Tuesday, February 6 – What I’m Missing





Complete Recording, “Miss Saigon” (disc 2)
Tears For Fears, “Songs From The Big Chair”
Peter Cetera, “One Clear Voice”
Thelonious Monk, “Straight, No Chaser”
 
 
 
 
Strange weather we’ve been having.  Every morning, there’s snow on the ground, but by the time I come home from work, it’s gone.  I guess that’s great, actually.  It looks really nice outside when there’s a little bit of snow on the ground – but not enough to cover the roads, and by the time I’d actually have to buckle down and shovel it, I don’t have to anymore.

I noticed the San Diego area hit the 80-degree mark (27 ºC) last weekend.  That kind of gets me in the gut a little bit….

Actually, I don’t miss the nice weather that much.  They’ve been having Santa Anas, which means the humidity drops to nothing, and I’d have the same problems I’m having here with cracking skin and trouble breathing (not to mention the ever-present possibility of a wildfire burning your house down).

I wish I could go to the zoo.  I haven’t been able to go outside and just walk since – well, since the last time I was at the zoo.  Pittsburgh has a nice zoo – or so I’ve heard, since I haven’t been there since kindergarten, and they’ve completely overhauled it since then – but it’s too stinking cold to go there.

There’s one place I really do miss, though – Rubio’s, home of the fish taco.  And Baja Chicken Bowls.  And a bunch of other stuff I can’t really get out here.  Although we did go to Chi Chi’s this weekend, which is the East Coast’s excuse for Mexican food.  Actually, it was pretty good, although “tortilla-crusted chicken fajitas” is hardly real Mexican food.  I loved their chips and salsa, too – well, the chips were right out of a bag, I’m sure, but the salsa was remarkably good.

I miss being able to zip all over San Diego, too.  San Diego, despite the fact that it’s something like 50 miles from top to bottom, seems very dense, mostly because of the freeways that can get you wherever you want in minutes.  So as much as I thought we were isolated there, it’s almost worse here.  Number of malls within a half-hour drive from our former place in San Diego: probably 6 or 7.  Number of malls within a half-hour here in Pittsburgh: one.

Yes, I do feel occasionally “homesick” for San Diego (although that’s not really the correct word, because we never considered it our home).  But the feeling passes quickly.  Kind of like a fish taco.