winter in southern california
I'm not really qualified to comment on the weather today, since I only went outside for about an hour, between five and six o'clock. But that hour, together with my detailed examinations of how it looked out the window, convinced me that this was the winteriest day I've yet exprienced here. Not that it was cold--when I can bike downtown in short sleeves with no discomfort no one can call it cold--but there was a certain wet chill in the air, and the mostly cloudy sky contributed to the general effect of real winter. I even caught myself huffing to see if I could see my breath, like I'd do on fall days back home, until I realized that was a little silly when I wasn't even wearing a sweatshirt.
But people here think it's cold, that's for sure. We see sweatshirts, windbreakers, wool hats, even the ocassional all-out winter jacket. But even those thin-blooded locals understand that they don't really have a real winter, and they demonstrate that fact by continuing to patronize the outdoor sections of Promenade cafes and restaurants all year round. I'm compelled to admit, though, that their ability to do so is helped by the universal presence of propane (or perhaps kerosene) heaters on poles, which cast a merry glow over many an evening meal. Without those, really, even I with my thick blood wouldn't want to sit around and let the evening cold seep into my bones. Even so, you try heating the Copa Cafe's outdoor seating in Lexington with those things, and see how many people show up.
The reason I was indoors all day is because I was working hard, making a new style for my design site and applying my new-gotten PHP knowledge to the main site. Progress, and much fun too. Now all I have to do is produce some new content...
news for my mother
i got an e-mail from my mother this morning saying that she appreciated my blog posts to be updated on what i'm up to, and i thought "but only if i actually WRITE in the blog" because it seems i haven't done so for a while. Well, the excuse, if any is permissable, is that i have been working like non-stop, and when i wasn't i was concentrating on other non-blog related things exercizing and sleeping. but there have been a few interesting things in the past few days that i will relate in bullitin fashion:
* yesterday at the gym a guy fell from the climbing wall and his ankle made a popping noise. i was climbing at the wall next to him and i freaked out like the true girlscout i am and said "quick! elevate it right now!" and i went and got ice and compessed his ankle for the first 30 minutes after the accident. and i talked to him for a long time and he was quite nice and i think his ankle was much better because of the immediate attention. the people at the gym didn't do anything to help him. they so don't know what they're doing.
* i went to a french kickboxing class that was really fun. i want to buy some boxing gloves, because the loner ones are permanently soaked with sweat. kickboxing is like the opposite of yoga. i took one class of each yesterday, so i guess the net effect was like i did nothing.
* The store got in new spring colors, and they are really pretty, like sherbet colours, but the organizing of putting them all out on the floor is a nightmare. it was so messy in there today. it's like an ice-cream truck threw up on the pant-wall table.
*dan is teaching me about boat lingo. i learned what a fo'c'sle is. he told me some other stuff too, but i forgot.
*i bought a new dress yesterday at anthropology. the dress is very nice.
*i was so tired at work today so i drank coffee but then i kept finding that my hand was shaking when i took people's credit cards, and i don't think that would make a customer feel too secure.