a dear john letter to the san fernando valley

dear valley,

let me just begin by saying that the past five years have been great. you have given me so much,wide streets mapped out like a grid, impossible to to get lost on, conveniently located in n out burgers, malls, pinapple hill, kaiten sushi, daglas, ample parking, huge apartments, pools, workout rooms...you see where this is going. but i have to leave. there is simply no way you can keep me here. you are too far from...well, everything that is really important or cool. so even though i have so enjoyed your tortorously hot summers and moderately priced gas i am going to go. i think it best if i don't tell you where, i fear you might roll up on yourself in an attempt to follow me. i'm sorry my dear valley. you've lost me. i am sure i will be back to visit, but never to live.

yours in love, grattitude, and goodtimes,
kaitlyn

mercedes

my grandmother died a few years ago. my grandfather started dating someone a few months after her death. a woman named maria. a immigrant from mexico with two sons, mercedes, and modesto. maria is 60, mercedes is around 40, modesto is 20, my grandpa just turned 80. my grandpa met maria through mercedes who would come up to his house to do work. now mercedes rents the basement. he calls my grandpa the old man. he calls my mom if grandpa is late getting home from his trip into town. I only hear one side of my mom's converstion with him.

"Well Dad left here around one, and he had to go pick up a prescription, so he should be there soon--yeah, around one--he'll be there soon mercedes--are you making a pizza--yeah--just put it on a pan--yeah take that paper off--put on a pan, bake around 450 degrees--450. okay--yeah dad will be back soon--okay, bye mercedes."

"He needed me to tell him how to make a take-n-bake pizza. Where is the old man? I'm trying to make a pizza." My mom says when she gets off the phone with him, putting on her best accent.

My aunt was skeptical about my grandpa dating a mexican.

"She's a mexican." My aunt said to my mom.
"You're a bigot." My mom said back to her.

I've only met mercedes once. He came over around last christmas after my grandpa was in the hospital. he was staying at our house while he recovered. mercedes didn't say much, except, "i take care of the old man. i care about the old man."

wasting my time

i've been getting junk email that i have actually been taking an interest in. i don't think that this spam is all of a sudden interesting. i think i am bored. yesterday i got one for the diet patch and i opened it and thought "why not. whats to lose?' well, weight i guess. but i thought of it more as an experiment. like a science project. six free diet patches, then pig out on burger king and see if anything happens. today i got one enticing me to get paid to eat and shop--to become a SECRET SHOPPER. i'm jobless right now, it sounds fun. i like to eat. shopping can be fun. so i actually click the link and read about the deal. the thing is, no matter what, even though i have bought things on the internet millions of times (each time the product cost $1 = 1 million dollars), with some websites i just feel like i am getting scammed on. like there is some gross blonde guy with a moustache, and dirt under his finger nails at some computer laughing as i sign up to become a mystery shopper saying, "HA HA SUCKER!" but i go just so far along in the process then i just close the window that contains my incomplete registration and say, wow, that was a waste of ten minutes.

my list of lately:

arrested development
apartments
no parking
jogging
mates of state
anticipation
magic wallets?
loaded questions JR.
post office
salvador (flea dip)
egg shell
blood clots
square footage
myspace
evil
broken candles
castle freak
golden girls


i'm so impressed that elliot continues to blog. so much dedication.

spread

tonight my brother told me that he realized that once i move out, and he and i don't live with each other anymore, no one in our family will be living together. a family of five all in seperate places.