Obligatory “Where Have I Been?” and SoCal Seasons
Alright, let’s make this quick so I can get back to posting regularly. Here’s a quick catch-up list of what I’ve been doing for the last 3 weeks:
- Amazing trip to Maui for friends’ wedding
- Drawing a LOT
- Playing guitar a LOT
- Struggling to adjust to the lack of seasons in SoCal (more about this below)
- Lots of extra hours at work
- Caught a cold or something, better now
- Getting treatment for shoulder injury from my accident a few months back
- …which means, not a lot of exercise
- …which means, me not riding bikes much and feeling a bit sad about it
- Current soundtrack: Bobby Womack
I’ve generally been feeling a bit sentimental lately, and I don’t really like to post when I’m emotional. It’s like drunk-dialing, you just regret it later. Unlike drunk-dialing, I can go back and erase any posts which I regret, but I’d rather just save myself some time and skip it altogether.
SoCal: Where are the Seasons?
As much as I feel like the Princess and the Pea complaining about the perfect SoCal weather, I am finding myself missing the East Coast Autumn. I’ve moved around a lot in my lifetime, but I’m mostly an East Coast soul. I’m a Georgia Peach for cryin’ out loud! My body, mind, soul are all hard-wired to the seasons.
I’m used to adjusting my whole mode based on the time of year. Winter is the time to buckle down and work on some projects inside since the weather is crummy. Spring is rebirth, your soul is thawing out, everything is alive and green again — including you. Summer is the fun, child-like play outside in the sunshine time.
And Fall?
Fall is full of natural beauty, but a bit of sentimental sadness, as you know you’re headed into Winter. The look, sounds, and smells of Fall are so distinct — the color of the leaves, and the crunching of them under your feet. The way your nose tickles with the dry air. Staticky hair after pulling a sweater over your head. Orange. Rust. The weather is starting to get cooler, so you pull out some favorite clothes that you haven’t seen in months. The rain, the cold, the wind. The air is so crisp and clear, the colors of the sky and leaves are brighter and seem to be more saturated and vibrant than any other time of the year. It’s like you just took a windshield washer to your eyeballs.
But…in SoCal? It’s…I don’t know, about five degrees cooler than it was during the Summer. Otherwise, it’s the same. My biological clock is telling me to start switching into Fall mode again, but nothing else around me is triggering that feeling, so I’m feeling a disconnect. It’s terrible to complain about such beautiful weather, I guess I’m just surprised that it’s an issue at all.
Oh, haha, one more thing, I saw some employees stacking pumpkins outside of the local grocery store and I muttered to myself “Posers!” Haha, that is just ridiculous, but I thought I’d share.
Holler if you hear me!
October 8th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
I, on the other hand, have been riding my bike everywhere. Since I’m on campus, I can get to pretty much any point by walking, but why walk when you can bike? It’s gotten to the point where running feels strange, like the muscles don’t remember how to do it.
October 8th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
That’s great Tim! I try to ride everywhere I can. I ride to work every day. Once you get used to riding, walking seems so slow! Hope you’re wearing a helmet!
October 8th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
Hey Sally! You look great in the wedding pics! That’s a really pretty dress. (I hope it’s not creepy for me to say that). That looked like fun. I’ve been biking more too. I can go to work by a back route, about 5 miles. The hardest part was figuring out the route. I’m going through a neighborhood I’ve been trying to figure out for about two years. Every time I went through it (until recently when I really buckled down and memorized it) I ended up missing the turn I want and going halfway across town in the wrong direction.
This is my favorite time of year here. If you ever want to visit… you know where I is!
Still on the pickle juice?
October 9th, 2006 at 6:44 am
A helmet? You bet! A feeding tube and constant stream of drool would look way less cool than a helmet does.
October 9th, 2006 at 9:16 am
I totally get you on the weather bit…Florida was much the same. It IS disorienting. Plus I can’t figure out what to knit for a SoCal gal.
That said, we just got 12 inches of rain in 36 hours…SoCal is tempting right now.
October 9th, 2006 at 10:39 am
@Xaprb - Thanks Baron! And I’m so glad you’ve found a biking route to work, I think it’s such a great way to start your day. Charlottesville can be challenging sometimes with biking to work — I could never find a good route to Crutchfield, I couldn’t avoid Earlysville Rd which is pretty treacherous in the morning.
@Tim - Good for you, I’ve gotten WAY better about wearing a helmet since moving to California.
@Beak - Haha, yeah. Like I said, I do feel pretty lame complaining about it. It’s just an adjustment. Come visit anytime!!
October 9th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
hi. you took pictures of my bike, except not with me, but some other random guy. heh. i didn’t realise you were new to California. That’s cool. See you around Sally.