The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Jun 30th, 2006 at 12:44 pm by Susie
This really has been quite a vacation, my first “real” one in years. I’m soaking in the sights and sounds of California, which is a magnificently wild and beautiful place. (I can see where they get their attitude.) I can’t get over the fact that I see mountains everywhere I go.
Did I mention it’s also damned hot? Then you wait five minutes, the fog rolls in and then it’s cold. Come to think of it, California weather is just one big hot flash. I keep layering and un-layering…
It’s been good to get away. I didn’t realize how much I needed this break. I needed to wipe my brain clean and start over.
I loved San Francisco, which is a lot smaller than I thought. On the way back to L.A., we stopped at U.C. Santa Cruz (what a cool place to go to school!), Monterey and Carmel, and stayed in San Simeon before taking the tour of Hearst Castle the next morning. (Lots of mixed emotions there - loved the place, knew what went into making all that money.) Then we went to Santa Barbara to attend D.L., and now I’m in a hotel room in Marina Del Rey. I’ll be hanging out here today and spending my last day tomorrow at Venice Beach (which is where, in the best of all possible worlds, I’d get a huge book advance and buy a place).
But I’m also thinking of home. I’m hoping my car didn’t wash away in the flood; I’m hoping all my friends and family are okay.
The thing I like best about traveling is, I get to imagine other people, leading other lives. (Hey, I’m a writer! It’s what I do.) But travel is also useful to society. When you only know people who lead similiar lives, you can’t begin to imagine the challenges others face, and it tends to polarize the discourse. We forget that politics really is about compromise.
I’m really glad I came, and grateful to the generous friend who brought me here.
UC Santa Cruz: Banana slugs! (See the song by the Austin Lounge Lizards
Glad you made it to California, and glad to have met you!
I was a hair’s breadth from going to UC Santa Cruz’s school of journalism. I went to the University of Missouri instead, because it’s a well-regarded j school that I could go to for free as an in-state student with high test scores. But I was too busy partying with friends to bother attending classes at Mizzou. I think if I’d gone to UCSC my life might have been way different - I tend to hunker down when I’m in unfamiliar territory. Oh well, I’m glad for where I am today. But I do think of that wonderful campus with a bit of regret from time to time.
Hi Susie,
It was loads of fun to meet up. As I’ve read along on your travelogue, the whole trip sounds like it has been excellent. I am so glad you had such an enjoyable time over here on the Left Coast. Come back again.
Cheers.
What a beautiful post! I’m glad you liked it out here. And the wildness…I love the Pacific Coast. I’m more familiar with the Northern California coast, where there’s not a lot of safe swimming beaches. It’s magnificent and vigorous and unstoppable.
Good luck on the homecoming. I’m crossing my fingers for you.