order of things

back from atx, and missing atx. it was a tease to visit austin only 6 or 7 weeks after moving away. i spent the first night with star and each night after my initial arrival, i spent revisiting the town i'd loved all along. star and i ate at Casa one evening, and while out back on the patio, i got swept up in the moment and forgot i had ever left. i sat there wondering why it'd been so long since our last Casa dinner, and then i remembered.. "oh, cos i don't live here anymore."

this week marks the beginning of what the local southern californians called "june gloom". its the time of year in which each day is covered in clouds and is so gray that in early hours of morning it's hard to see the horizon on the ocean. the sky and the water blur together so well that if those rigs didn't sit out there off of huntington beach, i don't think i would have seen it at all. too bad this june gloom is in fact one of the summer months. please don't come visit during june gloom, unless of course you like the gloom. the merge of sky and ocean does make for a nice painting i think.

speaking of june i got my esquire june issue in the mail, and am pretty thrilled. i'm rarely disappointed with this magazine. and both xavi and i really enjoy the articles - there's always a good mix.

xavi is out of the country in france til june 2nd. he arrived last saturday morning and was a huge surprise at his mom's 60th birthday. according to his schedule, i think today he is in paris. or maybe he's on his way to rennes. either paris or rennes, he's spending the rest of his trip traveling from city to city seeing old friends and family. i decided to stay state-side this time, and spent a few days in washington DC seeing some dear friends from when i lived in norway. before heading back to cali, i stopped in austin to dog-sit abby and bey, plus manage a few things with the condo unit while my parents were out of town. i was spoiled rotten running around austin, enjoy beautiful warm weather, listening to rain in the evening saturday and hanging out again with co-workers and old friends. it was much harder to leave this time.

this book sounds like it could be really good: "Down Around Midnight: A Memoir of Crash and Survival", by Robert Sabbag

listening to some blue october.. when did i get this album? oh yeah, from H.

thinking a lot lately about religion. life. conversations from the last few days, and over the months. communication. radio interviews i heard on npr recently. some that motivated me, some that made me cry. some that reminded me of how fortunate i am. some that made me want to reach out and help. i like npr interviews, and esquire interviews. thinking back to where i was last year at this time, and the year before at this time. and the year before that.

made friends with a 3 year old today in the pool. his name is jon and he offered me his arm floaties. i said he better keep em, but it was kind of him to offer them to me. he said, hey you wanna race to the side, and i said, sure, but he was pretty fast, and he beat me every time. he said, "do you wanna be my friend tomorrow" and i said "definitely."