A bio-break in Berkeley

The thing I love most about my job is that it takes me all over the country. That's a good thing when you live in a town of twenty thousand in the southernmost reaches of Illinois.

I landed in San Francisco late Sunday afternoon and it all came rushing back as it always does. What gets to me first is the dazzling quality of light. The colors are sharp and I'm soon seduced by the way the sun bounces off the stucco houses, pink, green, blue, yellow and white. A trip across the Bay Bridge takes me over to the East Bay where the company I work for, Peachpit, has scheduled several days of editorial brainstorming and training.

After an hour or so in the first meeting this morning, I knew for sure I was in California when our publisher, Nancy Ruenzel, suggested it was probably time for a "bio-break." Everyone in the room laughed, and ribbed her and she took it in characteristic good nature. A little dose of the Bay Area every now and then helps keep me sane.