Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Doña Quixote

The childhood magic of the rain is worn threadbare, and as I watch the drops pool into a river at the bottom of the hill, I ache to turn it back to color, like editing a photo, plugging the right colors into the right pixels. Like Dorothy opening the door of her house to find Oz. Only not as easy.

The neon vibrancy that shone from every puddle when I was eight years old.... The clouds were cotton candy, which, over the years, turned to ominous, trapping fiberglass. The buildings of downtown San Diego close in like walls around me, constricting barriers, and echoing through them is the sound of ticking clocks.

These places, these days in summer or winter that I remember as so radiant, have become so washed out that I’ve actually taken a few tests to see if I’m colorblind. The dreams I had — that when I turned 16, sweet 16, suc- culent 16, Splenda 16, I would throw a masquerade ball with all of my wonderful friends, one as grand and ravishing as the ones in the movies. I’m turning 16 in two days, and unless I’m in for the biggest surprise of my life, I don’t think there are plans for any such lavish birthday bash.

Sponsored
Sponsored

No, I see everything the way it’s supposed to be. I can see the green 5 hiding in the pool of red dots, but I remember the city differently. Cinematic, like a technicolor movie from the ’60s or photos of a celestial nightclub in a fashion magazine full of bright, glossy pages and sheeny photographs, showing me what I’m supposed to be — red lips and smoldering eyes and nice cars and a big paycheck and Glamour and Gucci and Guess and Gabbana and all those glittering, glimmering, glassy G s.

The very things that probably polluted my teenage mind and made me expect too much. Like a 16-year-old female version of Don Quixote, maybe I just read too much, and now, in my fried brain, I’m riding off in a cherry- red Ferrari convertible with my sidekick ( ¡Soy Sancho! ¡Sí, soy Sancho! ). A six-foot-one supermodel with ice-blue eyes blinded by asymmetrical black hair and the face of an angel and the veneered smile of a Vogue model, through the streets of down- town, buzzing with the sound of dirty neon and slightly cleaner tattoo needles and tarnished by Mardi Gras beads snapping under the pressure of brand-new tires and my $500 dollar boot pressing down on the gas pedal.

Much like Quixote’s tired nag, my Ferrari is really an Oldsmobile and as old as I am, and I’m really my parents’ sidekick. The truth is, soy Sancho. Sí, soy ...Sancho. I’m Sancho. I’m the sidekick. And I’m not even steering the donkey. And the dull, sometimes dirty streets of downtown aren’t comparable to the clean country roads of Spain. Instead of driving over a sea of lackluster leftovers from a dead Fat Tuesday, I’ll be wading through them, searching to see if someone dropped the contents of their wallet while they returned their Southern Comfort to the deflating party atmosphere. This will be my masquerade. Happy 16th.

And yet, some- times the most beautiful photographs, the photographs that people cherish the most, are in black-and-white or dirty-looking sepia or crumbling antiques. The photographs that are the most striking.

My hometown is like one of these photos. It might not show me Glamour or Gucci or Gabbana 24/7. The neon may have faded from the rain, and the only shine left is the cheap, lead-laced metal- lic paint on Mardi Gras beads made in China, like tiny, poisonous disco balls. But, despite my complaints, downtown San Diego is like a striking sepia photo — a little dirty, a little hard on the eyes at times, but a masquerade all on its own. The shimmer of lead paint is enough for this Doña Quixote.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

2024 continues to impress with yellowfin much closer to San Diego than they should be

New rockfish regulations coming this week as opener approaches
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Half Hour Late lives up to their name at the Template

Deadhead-inflected band right at home in Ocean Beach

The childhood magic of the rain is worn threadbare, and as I watch the drops pool into a river at the bottom of the hill, I ache to turn it back to color, like editing a photo, plugging the right colors into the right pixels. Like Dorothy opening the door of her house to find Oz. Only not as easy.

The neon vibrancy that shone from every puddle when I was eight years old.... The clouds were cotton candy, which, over the years, turned to ominous, trapping fiberglass. The buildings of downtown San Diego close in like walls around me, constricting barriers, and echoing through them is the sound of ticking clocks.

These places, these days in summer or winter that I remember as so radiant, have become so washed out that I’ve actually taken a few tests to see if I’m colorblind. The dreams I had — that when I turned 16, sweet 16, suc- culent 16, Splenda 16, I would throw a masquerade ball with all of my wonderful friends, one as grand and ravishing as the ones in the movies. I’m turning 16 in two days, and unless I’m in for the biggest surprise of my life, I don’t think there are plans for any such lavish birthday bash.

Sponsored
Sponsored

No, I see everything the way it’s supposed to be. I can see the green 5 hiding in the pool of red dots, but I remember the city differently. Cinematic, like a technicolor movie from the ’60s or photos of a celestial nightclub in a fashion magazine full of bright, glossy pages and sheeny photographs, showing me what I’m supposed to be — red lips and smoldering eyes and nice cars and a big paycheck and Glamour and Gucci and Guess and Gabbana and all those glittering, glimmering, glassy G s.

The very things that probably polluted my teenage mind and made me expect too much. Like a 16-year-old female version of Don Quixote, maybe I just read too much, and now, in my fried brain, I’m riding off in a cherry- red Ferrari convertible with my sidekick ( ¡Soy Sancho! ¡Sí, soy Sancho! ). A six-foot-one supermodel with ice-blue eyes blinded by asymmetrical black hair and the face of an angel and the veneered smile of a Vogue model, through the streets of down- town, buzzing with the sound of dirty neon and slightly cleaner tattoo needles and tarnished by Mardi Gras beads snapping under the pressure of brand-new tires and my $500 dollar boot pressing down on the gas pedal.

Much like Quixote’s tired nag, my Ferrari is really an Oldsmobile and as old as I am, and I’m really my parents’ sidekick. The truth is, soy Sancho. Sí, soy ...Sancho. I’m Sancho. I’m the sidekick. And I’m not even steering the donkey. And the dull, sometimes dirty streets of downtown aren’t comparable to the clean country roads of Spain. Instead of driving over a sea of lackluster leftovers from a dead Fat Tuesday, I’ll be wading through them, searching to see if someone dropped the contents of their wallet while they returned their Southern Comfort to the deflating party atmosphere. This will be my masquerade. Happy 16th.

And yet, some- times the most beautiful photographs, the photographs that people cherish the most, are in black-and-white or dirty-looking sepia or crumbling antiques. The photographs that are the most striking.

My hometown is like one of these photos. It might not show me Glamour or Gucci or Gabbana 24/7. The neon may have faded from the rain, and the only shine left is the cheap, lead-laced metal- lic paint on Mardi Gras beads made in China, like tiny, poisonous disco balls. But, despite my complaints, downtown San Diego is like a striking sepia photo — a little dirty, a little hard on the eyes at times, but a masquerade all on its own. The shimmer of lead paint is enough for this Doña Quixote.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

2024 continues to impress with yellowfin much closer to San Diego than they should be

New rockfish regulations coming this week as opener approaches
Next Article

San Diego's Uptown Planners challenged by renters from Vibrant Uptown

Two La Jolla planning groups fight for predominance
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.