1. I can feel the sinus infection creeping back in. The remedy for this is never an easy one because it requires more rest and who has time to rest right now?

2. The first light is coming up over the rooftops and it's this strange white glow. Kind of like what I saw in the desert. But it feels weird to see it here.

3. First, white to break up the deep midnight sky. Then yellow, and some green, and orange. The colors of the rising and setting sun have been so saturated lately. It's a painting I can't recreate.

4. I do like to get my nails done. I'd love for it to happen more than once a year. She pushes back the cuticles and we talk about the energy it takes to build a business for yourself, the struggle to fight perfecting something before you do it, and ways to keep holding your vision.

5. Driving through these streets gets easier and easier.

6. We decide that this year we're going to go cut down our own Christmas tree.

7. Only two out of the three seem to be excited about this. We get to one lot and everyone gets out. We walk about 1000 feet before the girl begins to cry. At the next lot we let her stay in the car. 

8. Chicken noodle soup. We eat the apple cider donuts from the abbey for dessert. It is the best donut I've had in a long time; perfectly sweet with just enough apple and spice, soft, and moist. I'm going to dream about this donut.

9. The branches on the tree are too tight so we have to wait to put on the decorations. I'm okay with that. I still haven't caught up this week. The suitcases are still full of clothes, the laundry hasn't been folded, the floors haven't been swept. 

10. We sip on 2013 Sonoma Coast Vineyards Pinot Noir, which is still one of my favorite wines, and think back to those ricotta dumplings with hen of the woods mushrooms at La Petite Grocery, and debate the merits of molecular gastronomy. Like with most things, just give it to me straight. And give it to me good. I want to taste food, not the concept of food.