Not only did it rain all day yesterday, but there was an honest-to-goodness thunderstorm in the morning. Only sheet lightning, but I saw a lot of it on my way from dropping Earl off over to Cadence.

There's been no rain so far today, but it's beautifully grey and cloudy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more weather.

I was so stressed yesterday that instead of immediately moving back into my apartment, Earl and I went for sushi instead. Afterwards we walked slowly down to Double Rainbow, stopping in at Bookbuyers on the way. It was warm and humid, with the grey sky getting darker by degrees and a little bit of rain. Did you know there's an aerie of the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Mountain View? There's also an extension of the Berkeley Psychic Institute just down the street from them. Earl and I agreed that the BPI was clearly there to combat FOE -- you know any organisation that acronymises to 'FOE' has to be filled with supervillians.

At Double Rainbow we had ice cream (green tea for me, chocolate mint chip for him) and admired our Bookbuyers purchases -- two used CDs, and I picked up the first three Lymond books by Dorothy Dunnett. Earl has the Lymond books already, but these were old copies instead of the reprint, and there was something very satisfying about buying the first three all at once. My justification? "Now we have loaner copies." He was sweet to agree.

We went back to Jim&Czr's after that, to finish packing things up, and ended up watching about two hours worth of Sapphire & Steel, which is a very strange, somewhat disturbing British sf show from the early 80's. This particular story arc has so far featured a lot of ghosts, a seance, and some messing with time. Very mage, including the arguments between the characters. Al must see this show.

Eventually, finally, we went back to my place. The fumigators had bagged all my remaining food up, and I was far too tired to unpack it and put it back on the shelves where it belongs. The bag is even now lurking in the spare bedroom, waiting for me to cut it open and put things in their proper places.

Watching people fail to communicate hurts. Especially when you know them well. Especially when you can predict what the failure modes are. Especially when you think you might be spending a lot of your time watching them hurt themselves and hurt each other, and there's just not a damn thing you can do about it.

Why are so many people afraid of upsetting other people? There are worse crimes, guys. Being upset is often _good_ for people -- I'm not talking about casual cruelty, here. I'm talking about being honest, even when honesty hurts, because you don't get any closer to someone without some amount of honesty.

Even if the honesty is 'I can't do that.' Or 'I don't trust you.' Those things hurt, but if you really want to get closer to each other you have to say them. You just have to.