Day One

Yes, you read that right. Start it all over. Wind the clocks backward (who winds clocks much these days?), back up the sun, reverse the Earth (a la Superman, the first movie), turn back your odometers, take the moon back a few cycles, capture some extra sunsets in reverse and let the flowers have a few more days of newness, today is my first day in California.

Don't get confused, I'm not the ambassador of quantumly physical infinite parallel universe hopping. I'm not Dr. Who. I'm just starting it over today because I want to.

You see, I'm going to be completely honest. Despite meeting some cool new people who have shown me kindness (I have always depended on...let's not go there) I have to say that, until today, I have been regretting the decision to move here. It's not like that's a great secret, something I kept hidden on the blog. You don't even have to read between the lines. You can read the lines and see I wasn't doing cartwheels.

(Confession: in between looking at jobs, apartments and trying to find places to network in life and online, I was also scoping out the scene in Austin. Preparing a get away from my get away. Because the rule is, still is, should this feeling wane with the crescent moon, my happiness.)

So yeah. Now, what about today? Because today was friggin' gorgeous. The sun came out in its full glory and poured upon sand and sea. For my past beach encounters I've been sadly looking at my old lover blanketed in a chill of clouds. She looked forlorn. She was in a Thomas Hardy novel, the one I've been trying to live for too damn long.

But today, not a cloud in the sky, and the ocean mist only barely there as it should be. Today I went walking to a spot and had brunch, with myself and unconsumed by the self-ness of it. Then I went outside of my head and talked to a woman and her small daughter at a table near me (large portions started the conversation). She asked what I did and I said I was an artist and just moved here. And believe it or not, I gave her a moo card! (Note to self: order more, and make sure plenty are in your wallet.) But it doesn't matter if she never sees that card again or if she tossed it in the gutter, I gave it to her.

Now, for the socially adept, you may think what a goofball I am, and yes, I am a goofball, though charming, but still, it's a minor triumph. I am not known for stepping outside of my box, and my box is, trust me, a very tight fit (don't go there David). So yeah, good.

And then I went to the beach and saw the Pacific in her glory. I went and did my Rocky Balboa style "I don't need a gym" workout (next challenge: joining a gym). Then I took my shirt off! Yes! The reason I came here, not the only reason, but a good one, to wander around shirtless as much as possible. I walked along the surf and sand, where the freezing water lapped at my feet and made me catch my breath. This! This! (I'm motioning to the sand, the water, the blueness, the sun reflecting off the water, the people in the water, the--I think--Asians in Speedos, probably not needing to be in Speedos, the kids building sand castles, the surfer/boarder laying face down in the wet sand--resting I guess, he was alive though--all these things are why I moved here.)

So I walked up and down the surf, investigating the ephemeral sandbars, which I hadn't seen before. Shirtless, jeans legs rolled up, shades on, cool and warm, the sunshine on my shoulders making me happy, and the cool breeze keeping it from oppression.

Welcome to LA, Gabriel.