I'm a day late posting my weekly reflection because you know what's good? Convincing Kin to take a four-day weekend.

We went on RV trip number 2 this past weekend, driving up to Humboldt County for three nights. It was a wonderful getaway. There are so many hikes to do in the area, so we'll definitely be back. (Indeed, after I finish writing this, I'm going to make reservations for our next three road trips, including a return trip north.)

My mom bought me a portable gas grill for my birthday — it hooks right up to the RV's propane tanks, and I made burgers one night and pizza the next. The burgers were delicious — there's nothing quite like burgers while camping. And the pizza turned out surprisingly well too, with a nice char on the crust. These'll likely be meals I put on repeat as they're easy. That along with pancakes on Saturday morning.

My lifting coach's parents live in Arcata, and she recommended we try Los Bagels while up there. I didn't really love the bagels — I'm sort of ride or die for Boichik Bagels in Berkeley, I won't lie. But I did try the Casey's Thai Bagel, which had peanut butter, jalapeño jam, grated carrot, cucumbers, and green onion. And it was really quite a good flavor combination. It's not a flavor combo I'd dare put on a New York bagel, mind you. But when in Rome, as they say…

The other "good food" update from the road: I bought an AeroPress coffee maker. I was looking for something that was easier to clean up than the ol' French Press. And I was really impressed with how good the coffee was with such a quick brew.

Well, one more food update, I suppose. After a weekend getaway where I cooked everything — and that's fine, as I love to cook — we did get take-out last night. Shawarmaji is just around the corner from us, and while we'd eaten there when Fred and the kids visited, I'd forgotten how delicious it was. Shawarma reminds me of Isaiah — it was probably one of his favorite foods. He'd always complain when meals weren't spicy enough, and I remember when I took him to Halal Guys in New York, and he doused his food with their infamous red sauce. "Holy shit," he winced, "that is the hottest sauce I've ever had." Shawarmaji's hot sauce isn't as hot as Halal Guys; but it's more flavorful. (Everything about Shawarmaji is better than Halal Guys, bless.) The chicken saroukh is well over a foot long, but I devoured it quickly, before the spicy red sauce soaked through the wrapper and stained my fingers.

Other good things:

• We finished listening to Bruce Springsteen's memoir Born to Run. I'm not sure I like Bruce Springsteen any more or less after listening to it; but I definitely appreciate his writing much more. And I admire him for how honest he was about his struggles with mental illness.
• I got my third booster shot on Wednesday, with no side effects. The pharmacist upsold me on a flu shot too. I have a feeling it's going to be a rough flu season with everyone back out and breathing on one another after a couple of years wintering indoors.
• "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction," Virginia Woolf famously wrote. I have the second part of that now — with some uncertainty about what the hell I'm going to do to earn the first part and no real commitment to write fiction, but anyway. Kaia left for college, and I have the spare bedroom back as my space, which since we moved to Oakland, has never really had a chance to become my writing space. I'm hoping to find some time to plan out exactly how I want to arrange it, all the while making sure it's still a place that Kaia can return to for holidays and so on.