Friday, January 13, 2012

Notable Valley Resident

Jill's Journal: One lovely benefit of being in the San Fernando Valley is our proximity to Rob’s grandmother and the chance for the girls to get to know her a little better. This feisty little lady is just a few months shy of her 90th birthday. Great Grandma Lili is so petite – jockey-sized petite – that I’m pretty certain the girls will pass her up by the time they’re teenagers. What she lacks in size, she makes up for in “orneriness” (her word, not mine!).

Great Grandma Lili may be Boston-bred, but she has been in the Los Angeles area since her 20s. She’s also Armenian by heritage, but way classier than those darn Kardashians all over the media these days. We took her to dinner tonight and will see her several times while we’re here. It’s such a special gift for the girls to know great grandparents.

On another note, we’ve been getting to know “the Valley” over the last few days and the only way I can think to describe it is suburbia on steroids. There’s hundreds of thousands of homes and every shop or service anyone could possibly need or want, but, truthfully, it’s very bland. It all looks alike. Luckily for the Valley, it's super convenient from here to the really good stuff: the tremendous, vibrant city of Los Angeles is just minutes away (unless, of course one gets caught in traffic, which is likely).

I came across a fantastic snippet online that says it much better than I can:
“The San Fernando Valley is 260 square miles of suburbia. Actually, make that suburbia on nutritional supplements. And antidepressants. With perhaps a little cosmetic surgery south of Ventura Boulevard, where the big money is. Or maybe – now that it’s grown to more than 1.7 million people -- …the Valley isn’t even a suburb anymore.

“…The Valley is the home of the oldest Bob’s Big Boy diner and perhaps the only porn-star karaoke night in North America. (After all, the Valley is widely known as the nation’s porn production capital). This is where Bob Hope and Ritchie Valens rest in peace, where ‘Friends’ was shot, where Disney makes movies (but doesn’t give tours), where the ageless phrase ‘gag me with a spoon’ was born, where the papa of Patagonia honed his climbing skills.” --Christopher Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

Well, gag me with a spoon, but bland or not, we're going to enjoy our time here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for a lovely picture of Mom and the girls please save all the pictures you take of them together while your there and put them on a dvd for me. Grandma Lili called me on Sat. to tell me what a wonderful surprise you where to her and how really, really well behaved your girls are, Her words "At dinner you wouldn't have known there were three small children present. They were so good." We know they're that good, I hope the rest of the people you meet learn that too. She was very excited that you are there and I think this will always be a highlight of her year. Thank you my loves, Have a really good time on my old stompin grounds.
Mom W.

Jill said...

Thanks for the nice words, Andee. It's so nice to know she enjoyed our time together! We'll be seeing her again this week.

gretchenhs said...

Grandparents are definitely a treasure to our children. I've been lucky in my life to have mine for as long as I did. I still have my grandfather left and I treasure that still. Have fun!

Jill said...

I couldn't agree with you more, dear Gretchen! And I remember your sweet grandfather -- he is so adorable! I just loved him at your gatherings. :) Hope he's doing well. Grandparents are a treasure, indeed.

Unknown said...

Wow, she looks exactly the same, and It must have been almost 20 years since I saw her. So wonderful for the girls to have so many generations to care for them.