Back in the day, pre-myspace

Long before my days of myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn and all the other sites that occupy A LOT of my time now, I use to keep a blog on LiveJournal.com. As a shopkeeper, I would use the quiet mornings or take advantage of afternoon lulls typing away on my PowerBook G4 reminiscing, note taking and bantering about the most random things. On the daily, I would swap comments with my new virtual friends, explore other people's interests and enjoy my innocent adaptation to social networking.

Recently, my good friend LeeAnn sent me a blog link from my LiveJournal and flashes of blog posts crossed my mind. The account had been on my mind for months, but for the life of me, I could not remember my user name or the email account I assigned to it. LeeAnn had resurrected a time in my life that was so carefully noted and fortunately, preserved in the treasure chest of the World Wide Web.    

As November looms and temperatures hold steady at 90 degrees+ here in Los Angeles, I thought I'd share an old post from June 2005...

Summer in full swing  

01:52pm 22/06/2005

I can't believe it's Summer.

In the almost 30 years that I've lived in the San Fernando Valley/Los Angeles, I have taken note that all of the seasons are marked with an air of familiarity. Now I know many will argue that Southern California does not have a "change" in seasons, but if you've lived here as long as I have you will agree that there is indeed significant qualities that mark the change of seasons. Fall, for example, is always kicked off with the harsh, hot winds of the Santa Ana's. Night would come sooner, clearly indicating that the long summer days were gone, and the long nights of homework were back. I remember being on the playground of my elementary school, awaiting for Halloween, hating the static in my hair, the dryness of my skin, being whipped by dry dead leaves pushed around by hot winds, and the scent of the local brush fires lingering in the air. Winter would tease us during the months of November and December with sporadic rain showers that would taper off right before Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. The days would still be warm, but the evenings surprisingly chilly. Being a Sagittarius on the cusp of a Capricorn, I would celebrate my birthday with a smile, knowing two weeks of holiday vacation were days away. Spring would return almost over night. Day after day, the sky would remain a constant blue. The days would grow long again. Girls would exit their cocoons to flirt with boys, and boys with girls. We would enter the Summer, already tanned and glowing from the Spring days, only to become lazy from the hot Summer heat. Mirages of water would appear on the hot cement, then disappear as you got closer. The streets would empty as families would leave for their summer vacations, and stay-at-home kids would grow bored of the excess time on their hands. By August, we would reunite, share stories of our vacations and take full advantage of the long days.