Dopp Juice Archive

Q: What the heck are you gonna do in New Hampshire?A: That’s an excellent question.Mostly, I’m going to do the same things I always do — blog and build websites and maintain the same good discussions I have with friends all over the world on a regular basis. Boy, do I love the internet. And I really love this new laptop!Q: So why New Hampshire? Why not San Francisco? A: That’s another excellent question. Let me put it this way: If you had to choose between hanging out in New Hampshire where you won’t have a car, and hanging out in San Francisco where you have your own apartment and a city of awesome resources at your disposal… which you you pick?New Hampshire. I thought so.Q: Um… right… Well, what else are you gonna do there? A: Well, I’m going to stay primarily with my amazing grandparents who treat me like a daughter (you know, the ones whom if i don’t call three times a month they think I’ve died in an earthquake). They have a basement full of a bunch of stuff they want to get rid of, and they’ve requested my assistance in selling it on eBay. (Is anyone out there a connoisseur of first edition books and classic records, and want first dibs?)Q: What about the rest of your family and East Coast friends?A: Yes, they’re there, too. Q: So how long are you staying?A: Dunno. I bought a one-way plane ticket.Q: Huh?! Are you ever coming back to San Francisco???A: Of course. I just signed another year’s lease on my apartment, and I absolutely love it out here.Q: Okay, then. Let me rephrase. When are you leaving New Hampshire and returning to San Francisco?A: Oh, I get you now. I’m going to leave when something important in San Francisco requires my presence, or when I get sick of New Hampshire folk staring at my shaved head. I figure that will happen in 3 or 4 weeks. Maybe more time. Maybe less.Q: I think you’re strange and impulsive and I really wish you’d make more sense so I can know what you’re going to do.A: Sorry, what was your question again? I didn’t catch that.

Tomorrow morning, I leave for Woolf Camp, a gathering of bloggers–mostly of the female variety–at a home in Santa Cruz for a weekend retreat/workshop/geek party. The question of my weekend is: “How do I want to use this blog space? What do I want my image and message and connection to be with you?” It’s time to get philosophical, introspective, and inspired. I think between cups of tea in a room full of women, each with one hand on her knitting needles and the other on her laptop, watching a jack terrier fly across the front yard… the answers will come.

Last night I wandered the streets of downtown San Francisco for a few hours to check out the holiday scene. It seemed that every establishment fit one of three scenarios:

1. It was closed.
2. It was whole-heartedly embracing Thanksgiving with a full turkey dinner for clientele.
3. It was open, but pretending the holiday didn’t exist.

And it seemed all people on the street and in windows fit one of three types:

1. They were asleep.
2. They were whole-heartedly embracing the holiday with a glass of wine in hand and large group of family members nearby.
3. They were pretending the holiday didn’t exist.

When it started to rain, I thought of my New England family, and how they had just eaten turkey while watching the first snowfall of the year.