Last night, I was invited to dinner with one of Saori’s business associates, who in interested in having Saori do some design work for her. Saori’s client is a very interesting woman, supposedly the only Japanese speaking lawyer in the valley, who also runs a yoga studio and has a masters degree in Anthropology from Stanford. They also happen to live in the middle of nowhere, actually in the County beyond any city limit. It took me about 45 minutes to get out there, only because traffic was light and my foot was heavy.
I’d gotten directions from Saori who was already there. This place is so far out of town, I lost cell phone reception, then the radio reception got bad, and then it became a dirt road. I had a crude map and a number, but when street intersections are named by spray-painted cardboard, you can never be quite sure. I drove into the yard of a likely ranch house. The yard was actually on the side of the house, such that you have to open a gate and walk into a another yard to get to the front door. This fringe of civilization is typically inhabited by people who shoot trespassers first and ask questions later. A large spool of barbed wire resting nearby a pickup truck did not reassure me that I was at the home of a yoga instructor.
I guessed right. The lawyer and her husband were wonderful people. Very charming and hospitable, and they were thrilled I’d brought some wine with me. We ate a great Indian dinner and chatted for several hours. Apparently, this Japanese woman and her Bangladeshi husband raise more than a few eyebrows out here. During the 2004 election, they put out a John Kerry sign on their property. The sign was stolen, and someone slashed their tires. But they are very close to nature out here. You could hear the coyotes howling and playing during dinner, and apparently the barbed wire was put up to keep the free-ranging cattle from eating their trees.
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