janelle starr's Biography
So i love this town, Sacramento.
I am twenty-seven and a graduate of UC Davis. I attend graduate school in pursuit of a M.A. in English Literature. I work for environmental lawyers, good ones: the ones who hug trees and eat granola. They are conservationist attorneys and I am a proud environmentalist, working for people making a tangible difference in our state and its marine environments. I have two children, ages 5 and 18 months, and they are fabulous. I married my best friend and soul-mate about 6 years ago, and we continue in our love. In other words, I am a grateful and happy young person, finding my way in this whacked and unpredictable world.
the husband and I love this place. Sacramento I mean. I used to hate it, or i thought i did, thought it was a hill-billy town without much character, culture or class. i just didn’t know where to hang out. I didn’t know where to find music on Tuesday nights and movies in midtown for 5 bucks, projected onto the side of a brick wall. i didn’t know that if you look across Sac you see trees and trees and that big flowing river, with history pouring from its channels and simple people along its edges, real people, rejects from the Bay Area, people with less money and less style, perhaps, but a helluva lot more friendliness. people smile here and dress like losers and laugh at anyone pretending there’s a scene here. ah yes, we locals laugh at you ladies in your seven jeans and big ass SUVs gettin’ all dolled up for a night at one of the three places cool enough and new enough and expensive enough to justify your outfits.
It’s Friday nights at Caesar Chavez park and summer concerts at the zoo. it’s Lipstick at Old I, those of us who remember the old True Love and Leonard at the Highlander (sushi bar and Scottish pub) and that time Benny’s closed (can’t stand that place) and that house in midtown where the old lady poisoned her tenants to collect social security. it’s Ford’s burgers and second Saturdays, those 5-blocks of lavender heights, sliders at Ink and the freaking Dirty Bird. There’s more, lot’s more. Or that that may be it, really, but it’s a damn good town for a few of us.
