Did I miss anything?
For 10 days I didn’t have rice, teriyaki chicken or watch the news. I spent the holidays in California, where my feet were cold, my lips were chapped and I had to lather on copious amounts of lotion to soothe my dry skin. Isn’t it ironic that the Hawaiian visits Oakland for a relaxing vacation?
During the same time, I unplugged from the world (except for a few rousing games of Words With Friends). I traded in my laptop for a paperback novel. Instead of flipping on CNN, I flipped through interior magazines (who knew turquoise is the new “it” wall color?). Instead of Facebooking, I talked to people to their face.
There’s nothing like taking a little break from the media.
Now that I’m back in the full swing of things, I realized how much media I consumed on a daily basis. My new year’s resolution is to turn of the TV a little more, read a good book now and then and not be so entrenched with pop culture. Life just seems a little more happier that way.
It’s almost Christmas
That means it’s the last week to see the Festival of Lights at the historic County Building facing Rice Street.
From the vault
This phone was eaten by my dog, but I appreciate that my 17-year-old self had this wallpaper. The text says Bong Hits 4 Jesus. For more information, click here.

Grandparents
There’s a time in every child’s life when they realize their parents and grandparents were once kids, too. On top of being young, you also discover that they had lives, dreams and they were even — gulp — attractive.
Here’s a newspaper clipping which brought on the epiphany my wrinkled grandfather was once a boy (he’s the one sitting on top of the clubhouse).






