I have registered my car and applied for a CA driver's license. I am now officially a California resident. I even registered to vote, tho' my vote is no more useful now as before when I was a Massachusetts voter.

My car passed the smog test (which is required to register your car and costs about $60) but it is easy to pass this test in CA because if you have a 4wd vehicle your car isn't able to take the entire test, (the test is designed for cars). Putting the plates on, or rather taking my Mass. plates off was a different story. I imagine our elderly neighbor Xerxes, who just had knee replacement surgery and is recovering at home, was thinking, "How many tools does this girl need to take off those pesky plates?" I ultimately needed to use mineral oil for wood to loosen the last screw as I could not find the wd40.

The written license test is hard! It is a 36 question test with multiple choice questions like:

A peace officer is signalling you to drive to the edgeof the roadway. You decide to ignore the officer's warning and flee the scene. You are guilty of a misdemeanor and can be punished by being:

a) Fined up to $1000
b) Jailed in the county jail for not more than 1 year
c) Given a warning and a citation

I got it (and 6 others) wrong! And to pass you have to make 6 or fewer errors. The testing dude, marked only 6 wrong. He cut me some slack. Maybe it was dumb blond sympathy. Maybe dumb new englander sympathy. Maybe my gujurati last name. Who knows. He may have miscounted. Why do I need to know? Control issues. CONTROL!

Now we must return our Massachusetts plates. Or be charged taxes and find out a few years down the road when the state catches up to us, what we owe.

Now I don't want to end this on a sour note as this whole transition from new england to "Otra Costa" has been strange and unnerving so I will tell you it is sunny here and 65 degrees. All is well.

Now I know what REAL garbage is.This month in California the town sanitation department teaches me the meaning of recycling.Everything. No backsliding. Because if you do there won't be room in your garbage container for real garbage and you will have to hold onto it for another week. Recycling items can wait a week if necessary but because these garbage containers are smaller than those out east AND because you only get one (unless you want to pay for a larger one), you have got to be sure it is GARBAGE. Spouses from third world countries may take longer to learn the significance of this and if so, take responsibility! They may be off working for the MAN while you put the box cutter to work. My friend from New York and I marvelled at the garbage and recycling trucks as their automated arms reached down to grab the containers and empty them into the correct receptacle. No cussing garbage collectors throwing your cans and lids down the street.This is California. dude.

Since I have been doing nothing but unpacking these last few days the daily walk has felt more urgent. Our walks to Point Isabel have been a nice way of settling in and beginning to identify with our 'hood . It is just a mile away.

Tomorrow I am going to try to get a california license and register my car,

and unpack.

We don't have a dog. But if we did we would go to Point Isabel everyday. AS it is we go there alot to walk. And as for me? I get my dog fix.

Yesterday we saw two women with about 8 shepherds (four of them black shepherds). The dogs were sitting quietly while other dogs frolicked about them. When the trainer gave the cue they all got up quickly and wrestled a bit and then as the trainer began to walk away they all followed her. This place is dog heaven. And they have a cafe and a place for dog baths. Some of the dogs just dive into the bay and go for a swim.

http://areas.wildernet.com/pages/area.cfm?areaID=CAEBPI&CU_ID=157

The movers came! And brought our stuff! All of it at the same time!Joy!
Now where is that coffee machine?

WE have ants. And one of our cats has already escaped, (unharmed luckily). The birds aren't drinking. OUr landlord is mad at me for asking too many questions. The honeymoon is over between Hemanshu and his partners at work. I haven't been doing my practice regularly and my root chakra is sending nerve pain to my nethers.

The weather is perfect and I have been told by my neighbor Alex that the weather here is 10 degrees warmer than San Francisco and 10 degrees cooler than the weather on the other side of the hills, that is to say again perfect.

As soon as I find the cable that sends pictures from my camera to my laptop there will be pictures.

The movers are supposed to arrive today but we never received a call yesterday confirming the time of arrival. Living in an empty house has its up sides, (you can find all those dustballs and cat hair tufts). The cats are bored stiff as they have nowhere to sit and watch the world outside. So they just eat and paw the back door to get outside.

