Booky Saturday, Smokey Sunday

Last night my long-time friend Nancy threw a blast of a book and art party for me and the wonderful painter Kate Jackson in Nancy's downtown art studio. A vibrant, lively group congregated to eat, drink and bask in creativity. My cousin Grant, who lives in L.A., came by. So did an old high school friend, Brad, whom I hadn't seen in 30 years! We'd connected online months ago and now, an old friendship is now reborn.

I also met a guy, Byron, who was one of the high school student authors of The Freedom Writers Diary. He's now married and has a beautiful little baby daughter. Talking to him inspired me to reconnect with my activist roots and infuse a little more of that in my courses in the spring.

Because we spent a lot of time getting the party ready, we weren't able to join the thousands of people who protested for marriage equality in downtown L.A. yesterday--but it was great to read the paper this morning and see the thousands upon thousands of people who converged nationwide yesterday.



Fortunately we were part of two protests last week, so I carried that energy with me.

It's so smokey here today because of all of the fires. We had planned to go to Venice Beach, but being outside would probably be like smoking a pack of cigarettes. So instead we hung out, ate and talked--a perfect way to spend a Sunday with friends.