I started this blog on July 1, 2016. I remember landing in Japan the night before wondering where I was going and why I was going there and not knowing anything except that I needed to go. I navigated the Tokyo subway system tenuously, using my allotted 200 MB allowance of overseas data and racking up a $750 bill in phone charges in 3 days. I didn’t know what to do. I knew I SHOULD see Tokyo, so I put in some halfhearted broken efforts to explore. Mostly, I walked. I sat. I tried to be. I hoped something good would happen. I hoped I would snap out of it.

On my way over, I stopped in LA and saw my friend Lily who picked me up from the airport and took me to lunch at a yummy restaurant in Manhattan Beach. “This is where you should live. You should get a small house here and just sit.” By “here,” she literally meant Manhattan Beach, not LA. I’m not so far off now though here in Venice. She told me to start a blog. I got on the plane to Japan. I got off the plane in Japan. I slept. I woke up. I went to Starbucks. I started my blog.

I’m a different person now. I don’t even know that person anymore. I don’t feel that person anymore, though I can see her from a distance.

(Almost a month since I last wrote in here, that is.)

My Venice, CA chapter is now 1.5 months old. It’s been a good birth. It’s been a tectonic life shift. I haven’t written real full sentences in so long that it feels unnatural. I’m awash in experiences, but my perspective and ability to process and express hasn’t caught up yet.

Venice feels like home 75% of the time. I feel good here overall. I’m a few blocks in one direction from the ocean and 2 blocks in the other direction from Abbot Kinney, the main drag full of trendy shops, California-style fancy restaurants, and a superior level of people-watching.

My routine involves going to the beach almost every morning to meditate and write. My writing these days consists mostly of a few scribbles rather than full complete thoughts. I think my brain is clouded with this disease I call “busyness.” Then I try to go to yoga, the gym, or both. Then I try to do work. I sometimes succeed, and other times, I manage to procrastinate or ruminate. Continue reading Almost a month, a sea change →