Realizing what we’ve lost

Really, she's photo bombing. Start of school, 2018 It’s August now, and usually I/we start to think of the coming school year. I took July “off.” I wrapped up the sale of our house, did some administrative stuff (you never realize how many people and organizations have your address until you move, especially when you … Continue reading Realizing what we’ve lost →

An origin story

The only photo of the four of us (my brother had not yet arrived), Thanksgiving 2006 I realized the other day that traveling runs in my family. I took my first international trip before I was three years old, to visit family in Switzerland. But my mother, the reason for that trip, had also traveled … Continue reading An origin story →

The bureaucracy post

Photo by Annika Gordon on Unsplash There are other things I wanted to write about more than this, but bureaucracy blew up in my life yesterday. I hope it’s nothing I can’t fix, and it’s nowhere near as serious as bureaucratic problems other people have, but it’s become a definite theme in our lives right now. There are … Continue reading The bureaucracy post →

Saying goodbye to our house

We said goodbye to our house on Friday, July 10. It wasn’t going to be ours anymore, so we wanted to see it one more time when it still was. We had been saying goodbye in one way or another since we’d gotten back from Mongolia last July. We knew we only had one more … Continue reading Saying goodbye to our house →

Pandemic Summer

Our patio We are now four months into our pandemic lives, counting from the time that California pretty much shut down in mid-March. It has “opened up” again, at least in some ways, and some people have gone back to life as close to usual as they can make it. Emma and I have continued … Continue reading Pandemic Summer →

Some reflections on the fifth of July

Overlooking Asahikawa, Japan on July 4, 2019 Last night, as people in our neighborhood were setting off fireworks, our dogs stuck to me. They didn’t bark or whine, but they stayed close by me as I moved around the apartment getting ready for bed. They were underfoot as I brushed my teeth and tried to … Continue reading Some reflections on the fifth of July →

The Mask Post

Emma's 8th grade graduation was the first largish gathering we've attended since February. It was limited to the 10 graduates and their immediate families (nine physically attended, and one participated virtually). The families ranged in size from two (ours) to around ten. We were outside, in seating areas that were spread out across a courtyard, … Continue reading The Mask Post →

Letting go

Our house Ever since we returned from Mongolia in July 2019, Emma and I have been talking about moving overseas again. We had a plan even before that, but it was a generalized plan. When Emma finished eighth grade, we’d move away from southern California, maybe to Switzerland (where my mother was from), or to … Continue reading Letting go →

Waiting for Mongolia’s borders to open again

Brand new Monarch butterfly A new post is long overdue. A lot of things have been happening, and I’ve been having a hard time writing. Between the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the movement that’s responding to George Floyd’s murder by police in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor’s murder by police in Louisville, and Auhmad Arbery’s murder by … Continue reading Waiting for Mongolia’s borders to open again →