Cobble Hill-the rents are nuts! And San Francisco, Los Gatos

What can I say-things change in a week.  Jordan was all set to take the apartment, but then the landlady dragged her heels and put it up on Street Easy minus the broker for $4500.  The owner wanted to wait a week even though we'd agreed to $4200.  Well, Jordan was all ready to sign that week and then I went nuts. I thought it was too small, too dark, though nicely done inside, and that we'd hate the bars on the windows.  Plus, being from the midwest and California, those apartments are "basements" and nobody lives in a basement.  By Sunday the whole deal fell apart.  Jordan thought twice about the price and said no more than $4000.  Meanwhile, the landlady herself had her own suspicions about us and said we were not a fit!  She was right and the apartment went back on Street easy for $3900!  

I met a grandma in the park from Hungary, named Susana, and she was here watching her grandson who was 6 months old.  She said her daughter and her husband were architects in the city and he was Japanese.  At Christmas the Japanese grandparents were coming over to watch the baby.

"I feel it is not good here, too expensive.  Plus, when I was a mother in the sixties we got 3 years to be with the children.  All they care about here is money, money.  I think they will have to eventually leave.  The mothers need to be with the children".  I told her about the irony that Kate Middelton was staying home with her "mother" as a nanny, while all the "Brooklyn" moms were running to work leaving the children with nannies.  Of course the fact that society never considered a woman's job worth anything is indicative of our society.

But it seems like everyone is under stress these days.  Jordan's good friend in San Fran quit her job as an attorney when her husband went back to work, but then his company went under and now both need a job.  And my daughter-in-laws good friend in Los Gatos, Serena, is under a lot of stress. Her husband has been out of a job for more than a year and they have to sell their house, under market value.  Plus she went back to work as a translator half time and gets up at 3 in the morning for overseas hours!

Another one of Jordan's friends is a missionary in Brazil.  Her name is Angela and Jordan knew her from high school.  SHe lived in Washington DC, but hated it there.  She said everyone was into their possessions, their I Phone, etc.  She, her husband, and her children went back to Brazil.

So, what's it all about? Alfie?