The Wet Coast

Does anybody get as annoyed by rain as me? Ever since my wife and I packed our bags and drove our wagons west and made San Diego, CA our home we have been plagued with precipitous precipitation--for at least half of the time we've been here! It's really put a damper on things, so to speak. Outside activities (such as my soccer league) are cancelled, people can't drive worth a crap (either too fast or too slow) thereby causing all sorts of traffic mayhem and accidents, not to mention the fact that you get soaked if you have to be outside.

The kicker to this whole situation is that the cost of living is comparatively high in these here parts--and people say that this is so because of the "Sunshine Tax" or whatever. Well that's just BS, dammit! If I'm going to be paying top dollar for Sunny Day Sunshine Beach Real Estate, that's what I want! Not this Soggy Bottom Misty Drab Wannabe Seattle bullhonkabaloney! Palm trees, craggy cliffs, and sand are just not the same when they're framed by smokey grey skies and pelted with rain.

You see, I think there is some credence to this whole idea of Seasonal Affective Disorder (or SAD, as the clever acronym suggests). As humans we need a particular amount of natural light to function, otherwise we perform less than optimally. Without the sun to charge our batteries, as it were, we're just going through the motions. It makes me think of a movie that one of my old schoolteachers made the class watch. It was about a fictional town where it was rainy all of the time except once every 60 years or so when it became incredibly sunny and beautiful. Well everybody in this town were preparing for that day, including the film's protagonist. I think he fell in with some bullies, however, and they locked him in a room or a dumpster or something and so he missed the rare day of sunshine. It was really quite depressing. Sigh...

Anyway let me stop this mini-rave and try to look on the bright side of things, as I'm apt to do on occasion. I suppose it could be quite colder--what, with it being winter and all. So I can't really complain temperature-wise. Secondly, I suppose you need the rain to really appreciate it when it's not raining--that whole yin/yang maintaining balance and inner harmony-type thing or whatever. Lastly, I have to admit that I like the pitter patter of raindrops at night--it's very relaxing, not in that chintsy Sharper Image Perpetually Running Fountain Device kind of way, but in that ahhh-it's-so-nice-to-be-in-a-warm-bed-while-it's-drizzling-outside-way.

Just don't sing "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" around me, alright?

Pies and Tights or How I Remembered to Play

Ah-ite check it: On a boring whim I decided to randomly reply to acting ads on craigslist. Let's just say that I had the acting pustule and it had to be squeezed, as it were. Or, rather, the acting bug burrowed under my skin and layed little bug eggs that hatched in my heart. The acting whore pimped herself to this Johnny and....aw nuts, you get the picture.

So anyway I got one reply for a student film. It's a screwball/slapstick farce of a fairy tale in which I would play a vain prince who, in classic comedy fashion gets pies tossed in his face. Oh, and I'd have to wear tights and a feather in my cap.

I figured it this way--Just about anybody needs to have a pie tossed in their face at least once. Translation: sometimes you just gotta step outside yourself and have a sense of humor about life. At 30 I know I'm at a weird stage where I'm supposed to think and act like an adult and be all serious and what-not. Well that's fine and well when you're at work, but my philosophy is that you should never forget how to play. Never. If you lose that, you lose part of your soul. I believe that.

So remember kids: Go outside and play. There's Freeze Tag, or the saucy variant LOVE Tag...and in the evenings it's Flashlight Tag (actually Love Tag can be in the evenings IF you know what I mean). Or if you prefer have at it with a little Kickball or Dodgeball. Whatever--go nuts. Pick up that dusty 'ol stack of Uno cards, play some Jenga, Trivial Pursuit, Cranium, Scrabble, or Clue. Your inner child will be glad you did.