Visit Over, Back to Life

My friend left today. She had thought she was to stay one more day, and we planned activities--the whale watch we missed on Friday when we got lost on the freeway, dinner with the synagogue choir, listening in to our rehearsal. But she had to leave this morning, and besides that, was quite ill with probable food poisoning from the fast food she had insisted on trying (Southern California fast food being quite different from the Philly kind!). Good thing I didn't go along.
I got some stuff done today, applying for a teaching job that was advertised, mailing the stuff I had hanging around for nearly all last week. So it was a satisfying day, pleasantly quiet after the hubbub and intensity of Linda's visit. She is having a difficult time, and coming here didn't ease that; it followed her, the cellphone setting up a racket in the air-conditioned car. I couldn't talk her into opening the window to dilute it and to ease the freezing breezes rushing out of the vents. She insisted that it was hot, though I know for a fact that after the humidity of Philadelphia, this was not hot at all. She must have carried the heat internally within her.
We never made it to the beach, though the stunning blue of Laguna's ocean views might really have given her a moment's rest, surprising the pain out of her. Instead, she shopped, buying at least three pairs of shoes, only one of which turned out to be wearable. The only vacation-like thing we did was go to the San Diego Zoo... the rest was shopping. I didn't object. This was her vacation. I live here, and can do those vacation things at any time I want to. I can't help thinking though that it was too bad that she didn't get what she expected, a picture of idyllic beach life, which was so close, but so far away. Oh well.