Monday - Friday I engage in a 6 minute, 1 block walk from the No. 7 to the office taking in gaslamp quarter sites, sounds, and smells. Today it was Mr. Moobs* topless and 26-34% overweight, possibly inebriated, walking down the street at 8:15am in the morning and still circulating in the same area at 5:45pm. At least he had an even tan. Last week I stepped onto the Trolley and in 6 minutes I was back on the sidewalk again but in Little Italy inhaling smells of prosciutto, pizza, and peppers floating from doorways and patios eating establishments. There was a non-descript sandwich shop that had especially good smells coming from it. Sometimes over the noon hour I've taken strolls to the San Diego library which has a terrible smelling sidewalk as one approaches. The Mpls library had that issue too. Libraries have a strange attraction. In a 1 block radius of my new 9-to-5 there's a tattoo shop, a chinese and fried chicken place, an NY style pizza place, an old abandoned theatre, a luxury condo-tel under construction (see picture below), Mr. Moobs, the red trolley, an upscale sushi bar and a Rite-Aid - one small snapshot of downtown San Diego.
*man boobs
The blog went on pause for a while due to switching jobs, fixing up the condo, going back to the midwestern homeland and acquiring a super-cold/flu on the plane ride back. Yesterday, I attempted to bake out my ailments and chose a new beach to visit - the Silver Strand State Beach near Coronado. I love going over the Coronado bridge. It's even more fun when someone else is driving because then I can look out the window and take in the views of the Navy shipyards, boats in the harbor and rapidly changing San Diego skyline. When I got out to the beach I found the south end packed with people doing something called "Kite Surfing". It looked like a lot of fun and I want to try it so I consulted with one of the born-and-raised Californians I know here and she said knowing how to surf would help and then she added that having good balance is necessary for surfing. So maybe I'll start with a skateboard and work my way to the water. Kite Surfing looks like it requires a lot of upper-body strength to control the sail rigging and a lot of lower leg strength to carve up the waves. There must be some formula for sail-size to human body weight because I didn't see anyone soaring into the atmosphere from a gust of wind but I also was not watching the whole time. 
Opening Reception of War Mediated at the Mpls Institute of Arts
