Gratuitous Miscellany

 I really should. It's been . . . months? Nothing so compelling to write about than The Politics, but I wouldn't know where to start. Here we go anyway--not with The Politics but the writing. Partially because I sat down yesterday and tried to write something, anything, and the ADHD took over and I'm nothing if not creative and possessed of lots of shiny thoughts, though not long lived. No matter. I gave up.

The big thing to me is the move to California. I'm still feeling the novelty of it, in one way, and the stronger sense of it being normal, like, I'm back, and it feels like I've always been here. I hate it when I wax philosophical and, even more, whimsically magical, but it's sort of like waking up from a dream. Like, oh, I'm home now and all my friends are here--except of course that's what you say when you're in Kansas, and have friends. 

I don't have any friends here, per se, yet, but the sense of familiarity helps, and, weirdly, the bridging of memories. That last is kind of confusing and difficult to describe. It has to do with recalling more old California memories that I hadn't considered for years, now, once I am physically back here. Ha. Maybe it's just me, but it's almost like having two or three lives, like different continents of experience, if you segment memories according the geographic location. OK well after a few brief moments of thought the metaphor breaks down, so I'll move on to the next paragraph. I'm doing good, though. I'm writing, 

Photography, music (guitar playing,) and writing are my "outlets," and photography is losing its appeal for me. I blame the Internet with all the perfect, phony pictures out there, and what with my mediocre talent (which at least isn't phony.) I still take the occasional pretty good picture with my cell phone. They say the best camera is the one you have with you.  Or, the one that fits in your pocket so you don't walk around perpetually looking like a tourist, or worse, get called out when you accidentally wander too close to an elementary school. Just kidding.  It's just a cigar, Sigmund. 

I'll close by saying I'm very much enjoying the non-Midwest culture. Here on the edge of the bay and Silicon Valley, it's almost like being in another country. I'm enjoying walking around downtown and hearing multi-lingual conversation snippets from passers-by. The traffic is absolutely terrible but, by the way, there is a universal sign language, and the same universal reasons for using it--just more often.