Oh Hai San Diego

Aloha Hawaii

So this funny thing happened a few weeks ago.  Cadillac got recruited to a job back in San Diego and we moved back.  Ahem, last week.

Getting rid of all your stuff, shipping a minivan, moving three kids across the Pacific.   All in a day’s work.

At this point, I’m about ready for monk hood.  I’ve pretty much renounced all my worldly belongings.  We kept very little.  It’s not worth the expense of shipping furniture across the Pacific, particularly when you bought all that furniture from either Craigslist or Costco.  Besides, it’s much easier this time around, because we can borrow everything.

We had mixed feelings about bidding aloha to Hawaii.  Our son loved not having to wear shoes or a shirt.  Little Girl loved her 24/7 sundresses and shoelessness (the preschool had boxes for kids’ flip flops; everyone was barefoot all the time).  We made  friends.  We swam almost every day.  In the end, cost of living and family trumped.

The kids are beyond excited to be back.  I did not like them switching schools.   I also hate moving.   But we couldn’t plan when this job would become available, or be confident that another equally good job would be available perfectly timed during the summer.

Novel News

Also, while this all transpired, I began working on a new novel for the publisher.  It’s about a high school biology teacher with renal failure.  An amateur rose breeder, her goal is to win at the International Rose show and get her rose on the open market.  The arrival of her teen niece, daughter of her troubled sister, throws her plans into chaos.  If the plan goes as it should, it’ll be out in 2012.

I chose to have my main character have kidney failure because of my sister-in-law.  She’s had failed kidneys since childhood.  She’s had three kidney transplants and recently celebrated her 1st anniversary of her third transplant.  Though she was on dialysis every other day for years, she worked full time, ushered at baseball games, and earned a Master’s in Chemistry.  So she is kind of a walking inspiration, and I wanted to distill her unique awesomeness into a book so everyone can benefit.  Of course, the actual fictional character must have lots of obstacles and quirks and flaws to make it interesting.  I’ve got a PLAN.

Anyway, serendipitously, my sister-in-law just moved back to San Diego and agreed to let me bend her ear in the name of research.  What good timing is that?

Now all I need to do is get a desk set up in our new place.