the way to San Jose

I ran an errand in downtown San Jose today. I very much love the public transit here. Trains and light rail being my favorite. I love taking Caltrain to downtown San Jose. When I leave the station, I always pretend that the characters from East of Eden are sending off all that doomed lettuce. Abra, the sweetheart in the Steinbeck novel, is giving her man a hug. I imagine the rail cars packed with ice and lettuce, already beginning to melt and rot. I imagine the hopes of early agribusiness trying to figure out how to haul California's produce to the rest of the country. I swear I feel human striving as I listen to the train whistles. I wonder if humans were wise to try to ship West Coast lettuce to the Midwest.

My errand complete, I decided to walk to the San Jose Museum of Art. I had a vague idea which direction I should take and then I zigged and zagged my way there. I am curious about San Jose, the tenth largest U.S. city, much larger than San Francisco. Around these parts, when folks speak of 'going to the city', they invariably reference San Francisco.

The Dionne Warwick song 'Do you know the way to San Jose?' always echoes within me when I go to San Jose. I want San Jose to be a happy city.

There is a lot of public art in downtown San Jose. And there are many thoughtful pocket parks, tucked here and there. Many more palm trees in San Jose than in Mountain View. I feel more like I am in California when I am down there than I do at home. I stumble along San Jose streets and think 'gee, I guess I really do live in California now!' Every time I think this, I am just as happy as the first time.

Outside the museum, workers were installing a stage. When I left the museum, a rock band was playing. Rock music at four in the afternoon?! Of course, I swung by and danced a bit. I longed for a companion to hang out with me, to wait for the evening show, to dance with me.

As always, there are interesting, well-curated shows at the museum.

What experiences might I seek out so that I might feel like I have really experienced San Jose? I always feel like a dullard when I am there. There must be all kinds of things to do besides that art museum. But I don't know what that might be.

There's a jazz festival coming up.

Going to San Jose has filled me with a yen for California adventure. I long to go to a beach. I wonder which beaches are accessible to me on public transport? Ocean beaches, not the bay. The bay is just east of my home; I can get there by talking two miles. I want to stand at the ocean and feel queasy (being beside ocean has always made me queasy; the vastness dizzies). I want to walk on a beach with waves big enough to mist me if I walk close enough. I want to feel vaguely afraid of all that water.

And I want my Katie to come back to me. Whenever I remember that I live in California now, I next remember that Katie does not know where I live.