Goin' back to Cali! 2025!

Tomorrow, New Years Day, my family and I will get on that tin can in the sky and fling ourselves across the country to Palm Springs. We like to go to Joshua Tree National Park, do a bit of light hiking, eat really good Mexican food, swim in the springs, and go out to the crazy alt art mecca, Slab City, located not far from Niland/East Jesus/Salton Sea area. It is very remote, very weird, and you better brush up on your Spanish. I love going there and seeing art in situ, and generally, just enjoy a quiet life there. This is where I get a lot of writing done, and talk turkey with people in publishing, arts, screenplay nonsense and absorb as much as I can on how to put all the la vida loca in my head down on paper. I hope to get my first book published, hopefully in the next couple of months. It is scary and wonderful all at the same time.

My twins are turning 20 and we treated them to a round trip ticket to CA, They haven't been back since they were like 11 or 12, so it will be really different for them this time. We will go to the swap meets, the farmers markets, the golf club maybe to see how terrible we are at golf, go to the Indio Date farms, and enjoy a super fattening date shake. I will drag them to the Palm Springs Art Museum, so they can see a fabulous collection of 60s pop art, and perhaps get on one of those super tacky busses that peruse all the Modernist 50s architecture. I will be channeling my inner Rat Pack. They are only staying for a week or so as they both have to go back for college classes.

Inevitably, we will be assaulted by a million Canadians clogging up the scenery apologizing to the cacti and saying Eh. The snowbirds fly down from Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, and Good OI' Winnipeg, and are busy playing horseshoes in plaid pants, or maybe on the golf course causing traffic jams as they run into (or over) old chums. They will buy up all the tickets to the film festivals, take up all the reservations on the trams, and hog up the best tables at the Jewish delis. They will take up every parking spot near Costco (Canadians LOVE Costco), and just spend money like drunken sailors all over El Paseo , the somewhat faded shopping mecca for fancy stuff and California Pizza Kitchen, which they also love.

Me? I will be watching the Sex Life of the Date, go to the wacky Bible theme park with my date shake at Shields, plop myself at a spa to get my chakras fixed up or whatever, maybe experience a sound bath and some meditation, take a tram through the San Jacinto Mountain ranges, and explore Idyllwild, a quasi hippie throwback community nestled amongst the switchback roads of Rt. 74. THe place is magical, and the trick is to avoid everyone and everything. Just me and my stupid hiking shoes, with sand in my hair.

Rancho Mirage, California

Abra Couture is on TV! PHL 17

https://phl17.com/phl17-news/this-weekend-in-philly-september-21-and-22/

This is only a test.

2024 has been one wacky year. We have a president who can't think or walk, we have one in the running who is a scary dude and convicted of who knows, and lots of garbage like abortion rights, and women's sports being snatched away from us. We have Antisemitism on the rise, and heck, accepted and promoted, by the so called elite intellectual bastions, who are supposed to be oh so enlightened. We are judging and grouping and segregating people, we are allowing the government to have control over every aspect of our lives (Smart cars? Smart TVS? Spy much?) We have coddled imploding young adults, who refuse to grow up, and whine too much and won't work or get their hands dirty. We have gated communities to keep the unwashed masses at bay, and we have a two tiered system of education and of justice. We have criminals emptying our stores, rioters in the streets and campuses, and ...wait.

We have coffee, and nice beds, and TV, and goldfish and guppies. We have 2 kids that are insane but totally responsible and kind and honest. We have cars and a house, and education. We have vacations, flowers in our yard, and vegetables in our garden. We look at the woodpeckers, and the fireflies at night. We get sand in our toes and our bed, down the shore. We flip burgers on the grill.

I don't know about you, but I am going to try to take pleasure where i can find it and stop watching the news. Good night.