Greetings from the San Fernando Valley

Everything feels surreal right now -- the sky looks too blue to be real, the weather has been beyond beautiful (low 70s daytime, low 60s evening), we have eaten really well, we have gotten to see several of my favorite people in the world, and it's still almost unbearably sad to be here. We spent most of the day with Paul's family at David's house with a couple of runs out to the food store to get supplies and to get Starbucks. We had vegan pizza delivered from Fresh Brothers that was the best pizza I've had since Vince & Dominics closed. I got to spend a bit of time shopping with Dave's younger daughter, the only time we've ever been together without other adults around, she is lovely and witty, and I got to see many of the relatives and close friends of Dave's who came by the house to help with various chores and reminiscing and sharing photos.

I keep catching myself thinking wow, I should send Molly a Facebook message about things her kids showed me or things I learned from her dad's relatives that I never knew before. It's so frustrating to know that we will never have all these conversations about our family, so sad that she will never see the things her kids are doing. In the evening we drove to Northridge to have dinner with the Foleys in Northridge. I told Lynda that her family room is one of my happiest places in the world -- our family stayed with hers several times when we were in L.A. -- so after going out for Thai food, also excellent, we hung out at her house and talked about our kids and their assorted schools and jobs and entertainment we've shared past and present while her cats and parrot weighed us, measured us, and found us wanting (except when they wanted their bellies or ears rubbed, which was often).