It is our final night in Alhambra. For the past three months, we have been staying in a quiet back house on a serene, tree-lined street—a welcome landing pad after a few uncertain weeks after the Eaton Fire. I remember moving in at the end of February with a sigh of relief. It was finally a place that felt homey and safe—we were right next to a park, surrounded by single-family homes, on an uncrowded residential street. Target, Trader Joe's, and Costco are a few minutes away. The place itself has three bedrooms, spacious closets, updated cabinetry... all that's missing are a dish washer, dressers, and a bathtub... but whatever! Wes promptly added some WD40 to the squeaky bedroom doors and taped up some cheap paper blinds in the window. We bought a toaster oven, brought over our coffee grinder, and filled the freezer with meat, chicken nuggets, and two gallons of ice cream—strawberry and black sesame—from Fosselman's. We parked Zoe's scooter and tricycle inside of the garage. We definitely geared up to be here for the long haul. I cannot believe that the time has already come for us to move on, again.
Though we are one step closer to moving back to Altadena and I am so ready to be home again, a part of me feels sad as I sit in this near-empty Alhambra AirBNB living room. Maybe I'd feel better if we were going straight home—which we're not. Maybe it's nostalgia for all of the good times that we had here since February. Maybe it's just the fact that life really settled down for the first time, and things felt "normal," so a part of me feels a sense of attachment to this place and this time. In the beginning, there was a bit of an adjustment period. I felt almost invisible to the others who passed us on the wide, flat sidewalks. They had no idea what we were going through, where we were from. Most people had already moved on with their lives and were no longer thinking about the fire by the time we moved in. I kind of wanted people to know, but at the same time I was fine with not talking about it. As time passed, we became a fixed part of the daily in's and out's of this block. My car received its inaugural showering of parrot poop. We started going to the park, ate at the local restaurants, got to know some of the neighbors, met up with friends living in the area, and watched as different groups of renters in the front house came and went. Zoe is never shy with people, and gained favor with pretty much everyone we met. She made us that much more approachable, and we are grateful for her outgoing little personality. I also just feel so fortunate to say that we were able to remain in one place for three months straight, and a great place, at that.
