my christmas vacation

Yes, it was painful but I do love it. I’ve been wanting it a long time. Patrick and I found a baby t-shirt at Le Shop in Paris that had the picture. He scanned it into the computer and then superimposed it on an image of my back. I had tried to find a place in Germany to do it but wasn’t comfortable with any where I found, that was willing to do it. The ‘star’ in Stuttgart wasn’t into something like that. Whatever. Shelby at Sacred Art was and it was wonderful. It took 4 hours and the last 1/2 hour was excruciatingly painful but I think it is beautiful so it is ok. And what do I think about how it will look in 20 years? I don’t care.

Well then, Patrick and I spent 24 days hanging out in the US this Christmas season and it was a well needed rest. I call it my Lazy-a-thon. And it was more successful than anything Jerry Lewis could have done. We started in LA for a week and a half. We still both really really love LA and would really like to move there. To us, it is beautiful. The only weird thing was that they washed the streets downtown everyday. That’s just weird and feels totally wrong for two So Cal kids that grew up with water rationing and desalinization plants. Chelsea came to visit us and we went to Disneyland and shopping and hanging out and stuff. She is tall and teenager like. In the good sense. We showed her the 10, 210, 110, 5 and 101. All things one must experience to fully take in the LA experience.

The day before Christmas we went to Gaby and Steve’s and met Ysabella. It was wonderful to stay with them and we had the family feeling we always do when visiting them. There we drank a bunch of coffee and just hung out. On Christmas day we drove down to Moorpark to spend the day and catch up with Patrick’s family. All the grandchildren are getting really big. Not surprising since we have been married 11 years though.
A few days after Christmas we flew to Chico and stayed with my friend Christine. Christine kindly, for us, kicked her daughter out of her room so we had normal bed to sleep in. I was amazed by how Indra and Miles kept their rooms clean and seemed to use the same towel multiple times. This amazement was not to last though. When I mentioned to Christine how impressed I was that she had managed to convince her kids not to use one towel a day, as both my brother and I had done in High School, she laughed. Apparently she had given them strict instruction to leave the white towels in the bathroom for the guests. Oh well. I guess in a way I am happy that kids don’t change. I mean I went through the towel phas and I turned out ok.

Patrick and I had a great time being domestic. Patrick raked leaves one day and we bought a new shower head. I folded laundry and Patrick made dinner most nights. Brent and Patrick played network video games and generally geeked out while Christine and I went to the gym a few times and drank a lot of coffee. There was no pressure and no commitments. It was wonderful. I was amazed how calm and kick back everything was. Everyone just sort of hanging out. Until school started back up. Then it kicked into high gear. You have 4 people going in all different directions. Indra and Miles aren’t old enough to drive. They each of several types of lessons a week. Christine has football and the gym. Brent tries to keep a handle on the house and takes care of the animals. They need domestic help. Christine said she wanted to keep Patrick and I in a closet because it was so nice and helpful having us. Not just from a slave standpoint but because it was nice to have other adults to interact with. It was wonderful staying with them and I really appreciated it.

Other than that, things are pretty good. The 4th annual, and likely last, Beach Party is coming up Feb 8th. We had friends for dinner last night and saw a friend’s band on Friday night. It rocked. I love my new tattoo and I am reinvigorated for work even if SOME management bugs me. It’s just the way it is. I did have a weird thing happen to me when I returned from the US. For an entire week, I could not sleep more than 8, usually 7, hours a night. Now mind you I was going to sleep by 9, but even the night I stayed up until 11, I woke up at 7 the next morning. Luckily this morning I woke up after 10 hours. I was afraid I was getting old and I had hit that plateau where you get up early every day and fall asleep by 9 every night. That would scare me. I have never been and certainly do not want to be, a morning person. Dark night, dark clothing. It works for me.

Oh and lastly, I have joined a political organization. It is called MoveOn.org and it began during the Clinton Impeachment by some software engineers in silicon valley that wanted Congress to stop wasting time and money on Monica-gate and get on with business. The have an AMAZING flash ad about what is going on in the US gov’t right now with the ‘War on Terrorism’. I don’t like to press people about their political beliefs or activities, so I will only say that I highly recommend this group or at least, that each of us speak up to our elected officials about our opinions, whatever they may be, which ever direction they may lean. It is a representative gov’t and that means they have to know how we want to be represented. Something they can only know if we contact them. MoveOn.org can help with that. Cheers

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