Into the second month now... work is a routine, leaving lots of free time for bike rides, reading, painting, translating... I've bought some paints and decided to set some time tomorrow aside for that... today was a typical Monday - rushing around doing last-minute revisions, accounts, grocery shopping... now I've put the groceries away and have just enough time to blog and get on my way to work.
Unsettling, this idea: we're here in a city flooded with variety - in music, food, activities, natural beauty.  And yet, we don't pursue these things.  Why?  Maybe it really is the money question, but it seems to me to be something else.  Everything has not only a price but a set of rules, or a time slot, or specific conditions governing how to go about whatever it is you want to do.  They may not be written down, but they're there.  People explain to you all the time the way something has to be done, where exactly you should go to do some particular thing, what time exactly you can and can't do something else... I know it's normal, but it seems confining, so foreign to my naturally spontaneous way of being.  It's hard to just walk out of your house and happen upon some event.  Most times you won't look in the right place and simply go around without finding anything happening. There's so much to do, but you have to spend time scouting and sorting it all out before you actually do something, because if you don't, you'll miss it!  Even if you do make a decision, it could conceivably end up being a nonproductive one, as happened to us last night, driving out to a place that was advertising an open mike, and discovering that it had closed down between the time the event was advertised and the night it was supposed to happen!
Of course, many have their networks, so they get the scoop all the time... but for us, it's mostly hit and miss... that's how we missed Jake Shimabukuro who was actually here the other night!!!!  We're not gonna miss Gipsy Kings, however, not if I can help it!  Even if I did have to call the place this morning to ask about all the "fees" tacked onto the price of the tickets...
Which is of course, another aspect of this puzzling sequence.  You decide on doing something, think you have the money to do it, then find out that you need to add in all sorts of other costs that weren't included but are part of the deal... so what looked to you like doable becomes maybe-ish.
This is ridiculous.  I'm outta here.  I'll leave you to contemplate a picture of one of my favorite houses of all time... See there!  You can still go bike-riding down peaceful streets and find something beautiful like this spontaneously and it will still make you feel good...