I was sent out to Silicon Valley on President's Day weekend. Previously, I joked with the Consulting Director that my mom must have gotten a hold of her e-mail address as that had to explain why I kept on getting assignments within spitting distance of family. Fortunately, my folks accepted that the purpose of the visit was work and that they ( Read more... )

We had been on the road for an hour, surrounded by sprawl, under a midday sky the color of sunburnt skin. On a bumpy road supported by the highest gas taxes in the country, we passed signs for places named by a vanquished language that lurks in subversive margins, and were ourselves passed, cut off by a polyglot of grizzled truck gladiators who ( Read more... )

I spent most of New Year's Eve partyhopping. The first venue was Aunt Patsy's house in the middle of the San Mateo hills. She was born on New Year's Day and her New Year's/Birthday party has been an annual tradition for my family. The party itself wasn't quite as boring as I had expected. Somewhere in the last year, I had somehow gained the ( Read more... )