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On the verge of my 42nd Birthday, it is difficult to avoid taking stock of all in my life. Much of my life has been spent preparing for the next phase. This past year, I feel as if everything I've done has been to prepare for being in Oakland with Rusty. At this stage of the game, I believe we have set ourselves back a bit to eventually move forward. I mean career wise, financially, in our personal life, and in our living situation. I'm well aware this is a temporary state of affairs and all will be in balance again soon.

Change happens...I know this is the order of the universe. My entire professional studies have been based on managing change. I have always considered myself a change agent. The safe thing to do would have been to ride out another twenty years in the Wake County School District and retire with a big house in Fuquay-Varina, North Raleigh, or Cary. This certainly is an alluring proposition in many ways. The right side of my mid 40's brain craves stability and consistency. Instead of caving into our right brain urges, we've thrown the proverbial caution to the wind, and made the switch to the left coast. The hassles of this move have been great. It has taken lots of moving in and out of storage, lots of flying across country, miles and endless miles of driving, and many tears shed over friends and family. So far, the payoff for the monumental efforts have been slow in coming.

I'm trying to be patient but being in a holding pattern for a year has blunted my resiliency and optimism. But there are hints of Northern California bliss. Neither Rusty nor myself are missing the 102 degree summer and high humidity of Raleigh. The weather has been good if not downright chilly at times.

The job front is certainly looking up. The day after I arrived in Oakland, I had an interview with Castro Valley Unified School District (www.cv.k12.ca.us). This district is about 20 minutes south of Oakland right near Hayward. Well, after a call back with the superintendent, I received a job offer. Hooray! Of course I accepted. As of August 13th, I will be the principal of Marshall Elementary School (www.marshall.cv.k12.ca.us). The school has around 400 students (somewhat small but typical for California schools). The entire district has about 8,500 students - Wow! What a difference. As a matter of fact, the director of curriculum hopped in a car and drove me around to all of the schools in the district, we were finished by lunchtime. Reality check for me for sure.

Our house, although old and not insulated (afternoons are sweltering in the living room) is starting to feel a little like there is potential. It's in the Montclair district of Oakland. Rusty thinks this feels more like our home than Fuquay Varina, I guess both of us are products of our parents always buying fixer uppers. Adam, our landlord and friend, just spent two weeks here getting a few things taken care of for us. He's a very generous and kind person. Rusty and I didn't have much time to be able to hang out with him as we were just trying to get stuff unpacked and put away. There's always next time.

Di, Erin (from Australia) and Michael Gilchrist were here for a few weeks. We had a really good time hanging out and doing tourist stuff. I think everyone was feeling a little cramped and alot in transition as we all were winding something up. It still was awesome to just walk around the city and see some beautiful sites. We managed to catch "Beach Blanket Babylon" and a late dinner at Ideale Italian restaurant one evening. The restaurant was almost as entertaining as the show, as the authetic Italian waitstaff was loads of fun. (Maybe not so much when one of them accidentally knocked a glass of wine all over Rusty...but they were very good spirited about the whole affair - so was Rusty for that matter.) We also managed to hit the "Up Your Alley" fair. A gay leather community fair. Awesome time, drinking, dancing, meeting people and drinking some more. Michael was truly in his element as a costumed demon. Rusty managed to don a pair of horns for the occassion. Di, Erin, and I of course stood out like tourists. (Not as much as the over 60 year old couple from some midwestern town-a friendly bunch, one of the ladies even manged to borrow a paddle and spank a leather clad daddy.) I'm sure those pictures will end up on some weird fetish site, but it was funny. Di managed to get in the front of beer lines pretty quickly by dragging out the Aussie accent...until I told them she is really from Fuquay Varina. I think everyone figured out that massive amounts of alcohol makes everyone really friendly at these events! Sadly, everyone needed to go home, leaving a void in our home.

Other positives include a state park just a five minute drive from our front door. Walking through the park, one does not get the sense that millions of people are just over the hills. The scenery is sweeping in scope and depth. Truly expansive open spaces. We have to drive up the Oakland hills slowly to our house in the evening for fear of hitting a deer (as Michael said, "If we were in North Carolina, I would've thought the deer were just yard art.")

Last night was certainly a highlight. For our 17th anniversary, Rusty took me to Absinthe restaurant (www.absinthe.com). We had a magnificent dinner wth even better drinks. A little high on the price scale but we enjoyed way too much food. The french (Freedom) fries were effervescently light, with a bevvy of sauces to compliment. Rusty had a terrific French onion soup. Rusty's beef cheeks entree was by far superior to my pork. Both were delicious but his beef was tender and light enough to wonder whether one had actually taken a bite or not. The wine list is extensive but we opted for predinner cocktails and of course dessert cocktails. The cocktail list is lengthy but I enjoyed mine so much I opted to reorder the same for my second. After this orgasmic experience, we went to a show. The Orpheum was hosting the travelling "Avenue Q" broadway show (www.avenueq.com). This is a "puppet show" where the puppets interacted with real life actors. Think dysfunctional, nasty Sesame Street with a mild plot. We had fourth row seats almost dead center (so close, the puppets almost sweat on us). Rusty really liked the "Bad Idea Bears", the cute and cuddly bears that came around occassionally to give the main characters terrible ideas. The novelty certainly held our interest but the actors were phenomenal, as well.

On the horizon? A trip to New Orleans for Decadence (Labor Day) with the incomprobable Lynette and Carol. We have been promising the dynamic duo that we will be going to New Orleans forever. Time to make good on our promise and begrudgingly enjoy ourselves. Expect pictures from this trip.

I'm working on reconciling missing my friends, my family, all of my coworkers and my students. I know as the school year ramps up, time will fly by. The transition time will lessen and this area will seem more like home as we settle more of the stuff on our plates. I'm excited about the new opportunities in this golden state. Feel free to book a visit (maybe after the start of school). Also, feel free to comment, email and/or otherwise keep in touch. Missing everyone...