walking home...

It takes less than a minute to lace up my Vans, and it took even less than that for me to decide to take a walk - but not just any walk.

As part of enjoying my time back home in San Diego, I made an impromptu decision to take a stroll down memory lane, literally. You see, a large part of my childhood, teenage years, and eventual adulthood has had The Living Room, an intimate coffee shop, as part of my maturation.

From days as a youth, my family would take evening walks nearly every night. Usually this gave the chance for all of us to get some exercise, walk the dog, and drop off some mail my father had to get sent that evening. On the return of this trip, The Living Room awaited us on the corner.

The history of this shop takes roots in it being an old house that someone looked at, knocked down some walls, threw some vintage furniture in, hired eclectic employees, and has been welcoming in various crowds for years. As their logo shows, young to old, rebellious to right wing, all find themselves sampling the delights of eats and drinks there.

This evening found me doing the same. A walk from my house took my thoughts to days of sitting there as a family and sipping strawberry Italian sodas, to morning stops on the way to high school snagging my white hot chocolate, and to now an adult finding solitude in reading a local music/culture newspaper with his chai latte.

What does it come down to? Simply, The Living Room just feels right... and I hope I never tire of walking home.