Tonight I went to a movie and dinner with a friend, and the gorgeous moon was low in the sky when we left the theater. It was gigantic and orange and mystical with dark clouds drifting by. It was amazing. Once I can accept the fact that summer and the warm weather are done, I like fall the best. The harvest moon, that faint wood burning smell outside at night, and the crispness in the air fills me with the sensation of being happy and fully present in my life. It's different than any other time of year. Autumn just does something for me. Whether or not I'm actually in love the moment it arrives, fall always makes me feel like being in love.

I'm home now. The rest of my time in San Diego was really great! My new conference friend, Michelle, and I figured out the Trolley and spent Friday night at Old Town and the Gaslamp Quarter downtown. We had a delicious dinner and margaritas in Old Town, and then spent a couple of hours exploring Gaslamp. It was such a cool scene. Restaurant after nightclub after bar for blocks and blocks. People everywhere. We had drinks at a cute little wine bar, with strings of cozy lights in the window, in the middle of all the activity.

One thing I couldn't help but notice the couple of times I managed to escape the hotel is that the men are really aggressive in approaching women. It was overwhelming at times, primarily because it's such a different story in Seattle, where it's pretty much always up to you to strike up a conversation with a boy you find attractive. That gets old. Yet, while it's flattering and nice to have male attention, it was uncomfortable to sometimes have it, in a variety of forms (whether it was comments, overt looks, an offer to write you a song on the spot, someone getting up in your personal space right away, etc.), every which way you turned. It's like Seattle and San Diego are two opposite extremes. It would be fantastic to find the happy medium. Does it exist?

Congratulations to Molly on her new job in Tahoe! She and the fam will be moving in early November. I'm so thrilled that I'll get to see them again in just a month. It sounds like Brynna is going to move back, too, and will live in Portland with her best friend. I'm going to love, love, love having my sisters close by again. I can't even tell you how excited I am about this. Yaaaaaaaaaaaay! (Clap, clap, a la Trav.)