The People in Our (New) Neighborhood

For a variety of good reasons, Peter moved his office from its Santa Clara location to a new location downtown, and this is our moving month. I think all of us are excited about the new offices, which are directly across (and with windows looking onto) San Jose’s beautiful historic cathedral, kitty corner from the San Jose Art Museum, steps from the Tech and parks and plazas seemingly always hosting some event, and surrounded by excellent restaurants. But perhaps best of all, in just a few days, we’ve gotten to know many more people than we ever knew in our old office building. In honor of Kelly’s book love, here’s a story about our move and our new neighbors.

This is Vicky. She is the building’s manager. She knows everyone. She knows how get things fixed. She helps us when we need her.

This is Lorenzo. He works for Vicky. He can open the electrical closet and let workmen on the roof. Now we have DSL and VOIP.

This is Abraham. Abraham is nice. He lets us park in the building’s garage even though our monthly parking privileges don’t start until next month.

This is Jesus. He feels guilty. He didn’t let us park in the building’s garage. Peter and his helpers had to walk through the city carrying our furniture. Then Vicky told Jesus was ok to let us park in the building.

This is Mr. Griego. Mr. Griego is a lawyer. He has the offices next door. He always says hi when we see him in the hall. He tells us that he used to lease the space that is now our offices. He tells us Mrs. Griego chose the wallpaper that used to be in our offices.

This is Paul and Mary, Peter’s parents. They flew in from Pennsylvania to help us tear the wallpaper off the walls. Paul and Mary washed the wallpaper waste off the walls. Paul and Mary painted a lot. Paul and Mary went home tired.

This is Benito. He is the night janitor. We forgot to give him the code to our alarm system. Benito was scared when he set off the alarm. Carolyn went to the office to fix the alarm. Benito does not speak English. Carolyn does not speak Spanish. In really bad Spanish Carolyn tells him his name is Carolyn. Carolyn really needs to learn how to speak Spanish.

This is the building’s night time security guard. He speaks English. Carolyn promises him she will tell Vicky the code to the alarm system.

We are going to meet more people soon. San Jose is fun. It has a lot of people. And we like working there.