Christmas in Silicon Valley Land

I drove down to my dad’s place over the last couple days, and I’m enjoying being back home where everything is super weird, but in a familiar way. I spent today being mildly sick with a cold and doing some last minute Christmas shopping with my sister and the dogs, because doing things in advance is for suckers. All the best gifts are bought at the last second, really. 

They replaced my old fish store with a candy and soda shop, which is just super surreal in a number of ways. 

All that used to be fish tanks and reptiles, and I have serious questions about how sanitary they could have actually gotten the place, but it’s kinda quirky and fun. The dogs seemed to like it.

The giant tree outside city hall in mountain view has been made almost aggressively festive.

We wandered around and had tea because Castro street is always fun, although the awesome used bookstore is also gone now, which is a bummer. 

I look alert, but it’s all a ruse. The cold is making my head stuffing swell and soon it’s gonna come out my ears.

Tea and endless inane chatter with my siblings is the only cure.

The end. 

It’s Been a Weird Week

Sorry, I’m groggy and kind of miserable today, so this is way late. I’m showing up with a post, but that’s kind of all I’ve got. I’m going through caffeine withdrawal because I have to cut way back on tea – which has previously been my lifeblood – and I’m having a delightful allergic reaction to mangoes because apparently I’m just not allowed to have nice things.

I’m currently rewriting the final chapter of Somnolence for about the fiftieth time. It’s tiring, but definitely an improvement on previous versions. My editor pointed out some pacing problems, but paring it down has been a struggle because I always want to stuff in as much content as possible. Pups and I managed to get out a little bit in the last few days, so here are some photos. I’m also gearing up to do some art, since my mother in law asked me to touch up a watercolor painting that I made for her a long time ago. Next Friday I’ll add a picture of the finished product.

At the park – It’s been a mossy kind of week.

At the pet store – Lungfish have strange puppy faces and tentacle arms and I love them.

This happy little baobab tree needs some perking up.