A Houdini Complex

Hullo Internet,

Yesterday, I took a trip to Santa Cruz and it was the longest trip ever. I had to wake up at 6 in the morning, physically try to get ready in a short amount of time, and stay in the car for three hours to reach the shores of Sea Cliff in order to enjoy some sun and shade. But once I did reach the shores, I was thoroughly surprised to meet my expectations to see a long strip of sand expand across my eyes, the roar of the sea crashing against the rocks, the millions of microscopic pieces of sand, even meeting a few carbs that got overturned in the rush of the waves that meet the shore. High tide began as I ran, or in my case hobbled, to the water to let my toes get exfoliated by the most natural substance, sand. I definitely forgot everything for a moment when we were in a cloudy fog in the morning when we arrived, freezing in our hoodies and jackets.

When we first arrived, we decided to make a little clan of sand. We had no shovels or buckets so we all used our feet to dig a hole. Then when we finished, we had four sea drift logs as benches and had a pretty fly hang out for like an hour. But then we were so hungry that we left it and ate lunch. We ate yummy, delicious six dollar sandwiches created by my wonderful mother and then found our clan taken away by another family. It was okay because I like to think at the end of the day, the clan was being useful after all, ebing used until the end and made some kids happy. I would rather have it use than no use at all. I did go for the moment. I went to Santa Cruz with my family and a lucky friend. we were there for about five, six hours tops, getting tans, not getting burned at all because we used the best sun screen ever for some hot tans.

But being a radically very white skinned individual, I hardly got a tan. Overall, I think progressed from pale to a normal, understandable skin tone that is almost peachy (?). Anyways, after the beach, we decided to go to downtown Santa Cruz where we went to these small used bookstores. I wanted to find an old copy of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury because I heard about its epic first line in a book.

"It was a pleasure to burn."


I don't know why it sounds so great to me. Maybe the fact that the intention to do something with the definition of "bad" is the first idea I think of for burning that makes me go " I want to know why it is a pleasure" that I want to read it. I need to find my own copy and find out why. It also makes me think of my own reasons to write a book about a girl who necessarily does not do good things too. The ideas of the anti-hero always make me want to read more often because I get sick of the goody-two shoes hero that always stands up for good. When you come cross the dark side, become part of it, and still choose to do good things is where I always want to root for the "hero" because it is their own free will to choose that makes it more realistic to discover what they are going to do.


Maybe in my case, my novel fails to do that. She doesn't get her choice. She is thrust into it like some worthy heros I like despite their circumstances. She tries for the best. She is smart, sometimes boring in some ways but the only hope for a dying race.


Anyways, back to Santa Cruz, I got to go to a nice little pizza place called Kianti's. It was nice, I was able to get my pesto pizza which is all I ask of Santa Cruz. I was going to have my favorite pizza at Pizza My Heart but some assholes called a group of high school kids occupied it and there was a huge line for. Disappointed, we went to another alternative. The pizza was pretty good but not as good as Heart. But we met my uncle and cousin, it was nice to see them after a few months. We also got some delicious truffles where we gorged ourselves. I ate this tiramisu truffle that was heaven when we finally left back for home. 


Taking the longest nap back, I definitely enjoyed Santa Cruz. I was so effing exhausted when I found my bed and hope to never leave it. It was a pleasure to go to the beach and get a nice, safe tan.


Natalie