not at all crafty

90% of the time I stay at home with my kidlets, but the other 10% of the time I am a mobile Notary. I travel to people's homes and am the notary while they sign their loan documents (typically home loans).

I must say that it's a pretty cool job. I live in the San Francisco Bay area and have gotten to meet a lot of nice people and see some really cool parts of the area that I would never otherwise go to - neighborhoods, not tourist destinations. Places you'd never go unless invited to a dinner party or something.

As a mom, the days can get mundane. It's just part of the job description.

Taxi driver.

Emptier of dish washers.

Laundry!!

You get the idea.

I am grateful for these mini adventures that I get to experience and for the little break (that earns pretty good money). Sometimes I just go to regular neighborhoods, but enjoy the hour or so of quiet driving. Other times are just really fun. One night I went into Oakland and met a woman at a restaurant. She was there with her 5 sisters so I sat and ate dinner with them before she signed her docs. I get to meet all different kinds of people, but generally all very nice. There's only been one time that I had to go up deep into the hills of Palo Alto to a guys house (that was super cool and modern), where I was a little nervous. The guy was sort of a weirdo, but luckily my husband happened to be with me. That's only been one of hundreds though.

The other night I had a 6:00 appointment in San Francisco. I met up with my husband on his way home, he took the kids, and off I went. I went to the neatest neighborhood. I apologize for the crummy pics. I just took them with my iPhone.

This neighborhood is full of houses from the 1920's. It's interesting how city planning has changed since then. All of these houses are built on a hill that looks as if a vat of cement was just dumped over the top of the hill and then they put houses there (many of them just inches apart). Most of the time you are sort of driving a little tilted and the roads are so narrow! Which doesn't help. Most, if not all, of the houses only have 1 car garages and driveways. After all, when they were built most people only had one car, if a car at all. For this reason the cars are parked bumper to bumper along the curb. Two cars can't drive down the street at the same time. One has to pull over to the side so the other can pass.

Most of the houses were a version of this one.

I was done by 6:30 and had to go to Alameda at 8:00 for another one. Luckily Alameda is just on the way home. I had a lot of time though, so I walked around a bit. And read. And went and visited my cousin who lives there.
This house was amazing. It looked like it came straight out of a Stephen King movie. In person it's really ornately painted. It must be haunted! I felt sort of silly taking pictures of people's houses. After I took this one and was walking away the window at the very top of the house opened and a guy stuck his head out and asked if I got him in my picture. I'm glad he said something (he is in the picture), otherwise I would've been freaked out by the image of a person in that top window!! Scary!

I'll take this one.

This one's in the remodeling stages.

This is a "twin home" that was ginormous. There was no way I was getting it all in my shot. I'll take that twin home though!

So - that was my adventure! Maybe I'll post other ones if I come across something else fun. Today I'm going to San Rafael. We'll see...