Posted November 4th, 2003 by Michelle

Everyone at home keeps asking, “How is California?” The truth is, I still don’t know. I’ve been here twelve days or so and I’m only sure of a few things. It’s beautiful here, there’s no denying that. I’m sitting on the deck, nearing sunset, and the Rutherford Bench sprawling before me is colored in strips of rust, green and gold as the sun shades the dying vines. The other night, driving home from dinner, rabbits with ears five times as long as their bodies were bounding in front of my car. The fog was steaming up from the ground, in low-lying clusters, tendrils of wispy smoke gathered together at the base like a ghost bouquet. I could hardly believe my eyes- what made the fog do that? It was Halloween night, after all, and the thought of a ghost hand rising from the ground, grasping for a bunch of gathered fog was enough to make me drive a little faster through the night.

It is also cold here, much colder than the Indian Summer currently being enjoyed by New Yorkers. It is easily in the 30’s at night, and the days are somewhere in the lower 50’s. My first days here it was almost 100 degrees, and we’ve dropped well over half of that in the last week. Amazing.

I don’t know what my job will bring. I’m hopefully making some friends there but there are only two people near my age, one of whom I’ve most likely already alienated. Everyone else is somewhat older, one guy in his 40’s, another in his 50’s, and another topping 60. There are plenty of people above us, literally, in the offices, but we don’t have a lot of contact with them. The second person near my age was sick when I first got there, and then she went out of town, so I wonder if it is possible to connect with her. You get used to talking a certain way with your friends and family and then sometimes you shock people, even if just a little bit, when you are out of your element. But I want to connect with deeper, richer, more worldly people, and I have to believe they are here, somewhere, waiting to meet me.

I don’t much know how to do it, though, I mean, how do you meet people? How exactly do you do it? It’s easy enough in the restaurant business. You are thrown together with a bunch of people who you see five days a week, and then you do stuff with them, and then you meet their friends, etc. But I want to meet people outside of the restaurant business. I wonder if there are any writing clubs or groups around here. I’m sure I’ll figure out how it works in this valley, but right now, I just don’t know.