A note to my sister and anyone else interested:

Hello and bleary eyed from California.We woke up this morning at 315 to make the 625 and 804 flights to San Francisco with cats and birds, drug free. Tried to nap on the way but no luck.
We still have no internet connection so we are working from Center Perks, a coffee shop with wireless internet (and alot of knick knacks and live music to boot).

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/bestof/award.php?award=424018&year=

Outside a car is blasting their bass so loud it is reverberating throughout the building.
Welcome to El Cerrito!

Traveling with the cats and birds was uneventful and the United staff was friendly and playful. After all the business booking this flight with pets we were quite amazed and delighted. Our dear friend from Brooklyn was also a lifesaver traveling out with us and caring for the cat, Missy, in her charge. Sebastian was very mouthy while both cats remained silent, paralyzed.
Once inside our new place they began to explore and relax.
All is well in our empty sunny house and the latest news is we may receive our stuff on time.

It isn't over yet because we are still here in Boston but we survived the packing and the moving truck just left our house with all of our stuff.

What makes moving so draining and anxiety producing? The endless ways it can go wrong.

For example, we are "sharing" a moving truck with another client of our movers for a reduced fee but unfortunately the mover miscalculated how much of our stuff will fit in "our portion" of the truck. Incidentally, the truck is a 24 footer, (not big). So, they won't be able to deliver all of our stuff at once. The first batch of stuff will arrive next Thursday or Friday. The second batch won't arrive until sometime in July!

I am still wondering how they thought a three bedroom apartment would fit in 2/3 of a 24 foot truck.

Bless Zeus!

It was the weather that made it possible. On Friday May 18 when the Olympics was scheduled to happen I flew out to Cincinnati where my brother was getting married the next day. It was a homemade affair and came off miraculously, wonderful weather, food, accomodations and company. But I guess the weather in New England wasn't so lovely and the Olympics were rescheduled for the following Tuesday. The children of the Fifth Grade class at The Waldorf School, (my dears in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Grade) probably don't know what a blessing it was for me to be able to come to their pentatholon. But I was able to take photos and preserve my memories of these gorgeous creatures I was once priviledged to teach.

Hello folks!

I have spent the last few hours trying to create an invitation I can email to friends and family to our going away party. Well, here it is!

Come celebrate with us our move and great changes:

Elephant Walk www.elephantwalk.com

Cambridge

2067 Massachusetts Ave.

Thursday May 31 at 6pm

We will have drinks and cocktails and lots of excellent conversation. Come hear about Art of Living and Care for Children and help us meet our intention to sponsor 10 children.

Why isn't anyone saying it? Doesn't this ring a bell folks?
Am I the only one who thinks that the boy named Cho who killed 32 in Virginia was a mirror? Showing us ourselves? Showing the world the agony of being cut off from society because he didn't buy in or was in need? Did anyone reach out to him? He was alone. And now everyone is ignoring the lesson that the "madman" has given us. We want to own things. We are an "ownership" society and yet, we do not belong to each other any more. We are alone in our cars, with our i-pods or our cell phones or our macs or our media players or our blackberries. alone. This is the most agonizing pain of all. To be completely alone and to be forced to live side by side with those who do not see you, do not know you and now who see you as beneath compassion, an animal.

I did not know any of the victims. They looked like happy people and I am sure their loved ones will miss them to the end of their days. But it is easy to like happy successful , good-natured people. It is hard to love people who are "cold" or unpopular or disagreable. But regardless, it was the young Cho who was suffering to the end of his life and not the happy young people, who lived good productive lives to the end, (or so it seems).

It seems that compassion is a quality that young people of privilege do not always possess. Perhaps that was the one thing that these young people had "billions" of chances to show to young Cho. Perhaps some people will step forward and tell another story so that we can begin to heal this wound. Making Virginia Tech "safer" does not mean creating another gated community. The US is becoming one big gated community and the more walls we build the more violently those on the outside will tear them down. If we can make people feel that they belong and they are safe inside their hearts as well as outside we may come to a more peaceful place in our schools and places where people work and learn together.

ANOTHER BLACK MONDAY
This stormy morning the alarm woke us up at 4 am so that I could drive Mr. D to the airport to make a 6 am flight. Unfortunately, after checking the status of his flight he was informed that it was cancelled so I fell back asleep until 7 am. He would take the train with me into the city and catch another flight into North Carolina at 10 am.

