California Livin'

Life has picked up speed and we are yet to settle down in a house of our own. Still staying with a friend in Rincon Valley. Started a conversational french class which is great fun. I do have a slight advantage, but am surprised at the number of people who know some french before taking french class. I'm not sure anyone takes french without a little prior knowledge. The language is a bit intimidating in that one cannot just pick up a book and read it aloud correctly without quite a lot of training.
Had to attend Jury duty a couple of weeks ago, but was dismissed due to my lack of respect for authority which was OK by me, but I wonder if I shouldn't be permanently dismissed from jury duty. It seems I am called more often than other people. I think they have me on two lists, Department of Motor Vehicles and voter registration lists. They say if you are called more than once in a year to make sure you are not on two lists. I am not called that often, but much more often than anyone I know, and never can get past the point of trying to imagine myself extending credibility to people in uniform. I have a really strong prejudice there and am well aware of it. However, I did feel bad because someone stopped me in the hallway on the way out who happened to be a friend of the defendant who was very disappointed I had been dismissed probably because they could sense this bias in me, or perhaps because I stated that I was an herbalist. I wasn't in attendance long enough to hear the details of the case, but got a strong feeling that it involved the infamous herb that is still illegal in many ways. The man in the hall said he thought I'd be understanding, well, probably not really, as I do know the case involved someone driving a motor vehicle, and I have very little tolerance for bad driving. The whole issue of bias came up because another jury member said he would have trouble doubting anything stated by a police officer, and he remained on the jury for the simple reason that he said he would put his bias aside whereas I said I probably could not. At one point one of the people, maybe the defendant herself gave me a big smile which I thought to be extremely inappropriate. This is in fact one of the reasons I felt uncomfortable sitting on the jury besides the basic fact that I really don't belong on any jury. Well, I do hope everything came out as it should have in the end in any case, or in all cases for that matter.
It is difficult living in transition as we are. I am quite anxious to get into our garage before too many rodents move in for the winter. The children are really happy with their school situation. They both love Orchard View public homeschooling program. It is ideal for our family. They have and are making more friends by the minute. Keeping up with their social calenders seems challenging but not out of hand like it can be. Everything is just right. They are both doing well, learning fast, and getting compliments from their teachers which I just love because I am so proud of them and happy for them. Yesterday Karen and Laura's families had us over to Neva St. for dinner and little Lily gave Sofie about fifteen beautiful hand me down dresses, one of them used to be Anja's, so we are all feeling loved. The six girls were very cute playing together. My mom is coming to visit the 21st of October. I do hope I have a place for her to stay.