After the trouble at DSA (Day Program for Adults with disabilities on Virginia St.in downtown San Jose), I temporarily accompanied Mom to her work. We had plans to go to Portland, Oregon. One day the phone rang on Mom’s desk. It was the San Andreas and Golden Gate Regional Centers contacting Mom to recommend placement in a level one group home in San Francisco. They called to let her know that within three days there will be an opening at A Better Chance 4, which is a level one group home. I visited and met the clients. Even though I had to move we still took our Portland vacation after I moved in. First we returned for my last three days in San Jose. On that third day I moved to San Francisco. I felt like I was going to miss my family. Then my mom packed my bags and took me and my belongings to San Francisco.

Finally, we got to my new place on September 30th, 1991. I was 19 years old. At first everything was great. I met a staff person named Christian – who believed in Christianity like I do. He was a wonderful person. One day he took me to the Steinhart Aquarium and the Morrison Planetarium in Golden Gate Park. On Sunday we went to church. Mom dropped by to drive us to Nana’s house in Millbrae, CA to spend the night. At Nana’s we had dinner and I watched TV and ate snacks. I took a shower then went to bed.

The next morning Mom and I woke up and took a cab to SFO (San Francisco International Airport). At SFO we went to the domestic terminal and flew to Portland, Oregon. When we arrived in Portland Aunt Dolores met us at the gate. By the way, this was before the September 11th terrorist attacks, so people were still allowed in the gate area to meet arriving passengers without a ticket. We loaded up the car and drove from Portland International Airport to Grandma’s house. We stayed there for a week. When we were there we went to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) and the Portland zoo. After the zoo we went to an old antique trolley car museum, and after that we went to the Oregon state beach. Later that day we ate lunch in a fancy restaurant along the Columbia River. Then we rode a light rail which was called M.A.X. The last thing we did before leaving was ride a real live steam train, YAY!

On the last night I had to sneak downstairs, to the kitchen, so I could eat some peanut butter cookies filled with sugared peanut butter cream. Yum! Then I went back to bed. The next morning Dolores drove Mom and I back to the airport where we caught our plane and flew back home to San Francisco. We caught the cab back to Nana’s, and Mom and I got in our own car and drove back to San Francisco to the group home I had just moved in to.

(To be continued…)