Who Are You, and What Have You Done with August?

Where were we?

Since I have no idea where we left off (ok, I read the posts, but before that) I'm going to start somewhere. Mike bought the audio book of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" recently and has made it to disk 3, so I've been listening to it in the car on my way to and from work so that I can catch up with him.

It is blowing my mind to think that the people in the book are people of my grandparents' generation. The urgency of youth is both enviable and sweetly naive. The rhythm of the prose is like the works of a ticking wooden clock, moving at a staccato clip and glinting with curious and unexpected little jewels. It's funny to be driving through the Napa Valley in the cool mornings, smelling fermentation happening, following grape gondolas and teams of dark and serious workers, and simultaneously hearing Kerouac's romantic rendering of the October mists of Fresno and his holy communion with dirt while picking cotton in the Big Valley.

Apropos of nothing, here are ten things I like right now:

My Grandma and Grandpa (I'm not counting that, because that is a different level of love than the things below)

Whole Foods
Bumble and Bumble Curl Conscious Conditioner and Creme (but it's stupidly expensive for conditioner)
Dr. Hauschka Mascara
Pixie
Mark Helprin's Books (when is he going to write a new one?)
The New Best Recipe cookbook
Mother Jones Magazine (Wow- where has this been my adult life? The last I remember, this was a grow-your-own type of rag in the 70s. The cover this month with George Bush as the melting Witch of the West is damn funny.)
Dooce.com
Sea Wolf

Just a totally random list of things I could think of quickly. No links, look 'em up yourself.

Oh yeah, and caffeine. Dude! I haven't had any caffeine to speak of for years, and Sunday I had a very dainty regular espresso in my favorite fashion, which is to say with a tiny dab of sugar and half-and-half. (In Healdsburg, where we went to a new shop called 14 feet- faboo). It was incredibly delicious, and I had such a nice time. I came home and organized my entire office, including the closet. I knew it was dangerous when I craved another hit the first thing the next morning, so I will avoid it again for a while.

This is my week for doctor and dentist check-ups, and then next Tuesday I am SO EXCITED to be going to a member preview at the spanking new Academy of Sciences. I have been waiting for this ever since they closed the Steinhart at the park.

This is it for now...need to see what my little dog is doing snuffling under the bed....

It's good to be back!