that manana attitude & where is our coffee

we know and love california and californians... however, after being away for so long, the perennial quirks found here come as a surprise. for example, the manana attitude ("ah, we'll do it tomorrow") is ubiquitous and it is that way because of all the strange time-waster practices (see earlier post) unique to this region of the country.

we spend time here sorting and resorting trash into new and unusual categories: worm food, soup stock, paper/plastic/waxed cardboard recycling, stuff to give away someday, mystery spices that require research before they can be labelled... traveling to and from anywhere means stocking up with freshly filtered water, the right rennetless cheese packed into a recycled/reused baggie, and some leftover crackers that should be worm food (if you ask us) but instead are not to be wasted, even in that very non-wasteful way.

we are intrigued, frustrated, charmed, and chagrined at once by all this: we took part in this craziness for many years, and indeed still carry a few select west coast quirks that won't probably ever be purged.

but damn it, we are an east coast girl at heart and thank the goddess for that.