I've been in Seattle for a total of five days now and I haven't quite gotten my head around the concept that this new city that I barely know will be my home for the next year and maybe the longer future. I imagine that perhaps I am just the West Coast version of myself, and there is still and East Coast Monica back in Pennsylvania, doing all of the things East Coast Monica likes to do. East Coast Monica is taking advantage of the East Coast heat wave and getting a suntan in the backyard, while West Coast Monica flits from coffee house to coffee house, turning paler and paler as she searches for sunshine in a cup of java.
East Coast Monica is still looking for film jobs in Philly, while West Coast Monica has finally discovered that she has a left brain and is in geek heaven browsing the massive Computer Science section in Seattle's public library.
East Coast Monica plays coy, hanging with the friends whom she's known for a hundred years and ignoring strangers who beg for her number (in her imagination). West Coast Monica wanders the streets hoping that she will find another human being to be her friend. Or a stray cat. Or a bug. Even a plant would be nice. I think West Coast Monica is planning on going to the nursery to buy an aloe plant this afternoon.
Someday soon, the two Monicas will have to meet and merge and accept that they are now both West Coast Monica.