It seems like autumn has quietly arrived, as the weather here has gone from "almost no rain for four months straight" to "every day is rainy and/or dreary". At least temps are still nice.

Solbiati had a bad summer, or so my tailor told me, so after months of waiting my two new linen suits are finally here. I love the jackets but I adore the pants, as I now finally have some good fitting stylish high-rise pants, which are nigh impossible to find out in the wild. One's in a light neutral sand colour, the other in a pastel brown, so I can combine them with quite a lot and feel good walking out the door. Spending an objectively large sum on clothes the past year has forced me to explore to what degree I do so to appease my ego. Am I doing this to look good to others, to prop my ego up? Meditation is helping me become more aware of my ego and my preliminary conclusion is that yes, I am (still) highly sensitive to what others think of me, but no, I just really like to express a particular vibe on a particular day through what I wear. It's not like there are any expectations from my colleagues or peers that I feel a need to adhere to. The clothes make me feel good and make me feel closer to who I am in a way that I think it's justified to invest in good, timeless style that last.

In other news, my wife handed in her resignation letter today. I'm happy for her that she did. There's no animosity, it's a fish-climbing-trees situation, but my wife isn't one to give up fast so it took a while for her to accept she might be the proverbial fish. There's no new job yet but after five years there she could use a break, if only for some necessary soul-searching for what's next.

I'm once again working! Yay! So far job has been good. My boss definitely has a lot of good will with a lot of people, which is great. She is very kind and personable and I'm excited for the work. Definitely some fun stuff I'll get to see and work with.

We tried backpacking in Big Sur this weekend during a heat wave and ran out of water and had to abort. we did get to the campsite though and hung around for a few hours which was delightful!

SF pen show thoughts -- too many pens, not enough other things. It was 95% pens. I was hoping for more inks and stationary. Also, wayyyyyyyy too many people. It was essentially impossible to move around. We ended up only being there for about 90 mins. Got myself two new inks and my partner got her nib fixed up and a pen case. Successful, but not sure we'll be going back especially at that venue.