Sunday, July 06, 2003
3 years down, 1 to go?
Cindy and I have been in Santa Cruz for just over three years now. We first moved to this area together in the crazy summer of 2000, and the expectation was that her stint at UCSC would be somewhere around 4 years total. Although it's not totally clear at this point when she'll finish, it's still quite possible that she'll be wrapping things up sometime next summer. This would make the initial prediction pretty much on the mark.
We went for a walk early this afternoon, down past the yacht harbor and over toward the Boardwalk and the Wharf. Our main motivation was just to observe the teeming masses enjoying the whole Santa Cruz tourist experience, and of course enjoy another magnificent day here on the coast. And observe we did, although to our surprise and amusement, the power had gone out at the Boardwalk, and all the rides were inoperable. There were still many hundreds of people milling about the park, but there was nothing to do - no rollercoasters, no bumper cars, no skyride, no arcade or skeeball. Actually, the "stuffed animal" activities were still going, but I'm sure that was little consolation to anyone. I pondered this for a moment, thinking about the whole situation from the kid, the parent, the holiday partier, and the park manager perspectives. I would never have cared about a managerial perspective before (in my youth or as a grad student), but I guess even for a man-child like me, you know you're an adult when you can be in an amusement park with no power midday on a holiday weekend and think to yourself, "Wow, this must be costing them thousands of dollars!" Maybe this is truly a sign of lost innocence.
In any case, during our walk Cindy and I also figured we should make more of a point to do more uniquely Santa Cruz activities, especially since it's doubtful we'll live around here or anyplace like it after next summer. (We'll be going wherever Cindy can find work - the prevailing wisdom is that the partner with the tougher job to place should be the one whose career choices are placated first.) This means more beach days, a whale-watching trip one of these weekends, even taking in a kitschy concert at the beach next weekend featuring Jefferson Starship (why, you ask? Because we can!).
We went for a walk early this afternoon, down past the yacht harbor and over toward the Boardwalk and the Wharf. Our main motivation was just to observe the teeming masses enjoying the whole Santa Cruz tourist experience, and of course enjoy another magnificent day here on the coast. And observe we did, although to our surprise and amusement, the power had gone out at the Boardwalk, and all the rides were inoperable. There were still many hundreds of people milling about the park, but there was nothing to do - no rollercoasters, no bumper cars, no skyride, no arcade or skeeball. Actually, the "stuffed animal" activities were still going, but I'm sure that was little consolation to anyone. I pondered this for a moment, thinking about the whole situation from the kid, the parent, the holiday partier, and the park manager perspectives. I would never have cared about a managerial perspective before (in my youth or as a grad student), but I guess even for a man-child like me, you know you're an adult when you can be in an amusement park with no power midday on a holiday weekend and think to yourself, "Wow, this must be costing them thousands of dollars!" Maybe this is truly a sign of lost innocence.
In any case, during our walk Cindy and I also figured we should make more of a point to do more uniquely Santa Cruz activities, especially since it's doubtful we'll live around here or anyplace like it after next summer. (We'll be going wherever Cindy can find work - the prevailing wisdom is that the partner with the tougher job to place should be the one whose career choices are placated first.) This means more beach days, a whale-watching trip one of these weekends, even taking in a kitschy concert at the beach next weekend featuring Jefferson Starship (why, you ask? Because we can!).
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