Whoa, last week was wild. I worked 12 days straight, and last weekend, about 20 hours of editing on that article. This week featured four days of teaching and nearly 40, 7-minute parent/teacher conferences via Zoom, all while continuing to revise the article. I finally got an email from the copy editor this morning saying the article was ready to be sent to the typesetter, so that is a huge weight lifted. I can't wait for this article to be published and done, for good. So ready to move on. Meanwhile, midwinter spring has landed here in sunny LA, with the past two days having highs in the upper 80's. It's a weird feeling, because it definitely feels like spring, but it's January, and last week I had my heater on every morning. I took today to drive up the coast to Ventura County and spend a little bit of time at the beach, but I turned around on the early side, because the traffic coming back south gets incredibly jammed on days like today. According to Google Maps, it would be about a two hour drive right now, to go the 44 miles. Sometimes I have the patience for that, and other times I do not. I also now know where this giant menorah is, courtesy of an inspired rabbi. I do feel like I am finally coming out of the incredible stress and blur of last week. I had some moments of feeling simple happiness today, and realized how rare those moments have been for the past few years, really. There was simply a sense of lightness and freedom that was present today that I haven't felt much, in a long time. The featured image for this post is a Northern Crested Caracara, common in Sonora and southern Baja. I call them trash eagles because they loooove trash. They're cool birds though. Perched on a bird shit covered Pachycereus pringlei stem, with some Tillandsia growing as well.