A Lament on Leaving... and Arriving

Since I last wrote, I’ve disposed of more than eighty percent of everything I owned in Charlottesville – things known and unknown – having managed to fit the remaining twenty percent into two suitcases and backpack and made my way across the breadth of this country to California. I miss Charlottesville and everything about it, most of all, the comfort of putting one foot before the other and knowing exactly where I am going.

And then there’s California! Although it’s always great to go back to the Bay Area, SoCal’s a whole different ball game altogether. Hanging out with family is always great and is the reason I’m here to start with. I’m also having a ton of fun playing tourist and although I’m yet to spot a celebrity I take comfort in the fact that I wouldn’t be able to distinguish a celebrity if I sat next to one in a restaurant, since everyone here seems so umm… dressed up all the time! My need to disconnect (something I’d been wanting to do since I got back from Beach Week) has resulted in me not having contacted my friends in the area yet, but I’ll get to it eventually I know.

I’ve been trying to acclimatize myself to normal life, whatever that means. Actually that’s exactly my problem, I’m not sure I know what normal life means. I tried picking up my reading habit again, except that in the two years I’ve been out of the books-scene, it seems to have changed a whole lot. I am trying to get my hands on some fiction because I don’t want to read anything that reminds me of a HBS case, and I can’t find anything on the bestsellers list that doesn’t involve vampires and murder. I think I’ll eventually give up and read the Niall Ferguson book, The Ascent of Money, that’s staring at me from my sister’s desk.

I’ve enjoyed exploring Los Angeles and the surrounding areas and seeing a lot of places that are familiar from the movies. My Universal Studios visit is still pending (the sun here has been scorching), however I have enjoyed going to the Walk of Fame area immenseley (and went there more than once!). No prizes for guessing which star had the most number of visitors around it at any given time.