I Will Find the Answer

Back in junior high school, I remember getting this Choose Your Own Adventure book from my school library. Like all the CYOA books, I got really excited by the premise and then got annoyed when I didn’t immediately find the best outcome.

Over the years, this was one CYOA book that I remembered, the one I always hoped to find the final “best” outcome. Last week, I found a used copy via Amazon and bought it for $5 dollars. UFO 54-40, your secrets will be mine.

Poppies in Bloom!

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Sorry for the weird, creepy used-car salesman look. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten a haircut.

My Friend Made Something Beautiful for Me

A few months ago, I was having coffee with my friend Lisa, known to much of a world as Smacksy. She is an amazing writer and blogger and occasionally, I would think, “that’s really cool that she is talented like that. It’s nice when you can see a friend succeeding at her chosen profession.”

Then one day, she started to post multimedia pieces onto her site. They were really remarkable. I just wanted to stare at them; the use of color, texture, and the way there appeared to be a story in each piece she created.

I was also a bit torn.

Part of me thought “wow, she’s really good at two creative styles. That’s really cool.”

The other (more jealous) part of me thought, “That’s not fair! Most people have to work hard to be good in just one creative field. And, she works in both and makes it look easy.”

Finally, I got over my own ego and asked if she could make a piece for me. A few weeks ago, she created something that was beautiful but also felt unique to our friendship.

Thank you, Smacksy. I love it.

(Darn it!)

Jacaranda Season

In Los Angeles, it is jacaranda season, when the violet blossoms suddenly appear on all the trees and begin to rain purple on to everyone and everything. Per the LAist, “Vladimir Nabokov is said to have claimed that he could have lived in Los Angeles for the jacaranda trees alone.”

We have a giant jacaranda tree in our backyard that quite literally drops seed pods, twigs, leaves, and blossoms throughout the year. Having twigs falling on your head isn’t necessarily nice, but the blossoms make up for it in the two weeks that they bloom, fall gently to the ground, and then are then crushed under the feet of my pets.

As lovely as they are to see, I have to admit I like the word “jacaranda” most of all. It rolls off the tongue like the strikes to a marimba or the password to an underground club named “El Tigre.”

Fun Fact: Horticulturist Kate Sessions brought the trees to California from South America in the early 1920s and 30s. There are over 150,000 in the greater Los Angeles.