Boarding

I have initiated the Blue Escape.

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Honor

The flag at the beach in Pacifica at half-staff to honor the passing of John McCain.

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Traditional

This is the Dragon Gate in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Haven’t visited since I started learning some Chinese. As expected, everything was in traditional characters and lots of the store & restaurant names contain 香港.

On the other side of the Bay, I saw Crazy Rich Asians and enjoyed the Mandarin versions of “Money,” “Material Girl,” and “Yellow” and the mahjong-punctuated emotional climax.

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Bovine

For the final leg of my farewell tour, I went up to visit friends in the Bay. Stayed at a charming boutique motel just south of the City near the Cow Palace with the bay visible beyond it.

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Stressors

I was feeling a bit anxious.  Then I remembered that a death of a family member, moving, and a career change are each on those lists of the most stressful things people have to endure.

Luckily, I’m of the “once you’re soaked you can’t get any wetter” school of thought.

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Stacks

I know that the vast majority of these moving boxes contain books.  But I can’t help but think that somewhere, hidden in these stacks, lies the Ark of the Covenant.

Top.  Men.

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Rolled

I stumbled on this place coming out of seeing a movie at the NoHo Laemmle:  rolled ice cream, mixed and frozen and scraped off a super cold metal surface.  Apparently it’s a Thailand thing.

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Gipper

My sister and I visited the Reagan Presidential Library.  (I had never gotten around to going.)  We were motivated by the temporary exhibit they had on Genghis Khan, but the indoor Air Force One was probably the highlight of the whole day.  Surprisingly dinky!

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Fraternal

I was down in San Diego spending time with my brother and his family.  He took me on a (whirlwind) visit to the zoo.  We figured it was the first time we had been to the San Diego Zoo together since we were little, little boys.  These two giraffes reminded me us now.

Don’t think I’ve ever heard of a pygmy mammoth but even just the name made me giggle.I saw pandas!  Again!Reading the sign in front of the enclosure, I was so proud of myself for being able to read the panda’s Chinese name:  白云!  “White Cloud”!  Buuut my pride was blunted when I saw that the translation was already written on the sign, like, right under it.

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Diaphonous

While packing up my desk, I temporarily put a foam bag over my mug of pens & highlighters.  The gauzy appearance made it look like something out of a sci-fi movie.

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Blue

Lying in bed in my Shanghai apartment the weekend before the 2016 presidential election, I had an anxiety attack about what I was doing with my life.  I worked out three possible plans to consider:  The Red Escape, The Green Escape, Escape from Alcatraz, and Unfinished Business.  After much soul searching, I settled on Unfinished Business and moved back to L.A.  But circumstances have changed.

I’ve come up with a new plan.  The Blue Escape.  I’ll be moving to Connecticut to work at Blue Sky Studios.

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Evergreen

Took my sister downtown to protest Trump’s policy of separating families at the border.  This is the sign she made with leftover poster board I had from D.C.  High reuse value.

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Wand

Went to Universal Studios for the first time in forever and had a chance to explore the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Very well-themed (although I could have done with drizzly British weather instead of So Cal summer heat.)

I kept hearing about the wands you could buy which let you interact with certain spots in the environment, but I was struck by two things.  First, the interactive wands are incredibly expensive.  (So expensive that they also sell cheaper, non-interactive versions!)  Second, the interactive spots seems so finicky that each one needs a Cast Member stationed at it to show kids exactly what they have to do.  Cool idea, though.

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Monoculture

My sister wanted to go to the Scottish Festival in Costa Mesa.  My brother, sister-in-law, and niece drove up from San Diego to join us.

I was a little worried, times being what they are, that this year the festival would be tinged with white supremacism, but I was pleasantly surprised.  The number of mixed race couples I saw really encouraged me.My niece got a chance to try sword dancing a little.

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Trap

Sometimes existence feels like being born into a bear trap.

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