Away and Back

The past few days Mel and I were in Southern California. First was the wedding of my best friend from high school. The wedding was beautiful but the experience was a bit surreal as I saw a few friends from that era with whom I've stayed in touch off and on. Conversations with old friends were at once familiar and awkward.

The wedding itself, we both agreed, was close to perfect. The weather was great, the scenery stunning, and the crowd just the right size.

Then it was off to visit one of my sisters in LA. We realized we haven't seen her and her family for four years. It came as a bit of a shock (and embarrassment, ok, and guilt). We gorged ourselves at a yummy Korean restaurant and had a great time catching up. My nephew kicked my tail in Madden NFL 2004 -- I think the score was 73 - 7.

By the way, traffic in L.A. sucks. Big time.

Next stop was San Diego. Can you imagine the fun of driving 25 mph on I-5 in a Dodge Magnum? Yes, it was that much fun.

We finally arrived at my other sister's house. We saw our little nephew for the first time, even though he's 3½ (yes, we've been over the guilt thing). And we saw our little genius of a niece who left us speechless when she played the piano. A home cooked meal was certainly a welcome changed after having eaten in restaurants for three days straight.

On our flight back to the Bay Area we were both struck by how much we missed our own home. We were not disappointed when we were greeted by wagging tails and joyful meows.

It's good to be home.