Last weekend I jetted down to lovely C-A-L-I to visit my bestie, Jaime. She’s subletting a sweet piece of house, perched over the estuary that runs through Alameda. It was like staying on a houseboat, only the houseboat was attached.

I didn’t get the sunshiney Valhalla I’d expected since it rained 90% of the time I was there, but that was fine. I caught some sunshine my first morning there as we drank boozy coffee on the huge porch. When it did rain, it was often in big, gusty sheets; watching the rain pound the water outside the window was fun, but seeing the poor birdies trying to fly against the wind wasn’t so great. Poor seagulls.

We had some excellent meals, including a lunch at the new branch of Burma Superstar which was just blocks from Jaime’s place! We also had some heavenly burritos and some ridiculously delicious french macaroons.

We watched two scary movies: Orphan and Paranormal Activity. We watched Orphan because it featured our mutual movie boyfriend Peter Sarsgaard. The plot to this one was fun and creative and I enjoyed that they took the time to build up a good story with interesting characters. Paranormal Activity wasn’t half as scary as I’d set it up to be, but it did give me the willies in a few spots. We also watched Up in the Air. I found it kinda depressing, but there were some interesting moments.

The last night I was there we stopped by the house of a friend of Jaime’s: we had some lovely wine (okay a lot of lovely wine) and hung out with the couple and their 9-year-old son who RULED. So often kids are left at home when parents go to visit or put down to sleep in a bedroom when company is over, but this family had their son hanging out with us for most of the evening. It was so fun – we played Spongebob SORRY! and drew pictures and giggled and played hide and seek. Seeing a well adjusted kid enjoying time with his parents yet letting them be adults and have conversations was pretty awesome.

We had plans to visit San Francisco and maybe drop in on some friends, but Monday morning we both woke with awful hangovers. I guess we aren’t 23 anymore. The storm was raging outside so we ordered pizza delivery and sat around chatting. We never left the 94501 zip code and I’m not one bit sorry. It felt like old times when we both lived in the city – back then we didn’t spend our time jetting from place to place trying to mark things off of a list. We just talked. Slept in. Read books together.

I came home, feeling a bit lonely but happy to see Sky. Then I was in Jury Duty for 2 days and got the worst haircut of my life. Both those things will have to wait for another post…

I love Fall. Autumn. Whatever you call it. I always called it “autumn” when I was younger, because no one else used that word and I wanted to sound different. I also called my aunt “ohnt” which drove her bonkers. Now when I hear people use the word “autumn” I think it sounds kind of snooty; except when people use the word “autumnal” – I like that.

Our new little place is very cozy. Have I mentioned that yet? Cozy, cozy cozy! I get home in the evening and the radiators are popping and the cats are purring and I make some tea on our awesome-fast-gas range. I settle in with a book or maybe take a bath. The world is my oyster. Sky loves it in the mornings because he has something to watch (traffic, clouds, birds) while he drinks his morning coffee and it’s not cold and dark at all in the morning. The lights are cheery and the floor is warm.

I’ve been in touch with my sister a lot more than usual after our little sister vacation. That makes me happy. It always takes me a bit of time to get reacclimated to people I haven’t seen for awhile, including, sadly my family sometimes. So it’s been nice to keep in contact – easier to talk about small things and have a rapport. I’ve also been talking to Jaime more – or she’s been good at hassling me so that happens. I still fall too easily into being hermity, sometimes. I’m lucky to have a bestie who doesn’t let that happen too often.

We’re going to Chicago for Thanksgiving and I can’t wait! The last time I visited I was about 12 years old, so I don’t remember much of anything. This weekend my mom recalled how when she was little, they would drive up to Michigan for Thanksgiving, and on their way home they would always be sure to hit Chicago in the late evening. That way they could drive along State Street with little to no traffic and check out all of the pretty sparkly Christmas lights and store displays. I promised my mom I’d take a walk there and give her a report. I hope it snows (but only in the middle of the week so it doesn’t affect our flights).

Sky’s taking his first licensing exam today – it’s 4 hours long! Wish him good thoughts and a clear mind, okay?

I’m pretty sure I’ve just turned a 15 year old away from the library, permanently. I was trying to help him look up Côte d’Ivoire political history using our databases but what I ended up doing was coughing for about 5 minutes straight while trying to point to things as I clicked. He looked uncomfortable throughout and finally wiggled his card and the Databases handout out of my hands and escaped. I tried to push some Germ-X hand sanitizer on him but he was desperate to flee. I get it. I’d flee, too.

Where I will be spending most of my vacation

I think I'm the only person who remembers this movie

*Do you see that Madonna reference I snuck in there? You get up again, over and over?

Time for the being sick to stop. Seriously. It is making me miss having a boyfriend – not Doug in particular (because I’m not that crazy), but someone to make me soup and pat my head. I will have to settle for the love of my cat who is sleeping near me – she doesn’t usually – and the comfort of peanut butter toast.

And you know what would be better than a boyfriend? What is always better than a boyfriend when you are sick? My mom appearing out of nowhere. There’s no sympathy like mom sympathy. Maybe I will go give mine a call.

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I would like to add that keeping me alive in my fragile, cough-y state, is the fact that Jaime is going to be in LA next week for a conference and I will be visiting her at her fancy shmance hotel and we are going to be total rockstars.

My weekend was lovely.
Saturday I awoke after a few hours of half-sleep and took the JEPET. It wasn’t as bad as I had worked it up to be. I was still brain-fried, though. I met up with J-me and we had breakfast @ Bitteroot. Sometimes I wish I could have J-me surgically attached to me – even though I know we would both get testy after 36 hours or so.

After a disco nap and a nice jasmine bath I picked up Dougaroo in a cab and we had a very nice dinner @ La Mediterranee (site of first date). After that was Grace Cathedral Park where we watched some ghost tour led by a girl in a spooky cape and a fake candelabra. Then this woman who was singing ‘Ave Maria’ very very loudly in operatic soprano came to the park and it made my skin crawl. We walked over to the Cathedral and camped out on the steps but then this sketchy guy with a really weird give-me-money story accosted us on the steps and the drunken tourists became too much so home again home again jiggety jig! Still, it was nice in its oddness (the evening).
One whole twelve months, crikey!

Today we went to Houston’s and it made us sleepy so after climbing around in tents and trying on sofas we took a nap which is one of the best things you can do on a Sunday afternoon.

We need to find an apartment that is a walk away from the beach, has 2 bedrooms and is available on a 6 month lease (could be longer, don’t know yet). Oh and a bathtub too, please. Thank you gods of real estate for your prompt concern in this matter.