About

Here’s a little bit about me.

I’ve been married for 36 years to Steve. We met when we were in college and both graduated from Cal. I’m the mom of 6 kids, ages 21 to 32.  Two of our daughters are married; one lives about 3 miles away from us and the other is in New Mexico. Our other two daughters are close by, one in San Francisco and the other nearby in Albany One son lives in Southern California after graduating from college there, and the baby is a Cal student living near campus. I’m happy that so far, they’ve stayed close by–no more than two-hour plane ride.

Last year we welcomed our first grand baby, the cutest and sweetest boy ever. Two days a week I get to cuddle and play with him while my daughter is at work. Being Grammy is pure joy.

We are all together a few times a year, usually around the holidays and in the summer at our cabin in Wyoming. It gets very loud.

Fourteen years ago, we moved to Berkeley with 6 kids, ranging from 2nd grade to a freshman in college (more about having a large family here and how I cope with that  here), a large, hairy dog, a full size van and a comfortable, tidy worldview. Living here was a totally new experience. There’s more about how we chose to come to Berkeley here.

We found a 1925 Craftsman house on a quiet, friendly street. The house is charming, with the typical aches and pains of an old house–there are no small projects in a 94-year-old house. The best part of the house, some say, is the amazing view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Bay. Our street is settled and neighborly, with more than a few families that have lived in the same house for generations.

The more well-known side of our little university town is active and opinionated. Berkeley is loud and brimming with criticism mixed with optimism;  the legacy of the Free Speech Movement is alive and well. I don’t think I engaged with it as much as an undergrad student in the 80’s as I do now. Living here is not life on the sidelines, or life that’s just about me and mine. It’s life engaged with the world in all it’s glory and it’s quirkiness, and in all it’s pain and craziness.  Read more about our move and adjustment here.

This town puts itself right in the middle of controversy for a good reason–justice and peace and equality are values that take Berkeleyians to the streets and to the voting booth with passion. I love the activism, the aliveness of it.  I wrote about my first venture into activism here.

I like to write about living, working and going to school here; a big crazy family in a little, kinda crazy town. The longer I’ve lived here, though, the less I use terms like crazy and weird. I don’t like the name “Bezerkeley.”

To write off the passionate way Berkeley engages the world and to label the people who live here–even the homeless ones–as weird is dismissive and disrespectful. I’m learning to stop being so defensive and just listen. Except when I’m driving through the obstacle course of garbage trucks, pedestrians, bikers and construction of our streets or shopping at crowded, cranky Monterey Market–I still need to learn some patience there.

I love living here, and have come to appreciate and love my neighbors–not just the ones on my street, but also the ones who are different than me. Berkeley feels like a small town and it is home.

My writing has become less about adjusting and more about how our family is growing and changing. Sometimes it’s about issues that we are talking about at our house. Some of it is particular to living in Berkeley and the Bay Area. Much of it is the experiences that come with growing up and growing older, and the thoughts and emotions that go along with that.

I think we have those in common no matter where we live.