2 - Pre-Cali: Chasing the Dream
Greenwich, Connecticut,
July 1989
That summer in '89, we were serving many a wine spritzer and scotch at Belle Haven Club. After clocking out, a few co-workers and I would down a few shots then race my dad's speedboat across the Sound. At full throttle, a couple crazy kids would jump over the boat side. They called it Doofus or Moron Overboard. Something like that.
I was also pumping gas during this gap semester and obsessed with writing late into the night while nothing else mattered. My great aunt screeched at me over the phone for disrupting my college trajectory. "You want to be a writer? You can't even write a letter!" Mm. I had a couple choice letters for her. One of them was U.
The Shell station owner also sold hibiscus and ficus trees in the parking lot. I purchased one for my dad and stepmother worth practically a whole paycheck. I placed it on the deck and gave them watering instructions. They were like, "Great, another mouth to feed."
"I just wanted to say thanks for letting me live at home as I figure out this writing thing." But I was running out of time. A conversation surfaced at dinner. "Kids normally leave the nest when they graduate college," she said. Believe me, I didn’t need the nudge, just a few more classes.
And then a familiar goofy face pulled up in a white Jetta at the station one day. Doug MacElwee was the guy in high school who'd dress up in drag and pretend he was Miss America. Anything for the laugh really.
He was also a restless spirit. "Hey, I'm goin' to California in a couple weeks. You wanna go?"
Cue the Led Zeppelin. Rev the electric guitars. I inhaled deeply a few times, peered far west, letting the gas fumes fully circulate.
"Hell, yeah."
I raced home after work and called every friend in my address book with a Cali zip code - all two of them - best friends from high school: Zack was film-immersed in L.A. and Heath was surfing in Santa Cruz.
The seeds of California Dreaming were planted in my head and immediately began to burrow.