Bookies

Alice, Katie, Shannon, Jeanne talking about Rebecca Solnit (among other things).

in the parking garage

on the beach

I saw the green flash.

The green flash was long gone by the time I took this photo. In fact, it only lasted one second.

Have you ever heard of the green flash? We've been hearing about this phenomenon for years from our hardcore beach buddies. But I had never seen one myself until sunset this evening. Unfortunately, Tom was in a meeting so he didn't witness it. He doesn't believe me. But it's true! The sun turned bright green, and there was a bright green "halo" around it for one second just as it set. Soon as I got home I called Peter and Anne to let them know I'd finally seen it, and that I was sorry for all the times I had doubted them.

The Rest of the Loot

(other than the nose)

I found a nose on the beach.

I found the nose this evening.

Have you read The Nose by Nikolai Gogol? It's one of my favorite stories.

A summary of how it begins:

One morning, a barber and his wife are munching on some breakfast when he finds a nose in his bread roll. He recognizes the nose—it belongs to one of his clients, Collegiate Assessor Kovalev. Neither of them is particularly grossed out by this. Still, the barber's wife gets mad at her husband's carelessness, drunkenness, and general crappiness, and she demands that he take the nose away. After some misadventures in the streets, the barber ends up throwing it away into the river.

That same day, Collegiate Assessor Kovalev wakes up and realizes that his nose is gone. He is embarrassed about having to go outside like this and covers his face with a handkerchief. Suddenly, on the street, he sees a highly decorated civil servant get out of a carriage and go into a mansion, and is shocked to realize—it's his nose ….

Infinity

5:16 p.m.

Delirious

Last night we were walking on the beach. It was windy. It was cold. It was already getting dark! My phone rang. It was Rubin calling to tell me we had had offers from my favorite publisher on two–– count 'em––two books. This doesn't happen every day.

One of the books is by Cynthia Rylant, and I'm to illustrate it. The picture above is the sample I did that Cynthia was asked to approve. Time went by ... more time went by ... and finally she allowed she was crazy about it.

The sketch below is from the other book––one I'll both write and illustrate. It's a book about saying hello.

Right after my phone rang Tom handed me the car keys and walked on. I thought I'd go back and sit in the car to talk––the wind made it so hard to hear. But instead of walking all the way back to the car, I just walked up into the dunes and asked Rubin to repeat every word over and over. Then I made him promise to email me when we hung up in case I had heard wrong.

When we finished our phone conversation, I headed up the beach after Tom. I kept walking and walking, thinking surely I'd run into him walking back down the beach. After 40 minutes he texted: "I'm almost to the car." I called him right away. "Oh no! I have the keys. How did we miss each other? I'm at Lincoln. I'll start running." I can walk faster than I can run so I walked really fast but it still took me a half hour to get back to the car.

By that time, locked out of the car, Tom had staggered down Taraval and collapsed onto a stool in front of the fireplace at The Riptide. He was drinking a glass of wine and watching the game when I stumbled in the door. What a sweet place––though probably any joint would have seemed sweet after my phone call and rather long walk.

Turning Back the Clock

5:22 p.m.   Today is my favorite day of the year. A whole extra hour!

These Boots are Made for Working

Have you ever noticed how when you're wearing the right boots, your mind becomes focused and your work flows? I'm doing a Christmas card and these boots are my advance.

In the store it took me forever to get my feet into these boots. Then I struggled with the zippers for five minutes. "You're not supposed to zip them up," explained the boot lady. "At least not more than halfway. Ever."

To Be Continued

from Clementine in the City by Jessie Hartland

from Clementine in the City by Jessie Hartland

David Hockney Diet Plan

There's a David Hockney poster in last Sunday's Chronicle. Pull it out. Tape it onto the cabinet that holds all your chips and cookies and chocolate. The poster is big, so you'll have to tape it over both doors.

In order to get to a piece of dark chocolate with cherries and almonds, you'll have to untape one side of the poster with your right hand and hold the poster up with that same hand while you open one of the cabinet doors with the other hand. Then you'll have to open the tin box with your left hand, extract your treat, and close the box, close the door, and re-tape the poster. You can't do this too many times because if you do, being only newsprint, the poster will start to tear where you keep taping and untaping it.

Beachfront Condo Development