Glad to see the back of 2006

So it's 2007 - feeling much better so far this year. Hope that continues. Sadly when I tried to phone my youngest sister on the Dec 21st for her birthday the phone number was disconnected. So Susie call me someday.

Maarten is loving his new job. I hope to find some new inspirations and get motivated in new directions this year.

Happy New 2007 to all.

Meeting the Biological Paternal side

Create Your Own!

Holey Moley Panic Attack Party!

Man oh mighty man have I been going through it this last week. We fly out tonight and tomorrow I will meet much of my biological family on my paternal side. Father, Aunt, Uncle, cousins.

On top of which I have had additional phone contact with my youngest sister Susie, part of this family. I will probably go up to see her again in a few weeks after no contact for many years.

So everynight I seem to have panic attack symptoms. They last hours and hours. And if I'm lucky I fall asleep sometime in the wee hours of the next day.

Whoever doubts the power of stress is stupid. Simply put. Truth.

Ok next week is coming up!

Wow, well building on the Sister Sister post I have some wild news!

Next Thursday I am going to meet my biological father for the first time!

I am going to a first cousins wedding and my Aunt Margarets birthday. Margaret is my bio fathers sister. So I will be meeting all of them at the wedding of my cousin Jennifer.

Thank god Maarten is going to attend with me. Even at 42 this brings up a lot of emotions for me. It is always intense to meet people from the same gene pool! When I lived in Holland I was struck by how family resemblance was so strong.

I have always had a fascination in studying children and parents faces. Something I think that comes from finding out I was adopted at the age of 5.

So no doubt barring anything really dramatic I will probably have a good post next Sunday and pictures as well.

At the very least it will put some final closure on this chapter of my life.

My Aunt Margaret is however terminally ill and so I pray she will be well for her daughters wedding and I am quite excited to hear about my Italian heritage and see photographs of my ancestors.

I will probably be inspired to write a poem or two over all of this and you can read about those at my new Poof, A Poem blog.

Sista Sista

Has anyone heard the story of the 3 sisters Susan?

Ja, Ja dat is goed!

Well. I was born Susan and then put up for adoption later. My mother went on to have another daughter and with great curiosty named this wee lass Susan as well and kept her. The name is a family name. We have an Aunt Susan and a grandmother Susan I believe.

Well the "seed" provider or my biological dad, Ed went on to marry years later and he, unaware of me, had a little girl and named her... drum roll please... Susan.

Now remember I was adopted. So at age 18 when I "found" my bio mum and sister I became aware of the Susan connection.

Years later I found my bio dad and eventually years after that I found Susie. hmmm around 1995.

Yesterday I tried to call my youngest sister again after losing contact with her when I moved to Europe.

No answer. Wish me success and good thoughts.

I would someday like to have a reunion with the 3 sisters Susan.

Ok can everyone say HOT

Yea it was 102 on a few days we were in Portland. So much for leaving the heat behind in the OC!. Good Lordy that was no fun.

However, Avis provided with a lovely rental - a Ford Freestyle? I think. Very nice seats and wonderful AC. We were fine as long as we were in the car. Out of the car was a walk in misery.

Portland however under this record breaking history of heat for the city still held up well. We didn't explore as much as we would have in better weather, but we did manage to find some areas that we liked. Some were still out of our price range which is a bummer. However, some were totally in our range some as areas in Vancouver, Washington (just 10 minutes across the bridge from Portland) and Hillsboro, Oregon, 17 miles out of Portland. It is known as the Silicon Forest. Intel is one of the biggies there.

So what were my overall feeeeelllinggs. A bit of a sadness pang about truly moving out of Cali I must admit. I like the idea of moving overseas almost more! Funny how some people do get attached to a state. But being raised in the hey days of California beach living was rather idyllic. Though I must admit I never ran around holding a beach ball singing silly songs like Annette Funicello. I did however serve her food on more than one occasion when I worked at Dland and the original mouseketeers used to have regular lunches in a side area of The Plaza Inn where I worked for years. (early years)

Sorry a wee digression there....

Portland and Vancouver, WA were very nice and calm, beautiful and maybe a bit boring? Sorta quiet and backwater in a way. I can see myself living here, buying a house and eventually someday probably moving somewhere else. A lot of that will depend on my health. If I manage to drop a lot of weight and have major pain reduction for my ailments well than I could easily see us living in some Dutch island somewhere or maybe somewhere back in Europe.

But for now, yea, Portland, Hillsboro especially is looking like a viable option. Decent homes still under 300k with a bit of land. Nature still pure and little smog. And apparently cooler temps.... on average than S. caliland. Tons of mexican restaurants which I found funny. A wee china town - not that I ever go but who knows. Not a lot of Indian and mediterranean restaurants so hopefully more of those will pop up. We ate at one Greek place downtown Vancouver and it was expensive and passable. Little choice. Hmmp. Not like the delish greek restaurants in Utrecht and IJsselstein back home in Holland.

So.... if anyone knows of a great job for an IT manager/Sr Network Admin guy - let us know, My husband Maarten just might be your guy for the job.

And me, well I can coach anyone anywhere. Got issues? Give me a call!!

Leaving on a jet plane....

Yippee tay cay aaaaaaaaa!

Maarten and I are heading to Portland, Oregon on June 23rd. We are staying in our friends RV in Vancouver, Washington. We shall explore this lovely state and gather insight and information to help us with our relocation there. With some hard work and magic dust, Maarten will have some job interviews lined up during the 4 days we are there.

Universe, please keep your fingers crossed for us.

Doing the 'moving forward with our plans' dance of joy!