Turkey post. I figured out why the post was cut short. Used 'less than' rather than 'greater than' in my quotes.

If anyone remembers the story of how my mom and I have been pranking each other with a rubber ear since I was 12 years old (sneaking it into each other's possession however we can, like hiding it in the other's purse, putting it in a Christmas stocking, etc), I made sure that my mom currently has the ear, because she and my stepdad are in Italy for 2 weeks. This morning I got a text with a picture of the ear at the Colosseum. (She doesn't want me to post the pictures on FB until they're home, because they're paranoid about burglars deducing from the pictures that they are out of town and emptying their house like the Grinch. So I'll eventually post the pictures, but, sadly, not today.)

Anyway, if you need amusement in your day, try envisioning a photo of a rubber ear with the Colosseum in the background, with the light coming in from the left and dramatically illuminating the ear. I can't stop giggling at it. It is truly a marvel.

Mom, you have my ear.

Hee on the dramatic ear!

{{{Karl}}} all kinds of ~ma

Oh, ciao, ear!

Talked to my college roommate, Chip (one of my closest friends) tonight. Extended an invite to him and his wife to come visit and stay at the Garden Apartment and they said they would in 2024.

After I landed in SF, Chip would spend at least a week with me over every summer for many summers in a row. So, I want to re-establish that kind of rhythm and connection.

On that same theme, I also invited JZ's cousin Nicole to come out next week for a few days (a much shorter trip from Sacramento). Jacqueline and I sort of adopted her as she was the very cute but very oddball black sheep of one branch of the family, and we always have room for that sort.

She needs a regular dose of San Francisco and that's something I can provide for her. (If you remember way back, she was the kid who was going to freak out San Francisco with her full Michael Jackson costume, but instead was met with welcome curiosity by various people dressed as Jack Sparrow.)

There were three people that looked up to Jacqueline as a surrogate mother figure and she made sure to make time for each of them in her last days: Nicole, Matilda's friend Mia, and the young man she had mentored, Marco.

I'm making a conscious effort to connect and reconnect with people. Maybe a little sense of urgency, I guess.

It's been one month ago and a lifetime and two days ago at the same time.

Shir, thinking about you and Nilly always. It's all just so awful.

I'm making a conscious effort to connect and reconnect with people. Maybe a little sense of urgency, I guess.

That makes total sense.

Nilly and Shir, you and yours are constantly on my mind and always in my heart.

Election Day today is giving me dread for the next one. I did not miss that feeling at all.

Election Day today is giving me dread for the next one.

I'm too stressed about Ohio's Issue 1 (the abortion issue) to even think about next year yet. (It does look likely that Issue 1 will pass, but it's not a sure thing.)

And then the other statewide issue would legalize recreational weed, so we might have legal abortions and legal weed.