Morning lake stroll

Woke up a bit late today because lili called in the wee hours to tell us that Miski keeps escaping. She's never done that and I feel so bad she is having to deal with that. Anyway we took a walk with ray to the lake and swim park near his house. It's a beautiful day today!!!

Lake walk, pizza & ice cream

Today jose and I slept in super late. Then we all went on a lake walk and then had awesome pizza, shopped a bit and had yummy ice cream. Jose was full so he got a teeny tiny cone. So cute! The tree shot on top had a lizard on it :)

In big bear!

After my course I drove straight to big bear to meet jose and my mom and ray. Finally got to see rays new house! Jose has been fishing a lot up here. Yesterday when I got back we went to a little outdoor market and jose made chicken meatballs with pasta. Yum!!! Good to be with family again after my solitude.

Meditation course

This is where I was staying and the bird we saved who had her foot stick in her nest. Poor thing! Anyway we meditated 10 1/2 hours a day and got up at 4 am and sleep by 10. Very intense and excellent experience!

Driving to meditation course

After being home for about a week I started on my drive to 29 palms for my vipasana course. I met ray halfway to have lunch and see him for the first time in a year and a half! That was wonderful and a nice way to break up the drive. Then I continued to the course center and checked in there. On the way I saw crazy windmills and a street named Kickapoo and lots of Joshua trees. Fun! It was hot there! And dry. Got settled in there in a shared room...eek... And had dinner and orientation and then silence started.

Papa a la huancaina

Today we got up and had to go to the car place again to pick up my car. Last night there was a helicopter buzzing the house for an hour. Really close. Turns out it was a bushfire really nearby. Scary! After dealing with the car we drove veerrrryyyyy slowly down the 405 and jose made us papa a la huancaina (pronounced wankayeena) for lunch. Yum!

David's meeting and sushi!

We met David and Melissa at the palisades AA meeting to present him with his two year birthday cake. It was really nice to be able to be there for him and for jose to see what it's like. Then we went out for sushi at pearl dragon and had cake at home. Very nice!