Minuscule vacation

Last month, my parents brought my brother's youngest kids, Franklin (15) and Amity (13), to stay with us for a few weeks. They don't like long car rides, and my parents weren't necessarily looking forward to taking them back. So my parents offered to pay for me to escort the kids on an airplane back to California.

It can be hard to take time off, since I have two jobs. And Franklin likes to say I have four jobs, since I also do The Impulsive Buy and Wayfare. So I opted for a very short trip, less than twenty-four hours. I flew out Friday night with the kids, and then I flew back yesterday (Saturday). 

The kids—especially Franklin—wanted me to meet their cat, Pudding, who they got last year. He talked about him all trip, and when we got home, he was obsessing about every little thing he did and going off about how "he's real!" He is a very energetic, playful cat. Franklin was playing with him, and he jumped in the air, then kicked off of Franklin, like Mario doing a wall jump.

Pudding's fur reminds me of The Dress

He loves this special cat toothpaste

They pointed out how different Pudding is from Reggie.

Pudding	Reggie
Short hair	Long hair
Playful	Affectionate
Investigates noises	Hides from noises
Friendly and social	Takes time to warm up
Small	Enormous
Adorable	Adorable

While I was on my brief visit, we also visited Albany Bulb, which is a former landfill by the bay. There is a lot of hipster art there.

Preston (18) and Franklin

The kids found a set of mannequin legs tied to a child's tricycle. They untied the legs, then they tried to ride the trike. But they were a little too big, so it was funny to watch them play with it. 

But my short trip came to an end, so my brother drove me to the airport. Just like Pudding and Reggie, he and I are very different:

David	Mark
Works in science	Works in humanities
Loves movies and video games	Loves trails
Straight	Gay
Doesn't celebrate holidays	Obsesses over holidays
Needs little sleep	Needs a lot of sleep
Talkative	Not talkative
Adorable	Adorable

In my geology classes, I learned about the Basin and Range province, where the continent is spreading out, which means there are mountain ranges and valleys between them. I was able to clearly see those features on the plane ride home. 

I felt a little bad having such a short trip. But if I had to schedule time off, then I might not have gone at all. So I'm glad I went.