Sol's Random Stories

It happens finally in the doorway of a store in the shopping center on the way home  from school both of you  so frightened, but smiling as if sharing a secret.  It's a jeweler shop  red closed sign nearly bright in the dusk shade Friday sun descending fast like your heartbeat quickened to the  moment like no other after so many  times imagined, re-imagined  and then it happens all at once like two new magnets not awkward not strange   but kind of perfect after fourteen years of furious waiting so sweet and soft with eyes closed better even than all the daydreams and so important- the very first kiss.

Favorite places are like anchors in our lives, sources of most comfort, safety, and restful rejuvenation. Home, nearby restaurant or pub, parks and other public areas, this is where we go to reconnect again. Douglas Park, on Wilshire in Santa Monica, is an old local favorite. But, I prefer its original name, Pueblo Park, before it was renamed to honor the great aviator Donald Douglas, manager of the on site plane factory, airfield, and movie studio lot in operation.  When more space was needed, everything moved to Clover Field, now the Santa Monica Airport, and the city established a unique park area, with ponds, waterways featuring beautiful succulents and bamboo fauna, along with many birds species, ducks, turtles, fish.  My dog's best park, there is always a serene mood here, even within this urban space. Lawn bowlers, fruit vendors, babies in strollers, dog walkers, and the pond critters. Typically just a tranquil day at this favorite place, everything slowed down just to ...