Carol:
I can't waste time thinking of a title
Sunday afternoon I dropped Marc at the San Diego Airport for his return to Arizona. Megan was at the final session before her conference ended, so I had about 3 hours to kill. Freedom. Adventure Opportunity. The opposite of killing time.
I am not an adventurer and not the kind of person that likes to poke around strange cities by myself, especially when I have a car to deal with. So,
I intended to return to the now familiar Gaslamp District. Safe, secure, I knew how to get there, and an interesting Greek movie would just fit that pocket of time nicely. But, sitting in the parking lot of the Cabrillo Monument memorizing the maps while Marc was actually out on the edge of the monument trail looking at the fantastic view and bird-watching, I came across another possibility for afternoon fun and adventure. The library.
Now, I love libraries, and whenever I have a few hours in a new city, I will look for the library. When our Alaska cruise ship docked in Juneau, about 80% of our fellow travelers ducked into the nearest gift shop to the pier. I followed the signs to the public library. Two years later when we had a Sunday afternoon in San Francisco, Marshall headed off to the Asia Museum for a Samurai exhibit, Marc headed off in search of coffee, and Megan and I went to the library.
I knew where the San Diego library because Marc had pointed it out to me earlier in the day. I marked its location on my map with a big black circle, traced my route, and headed out of the airport full of confidence and excitement. Freedom. Opportunity. Cheap opportunity—the library was showing a free Sunday afternoon movie.
I would zip right down to Market Street, turn left on 7th, right on E and find free parking near the library. Who would have thought that on a beautiful, sunny Sunday afternoon in one of the most popular tourist cities in America, a person would not be able to find an empty parking space. I made at least 4 passes by the front of the library as I circled around the one-way streets hunting for a parking spot. Time’s a ‘wasting, Carol. You’ll be late.
I finally found an opening, but who would think that I could be so out of practice at parallel parking. There was plenty of room to back in between two cars, but somehow I ended up on the sidewalk and several attempts to pull out and renegotiate the space failed. Time’s a’wasting, Carol. Finally, as I got out of the car a 3rd time to check my rear wheels, a young woman with a lollipop in her mouth strolled out of a beauty salon and asked if I needed help. Nice San Diego people. She got into my car, pulled out onto the street and started all over again. Never took the lollipop out of her mouth, didn’t even get phased when the woman on the motor scooter she almost wiped out started screaming. Lollipop Lady handed me the keys, I thanked her and ran off down the street, hoping to slip into the movie late and find a seat in the back without disturbing too many people. Into the library, up three flights, open the door, fumble into an empty seat, just as the opening credits were ending, my earlier humiliation at the parallel parking debacle dissipated. Freedom. Adventure. Opportunity.
Then, the huge rock head came floating through the sky, and the camera panned in on Sean Connery, red silk loin cloth, pony tail and hairy chest. My favorite 007 had been kidnapped and forced into playing a futuristic exterminator in one of the worst movies ever made, Zardoz.
Talk about a waste of time.
I am not an adventurer and not the kind of person that likes to poke around strange cities by myself, especially when I have a car to deal with. So,
I intended to return to the now familiar Gaslamp District. Safe, secure, I knew how to get there, and an interesting Greek movie would just fit that pocket of time nicely. But, sitting in the parking lot of the Cabrillo Monument memorizing the maps while Marc was actually out on the edge of the monument trail looking at the fantastic view and bird-watching, I came across another possibility for afternoon fun and adventure. The library.
Now, I love libraries, and whenever I have a few hours in a new city, I will look for the library. When our Alaska cruise ship docked in Juneau, about 80% of our fellow travelers ducked into the nearest gift shop to the pier. I followed the signs to the public library. Two years later when we had a Sunday afternoon in San Francisco, Marshall headed off to the Asia Museum for a Samurai exhibit, Marc headed off in search of coffee, and Megan and I went to the library.
I knew where the San Diego library because Marc had pointed it out to me earlier in the day. I marked its location on my map with a big black circle, traced my route, and headed out of the airport full of confidence and excitement. Freedom. Opportunity. Cheap opportunity—the library was showing a free Sunday afternoon movie.
I would zip right down to Market Street, turn left on 7th, right on E and find free parking near the library. Who would have thought that on a beautiful, sunny Sunday afternoon in one of the most popular tourist cities in America, a person would not be able to find an empty parking space. I made at least 4 passes by the front of the library as I circled around the one-way streets hunting for a parking spot. Time’s a ‘wasting, Carol. You’ll be late.
