I got up early my final day in Berkeley, not wanting to miss a minute of it. Suzanne shut the front door after retrieving her paper and I called from the kitchen where I was making tea, “I HEAR you!” She chuckled. Mary-Ellis picked me up in the morning and we moved my suitcase to  Read the Rest…

I crept about my routine at the cold Airbnb, bringing my tea up to my room and putting on the space heater. I had finished Empire of Pain and was into The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner. Later I met Suzanne on my way out the door. “You’re so quiet,” she commented. “Well.” I didn’t  Read the Rest…

A long weekend in Berkeley was more than my first post-pandemic travel. It had been twenty five years since I had been in the Bay Area; that time was also to visit my college roommate and longest friend, Mary-Ellis. In 1997, as a response to breaking up with a boyfriend, I drove from Seattle to  Read the Rest…