… a very Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here with the rest of her ‘father’s’ family in Michigan.

Enjoy the turkey feast

The past couple of weeks have been illustrative to the fact that I’ve been losing a bit of momentum lately. My rhythm has slowed. I lack regularity. Time has been spent transitioning, settling in, getting used to new things, and there’s also been a bit of travelling thrown into the mix too. Yet despite this seemingly endless string of supposedly ‘exciting’ events taking place, my mood hasn’t exactly been going in the same direction. I have been here almost 60 days now but don’t feel any more settled this week compared to the days after I first arrived. And the important little things that make everyday life satisfying are still lacking- I have yet to find a favourite food, cheese that has any taste, a laundry detergent that actually gets my whites bright, or a favourite programme on TV… Whilst the weather is bright sunshine and blue skies, almost 60 days of this monotony is far from the novelty it sounds and the thought of going to Michigan next week for Thanksgiving where they actually have weather is instigating an excitement in me that can only be described as ‘disproportionate’. I can’t actually believe that I’ll be able to wear clothes with sleeves of all things, and heavens above, I’ll likely even be able to wear A WINTER COAT.

I suppose it hasn’t helped that the past week and a half I’ve also been afflicted with a seasonal mold spore allergy that each morning makes it feel like I’ve spent the entire night sleep-ramming my forhead against a brick wall, but since we installed an industrial strength hepa filter air purifier next to the bed things have got a little better. Nevertheless, the disturbed sleep and general malaise combine together to make the days rather exhausting and by the time the evening comes I just want to curl up on the couch and keep myself to myself and then the whole thing starts over again the next day.

So altogether it’s no wonder that I haven’t really felt inspired of late. I’m sure I’ll feel better soon though. Maybe it’ll help if I bake some cakes, put up some Christmas decorations and kick start the metronome of my normal winter routine (albeint slightly prematurely). I could do that this afternoon. But only after I’ve first spent 20 minutes lying on the couch under a heated eyemask to soothe my throbbing brow…

Our friend Tully is currently staying with us, just for a little bit whilst his daddy is out of town. We’ve looked after him quite a few times before but usually it’s been on his own turf, and one time when his daddy was away we took him on a camping trip with us. But this was the first time he’d actually stayed with us in our apartment. Predictably he was feeling a bit blue with the situation as we’d stolen him away from his comfort zone and just to make his point clear he decided to go on hunger strike and make loud audible sighs as he flopped pathetically to the floor every five minutes. So I thought some distraction was in order so took him out for a nice five mile walk along one of the local ‘scenic‘ hiking trails. Note that I said ‘scenic‘ and not ’scenic’ as I’ve come to the conclusion that Silicon Valley has nothing much to offer except for STERILE BLANDNESS which I will no doubt illustrate in an upcoming post or two just to make my point clear. Although where we lived before in the East Bay was a perfect example of spaghetti junction road mess with hardly a flat bit of land unbuilt on or unpaved, the hills up against which everything urban was squashed provided a rather pretty country respite and literally just five minutes out of town you would never have guessed that you were near a city at all. It was also nice being just a 15 minute drive or a 20 minute train ride to the beating glorious heart of amazing San Francisco instead of being like two trains and a whole hour on a good day (i.e. when there are express trains) away from the same place. Maybe I’m just not good with change? I mean I have put myself through A LOT the past few months. But I digress….

Back to the walk. I thought it would hopefully make him work up an appetite, or at the very least tire him out to the extent that he would just sleep away the remainder of his stay and so make the return to his normal life come all the more sooner. And just to make sure he enjoyed it, and hopefully burn up even more energy, I decided to take two of the local dog crew along with us too.

Except for all my plans of tiring him out I completely disregarded that FIVE WHOLE MILES with THREE WHOLE DOGS might just ever so slightly exhaust the hell out of me too. Needless to say we both ate well tonight, and will no doubt sleep well also.

Southern California was a lot of fun, but it’s nice to be able to sleep in my own bed again. Pics and details to follow shortly….. that aforementioned bed is calling my name *yawn*. It was a long drive and I spent the entire day doing laundry.

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For some reason we always seem to generate twice as much laundry when we’re away and I don’t think I will ever understand it. Yes, the day was spent catching up with all the housework. And I found a rather cool badge at the back of a bathroom fixture that we brought with us from the old apartment. This is the sort of thing that my grandchildren will look back on and think “cool“. Now I wonder if I can get my hands on some more of the Obama stuff (all we have is a big sign in our window, I wanted the t-shirt).

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And we’re on the road again, but this time we’re going HOME! Thankyou to our wonderful friends for having us for a couple of days, we had a blast!