There are too many damn Sharon's around here..

I live in California and I LOVE it. I mean LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. I never knew that there was a California girl deep down inside of me. I still can't believe that I cried when I found out that we had to move from NEW JERSEY to California. To be fair, I loved New Jersey too--so I guess I am just shallow. Or easily distracted. Like I was saying, I love Palo Alto. I love it even though I am in the minority for not buying everything organic and I don't drink soy milk. I love it even though I am usually the only mom in a park full of nannies. I don't play tennis or golf. I am not a size 2 or blonde. I let my kids eat at McDonald's, drink soda and watch TV. I don't even mind the rediculous housing prices. I do drive an SUV--so I manage to slip in under the radar. I am not saying that all people in Palo Alto fit into the stereotype, just the ones I know.

Anyway, we have lived here for about 6 years. A few months ago we had to leave our little condo. It was a sweet little two bedroom condo on a beautifully landscaped lot. It had a pool, a hot tub and a garage. The reason we had to move is that we have two kids and two more on the way. Even though 12 year olds are allowed to have babies and live in cars, we weren't going to be able to adopt another child until we had another bedroom (no small feat in our area). When the perfect place dropped in our laps we had to take it. The problem was that I didn't want to leave my little house. That condo is the place that I have lived the longest in my entire life. I brought my babies home here. My daughter learned to walk on the sidewalk just outside. Gulp. That isn't even the worst part. Our old condo was right across the street from Walgreens. Having a Walgreens across the street is like living next door to heaven. When we would run out of milk, we could trot over to Walgreens. Need diapers? Formula? Glue Sticks? Make up? Walgreens had it all. When my kids would get bored at home, we would walk over to Walgreens and play in the toy aisle or get an ice cream cone. We knew all the staff and they knew us. We made cookies for all the Walgreens employees every Christmas.

The new house is NOT next to Walgreens. Even though it has the right amount of bedrooms, the neighborhood is very different. Our new condo complex used to be a retirement community until about 5 years ago. There are three young families living here now, the rest of the neighbors are very elderly. The young families live here because the previous elderly owner died or moved to a nursing home, creating a vacancy. Our neighbors are 88 on the left and 90 on the right. I'm thinking that we are going to get new neighbors REALLY SOON, if you catch my drift.

There are actually many benefits to living in a sea of old people. They can't hear the racket that my kids make. My kids do charming things like crying every morning at 5:30 or going through 4 packages of these firework things that you throw down and they make a loud pop in like 5 minutes. Old people also drive really slow--so I don't worry too much about my daughter riding her bike in the street. They never throw loud parties or try to put their garbage in my can. One of them did drive through the front plate glass window at Longs the other day while my sister was in there. The firemen that responded to the scene seemed so bored I am assuming this isn't first time this has happened. Other than that, pretty good neighbors.

The weird thing is this neighborhood. This is me telling my friends how to get to my house "Take Sharon Park drive to the first stop sign. Turn right onto Sharon Road, go past Sharon Green and turn right onto Sharon Oaks, 5th house on the right". There are really that many roads starting w/ the name Sharon and that isn't even all of them--just the ones to get to my house. I cannot figure out why someone would do this. Granted, Menlo Park is full of old people so maybe they didn't want to confuse the residents. What about the mail man, delivery people and folks that are trying to come and visit ME? Someone always turns on the wrong Sharon and doesn't realize it because there are so many other bloody "Sharon" roads. By the time they call me and I can figure out where the are and get them back to me we are both practically in tears. Were the city planners just lazy? Bored? Why Sharon? Why not Edith or Judy? Did some mysterious Sharon donate all the land around here? Was Sharon someone's mistress? Whatever the reason, as far as I am concerned there are too many damn Sharon's around here.

I miss Walgreens.

P.S. The picture has nothing to do w/ this entry. I just found this picture of my son and was struck by his resemblance to his sisters Cabbage Patch Kid (which my daughter "adopted"). They both have their arm up and look suprised. Funny.