From the monthly archives:

September 2010

Prop. 19: One Mom’s Stance on Legalizing Pot

September 29, 2010

What luck that California has put legalization of pot on the ballot in November. I don’t actually smoke it at the moment, although I have inhaled, usually immediately prior to an embarrassing coughing fit. Both sides of my family have an interesting history with drug: my mom not only scored some for my grandma when [...]

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Goodbye to the Plastic Home of Childhood

September 27, 2010

Recently we sold off another vestige of childhood: the little plastic playhouse that lived in our backyard for six years. Everyone was sad to see it go, except me, as I dreamed of how we’d fill the spot in the backyard. Once it was dismantled and driven away by the new owner, I was caught [...]

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Is Almaden Expressway the New Deadman’s Pass?

September 24, 2010

When I was a teenager growing up in San Jose, my parents always warned me about driving at night on Highway 17.  When they were teenagers growing up in Santa Clara in the 1960s, Highway 17 to Santa Cruz was known as Deadman’s Pass.  The windy road over the mountain to the hippie beach town was [...]

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The Guilt of Sending a Four Year Old to Kindergarten

September 23, 2010

When I tell people that I have a seven year old, many ask, “Is she in second grade?” My answer, that she’s in third grade, is almost always met with surprise and frequently leads to one of my least favorite subjects: yes, we sent a four year old to kindergarten. SB 1381, the legislation sitting [...]

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The Emergency Lunch

September 22, 2010

My first grader’s school outsources hot lunch to a local company, Choice Lunch. The school provides organic, often locally sourced, nutritious meals…at a hefty price. For just under $5.00 a lunch, hot lunch is not something that we partake in on a regular basis. While on a business trip, I paid $6.40 for my own [...]

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The Price of “Good” Public Schools Found in Nearby Mortgages

September 21, 2010

We get up every morning at 6:30. Or rather I get up at 6:30 so that I can be dressed before the kids get up at 7. School doesn’t start until 8:30, but we have to be out of the house by 7:45 if we’re going to make it on time. We could have opted [...]

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California Girl

September 20, 2010

I’m a California Girl. No, no, not Katy Perry’s type of California Gurl. After all, my ghostly-white thighs do not pair well with Daisy Dukes, nor is my post-pregnancy belly appropriate for a “bikini on top.” But I grew up in California, leaving only briefly to experience college and grad school on the opposite coast. [...]

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How to Help San Bruno Fire Victims

September 10, 2010

We all watched the news in horror last night as a fire ripped through part of San Bruno, violently altering the lives of many families. The fire was the talk of school drop offs, as moms asked each other what they would do with only moments to react, and many asked how they could reach [...]

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