No triptophan for me, thanks.

Just got back from my Thanksgiving shindig in Santa Maria. It was really great. I haven't written aynthing about it but Andrea's grandmother Joyce "Boots" "Mamaw" Engle died a month or so ago, which was weird, hard and sad. The upside, I suppose, was that it really brought the family together. Andrea's parents, brother andhis wife all caome out, as well as Andrea's nudist uncle and his wife/ Oh, and another uncle. Lot's of crying and laughing and reflecting on the utter strangeness of life.

I think the biggest thing I learned is that we plan and worry about a lot of dumb stuff. We hold onto things that we have no use for. For instance, Andrea's grandmother had boxes of reciepts in a guest bedroom. After she died we all looked at them a and immeiately had the feeling of, "ooh, we should save these. These are worth saving". Quickly after, though, wit dawned on us, "oh, yeah, right. She doesn't need these anymore". That happened all over the house, and mostly for good. We threw away a stack of adult diapers, medication, walkers, porta-pottys. She won't need these any more. Obviously it's near impossible to live life free from all the craop that weighs us down (and to be certain some of the best things in life are those things that weigh us down from time to time) but I think it's important to take a breathe every now and then and say, "that shit don't matter. Let's go kick a ball or something."

Anyway, to bring things to the present, after Mamaw's passing, Andrea's folks inherited her place and have been planning on selling it. Before they do, they wanted to have one last hurrah. Which we did. Andrea and I and her parents met up in Mamaw's place and a good time was had by all. We spent Thanksgiving with Mamaw's late husband's family. They're a riot. Lots of fun. Somehow they heard about my videos and some of them gathered together to watch them. The rest of our time was filled with sitting around, visitng a comic book shop, downloading episodes of Heroes and Dexter and perhaps the crowning event, a visit to Hearst Castle and a dinner at the Madonna Inn.

Our Hearst terip was wonderful. A night tour. We've been there a half-dozen times but have never gone at night. The coolest and lamest thing wsa that they had people dressed in costume wandering aourd the estate. Awesome. Dinner was more funny than good. The Madonna Inn is like what would happen if John Wayne were gay and had a restaurant.

Anyway, I'm at work now and should get back to it. I just read Jesse Gloyds's blog and it inspired me to shoot some words your way. Thanks for reading.