Today was a “me” day. After a lovely breakfast of Egg Beaters and toast, I drove up to Montara Beach, enjoying the windy roads and scenic drive as I neared one of the more isolated beaches near Half Moon Bay (the main Half Moon Bay beach is more popular). I got to sit there for a while, reading Snow Crash and enjoying the perfect weather– sunny with a light breeze, warm but not warm enough to sit there sweating and uncomfortable. After a little while, I decided to make my way back down to the Peninsula, stopping for a tall iced mocha at the local Starbucks, paid for courtesy of the gift card Stanford Federal Credit Union sent me after they screwed up my automatic car loan withdrawal. And I drove back down 92, again enjoying the winding roads with the excellent handling on my Lexus and looking forward to cooking up some dinner and having a good bottle of wine. The only thing that would have been better would have been having the foresight to have enough cash on me to buy some cherries from one of the produce stands along the side of the road. Alas, something for next time.

I realize that I really do like living in the Bay Area. It’s got great weather (sunny and clear without being too humid or hot), great beaches just a short drive away and city life in all different flavors with San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. It’s a great place to be when you’re in your twenties and looking to just live your life.
Continue reading The Yay Area →

While I love to read, I often find reading a new book challenging. Starting a new book is like getting on a rollercoaster. You want to take a ride because you’ve heard a lot of about it or it’s the new thing at your favorite amusement park, but first, you have to wait in line. When you do get up to the front, you have to get into your seat, buckle up, and wait for the attendants to make sure everybody is safe and secure before sending you on your way. When you’ve finally started moving, you start that slow ascent, sometimes the wood creaking underneath you as you hear that click, click, click up the incline. And then suddenly, you’re moving. You’re flying down the descent, you’re upside down and sideways. Some parts you like more than others–you feel like you could ride them all day– and other parts you plain just don’t like.

For me, getting started with a new book is a lot like that. I usually enjoy most books I decide to read, but it takes a little while– I have to get into the groove of the author’s writing style, I need to learn the characters, the world in which the book takes place. Sometimes it’s a little uncomfortable and sometimes I’m a little impatient. Sometimes, I’m so impatient that I end up forever trying to read a book only to find myself stuck trying to get past those first few chapters. And I don’t even think it’s the fault of the writer– it’s just my own version of ADD perhaps. That’s why I often find myself opting to start books on planes because I have nothing else to do except focus on reading. And suddenly, like taking off on that rollercoaster, I’m completely immersed in the world I’m reading about– picturing the characters live and in color in my mind’s eye, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel. And when it’s a really good book, I don’t want to come up. I want to live in that world forever, explore it until I feel like I’ve completely internalized it and have lived the story myself. When the story’s over and I finally come up, I’m almost exhausted. I feel like I’ve lived a thousand lifetimes through that story and have, of course, been changed by the experience.
Continue reading Rollercoaster →