I live in the old part of Santa Clara which is near the Santa Clara University which has the Santa Clara Mission on campus. We're surrounded by old Victorian houses and I love the fact that all the houses are different versus the suburban speads that all look the same. There is such a mixture of residents ... you have the young spoiled kids who go to SCU and the older people who've lived here all their lives, mostly Portuguese who came here when there were orchards and basically settled this area.

In the span of about 15 blocks, it's nice but after you cross El Camino and get towards the train tracks, it gets a little bit more seedy. One block from my house is a little mall called Franklin Mall and has a couple really good restaurants, your mom & pop liquor store and a couple other stores that come and go. The funniest part is within this little neighborhood, there are five or six nail places. And all of them are mediocre.

If you go South a bit ... maybe 3 or 4 city blocks, you'll find Valley Fair, a huge sprawling mall. The closer you get to the mall, the less individual the houses and more suburban it looks. Even though I live in a "city", I've lived here 9 years and we don't lock our doors because it's a very safe neighborhood.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls. The most massive characters are seared with scars. ~ Khalil Gibran

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. ~ Mahatma Ghandi