Once I was at work Mr D. began to call me with bad news of a long delay. AFter four hours of waiting at the airport and no sign of the flight actually taking off I told my colleagues.

"Poor Hemanshu has been stuck at the airport for hours!"

One of my Shambhala art production comrades replied, "At least he isn't at Virginia Tech."

It was then I learned of the killings at the hands of a lone gunman who was finished being invisible.

Later in the afternoon, after bonding with post Boston Marathon T riders I sat with my husband, who had given up trying to leave Boston, at a restaurant above the Alewife stop. Sitting on a large bench waiting for take out were 4 nine year old girls and someone's mom staring up at the tv which was broadcasting the relentless coverage of the shootings. How does one explain?

Yes, darling girls, in other "less priviledged" countries there is famine, civil strife, AIDS, and a crippling war. There are girls your age forced into prostitution and babies being sold or stolen for organs. Here in the United States we don't have any of this we have something else.

It is a sickness of the mind that makes us believe we must have what we want or else. It is a sickness that makes us grow more and more detached from others and depressed. This loneliness stems from our inability to feel for others or to make a sacrifice for the love of another.

Our country is afflicted with the most deadly disease of all, ENTITLEMENT.

There he was, on page 71 of The New Yorker, staring wet-eyed at me. Here was my hero, my Krishna, Puck, back in the limelight again. Accompanying this full page picture was a review of a show by Sasha Frere-Jones. This show took place in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas? Hell on earth? The place where prostitution is legal and the motto is "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."?

Actually, I would go to hell (if I had a round trip ticket) to see Prince. His songs still splash out into my mind and it is no wonder that artists still cover him.

Someone should have been on it lately to sing the seasonally appropriate, especially for this year,

"Sometimes it snows in April.
Sometimes it feels so bad.
Sometimes I wish that life was never ending.
But all good things they say, never last."

Except perhaps love sometimes
and PRINCE :)

This is regrettable. I have not posted since January and left February 07 in the dust as if it didn't exist. Here my friends are confiding the most intimate details on their blogs regularly and I am acting as if NOTHING, not even a strangely shaped bowel movement, has occurred in my life.

Well. It isn't true.

Husband has moved to Sauselito, (town above San Francisco) and we have been engaged in a rather challenging long distance marriage with plans to reunite, i.e. live together again, in SF area permanently.

Today I write this blog from lovely Sauselito, a town not unlike the one I in which I lived during high school, Chatham, Massachusetts. I am sitting in the "floating home" my husband is renting, overlooking other house barges as I like to call them. Many people refer to these abodes as house boats but they are NOT boats. They have cement foundations and do not have engines and are not mobile. At least not the ones around here.

This particular community is quiet and restful which has been a relief on this trip mainly because I have been sick since I arrived with a particularly strong respiratory infection and flu. We have cancelled all kinds of plans and poor husband's fantasies of taking bikes up to the Marin Headlands or more realistically, over the Golden Gate Bridge have been dashed unromantically onto the mudflats these houses sit on during low tide.

One of the goals of this trip has been to find an appropriate neighborhood in which to live. There are no appropriate neighborhoods (within our budget ) in which to live so we will be relying on a miracle to help us to secure housing in May/June. Perhaps we will squat in an abandonned floating shanty. Or slum it in the corporate-stepford-style housing that is plentiful on the penninsula. I will be personally petitioning the Goddess Laxshmi and Lord Ganesh to assist us in this plight as I see them as more reasonable than the housing market in California.

Staying here on the house barge really isn't an option. Soon our little glorious child will come and the ten minute walking commute from the parking lot to the "boat", including the impossibly steep and precariously railed-ramp will be out of the question. This is, alas , not a child friendly community but one consisting mostly of peace-loving older artists who may occasionally entertain grandchildren but spend most of their time painting/writing, gardening or on floating home improvement

naked.

Has anyone seen Annie Sprinkle?

It really is lovely. But only a temporary sanctuary. sigh.

