Wanderings with Dan Catena
When I was in first grade, my school’s Peruvian Spanish teacher Señora Buckley would sometimes reward us with Goldfish crackers whenever we did something correctly. Did you count to six? Here are six Goldfish. Were you able to say “dog” in Spanish? Here’s one Goldfish... Being only six years old, Spanish wasn’t necessarily a subject... Continue Reading →
A few weeks ago I started getting my normal itch to write something in this blog. It took about three weeks to finally sit down and actually start putting something on a digital canvas. For the past year my posts have been following this trend. Perhaps it's because I've hit a point in my... Continue Reading →
This is a quick guide about where to drink coffee in Sausalito, California!
Today is Sunday. While sitting in Piccadilly coffee, a Murcian version of Starbucks, I am enjoying the feeling of air-conditioning while organizing a jungle of papers in the form prior private English lesson plans. Outside the sun is shining and the mid-afternoon temperature is sitting at about 95 degrees Ferenheit. Back where I grew up... Continue Reading →
Currently, as I gaze with half-opened eyes at my computer, I have been unemployed for two full days. This isn't because I was fired or the result of workforce downsizing, rather it simply was because an urge to take a break became greater than the motivation to keep earning money. Until this past Wednesday, I... Continue Reading →
Today is Friday and this current post is being written during a break from studying in the Sausalito Public Library. As described in a prior entry, I have been exiling myself here in order to prepare for a California Subject Examinations for Teachers (CSET) test. Flipping through chapters, there sits about one hundred and thirty... Continue Reading →
As I sit in front of my computer the month of August is drawing closer to its half-way point. Rays of sunshine are beaming through arches of standing glass windows. People can be heard enjoying their day, and unknown sounds of daytime frolicking are chiming a jingle of mental distraction. I find myself exiled within... Continue Reading →
I walk into a local coffee shop with a purpose. Well, maybe there never was a purpose. Maybe out of habit I’ve let the weight of gravity pull me down the hill from my house or maybe it’s an instinctive desire for the necessary elixir of caffeine. Either way I find myself placing a right... Continue Reading →
As Mother's Day draws to a close and as the days continue to slowly get longer, a special time of year is beginning to dawn in my hometown of Sausalito, California. Tourist Season. Starting in late May and going until sometime in October, with some variations depending on the year, the town where I grew up... Continue Reading →
From a tall glass window I can hear echoes of a dribbling basketball as it slams upon a nearby court surface. I close my eyes and can hear the legs of chairs as they massage against carpet, being guided to a temporary resting place beneath a canopy of table. Shuttering my eyes open and closed... Continue Reading →
Why hello there, I didn't see you come in! Make yourself at home and feel free to anything in the fridge... My name is Danny Catena and welcome to So There I Was. This site is a personal directory of sporadic randomness that evolved from my former blog which was started back in 2012, originally with Blogspot. Whether... Continue Reading →
After only a few minutes in the air, I felt like my life was in danger. The flight started normally – the door closed, the flight attendants and pilot greeted passengers on the loudspeakers, and we gained altitude. Moments later we hit turbulence. For a few seconds the plane rattled and shook. Ok, nothing to…
Do you feel anxious before boarding an airplane? I used to be horrified of flying until I started using these easy strategies to overcome my own fears.
There Dan Was 