

So, I just give such thanks. All I have with Taka and Zen, and our home in Nishio, and you kids there in Nishio. It will feel so heavenly to be back there too again!!! xoxoxoxo