california dreaming...

i love magazines... martha stewart living (and martha stewart weddings when i was smoking the wedding crack pipe), cook's illustrated, vanity fair, national geographic, sunset, dwell... all full of cool stuff i love, and yes, we have subscriptions to all of these but two - can you guess which ones? i'll give you a freebie: sunset, which brings me to california dreaming. in the latest issue they have their annual sunset idea house, and this year's house, in lake tahoe, is a doozy. wood everywhere, concrete walls that are to die for (really, they are), slate floors, wood floors, outdoor shower in the master suite, rammed earth walls surrounding the most gorgeous patio (complete with sunken fire pit), a mud room, and a beyootiful kitchen with counter space that doesn't quit, although i'd need to see the chandelier in person - it wasn't speaking to my soul in the picture. basically just the most gorgeous, multi-million dollar home i've seen in a while, but it's from sunset magazine - of course it's gorgeous! i'm still in love with and dream of building a sunset breeze house some day, the house that totally changed my preconceptions of what a pre-fab house can be and made me think, yes, i could live in a modern design house.

in a nut shell, this latest issue of sunset has set off a huge pang of wanting to be so rich we could build such a gorgeous house in any gorgeous location of our choosing, when not shopping in paris, and such pangs are just so unproductive. for me, anyway. but then again, maybe not, if our little plan works out. one of the more interesting aspects of my new job at santa clara university is the resident ministry program. the basic idea is that you live for free in one of the residences in a one bedroom apartment and get paid a stipend, and put in 10 - 15 hours a week as the resident minister - helping students with spiritual development and engaging in the tradition of jesuit theology, which is hard core on social justice and human rights, so just up my alley. that appeals to me, and it also made me realize in a much deeper way that while i was living in pittsburgh, for all of its many wonderful traits, it was a very spiritually impoverished time for me. very. i couldn't hack going to mass there because it was so conservative so in terms of spiritual practice it was all on a personal level and i really missed the community participation. back in california i've found a parish i like, have met many progressive people there... i mean, let's face it: it's easy to be catholic in northern california, with it's progressive social norms. the resident ministry program just captured my imagination, though, and has rekindled an interest in ministry that i had pretty much written off. maybe i'll go in a direction of campus ministry, maybe not, but i'm going to try to get hired as a resident minister. there could be some snags for me, not quite sure just yet, but by hook or by crook i will give it my best shot (so i am requesting all positive vibes and prayers, please, for as long as it takes.) it'd be a drag to not be able to unpack our stuff, though we would most likely move it from its present location, or at least pull it all out and dig through it so we can have our kitchen stuff and other things that i, quite frankly, don't feel like doing without for years on end. one year, even eighteen months i can handle, but much more than that and we might as well just sell it all and be done with it. and of course in addition to all of the spiritual and professionally appealing aspects of the work we could so save mad cash if we didn't have to pay those progressive, social norms northern california rental prices. heck, we might be able to buy an exorbitantly overpriced house of our own after a few years!

so maybe the sunset idea house isn't such a bad thing after all, in terms of motivation for longer term goals. it's open to the public weekends thru october 28th, and i'd like to go see it. oh, and that brings me to another great side bennie of the resident ministry program: a five minute walking commute. our living situation here in santa cruz is amazing and we are so lucky, and grateful for it, but the commute is a bummer. i can do it for a year, but even if i don't get into the resident ministry program we have to move to south bay sooner rather than later because two hours of my day driving to work is too much. the worst part about it is that i don't want to go anywhere on the weekends if i have to spend more than twenty minutes in the car. i'd like to go see the house, but shit! a five hour drive up to tahoe is long as it is; after a week of our commute it starts to feel punitive. that's the basic problem with santa cruz, which i've actually come to quite like: it's just that bit too far away so that going anywhere involves way too much schleping oneself way too far. it takes an hour and a half to get to san francisco or the east bay on a good traffic day, so we just don't do it much. i mean, it's 45 minutes w/ good traffic to lucy's in san jose. santa cruz would be perfect if it could just be in los gatos.

ah well... obviously the universe didn't have my needs in mind when forming this beautiful world of ours. selfish s.o.b.. the universe, not having my needs paramount while creating itself! and perverse as all get out, too, but that's a post for another day.