And the break is over...how does time manage to pass as quickly when you are doing nothing as it does when you are filling every moment of the day with activity?
The drive back down her to SoCal was nearly as random as the drive up. This time the music was provided by Maedhros, resulting in a rather ironic dive. I've never known (and can't really imagine) our driver to listen to anything other than "well ordered" music (all though I don't know if this is actually the case). And so perhaps you can imagine my amusement when the Sprit called out for Flogging Molly's Swagger as the first album of the trip (I'd almost forgotten how much I liked that CD). Flogging Molly was followed by Bela Fleck (a wonderful choice). However by this time most of us passengers had dozed off and our lovely driver took over the control of the music, replacing the Flecktones with a children's choir singing Christmas carols. (I was very tempted to think, as I was roused from slumber by Joy to the World, that it was a means of gentle revenge for subjecting her to Flogging Molly, but charity got the better of me...) However, the heavenly voice of Gillian Welch and the picking of Doc Watson more than made up for the hour and a half of (shrill) children's voices. Pink Floyd, The Who and Talking Heads rounded out the soundtrack of our drive back.

~ ~ ~
I am coming to realize why Toque is so in love with California. The rolling hills and mountain bases along US 101 are at times breathtaking, at others restful. At one along the highway, the road rolls around a bend through the hills and suddenly you are presented with the vast expanse of the sea.

(randomness of the evening: the Sprit just walked into the computer haunt dressed in a black, green, orange plaid skirt, a green/blue plaid flannel shirt, topped with her 'traditional' red, grey, and green plaid jacket, with a grey scarf, and an orange beannie. "It's SOOOOO cold!!! Oh, this is my protest outfit," she says by way of explanation. As she sat down, I saw bright teal socks peaking out)

Now, I grew up on an island. I've been surrounded by and and in sight of the sea all my life. Yet, as I was staring blindly out the window of the car- not seeing anything of the passing hills- the moment the sea came into sight, I felt something akin to...I don't know how to describe it. For that one instant, I knew what the elves felt when they saw the sea. It is a knowledge, and a longing, and a pain, and something more, itself lasting only an instant or two, but the remembrance of it lingers, coloring your view of everything else.