Have mac, will travel

I’m here in lovely southern California; but instead of playing tourist today as I’d hoped, I’m sitting at a cafe with my Mac, writing a paper that’s still not done even though I made myself promise to finish it before I arrived yesterday. Well, since the promise was just to myself - easy come, easy go, eh? In any event, I don’t do ‘tourist’ particularly well. I chaperoned a friend and her sisters across Europe one summer (their extremely traditional father insisted on a chaperone, otherwise he wouldn’t have let them go on the trip), and they complained that all I wanted to do was to sit at cafes and watch the pigeons walk by.

I only visit California occasionally, but I’m always surprised - given the New York sensibilities that I’ve acquired after many years of living there - how friendly people are over here. Good morning! How are you doing? Have a nice day! And that’s just from the passersby, no less. After arriving last night, though, I would have killed for a deli or diner but everything in walking distance (driving is another thing I don’t do, which is another reason why I live in New York) seemed shut down at the ridiculously early hour of 9:30. Still, I could get used to this. There’s absolutely nothing like taking a morning walk on the beach, watching the seals loll about while being pestered for food by the thuggish gulls, to get the creative juices flowing. Too bad my paper isn’t supposed to be fiction; everything else about the setting seems otherwise opportune.