THE ESSENCE OF PLEASURE IS SPONTANEITY

Kristin and I don't make plans. We live freely, and act out of spontaneity, like Kerouac, but maybe more moral. Which is why, at 9:40 pm, I dropped the money from the night's sales in the safe at the restaurant, drove home, and just after 10 pm, loaded up the van with surfboards, food and water, cameras, towels, and a tent we found in the attic.

We arrived late at Alane's in LA. Had her leave a parking pass and the key with the security guard at the desk, and fell asleep on the pull-out bed from her couch, covered in plaid sheets and silk comforters. We woke up late, ate Vietnamese at Blossom down the street, and looked up the surf report from the dodgy internet Alane picks up from the restaurant downstairs from her building. The waves were reportedly huge in Huntington last week. Someone died. But that's over. Thank goodness.

We surfed San Onofre early afternoon, and then went into town at night, trying on dress after dress in the parking lot, putting on jewelry Kristin found in the glove compartment, trying to fix our salty hair in the reflection in the windows. We went to the theaters with bread and cheese and orange juice we snuck in our oversized purses from Whole Foods. Afterwards, we got gelato, and searched for a place to go dancing. But instead only found ourselves in a run-down gay karaoke bar, clutching the bottom of our dresses, as our skin stuck to the cracked leather seats. Flamboyant gay men sang songs with gyrating hips, and butch women with too many piercings eyed as us as they danced. We ran out, laughing hysterically with discomfort.

After midnight, we pulled into an already full campground in San Clemente, with only an expired parking day pass, and pitched a tent on the edge of someone else's campsite, where I dreamt that they woke up the next morning and made us breakfast. That didn't happen, but they waved a friendly 'hello' to us and and we left fairly early with only a warning on our car. And I got back just in time to work the dinner shift I was scheduled that night.

As Germaine Greer says, "The essence of pleasure is spontaneity."

Life is pretty wonderful. I had a great time.