A quick glance back

My yoga teacher said an interesting thing the other day, which I agree with, which is, you can take a look back at your past -- you can take periodic glances -- but you shouldn't sit there and stare at it. There is no benefit to this. The past is done, it's gone, and be it sweet or shitty, the past is behind you and can't be changed. Of course you can, and probably will, go on to change the way you view certain events over time, but you can't change the actual event itself.

Granted there are times and places where a good, long stare back IS warranted -- wakes and weddings come to mind. As do the the birth of babies, and school reunions, and the announcement that the Dead are going to play one final set of shows.  But as a normal practice, no, it's really not healthy. If you're always in the past, you're always suck in nostalgia or regret. Nostalgia or regret. You're not here in the present moment (which begs the question, how will you accurately remember today in the future, if you're stuck on the past now - mind bender!)

But lately, well, lately my kids keep bringing up, with nostalgia, the short time we lived on Del Monte Ave in OB. It was a transitory time, and somewhat like an extended vacation, which of course may be what they long for, but there was also the ocean. And I mean, right there. So close that I used to bitch about the salt spray on my car in the mornings. (Yes, I actually did that. Shameful.) And, of course, there was all of OB in its lurky, grimy, free-spirited wonderfulness right there, right our our door. (I mean we've not had a cop knock on our door to see if we could give an account of a crime since we moved!)

We're still there almost every day. It's not like we are far away, but it's not the same. We don't live right there. When my kindergartner took a big whiff of life from the backseat of the car the other day, when I was stopped at the corner of Bacon and Newport and said, "Ah, the smell of OB," I knew I had to memorialize it with something, albeit as lame as a blog post. I mean, not every 5 year old gets to have that sensory experience, and to sort-of understand it. I could not believe my ears, but knew exactly what she meant. (And, no, we won't be letting her dad know that it escaped her youthful lips.)

So, to take just a quick glance back to that time and space.

5 star accommodations for sure!

Toilet paper Samurai warrior, one our first nights in, 
thanks to Jacquie.

Close quarters. But she was a really quiet roommate after 8 pm!

Ach!!

Close-up Ach! Was this seriously only 1.5 years ago??

Almost as cool as her teenage self.

Daily vista

Urban jungle

When in Rome

Good times! Only in OB.
This would make a Wells girl proud, right mom?

Aw -- weekly llama rides, 2 blocks from the beach, 2 blocks from our house,
 Now that doesn't happen just anywhere.

Yes, total thumbs up for our brief stay.