Changes or not

I decided to take a weekend out of town by myself, except Ms. Georgie, my soon to be 14 year old schnauzer, is with me. I lived in Silicon Valley previously back in it's heyday of outrageous wealth being thrown about as companies went public. It was an interesting time to be here. I remember hearing of a CEO who made $16 million one day so everyone in the family got a new car, including the teenagers. I remember a blond woman who went to the market in her red Ferrari. I remember a friend remodeling a home, and the backyard cost was around $1million, not including costs for the house. Interesting times. I met a lot of interesting people during those times. I settled in the town of Los Gatos because I could walk to everything, get good coffee and go to the art theater.

I first moved here when I was in graduate school in San Francisco and running a cardiac rehab program in San Jose. I was up at 6am exercising with people with heart disease, and the next day I would be driving to SF. I was young, strong, healthy, driven. It was an exciting time with so much change and potential all at once. Then I added a position with a research group at Stanford which I eventually chose to do fulltime. This while commuting to SF! I can't imagine doing that now. When I finished grad school, I took a parttime clinical teaching position in SF, while working at Stanford. I was so driven and excited by everything that I couldn't give up anything! I think the buzz in the air from all that was happening in the valley is what kept me wired. And probably the coffee...

Eventually, my work life focused in a new clinical area in HIV/AIDS, at a time when not a lot of people wanted anything to do with it. I was head of a team whose mission was to educate & develop new policies at a major medical center, set up & provide services, and be community liaisons. All of the training and education and experience that I had gained was all being applied in this one position. That was a lot! It wears me out thinking about all of that.

But today I'm sitting on a hotel bed, with my Georgie snoozing next to me. We have been out walking for the past 2 days, in and out of the rain. It doesn't seem that Los Gatos has changed much. It's still an enclave of wealth. The downtown is bustling with shoppers, restaurant goers, runners and bicyclists in spite of the rain. The trendy stores give the appearance of doing well, and lots of shopping bags in people's hands. The homes are beautiful, upscale, well groomed and maintained. We walked by one that had a for sale sign on it, 2.59 million! Cottages are still worth a million here, and the custom monstrosities in the hills are still tagged at millions. I don't see any foreclosure signs. I don't see the desperation of people without jobs. The Ferrari dealership is still here.

Many things come to mind. There really are alternate realities that all exist at the same moment ~ it's one's perspective on things. Or maybe the wealthy just have more cushioning and the signs are not evident yet. As the stock markets decline, so do their cushions. Great visual of air leaking out of a cushion. Or people are so good at presentation that they haven't changed the looks on their faces or of the places they live. It's a conundrum.