I'd give my left ear for a good cup of coffee...

I remember buying our first home computer just after we bought our first house. It was 1998 and, at least from my perspective, the World Wide Web was more like a small subdivision. Certainly not the tool it is today. I think about this when I’m having a hard time remembering how I did certain things pre-Internet.

Like back in 1992. I was single and I was fairly adamant that my oneness not prevent me from traveling, or trying new restaurants, or catching the weekly independent film. Essentially, I dated myself. It was the spring before I was heading into my sixth and final year of college (it takes this long when you discover what you want to do after the first four years have gone by), and I was starting to feel a little antsy. I really wanted to take a vacation to Venice Beach; but none of my friends could go. So, I decided to just go anyway.

But, seriously, how did I do this? I must have used my landline to call the airline directly to buy my ticket and then, what? Drive to the airport and pay them with a check? How did I find the Jolly Roger Hotel, the absolute cheapest lodging in all of Marina del Rey? (OK, I just googled them and they are still there! And still cheap. And still boasting that crappy outdoor Jacuzzi that faced the intersection of a busy four-lane boulevard…) I think I may have actually gone to the library, pulled an LA phone book off the shelves, and pored over the yellow pages. Weird. Well, weird now, anyway.

Everything else had to be discovered once I got there, on foot, by manual search—the coffee house/gallery called Van Gogh’s Ear where I had the worst cappuccino I’ve ever tasted, the Vintage resale shop where a suede fringed vest that I couldn’t afford broke my heart, the outdoor bazaar where I found this unusual necklace that I still wear today…