Bye bye, hippies and tofu pie

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Grandview founders

The Grandview Street farmhouse is no more. The owner finally got a permit to build condos. We had a reunion and told stories of our co-op days and cried and wished we could torch the place instead of watching it get torn down.

The last garlic and lemons I carted away were delicious.

Small beginnings

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I first put up this journal. I had been working in childcare – at the same job – for fifteen years and was physically exhausted. Pushed by my physical complaints, pulled by the fascination of computers, and supported lovingly by friends, family and counselors, I quit my childcare job. I found work at Cruzio, an Internet provider, within one week.

Wheee! Everything was easy after the travails of childcare. Although I missed the community I’d left behind, the mostly Latina, working class, female community, I enjoyed my new sales/customer service job right on the main pedestrian walkway in downtown Santa Cruz. I loved the interaction with the public as well as my welcome into the Cruzio family.

During my first euphoric year, I remembered what it’s like to be a fun-loving adult woman. I went dancing and wrote poetry. I, well, tried to date. I also started taking computer classes at night and having more confidence in my ability to learn technical things, though not without diligent work.

Most of my friends and family don’t spend much time on the Internet, so I don’t have much motivation to update frequently. I’ll just post a paragraph here from time to time.

How I came to Santa Cruz

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I first arrived in beautiful Santa Cruz, California in 1984, intending to get an undergraduate degree at UCSC. I had been more or less miserable up to this time, due to poor health and depression. I wasn’t able to handle university courses, but by the time I dropped out I was double-digging garden beds with my co-op friends on Grandview Street and putting down roots of more than one kind. After a few years of Food Bin wage slavery, I went into the Cabrillo College Early Childhood Education program.

I worked one year at a private preschool and then fifteen years at a public bilingual daycare center. I learned how to teach and care for young children, and also how to speak basic Spanish. During this time, I also learned to co-counsel and worked through most of my depression. I also found the herbalist/acupuncturist Christopher Hobbs, who saved my life with his treatments, formulas, and guidance. However, daycare work, while exciting and meaningful, became increasingly demanding. Despite the resources I’d found, I finally burned out, physically and emotionally.

My friend Anne pushed me into the world of computers and the Internet. She was my dear housemate at our fabulous female household on Grant Street until she went to Salvador, Brasil to teach and dance for a couple of years. She wanted us to keep in touch via email. She went with me to buy my first computer. I was hooked. After a while, I quit childcare and got a job at Cruzio. Now I both study and work with computers.

I believe in fun. I love to learn as long as I can find a way to have a good time while I’m at it. Down with drudgery! Having taught children, I know that with some creativity, anything can be enjoyable to learn.