Want to know the secret to zero-stress house buying? Shop for someone else’s house with them, lol. My bestie is searching for a new house, and I went along for the weekend to offer advice and moral support, so I got all the fun of looking at houses without any of the stress.
Plus, since she’s looking in southern CA, I also got to go hang out at the beach and enjoy the lovely weather. It was so nice in CA that when we landed back in Austin, I seriously thought the airport had turned on the heater in the jet bridge. Hahahaha, no. That was just Mother Nature welcoming us back to the furnace. 😭
While we were visiting, the Pasadena Chalk Festival was going on, and there was incredible talent on display. If you click the link to the festival’s site, you can see much better photos, but I took pictures of some of my favorites!
All of those were drawn in chalk/pastel!! So many talented artists turned out, and it was awesome to spend an hour walking around looking at the art. It was also completely free, so if you’re in the area, I highly recommend going next year!
My bestie did end up making an offer on a super cute house, and it got accepted, so fingers-crossed everything goes smoothly with the inspection, etc. And if it all works out, then I might get to escape the TX heat for another week or two later in the summer when I go back to help her get it setup.
On the flight out, I wrote 1100 words in a couple of hours, which is pretty good for me. On the way back…not so much, lol. I mostly slept, but I woke up just long enough to try to puzzle out what was happening on the ground. Here’s a photo:
Doesn’t that look like a circuit board? I could tell it wasn’t houses, and it went on for miles. Once I had internet, I looked it up: those are all oil wells. Every little square has an oil well on it, and some of them have pools nearby, likely for fracking.
These were south of Midland/Odessa, and if you look at the satellite photos, you’ll see the land is absolutely covered in oil wells. It looks like an alien planet. I knew oil was big out there, but I had no idea it looked like this.
For all the trip was fun, it was also exhausting, so when I got home last night, I went to bed at like 9 PM and slept for ten hours. Today, I’m playing catch up with my inbox, then I’m back to writing. I only missed one day’s worth of words, so I’m not too far behind, but time keeps slipping by, so I need to be cracking down a little more than I have been.
Which I’ve been saying for months, but I really mean it this time. Probably. 😂
Yay, sounds like a fun trip. Glad you had a good time! Looking forward to your next publication.
Just finished Books and Broadswords and although I seem to have read everything at least once, I opted in for the email and blog. Really love your work, so thanks!