Some highlights of the last couple of days:
Sitting next to the fireplace at my sisters book club during a discussion of We Run the Tides with the author Vendela Vida (such a great name!) It was fascinating to learn about her writing process, the different ways she decides names for characters and places, her writing community and more. I enjoyed the book especially since it was set in SF in the 80s and the characters were close to the same age as I was then, the pop culture and local references brought back lots of memories (good and bad, it was during my teenage years)
Spending time with my mom. We cleared out some closets that hadn’t been gone through in a long time. We found the topper for my parents wedding cake and their wedding invitations. My sisters and I had been looking for the wedding topper 15 years ago when we were planning their surprise 40th anniversary party and couldn’t find it, we had no idea it was right under our noses. There were also lots of old photos, games we loved as kids (Shoot the Moon!) and we spent time reminiscing. Later in the day mom spent talked about the Laotian family that their church had sponsored back in the late 70s after the Vietnam War. I remembered the family and bringing things over to their house, but not many details. I was bowled over by how much this family went through not only in their transition to a new country, culture, language, but the parents and grandparents all passed away while the kids were teenagers or in their early 20s. They had been in the US for over a decade at that point, but I still can’t imagine what it must’ve been like for them to be completely separated from their family when they were so young.
