Ok, so this town is burning to the ground and nobody seems to notice. I was driving home from a workshop tonight and I swear I thought it was the Rapture! I mean serious fires are going on... smell the wood burning is in the air (for a minute I thought I was back in the south...burning stuff is much more common there), ash is in the air, it seems like its foggy out but really its the smoke. It's crazy! Everyone is driving and going along their way despite the fact that there’s a friggin FIRE right in front of us!!! I guess LA people really are laid back.

Awww...thinking of ‘burning stuff in the south’ takes me back. I went home to SC in December and Efren came with me. It was his first time coming home with me and meeting my family (he'd met my mom...but not "the family"). He was so funny, and totally had my aunts wrapped around his little finger. Anyway, my Mom decided to clean some of the junk out of the house and proceeded to take some chairs and stools outside then lit them on fire (which is the standard way to dispose of stuff where I’m from). Efren was soooooo intrigued and mesmerized by it...it was hilarious. I'm from the RURAL south and he was a total Chicago boy...he had NEVER seen anything like this...lol. My mom, of course, is an old pro at setting fires and had it blazing in no time. She was going about her business, poking at the fire with a stick to keep the flames going when Efren said, in the most earnest voice ever, "Do you mind if I try?” He was sooo funny, and sooo cute. The kids actually video taped us out by the fire. I watch it sometimes...but unfortunately, and I'm sure anyone from the south who's well versed in burning stuff knows, when you're around the fire you tend to just STARE at the fire...so there's not really much of him talking in the video...which is....well...unfortunate. But it's still a really cool thing to have. I'm so glad he got to see where I grew up. I showed him my high school and my college and my old hang outs...it was really cool...I love him... We were supposed to go back for the kids’ graduation in May, but he was too sick to make the trip. Anyway...we'll always have December.