Lizard Breath and I have gotten into a daily habit of texting back and forth to report our progress on the NYT xword and spelling bee (without giving each other any answers). Today I had reached genius on the bee and although I hadn’t gotten the pangram yet, this one had some great words: gorgon, grotto, pronoun, pronto, proton, purport, ROTGUT(!), and torpor were my faves. I f-i-n-a-l-l-y got the pangram, which was gunport but wouldn’t you know I actually tried portgun first, which is DEFINITELY NOT a word 🐽

I opened the photo app on my phone and it served up some stuff from 2006 of all things. The photo is Lizard’s first apartment in California, in Berkeley. She later moved to two different locations in San Francisco’s Mission District. I wasn’t on this particular trip. The Twinz of Terror flew out to visit Liz and her “identical” cousin TBR, the Uncly Uncle’s daughter. TBR was attending a grad school program. Liz was working for a non-profit that supported bay area families.

I flew out there solo the next March and loved staying at her apartment there. Shabby Comfortable, just like Liz grew up with and is therefore accustomed to. They were dealing with ants in the kitchen and slugs in the bathroom. I slept on the couch, which was fine with me. I can sleep just about anywhere. Except for the small bed in the Lyme Lounge or someplace with moe-skee-toes.

It was my first time flying in about 30 years. I am not crazy about flying even though as a kid, I grew up flying with my WWII pilot dad in a rented Cessna and sometimes he even let me take the controls (which were also in the passenger seat, you can guess why). For me it’s partly the “crashing” thing but only partly. I know the statistics. It’s also that I am super sensitive and I feel every vibration and change in altitude. I always appreciate a pilot who tells us we’re starting our descent because it affirms what I already know.

On the other hand, Liz was unable to pick me up at the airport (car issues) and I managed to navigate TO the BART system and THROUGH the BART system over to Berkeley. All by myself. It wasn’t easy and it was before smart phones. Nevertheless, I persisted!

Anyway it was a great trip and we traipsed all over the place both by BART and her then car, I think it was Maggie (who was fixed). Although I loved the whole area, Point Reyes was probably my fave. Lake Superior on steroids and I got a little vertigo on the wooden stairway down to the lighthouse (and on the bus). Then there was the guy selling bus tickets who tried to insist that Liz needed a child ticket. Um, nope. 22.

Oh. HAHAHAHA! We went to get grocks at the Berkeley Bowl the first night I was there (and I was dead taaarred). Somebody asked me where some esoteric produce item was. THEY THOUGHT I WORKED THERE! Um no, flew out here from Dee-troit Metro this morning. First time in California. Was it my Ann Arbor Hippie Vibes showing themselves? Not that I’ve ever been anything more than a hippie wannabe and by the time I moved to The Planet Ann Arbor I was WELL past that stage and working my first tech job.

I was taking classes at WCC during that trip and I took advantage of the time difference to get up at 0-skunk-30 (like 5:00 AM) and work on my homework. Good times but it is nice to have her over in the DayTwa area.

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