Catch up

things not to do-a short story by Janel Astor

Several months ago while trooping through oregon, washington and california-sometimes by bike and sometimes by car-i had ALOT of time to contemplate my life and the simple fact that i wasn't going to be able to move to portland anytime soon. With this in mind i decided that the time had come (23 years later) to finally embrace san jose and make it my home, rather than just the place i live.

I came home with piles of ideas and promptly (in true Janel fashion) started work on accomplishing everything in one day. i joined my local neighborhood association and got active in my primarily spanish speaking neighborhood-i speak 17 words of spanish, many of them animal sounds. i applied to the bike and pedestrian advisory committee for the city of san jose (and got accepted), i already had a full-time job and a part-time job and a really part-time job, so when offered the opportunity to teach a class i thought, "what the hell, i need the money", and i took that job. i also had 6 new baby chickens,one older arthritic dog, an old house in constant need of repair, a small urban garden/farm and a desire to continuing riding my bike 3-4 times per week. Did i mention that my full-time job involves work for a non-profit serving very young children in programs that our governor decimated this year? Not the best year at the office with everyone wondering if they would have a job and me being the one responsible for these types of things. did i mention that i have some troubles with my back and kaiser is my health care provider? oy

Somewhere around october i began to realize that i was really screwed. That not only was i no longer able to work 4 jobs, but i had over committed and i was over employed, and baby chickens, dogs and friends require care and feeding. Holy shit was i screwed. Of course by then there was little to do except see it through. i absolutely freaked out, but put my head down and plowed through. And here i am emerging from the prison of my own creation and ready to roll, or stumble, back out into san jose and my little life experiment. hope you'll join (again), and i hope that anyone who's interested will come along on my weird jaunts to find worthwhile stuff in san jose

Around here, the chicken came first

This is just a quick note.

When you get chickens and raise them from tiny babies in your house on the dining room table, and then talk about them all the time and stop eating chicken, people tend to ask all the time about the eggs. How many eggs do you get each week, how do they taste, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda.
So far, no eggs.

i feed the girls well, i care for them, i pamper them, but the bottom line is you just have to wait until it's time.
And then-it's time.

Your chicken(s) starts clucking and making a general ruckus and acting weird and then it does what chickens have been doing for millions(?) of years. With no help from me, it climbs into the prepared box and lays an egg. If you're lucky (and i was) your silly chicken redeems your dumb christmas eve by choosing this day to lay it's first egg. How ridiculously cool is that? There has to be some sort of christmas spirit lesson in there, even if you're not looking (and i was).

i will not post a picture of the first egg as it was kinda like a practice egg and not particularly pretty. However, the second egg, while small, was perfect. Light brown with dark brown speckles. Merry Christmas