Around town

We have all read "coming-of-age" novels where the hero/heroine faces a challenge and becomes a better person out of a difficult situation. J.D. Salinger's "Catcher-in-the-Rye" comes to mind for many people. I know this sounds way silly, but E.B. White's "Stuart Little" was my own personal coming-of-age story when I was a little girl. As Stuart the mouse went on his little adventures in the wilderness, I felt a kindred spirit with his restlessness. I remember feeling an odd mixture of sadness and envy as the tiny hero sailed off in his canoe. Travel always awakens the spirit (well, most of the time, anyway--don't ask me about Ensenada).

Now many current books for women utilize the "year in the life abroad" theme. Women take time out of their rountine lives in Podunk, USA to travel to exotic locales to find themselves and recharge their batteries. These are coming-of-age books for us chicks. Books such as "Eat Pray Love"(Italy, India, Indonesia) "Under the Tuscan Sun" (Italy) and "No Reservations" (France, Italy) are defining works of that genre. Basically, women are burned out, fed up and want to get the hell away from familiar surroundings and circumstances to find themselves.

Not that any of us have ever thought, "Let me out of here!" (Yeah, right.)

One day, not long ago, I felt sorry for myself because I was not in a position to venture off into the wild blue yonder to claim my forgotten spirit. I simply had too much laundry to do. The twenty something girl who once fearlessly took a Greyhound bus across country enroute to New York City was lost long ago (that was 1983, fresh out of college). I wondered, though, how a person with work and/or family obligations could shape their lives so that newness and excitement could be within reach even without travel. We all want to feel that spark of adventure.

The answer came to me: we need to be tourists in our own town. And to be a hometown tourist, you must agree to do three things:

1. Drink coffee at a local hangout (Starbucks, coffee shop of your choice) and people watch. Strike up a conversation with someone you've never met. Read the paper. Stare out the window. Eavesdrop (one of my personal favorites).

2. Take walks. It is amazing what I see on my daily sojurns into our lovely paseos. People's gardens are interesting to see (I love gnomes), the change of seasons is always on display, and cute dogs in sweaters usually allow me to pet them. Some days I get lucky and see squirrels mating. Today, in fact, I hit the paseo jack pot: three big crows fighting over a squirrel carcass on the road. I know this sounds morbid, but it is a rather comical when you witness this call of the wild for yourself.

3. Plan evenings out. Find new things to do. My husband and I have discovered local theater. So it's not Broadway or London, but I always feel rejuvenated after seeing a live performance. For me, it's a little more thought provoking than many of the movies being shown these days. Or on evenings when there is a gorgeous sunset, we will take a walk and enjoy the view for free.

Alright, so I can't go to Paris at this time in my life. But I can sit in a cafe looking nonchalantly mysterious just like a chic Parisian might. Or see a live musical like a literate Londoner...or hike in the nearby mountains like an outdoorsy Italian. Those of us who have to recharge our batteries on home turf have to be creative and look at our own neighborhood with fresh eyes.

Au revoir!