Tumbles into the Sea

Rambler is in Northern California. It's a beautiful day/night here although my NY attitude is kicking in big time.

First, I go to get a slice and the first place I go to sells them at $2.70 a pop! Now I'm not cheap. OK, I am cheap but that's not the point. I'll pay $2.70 at Sal & Carmine's on Broadway and 102nd but I'm not paying it for some glorified wannabe frozen cardboard pizza in NoCal! Then I went to another place that doesn't even sell slices after lunch! I guess that's just too radical a thought for the Stanford elite--pizza by the slice after dark!

Hungry and angry (all I was missing was lonely and tired but I'll be those things later!) I headed to the Starbucks where I was served by a cliche. If the dude had said `dude' one more time I was going to smack him in the head. It wasn't a complete disaster though, "That's Entertainment" was playing in the Starbucks. Don't hear The Jam too often in Starbucks. Then I wolfed down my food outside and watched a few of the less fortunate attempt to smoke a cigarette. It was sad and slightly scary.

From there I was off to see some friends. That put me in a better place. Now back in our makeshift office. I skipped out on an office dinner tonight and that was definately the smart move. Everyone thinks I stayed behind to do work and while I did do some work, truth is I'm going to be seeing these people an awful lot over the next few days and we are in a very tight space so whenever I can grab some alone time I am going for it. Turned out to be smart move judging from the early reports on the dinner. It took forever, one person got smashed and I know I would've just sat there in my seat shaking back and forth desparate to get out of there. I like when I do the right thing.

The flight in to San Francisco was great. Forgot how much I enjoyed Jet Blue. I read four newspapers, wrote a page or so in a journal, watched some TV and still had time for three naps. The only time I can really get through a newspaper is when I'm either on a train or in a plane. In other words, when there are no other distractions around I can focus. I know, the train doesn't have distractions? But those are not distractions of my making. When I'm at home, unless I'm in the shower reading (yes, I read the paper in the shower), I end up turning on the TV after a few minutes. If I'm on a plane or a train though, I have to sit still and just read. I swear soon I'll spend my weekends riding the trains until I'm finished reading.

Speaking of reading (and I write this knowing that I have maybe two readers right now), I realize that my items tend to be long. I don't know if that is good or bad but for me right now it is just important that I do this. I'll figure out form later. Getting into the habit of cranking out stuff is more important. OK, going to pretend to do some more work then hit my hotel. I'll hope to have more updates from here later in the week.

Oh, one last thing before I forget. I liked the ending to "The Sopranos." It worked for me. These dumb ass TV critics--most of them anyway--need everything spelled out for them and life isn't like that. There are not always pat endings and not everything needs some dramatic finale. It was what it was.