Chapter 32, Los Angeles, 2002

JESUS, YOU TOOK LONG ENOUGH

Dines and I are officially transitioning to adulthood - closing on our first house the night prior to my thirtieth birthday. We are so excited when we get the keys at 5pm, we decide to throw our mattress in Dines’ truck and bring it to the new house so we can spend the night. We throw the mattress on the floor of the living room, plopping ourselves on top and taking it all in. I exhale loudly.

“Buying a house is exhausting!” I confess to Dines. Finally, weeks of gathering paperwork, signing loan documents, frantically checking our credit scores, are complete. We’ve undertaken an unbelievable amount of work for the purchase of our 1100 square foot 1927 Spanish Bungalow. It’s cute, adorable, in fact. It has coved living room ceilings, wood floors, and a working log-burning fireplace. The three bedrooms are small, but we have two bathrooms! French doors in the back Master Bedroom overlook a cute postage stamp-sized yard and a converted garage we can rent out to help pay our mortgage after we fix it up. We can put a hot tub on the back patio. We have plans to gate the driveway for extra privacy (and party space). A housewarming is definitely an integral part of the whole house buying experience. We fall asleep while talking and dreaming of our inspired plans.

“Hello! Anyone here?” A voice calls from outside the front door. I recognize the voice as I roll over. Morning sunlight is streaming in from the windows on either side of the fireplace. I make a mental note to figure out window treatments sooner than later. I hear banging on the front door.

“I’m coming, Carolyn!” I try to yell quietly, as Dines is still sleeping. I open the door.

“Jesus, you took long enough. Were you really still asleep? It’s almost 10 am!” Carolyn pushes past me and into the front hall.

“It’s my birthday. I took the day off, the week off, actually… so we can move.” I say, rubbing my eyes. Carolyn hands me a Latte from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf up the street.

“Happy Birthday,” She says as I take a sip. It tastes remarkably good and deliciously warm. Mornings are cool in LA in February, despite the fact that it may be eighty degrees by two o’clock in the afternoon.

“Hi, Carolynnnnn,” Dines moans as he rolls over, opening his eyes and squinting to see us in the hall. She pushes past me, slides of her shoes, and dives into our make-shift bed in the living room.

“It’s cute!” she says. “But you will have to get a new front door and landscape within an inch of your life out there.”

“I know…I know…but our first priority is the guest house. We’ve got to re-do that bathroom and put in new carpet so we can rent it out.

“Let me rent it!” Carolyn says enthusiastically. “I’m down here so much for business I totally need a place. It’ll be fun to be here with you guys, too. Right, Dines?” She leans over and tickles him so he’ll respond. He laughs.

“Yes. YES!” She stops the tickling.

“I feel bad charging you. But we can only afford the mortgage if we rent it out,” I say.

“I know,” Carolyn says. “That’s why I’m offering. Chris and I have been considering paying a ton to share a friend’s apartment down here anyway, so we don’t have to stay at hotels.”

A month later, Carolyn and Chris move into their new LA Pied a Terre. It’s nice to have her so close a few days a week. On her days in town, we get our nails done at a Lisa Nail. We laugh that the owner, Lisa, a high-spirited Vietnamese woman, always seems to insult one of us each time we go.

“You gain weight?” Lisa says as I select nail polish. “You look fatter than your sister.”

Carolyn and Chris take yoga with Dines and me at a nearby gym when we are together. We eat Brazilian food or order takeout chicken and veggies from Koo Koo Roo. I confide in Carolyn I think I may want to have a baby. She looks shocked. She and Chris have been together over six years, and it dawns on me she has never really considered having her own.

“I hate baby showers,” she says. “I mean, I cannot even tolerate them. How could I have a baby when everything baby drives me nuts?”

“I think it’s different when it’s your own,” I answer. “Mom says she wasn’t a kid person before she had us. She’s reassured me I’ll like my own.” I see the wheels turning in Carolyn’s head.

“Maybe we should do it together. If they’re close in age, we both only need to have one,” Carolyn says. I laugh. She’s again making plans for us to do things at the same time.

“I’m not sure if we can perfectly plan that, Carolyn.”