It was worth being alive to see the night creep into the woods off the Middle River last night. This time of year, the light changes color in such a strange, new way. The trees glow and the air looks almost purple. And the dark comes on with such determination. As I was driving home, the glint of small pieces of glass along the road almost looked like eyeshine: green and bright in my headlights. 

I mentioned the leech and the arrowhead sifting I'd done out there, but not what I found. All my effort produced a couple pieces of nice red jasper, a piece of ceramic that I actually think might be woodfire/Native made - I see a lot of 19th century ceramic out there too, but this was unique, and a small worked piece. Not a proper point, just a flake with some chipping in it. I brought these things out of the river and put them in nooks in the giant bar Jay's made out of all these old, weird pieces of wood. I've felt less inclined to take artifacts I find away from the place I found them. I try to have a more catch and release sense of these things. 

Last night, I made this really good sheet pan baked meal thing. It's kind of like that feta block cherry tomato bake that all the kids on tiktok were doing back a couple months ago, but with cherry tomatoes, Kalamata olives, red onion, broccoli, garlic, and blocks of feta all tossed in the oven with olive oil at 400 until it bakes together. When it was done, I threw it in a skillet with some cooked orzo and tossed it all together with more olive oil and lemon juice. It takes just like this weird deep dish everything pizza from South Boston (that I think even burned down because of course it did) - all this cheesy veggie Italian flavor. 

I have so much to do but I feel pretty useless today. I desperately need to pack and in lieu of packing, I should clean my house, and in lieu of cleaning my house, I should get ahead at work since I'll be out for the next two weeks. But I'm actually just sitting at my computer eating leftover orzo and trying to decide if I want to watch the stupid Clone Wars cartoon sometime.