Top Shots: May 29

Yeah, yeah, it's been awhile. Life is busy and even on sabbatical, work I wasn't planning on just seems to find me. But I have been taking pictures along the way and here are some of my favorites from the last couple months.

The work continues on my novel, with storylines branching and merging and complicating my conscious hours. But progress is being made.

Speaking of work, I spent a very productive three days in San Diego writing and researching for the book. I also crammed in several burritos and some shots of the best city on the planet. Here's Sunset Cliffs at, well, sunset.

Another view of said sunset and, maybe, a metaphor for the writing process at the moment...

Looking down at Mission bay a couple days later, I've gotten to know this area much better than I ever did as a North County kid. One of the things I appreciate about the Claremont area is the sheer number of hills that provide different perspectives on the same sunsets. DEFINITELY a metaphor for the writing process.

Found this in a mural in Hillcrest at a moment I needed it.

It hasn't all been work. Here's the view from DTLA waiting outside the Wiltern Theater for my favorite band to play.

And here they are. Best show I've been to.

I've also been hiking with my boys for moments just like this when they find something that pulls them off the trail and makes them stop to take it all in.

My older son is about to finish sixth grade and it's crazy to watch him grow up in the small moments. That day, he insisted on leading the way up the trail and narrate what he saw along the way. Pretty soon, I won't be able to keep up, with any of it.

And, because beauty is everywhere, here's an art installation at the university where I teach reminding me that shadows prove the sunshine and branches lead back to the trees they're connected too. Here's hoping the same is true for my stories.