California and Beyond –
So at the beginning of April 1993, my ex-husband, my four-year-old son, my recently turned six-year-old daughter and I arrived in Petaluma, California. It is the southernmost town in Sonoma County, just north of Marin County, and about 40 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Population around 70,000. Beautiful old downtown.
We rented a nice house (that we could not afford to buy later on) for a year, and my daughter finished up the school year in kindergarten. My son had been in preschool in Massachusetts. The cutoff for entering kindergarten was turning five by December 1. He would turn five in August, so he was eligible for kindergarten. However, in Massachusetts, the fancy preschool they attended recommended holding the boys with summer birthdays back a year because they were too immature for kindergarten. I think the cutoff there was September 1. Since my son was very small for his age, I looked around for a preschool. Finally, someone at a preschool asked why he wasn’t going into kindergarten and suggested he should. So he did the following September, when my daughter was in first grade.
When we moved to Petaluma, the West side was considered the fancy side with old Victorian homes and downtown and great schools. The East side was less expensive and more suburban. After a year in the rental on the East side, we ended up buying a nice home in a nice neighborhood on the East side at the end of a cul de sac, walking distance from a new school, being talked about as the best elementary in town. The kids did well there, and it was a good school. My son lagged a little in first grade, but definitely more than caught up. I volunteered in their classrooms every year and founded and ran the school talent show.
It was easy to make friends and acquaintances during those years, and I felt at home in California. There were other parents at the school and parents at activities for the kids. I joined a women’s gym and became a real gym rat, going every day including holidays. Eventually, the kids did a host of activities. First there were swimming lessons and gymnastics. When he was five, my son decided he wanted to play electric guitar. He had a little half size guitar and he was pretty darn good at it. He had a great teacher, who later became his school band teacher in junior high. He took guitar lessons until he was 16, and drum lessons for years until that time too. He played guitar in the school jazz band and percussion in the symphonic band. I cried when he quit band at 16 ot so when he moved in with his dad. He also got pretty far in karate, and was a Boy Scout for several years.
My daughter took some drama lessons at the local theater. If you know Amy’s frozen foods brand, Amy was in her class. Then my daughter started dance class, which she had done in Massachusetts. The big deal was when we went to see a Christmas ice show at the nearby rink, begun and owned by Charles (Sparky) Shulz of Peanuts fame. It was also an Olympic year, and my daughter wanted to skate. So she did. After two series of group lessons, the coach took her on as a private student, She got to the top competition level, competed through high school and a little beyond, and then ended up skating with Disney on Ice for twelve years or so, where she met her husband. She skated many parts, but primarily she was Mickey Mouse.
So she was on the road starting in 2008. My son was living with his dad in the house we bought in Petaluma. I was in another house a few blocks away in Petaluma. What was I doing? Well, I was single now, so I needed to earn a living. But going back a bit, I did about five years of freelance editing at the telecom company where my husband worked from around 1997 to 2001. I also did freelancing editing at home part time. In about 2003 I went back to school for a teaching credential. A couple of friends suggested it, and I needed to do something. My days in tech writing were done. I got a secondary school credential in English. At around the same time, I started a Master’s Degree program (by distance) in Humanities with a focus in Music, since I always loved music and wanted a music degree. I didn’t have enough background for a real music degree, so I settled for this one. I took one course at a time, and it took seven years, but I did it. I had a mediocre thesis about women in music, but I hear it is in the archives at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library. Visiting there is on my bucket list. I took some scattered music courses in California and even attempted to learn jazz piano. I learned a lot of theory, but could never play. 
I met a man in a music class who wrote poetry and played piano. I told him I used to write poetry, and he said he always wrote poems to enter into the county fair. I hadn’t written a poem since I was a kid. I wrote one and entered it. I was sure surprised that it won best of show in poetry. (He was not happy. He won nothing.)
After I got my teaching credential I got a job teaching 7th grade English in Petaluma, west side. That was in 2004. I noticed that my students made the same mistakes I had encountered when I was an editor, so I decided to write a book with those mistakes in it. A small, friendly book. My first book was born. I joined the local writers group and the local publishing group. I self-published the book, and it did pretty well. A friend told me she dreamed I wrote another book and even gave me the title. That was my second book. I didn’t plan to, but I continued to write until I had a dozen grammar books, a novel, a memoir, and a self-publishing guide. I am fortunate to have done well for a self-published author, mostly through sales of my big workbook. My first book was published in 2010. After seven years of teaching full time, I went to 60 percent (I never liked teaching very much), and in 2015, after eleven total years I resigned. I kept writing books until around 2020.
Meanwhile, my son went to college, my daughter finished college on tour and married in 2014. She and her husband continued to tour with Disney on Ice. She eventually became a performance director. They wanted to get off the road and ideally get jobs at corporate headquarters, which is in Florida. So in 2017 or 2018 they bought a house near corporate headquarters. Well they bought a house to be built. Then they went on tour. I closed on the house since they were in Europe. They planned to move their stuff from my house (her husband is from Canada, and had moved all his things to my house in California) to their house in Florida in May, 2019. The plan was for me to move with them to Florida, leaving my son in California. Yes, I felt bad, but in a pinch, she is the one who answers the phone if I call!
I had put my house on the market in February, and it had not sold by May. As planned we moved the stuff in May, and I was living on a mattress with just a few clothing items and my dog in my Petaluma house. When the house had not sold by September, I moved to Florida. I stayed in my daughter’s house; they were still on tour and the plan was for me to babysit the brand new house. I also started looking around to buy a condo or townhouse for myself.
Then in March 2020: Covid. They were touring Europe, and I was asking if they were cutting the tour short. Nope. Then one day with about a day’s notice, my daughter said they were coming home. Nearly everyone at their company was laid off. All shows were shut down.
I will now just sum up the highlights. Enough already!!!
My house sold in December 2019, after I reduced the price several times.
We did what everyone else did during Covid. Washed all our groceries!
The kids worked a couple of jobs during Covid to keep earning some money.
I bought a villa ten minutes from them in June 2020. It is nice, but there isn’t much to do around here. However, it is worth it being so close to them.
My daughter eventually got a job at corporate headquarters for Disney on Ice (and other shows) in personnel. She had a business degree and recently received her MBA.
Maybe a year later, my son-in-law also got a job at corporate headquarters in the Music Department and he is busy creating.
In December 2022, my granddaughter was born. She will be four in a few months.
My son is still happy in California, sharing a townhouse with a couple of roommates. I would like to visit at least twice a year, and I did for a while. He has been here a couple of time, but doesn’t like the heat – or flying.
No complaints, but I have never felt at home in Florida.
I am busy though. I read a lot, see my granddaughter a couple of times a week, go to lunch with friends on occasion, belong to my San Francisco Publishing group still (meets on Zoom), belong to a few political groups, do a lot of social media for my book business, write my blog, and now write music. I am very proud of the two published songs I wrote with Norman Bergen. I am now trying to learn to play keyboard better and learn how to orchestrate using software.
Looking forward….
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