Today I walked all around the harbor in downtown San Diego. I walked to Seaport Village and into a bunch of little touristy shops selling soaps and tshirts and silver and candles and Christmas ornaments.
They had chives planted everywhere - mixed in with the birds of paradise and palm trees - and the whole place smelled like them. Their smell is so potent and distinctive, a weird mix of both slightly attractive and very off-putting, and it's quite an odd smell to find lining the walkways to restaurants. I heard so many people say out loud, what is that smell? when they passed by the planters and almost answered it's the chives! several times.
Then I sat outside for a few hours on a bench in a little park on Harbor Drive. I read, and watched a guy flying a kite and a couple snuggling in the grass. I honestly can't remember the last time I just sat outside in the sun (you just can't yet in Texas without sweating, and we don't have a backyard or anything, and it usually just doesn't feel safe enough in my neighborhood to sit outside if you don't have too). It smelled like the beach and felt incredible with the sun on your skin and the breeze off the water.
Yesterday was cold, but today I could've worn a bikini by the pool if I had wanted too. The pool at our hotel is a funny scene: you see only men and women in business suits lounging on the pool chairs, I guess because of the conference center next door, maybe taking off their blazers but that's it.
Anyway, I was reading Julia Child's My Life in France, which is really good. For some reason I can relate to Julia, I totally get this feeling of accomplishment and, hmmm, maybe purpose? when I cook up something nice for my husband for dinner. Like that's part of my contribution to our relationship or something and it really makes me feel proud. It seems silly, but I never, ever, was one to cook anything for myself or anyone else, and it feels good, I like it. I get a sense she felt that way about her husband too.
When I picked that up from Borders yesterday, I also found a new (to me at least) book by one of my favorite authors, Richard Bach. His books are always so good; I can't wait to start it.
On my walk home, I took this picture of an advertisement for condos, because the message just really appealed to me:
Measure your life in steps, not miles.
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