Palms Through Windows

It's a rainy Thanksgiving in Shanghai. Gman and I celebrated with the traditional watching of the Simpsons followed by a big Thanksgiving pizza (no stuffing) and chocolate chip cookies. The Peavine and Lincoln City football games of years past were replaced by reading and video games. As I relaxed in an overstuffed chair I put my book down and listened to Windham Hill's Winter Solstice and watched the palm tree dissolve into the night through the open window. The palm fronds against the darkening sky took me back to my Hollywood kitchen window that looked out over the palms of Laurel Canyon. I used to look out that window at the Southern California sky at sunset and wonder what I was doing there - so far from Peavine. Now I'm even farther away and I am still puzzled by the confluence of events that brought me here.

We have much to be thankful for. Good job. Good school. But we miss our family.