California, here I go...

California, here I go...
Originally uploaded by mamagotcha.

It gets more and more wrenching to leave each time I go back... but this
trip, though brief, was wonderful. The wedding went off with a single
hitch, the weather was cooperative, I met Cord's Japanese host parents,
got to hang out with both Cord and Julia, brought some goodies and a
knitted bit to my dad on Father's Day, visited with my mom, helped Julia
with a tax glitch, ate a ton of great food (mostly Thai but also Italian
and a lovely homemade dish), walked on a few beaches, listened to a Girl
Genius podcast, flooded a badly designed motel room, paid a truly
obscene amount of money to fill a gas tank, indulged in a bit of
excellent chocolate, watched Ninja Warrior women, played the Bagel
Fairy, remembered to obtain black flake salt for Bill, discussed the
philosophical nature of good wishes, got to spend an unfairly large
amount of time with an extremely gracious bride and groom (and their
beautiful, smart and funny friends and family), sang "Still Alive" and
learned how to play bass with four more beautiful, funny and smart people
into the wee hours, read part of a book about the nature of butches,
worked my mama magic on a totally tantruming two-year-old (winning the
admiration of an entire planeload of travelers), and heard all about my
sister's jury duty adventures. There's more, but I need to turn off the
phone and get ready to fly home. Bye, California! See you soon, I hope!