I finally found an opening, but who would think that I could be so out of practice at parallel parking. There was plenty of room to back in between two cars, but somehow I ended up on the sidewalk and several attempts to pull out and renegotiate the space failed. Time’s a’wasting, Carol. Finally, as I got out of the car a 3rd time to check my rear wheels, a young woman with a lollipop in her mouth strolled out of a beauty salon and asked if I needed help. Nice San Diego people. She got into my car, pulled out onto the street and started all over again. Never took the lollipop out of her mouth, didn’t even get phased when the woman on the motor scooter she almost wiped out started screaming. Lollipop Lady handed me the keys, I thanked her and ran off down the street, hoping to slip into the movie late and find a seat in the back without disturbing too many people. Into the library, up three flights, open the door, fumble into an empty seat, just as the opening credits were ending, my earlier humiliation at the parallel parking debacle dissipated. Freedom. Adventure. Opportunity.
Then, the huge rock head came floating through the sky, and the camera panned in on Sean Connery, red silk loin cloth, pony tail and hairy chest. My favorite 007 had been kidnapped and forced into playing a futuristic exterminator in one of the worst movies ever made, Zardoz.
Talk about a waste of time.
Megan:
As I type this, I am acting as a squeeze machine for my friend Kelly’s neurotic little dog Bo. I don’t mind because he is acting as a miniature space heater for me. Kelly’s house was sprayed by a skunk the other day, and for reasons I don’t understand she thinks this means she needs to keep the doors and windows open all the time. And I’m like, Dude. Have you not considered that this might be how the smell entered the house to begin with?
Anyway, I’m coming up to the end of this little post-holiday vacation, spending these next two days with Kelly and her husband (and their neurotic dogs). When we were in college together, Kelly and I were masters of wasting time. We sat in the back row in the classes we had together and did crossword puzzles, we went to Wal-Mart at 3 a.m. to hang out, and we spent hours planning her weddings and coming up with names for future children.
At some point she must have learned to stop wasting time because she is a lawyer now. I’m hoping though, that I have managed to get her to abandon responsibility for today to hang out with me. But even though she is now pretending to be sick in order to play hooky from work, she is not wasting time. She is cleaning her house and putting away Christmas decorations. But there is evidence that not all of the old habits have died away… she’s been married for over a year now, but current bridal magazines can still be found piled in the corner. And pick up any scrap of paper, you’ll find a list of names under the heading of either For a Girl, or For a Boy. There are no current plans for divorce or remarriage or a baby, this is just the way she relaxes.
My own way of wasting time involves compulsively writing the alphabet over and over in my journal (which explains my excellent handwriting), playing with dogs and making up songs about dogs. The biggest timewaster I can think of is Facebook. I spend more time trying to get information about people who are not my friends than the ones who are – Facebook stalking is what that’s called. Because of my MA in Information studies, and my experiences in the prison, I am super good at this – finding information about people. I could probably make a living as a private eye ala Veronica Mars. In fact, I have discussed at length setting up this business with another friend and then contracting our services with Kelly. I am so enamoured of this idea that instead of working on my resume or applying for a job, I am going to waste the rest of the day designing a logo and letterhead for this business. That is, if Bo is comfortable continuing to act as my little heating cushion.
As I type this, I am acting as a squeeze machine for my friend Kelly’s neurotic little dog Bo. I don’t mind because he is acting as a miniature space heater for me. Kelly’s house was sprayed by a skunk the other day, and for reasons I don’t understand she thinks this means she needs to keep the doors and windows open all the time. And I’m like, Dude. Have you not considered that this might be how the smell entered the house to begin with?
Anyway, I’m coming up to the end of this little post-holiday vacation, spending these next two days with Kelly and her husband (and their neurotic dogs). When we were in college together, Kelly and I were masters of wasting time. We sat in the back row in the classes we had together and did crossword puzzles, we went to Wal-Mart at 3 a.m. to hang out, and we spent hours planning her weddings and coming up with names for future children.
At some point she must have learned to stop wasting time because she is a lawyer now. I’m hoping though, that I have managed to get her to abandon responsibility for today to hang out with me. But even though she is now pretending to be sick in order to play hooky from work, she is not wasting time. She is cleaning her house and putting away Christmas decorations. But there is evidence that not all of the old habits have died away… she’s been married for over a year now, but current bridal magazines can still be found piled in the corner. And pick up any scrap of paper, you’ll find a list of names under the heading of either For a Girl, or For a Boy. There are no current plans for divorce or remarriage or a baby, this is just the way she relaxes.
My own way of wasting time involves compulsively writing the alphabet over and over in my journal (which explains my excellent handwriting), playing with dogs and making up songs about dogs. The biggest timewaster I can think of is Facebook. I spend more time trying to get information about people who are not my friends than the ones who are – Facebook stalking is what that’s called. Because of my MA in Information studies, and my experiences in the prison, I am super good at this – finding information about people. I could probably make a living as a private eye ala Veronica Mars. In fact, I have discussed at length setting up this business with another friend and then contracting our services with Kelly. I am so enamoured of this idea that instead of working on my resume or applying for a job, I am going to waste the rest of the day designing a logo and letterhead for this business. That is, if Bo is comfortable continuing to act as my little heating cushion.
Zardoz is one of the best movies ever made.
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