Coffee Talk & Important Thoughts
In Beverly Hills, CA with Swan Soul Singer/Songwriter, Melanie Silos

Thanks for joining me for lunch here at Coffee Bean in Beverly Hills; their Ultimate Ice Blended Mochas and Vanillas are the bomb - chocolate covered espresso beans and all! Yeah I'm sitting here at Beverly Drive.

So there's an important matter on my mind I want to share: What do you think of career moms that leave their kids to other people’s full time care and take on a full-time traveling career, instead of nurturing their family?

I’m just saying… If you became a mom or dad, what do you think is the responsibility of the natural parents in the physical, intellectual, and emotional development of their children?

Do you really think it’s fair or just or cool to push off kids to the full-time care of nannies and tutors and other child care professionals, while the parents go off on their careers traveling and being busy 24/7?

(Oh yeah, and how do you like that fair-trade shade grown coffee? I think CB’s the best. You know it’s really good for the environment. Being shade-grown means they didn’t cut down any rainforrests to grow it.)

As for careers and kids, it’s a free-choice country, and the way I see it is we all have a choice about having sex and kids, and it’s an important choice to be safe and responsible with every decision. And as we choose our education and careers, we should be fair to our family members and ourselves. If we’re parents, we definitely have a tremendous responsibility to nurture our kids and spouse every day, if possible. It’s just not the same from non-family members, sharing nurturing care and interest.

You’re totally cool for being here with me and caring about important matters.
…Let’s go see what’s over here down the street. What do you think about Beverly Hills?

Me, I’m having a new perspective since working and visiting here this month.
There are some cool places and people...

Did you know that Beverly Hills, CA is one of the safest communities in the US with people that really care about their neighborhoods. There are 500 police officers and 20,000 registered voters in a population of about 34,000 people. They also have one of the best school districts in the state…and possibly in the country; but they’ll be subject to the same budget cuts to education as everyone else and are trying to find a solution before they’re adversely affected. I’m working here on a measure that will ultimately help the Beverly Hills School District/Beverly Hills Education Fund be well-funded and independent from State budget cuts. Not to get too political, but if a community has a viable solution for any education concerns, by all means I’d support it.

This is the mall at Rodeo Drive and Wilshire. It’s a very beautiful well-kept community, Beverly Hills.

It’s no wonder houses are millions of dollars, $4000-$10,000/mo just to rent. There are some room-shares and apartments available around $1000-$1800. The same as what I paid to live in the Upper West Side in NY some years ago. But now I live in Sherman Oaks, way more affordable!

What do people do for a living to make $140,000 annual income? That’s approximately the median income of the average Beverly Hills homeowners/renters, $70K each.

The sun is nice. Have you seen the houses around here?
It’s fun to look at the houses, and make plans. Making plans makes God laugh you know…
I had a tour bus of sightseer people wave to me the other day while I was at a house in the neighborhood up in the hills above Sunset Blvd.

Look at that Jaguar and Austin Martin drive down Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills is no myth; there are serious fancy cars around here. Commuting doesn’t go over well when people have Mazeratis and Ferraris and Jaguars to drive around town. How do you get around town? You have a car? Want to carpool with me? Radiohead is promoting carpooling and commuting you know. It’s good for the environment.

Me, I take the bus and metro as much as possible. Yeah we just went down Santa Monica to the Century City mall adjacent to Beverly Hills. Let’s hop on this bus and get going. Where do you want to go next? Would you like to take the metro there with me?

Riding on the Metro! So next time give me a call and we’ll go get coffee or do lunch together another time somewhere in real life – virtual cyber-reality blows! Really I’d prefer to see you and share this with you in person. What do you think? Give me a call or e-mail me!