Hometown, USA?

I went to the store tonight to get some onions, some cat food, and a few other things. I went to the lovely new Safeway at South Shore. Usually, I hate Safeway. I'm still not in love with it, but this is a very fancy, pretty Safeway that at least makes up for in aesthetics what it lacks in actual good selection/prices. It was a nice experience. I drove along the bay, watched some kitesurfers, oogled cutie doggies in the dog park, then parked in the large parking lot by Safeway. The store was uncrowded, very clean and pleasant, and the checkout lady was super-friendly, asking me about my cats, etc. I drove home on the after-6 empty street, watching the light turn to evening twilight, and I thought, "I love Alameda."

It's weird to think that Alameda has become my hometown-in-California. I sort of resist this idea. No hometown can replace my hometown of good ol' Philomath, Oregon, loggers and all. But Alameda isn't bad. It's quiet, pretty, safe, and you can park at the grocery store. It's even super-easy and safe to ride your bike to the grocery store.

When I mentioned this to Jody, my soon-to-be-ex therapist (for other reasons, mostly I'm just done), she said something like, "You thought you had to move back to Oregon to find home. Instead, you just had to move back to Alameda." This statement made me kind of irritated, because it's not like that at all. I don't know where 'home' is anymore (except that it's wherever Terri and the kitties are), and Alameda, nice as it is, is still... well... different. Alien. I think I'm doomed to repeat my mother's fate: always longing for a place that you can't go home to anymore, becuase you've changed, because its changed... but still, nothing quite takes its place. So you make do, you make new homes. But the puzzle piece doesn't quite fit.

But, as substitute hometowns go, you could do worse than Alameda. I liked Oakland, but it just felt too big, too busy, too dangerous, too city. Alameda feels more relaxed. I relax here. That's a good sign. I feel happy, looking at the water. I smile when I see all the trees on Central Avenue. I like that I'm a mile away from work and later this week (or maybe next week) I'm going to start riding my bike every day.

Speaking of, our hard-of-hearing neighbor John (who had his car in our garage right up until the last minute) asked me today if we were going to use our garage. Or rather, he said, "I thought you were going to use your garage?" I said that we were, mostly for storage, and we will park the car there sometimes. He says, "Right... there's another storage room you can use for storage, you know..." I'm like, old man, stay away from our garage!! But I had to laugh. I like having a garage. I like having a funny old-guy neighbor. And crazy cat ladies all around us. It's a funny little community.

Anyway. Dal is done. Fat cat is on my lap. Time to wind down from the day.