Sorry I haven’t checked in or posted pics – I (once again) sprained my ankle the week of the move and have caught a terrible stomach bug that’s prevented me from eating or doing much of anything else – so everyone has been asking me “How’s Napa?” and I’m like, well, I can’t walk around much or eat anything, but other than that, it seems great! Ha! I keep hearing from locals how great the food here is – and I’m sure it is – I can’t wait to try it!
Seriously, it’s been difficult finding a primary care doctor here – the board-certified doctors are either not taking patients (I called the fifteen listed on my insurance) or in an expensive “concierge” medical service – so I’ve been waiting (and waiting) in crowded waiting rooms to meet doctors who haven’t been very impressive to get my prescription for physical therapy on my ankle. (No Urgent Care centers in the area either, what’s up with that?) I was talking to a friend of mine who lives in Oakland – we both moved from the Seattle area – and we were discussing how the health care system in California is much, much worse than it was in Washington. Is it enough to drive us away from the state? Not yet. But it’s a serious problem. The lack of doctors – especially good doctors – is one you have to think about if you have chronic health problems.
Other than that, every time I venture outside, with temps that have ranged from 100 degrees during the day to the mid-seventies, the air smells clean, the hummingbirds hum, and the sunshine seems less harsh than it did in SoCal. It still feels like summer here even though it’s the last day of September. Glenn and I went to the Oxbow market and he got to sample ice cream, lemon-passionfruit and banana-caramel cup cakes, and blood-orange olive oil while I watched longingly…but it is a beautiful set of little shops, restaurants, wine bars that made me think – Oh, I know what I am going to get everyone for Christmas! I mean, here’s the gift potential: fiery beer or chardonnet brittles, tiny bottles of dessert liquours made here in town, local olive oils and olive oil lip balms, of course wines, botanical prints, kitchen antiques…consider yourselves warned, friends and family! But the funniest thing is I tried to get on the river walk trail behing the markets on my crutches, even though there was a closed gate and orange cones to keep people out, and I only got a couple of steps before I saw giant handwritten signs that said: “Caution: Bees!”
My classes started this week too, so I’ve been busy with those too, plus I sent a couple of book manuscripts out as well. I haven’t written much in the last couple of weeks but I believe that’s a pattern for me – there’s pretty much always a creative blackout for at least a month after I move anywhere. Maybe I’ll get lucky this time, though, because I feel poems brewing!