5 People, 2 Dogs, and a Bird.

Allow me to paint you a picture: 3 fully grown people, one mostly grown, almost teenage boy, and one growing ten year old with anger management problems. All of these people experiencing the ridiculous stress of house hunting with a limited time frame and even more limited patience. 2 dogs, one little and yappy and the other big, smelly, and uncomfortable. Both of these dogs wondering why they aren't at home. One bird with seperation anxiety, resulting in screaming -- not singing -- when left in a room by itself. Living in a hotel room. A small, cramped hotel room with 2 bedrooms, a main tv area and a kitchenette. 5 people, 2 dogs, and a bird.

5 people, 2 dogs, and a bird who had to move to California from Ottawa, Ontario because of Dad's job. 5 people, 2 dogs, and a bird who decided not to buy a house before moving so that we could select a good one...and because we really didn't want to lease a place. 5 people, 2 dogs, and a bird who just wanted to move back to Canada. Well...4 people, 2 dogs and a bird who just wanted to move back to Canada.

It didn't matter how many houses we looked at, none of them seemed to work. Even worse than that, as soon as we found a house we thought we could live in, the bank informed us that the original information they had given us was incorrect, and our loan was going to be smaller. Faaaantastic.


Then, one day, after 2 months of living in a Marriott, heaven smiled down upon us. It was right after we had gone out on my dad's friend's boat in Newport. We were all sitting in the hotel room, my little brother playing guitar incessantly, little sister playing with the dogs, me on Travelocity finding flights home, and Mom airing out Parker's hockey equipment, when Dad got off the phone. "Honey...can we move in with Brad?"

Those words changed the whole summer.

Brad is an interesting man. By far the wealthiest person I know, but when we moved into his house for a month, he lived in his mansion by the beach by himself. He had a huge kitchen equipped with everything from the kitchen store (you think I'm kidding, but he literally sent his credit card and asked for one of everything). His TV is bigger than any television I've ever seen. The entire back wall of his house folds up so you can have this open beach-to-house-integration that's super amazing. The sunset out the back of his house looks like this:

Basically, his house was amazing. To combat the ever-present stress of being legitimately homeless, I baked my way through an entire "dessert" cookbook.

But it's not even about the house. It's about the man. It's about the kind of generosity it takes to open up your home to 5 people, 2 dogs, and a bird. It's about the kindness it takes to just call my Dad and say "I just called my friend, he has a moving van. He's coming to pick up your stuff and you're living with me instead of in that hotel room." It's about us not having to pay him anything except food. We did all the cooking and I didn't mind at all. It's about taking us go-karting and teaching Parker to surf. It's about handing me $200 for school clothes. It's about telling us that we "complete you" when it is you that completes us. It's about falling asleep at Benihana and then denying it later. It's about letting me blast my iPod in your whole-house speakers and letting my sister fly radio-controlled toy airplanes behind your tv. It's about being the first Californian to support us and want to hear about our day and our lives. Its about being like our uncle, except that you're just Dad's friend from work. It's about taking Parker and Gillian up in your plane to prove that the marine layer is not made of rain clouds. It's about loving us like we're family. It's about coming to Parker's hockey games even after we've moved out. It's about being an amazing, generous man.

Saturday was Brad's 50th birthday party. I honestly can't even imagine what it would have been like if we had stayed in the hotel room in Yorba Linda all summer. I probably would have died. The sheer claustrophobia of 5 people, 2 dogs and a bird in 3 rooms is really not okay.

Thank you Brad.

love,
me.