“He’s a real nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere land, making all his nowhere plans for nobody!”
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to just get in the car and drive and go nowhere in particular, just drive and drive wherever the mood takes me. It seems as if I’m always on a mission, in a hurry to get to somewhere or leave from somewhere – sometimes I long for a less busy life when I actually have time to breathe, when I don’t have to hurry up and get ready so I can get to work, drop my kid off at school, and then rush down the freeway to classes. Go here, rush there…
I just read an article the other day about how Starbucks now offers packets of instant coffee to people. I was talking to my friend about it at the beach the other day in San Francisco. It was a cold, foggy morning on Ocean Beach, but I didn’t care. I took my shoes and socks off and walked along in the cool stand feeling the coldness on my feet. This was one of those luxurious moments when I could just walk down the beach with my Havanese dog Sydney – and she could play with other Havanese dogs. I thought, yaaaayyy! A walk on the beach. Wrong. Sydney didn’t always want to stay with the group. She’d either loiter behind or run way ahead, and I’d find myself doing my best to herd her in. We were walking a certain direction on the beach, not just wandering aimlessly about.
“Yes, in New York where I live now, the new thing is to pick up those packets of instant coffee at Starbucks.”
“Pretty pathetic that people don’t even have time to sit down and have a cup of coffee,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s right! It’s sad.”
I watched some surfers out there in the water – and a couple of them actually got up on their surfboards and there they were riding the waves! Yeah! I wondered if they ever thought about whether they were going nowhere or not – they were just out there waiting for just the right waves to arrive so they could do their thing.
Sydney ended up running to the other side of the beach and I had to chase her down. It was scary, not knowing exactly where she was for a few moments. All the other doggies stayed together, but not my Sydney, no. I was the only one in the entire group who had to chase her that far. She was a bit disheveled and very happy to see me when I finally got close enough to call her – and she came running. Then, cold, wet and happy, I put her leash back on and we walked through the sand to my car. I dried Sydney off with a towel and we stopped at the coffee shop on 48th Avenue and Judah Streets where I ordered a coffee and sat outside with the dog and drank…no instant coffee packs for me. I had to get to the Beatles Fest once again, but it wasn’t like I had to be in a rush.
For just a moment, even just a moment, it felt good to go nowhere
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You do a great job of creating the mood of a dog walk on the beach here. I could practically feel the sand between my toes! I like using the new Starbucks instant coffee as a metaphor. You might want to play with that. Maybe a short KQED type piece?
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