I just wanted to share with you the amazing DSN course I took recently in Chicago. DSN, which stands for Divya Samaj Nirman means creating divine society. It is also known as Don't Say No. This is yet another incredible course brought by Art of Living.

http://www.artofliving.org

Art of living was founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 25 years ago and celebrated its 25th anniversary last February in Bangalore, India. If you check out the website above please check the silver jubilee.


Art of Living carries several service projects throughout the world ( Care for children, 5H, Prison Smart, Youth empowerment, and Rural Development to name a few) and has a strong presence in over 140 countries.

Hemanshu and I want to hold a party to share our experiences with our friends nearby, but we would like everyone, near and far, to know that something good is happening in our world.

We have committed ourselves to getting some sponsors for the "Care for children" and it would be great if other friends looked into the part one course.

http://www.artofliving.org/seva/care4forchildren.htm
http://www.artofliving.org/download/videolinks.htm

What is heartening to us is to know is no matter where we are there are people who want peace (within themselves and in the world) and are willing to do something about it.This makes us feel at home in the world despite what the media tells us.

Two new additions before the new year (felted slippers and leather moccasin-boots).

Things to look forward to in the NEW YEAR:

A new job in San Francisco for the manshu that may mean a move (EXCITEMENT, CHANGE AND CATHARSIS).

DSN in Chicago and visit with longtime friend.

Shambhala, my good looking job.

More fun projects: SHOES, CLOTHING AND BREAD so stay tuned.

All told, Christmas was lovely, except for the missing nephew and the preoccupied sister.

The children, as always, made it feel like CHRISTMAS.

There was a little trouble with the irridescent angel who was listing a bit from the top of the tree.

And for the first time in Hatch history I am sad to say the tv was on to check the football score. Why does this fill me with grief.

Also historic was the green surroundings of our Maine family dwellings. The weather, again, proved unseasonably warm.

This was the first Thanksgiving we ate outside for the feast!

The weather in Ohio, where my brother and his fiance live, was unseasonably warm. We decided to eat out and enjoy the sunshine.

There was alot for which to be thankful. The other things will have to sort themselves out in time and space.

FRESH POND!

The Manshu and I walk here almost every day with other people and their dogs, babies and tractors. Today I got a ride on a Caterpillar from a friendly Works employee. Its that kind of day.

HOME OH HOME SWEET

Boston has been on my mind. Actually, New England. Because the possibility of having to leave makes me notice what I have before its gone. How can people think lightly of where they live?

I know how it feels to live "away". I lived in Chicago for ten years. It was a big party, but not home.

I don't mind the pushiness at rush hour. I've been to India and NYC. Bostonians are daarlings.

ALL four seasons! The bright leaves against crisp blue skies in Fall. The solemn drop of snowflakes on bare branches in the grey half light. The hope of spring and the sudden surprising gust of salt air from thawed oceanside. The freedom from the opression of clothes in summer. Halter tops and sandals at outdoor cafes after long hikes. The Ocean! The Mountains! The History!

My family has lived here since the 17th century . Two famous houses in New England (one in Gloucester on my mother's side and one in Marshfield on my dad's) were built by my ancestors. Sarah Messer, the author of The Red House, grew up in the one built by and inhabited by my father's family- The Hatch Family in Marshfield, Massachusetts. She writes about growing up in this house. It is a wonderful book full of historic details and Hatch/ Messer Lore. The other beautiful house below belongs to Lucette White and her husband who have also honored my family history by keeping and maintaining the house built by my great grandfather, Judge Edgar J. Sherman, the house on Bass Rocks in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Lucette, incidentally, is a magnificent and world reknown painter.

The house I grew up in is in Norwell, Massachusetts on River street just across the river from the Red House. This house was built later, in 1900, but was a wonderful house in which to grow up with a large swath of woods in the back and Stetson Shrine road to the left, where we roamed freely. My younger siblings Sarah, Rebecca, Joshua and Joel were 8,6,4 and 3 when we left the house in Norwell. I was 13. Jonathan was 14. And Marcy left to live with our biological mother in Chatham Massachusetts when she was 16, 2 years before.

Many of my siblings now reside in Maine. The last frontier of New England. But I am the only one back in Massachusetts. I feel like this is where I belong. I hope to stay.