San Diego (day 1)

I do this thing where I dread, dread, dread something, and then inevitably, once I sit down to actually do it, it's not nearly as bad as some silly part of me thought it would be.

(I planned out everything I have to get done on my dissertation prospectus bibliography this week, so now I'm allowed to show you some pictures of downtown San Diego.)

There are palm trees everywhere.  It's a little weird, but definitely less weird to me now than it would have been a few years ago, before I started living in Berkeley.

There was something really nifty about the light in the city today, and I'm not sure this picture gets it across.  The leaves are just starting to turn colors, and when the sunlight shines through them, with the backdrop of the bright blue sky, it's pretty magical.

"Welcome Acoustical Society of America".  That's my conference.  :)

One thing I really like about taking walks with my camera is that it automatically makes me tune in to the beauty in the world.  When you're scanning for a good shot, you see things in a different way.  And even if I don't always end up with lots of good shots, focusing my attention in that intensely visual way makes me appreciate the way the light reflects off of the buildings, the street, and the foliage, the banking of the sidewalk, the width of the street, the colors of the signs and storefronts, the way the whole scene looks totally different when there's a woman with sleeve tattoos playing with her toddler, or a delivery man balancing a dolly while he rings the bell, or an old couple walking their little dog.  I didn't get pictures of any of those things, but I saw them.  And I saw them, if you see what I mean.

I realized (or perhaps re-realized) today that one of my favorite things in the world is getting on a bus with an unknown destination.  And I mean that both very literally and as a metaphor for my life.  The lady at the front desk told me one way to get where I wanted to go, and it involved taking the #20 bus and transferring to the trolley at the transit plaza.  I waited for several minutes, and finally the #120 bus showed up.  I asked the driver if it would take me to the transit plaza, and he said no, but he could drop me off downtown.  So I got on, sat down, and waited to see where I would end up.  And I love that feeling.  I really live for the rush of excitement that comes from taking a plunge into the slightly-unknown.  It was so exhilarating to be heading somewhere but not really knowing where I was going or how I would get back, but that really, I would be fine.  I hopped off somewhere downtown and wandered around for a while, finally found the "historic gaslamp district", which was cute enough, and then eventually got hungry and ate an Aloha Dog from a hot dog stand, which is apparently a hot dog with pineapple, onion, and teriyaki sauce.  Then I came back to the hotel and planned out what I'm going to read and write this week, and here I am.

Unfortunately I never made it down by the water, so I don't have any pictures of the waterfront, but I might be able to get some in the coming days.  I'm here until Thursday morning, when I leave for Boston, and the landscape changes dramatically!

For now, though: reading and a snack and then another dip in the hot tub before I hit the hay.