Day 15 - 13/09/2022 - San José

The fact that I woke up at 11:30 was proof, if proof was needed, that I was still not 100% recovered. Part of me just wanted to stay in bed all day and hope that this would miraculously make me feel better, but for some reason I kept thinking of Anne Lister's advice to anyone who is feeling ill. In Gentleman Jack (one of my favourite shows of all time), Anne Lister, the famous nineteenth-century landowner and businesswoman, played wonderfully by Suranne Jones, prescribes the same treatment to any kind of ailment: "Fresh air and exercise."

Fresh air and exercise it is, then. Inês reminded me that I had wanted to check out the San José Rose Garden after seeing it when we passed it by car a few days ago, and it seemed like a good choice for another very chilled day around the local area. I took my copy of Viktor E. Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, and ended up finishing it while lying on the grass in between two long rows of roses and snacking on Trader Joe's pistachios. The book was everything I had hoped it would be, and so was the garden. The roses had such funny names as "Sweet Surrender" (it smelled as nice as it sounds!), "Pinkerbelle," "Life of the Party" and "White Licorice" (it smelled like it too!).

Had I been feeling better, I might have ventured out into San Francisco, but I was very happy to spend just a couple of hours at the garden and then go for a brief walk around the Rosicrucian Park nearby and the streets around it, where I took some photos of my favourite Victorian houses. The best thing about staying in a place for such a good amount of time is that, in the end, it doesn't matter if not all days are completely packed. As I do very often, especially when travelling, I couldn't help but think of Elizabeth Gilbert, particularly of one moment in Eat, Pray, Love. She's in Rome and not doing much, just sitting in her rented apartment, reading an Italian newspaper and eating some asparagus, but this is one of the moments in the book in which she describes herself as feeling unbelievably happy and content. Suddenly, she feels a pang of gilt as she imagines her ex-husband (whom she divorced shortly before going on her trip), talking to her and judgmentally asking her: "So this is what you gave up everything for? This is why you gutted our entire life together? For a few stalks of asparagus and an Italian newspaper?" To this, she answers: "First of all, I'm very sorry, but this isn't your business anymore. And, secondly, to answer your question...yes."

And as I was lying next to "Sweet Surrender," I realised that exactly one year ago, "right down to the day," as Winnie in Hocus Pocus would have said, I too was leaving a long-term relationship that I also hadn't wanted to be in anymore. And if any voice had chosen that moment to ask me "Is this why you gutted our entire life together? To be lying down on the grass by yourself in some garden in San José, with a book and Trader Joe's pistachios?" I would have said "Yes. And I'm not sorry."

These ones were aptly named "Perfume Factory"