I’m not sure how many of you have ever tried writing on vacation, while sitting at a table with friends, but this happened to me on Monday afternoon, sipping a Mai Tai by the beach in Catalina with the 4 handsome devils in the picture to your left.

I blame Bret Easton Ellis. After reading Glamorama, I fell in love with writing again like never before, and I found myself wanting to write on all occasions; in bathrooms, in traffic, sipping a Mai Tai in Catalina.

There was a point on our trip when we were all seated around a nice, sturdy table, waiting for chips, sipping, swirling, repeating, the ocean staring at us, the blue sky watching us from above the way a third person would watch two people play Jenga, and everyone at the table suddenly pulls out their phones. It was like a commercial for AT&T.

My first thought was that I had no interest in whatever was going on with my phone, or on Facebook, or Twitter. I hadn’t a care in the world about anything but finishing the last few hours of my vacation, and silently thanking God for allowing bartenders with heavy hands to exist. I had a good feeling all the boys at my table were either “likeing”, texting, commenting, or browsing a new app that makes conversation for you so you can browse other apps.

So I watched. While I watched, I decided to pull out my phone, open up the notepad app, and write. I wrote descriptions of little things. I took notes. It’s hard to call a scene to mind when you’re behind a computer in a two-bedroom apartment in Culver City, after all. You can’t easily conjure up just what happens at a bar in Catalina when you’re not at a bar in Catalina; how that bartender reacts to a lady with a pretty mouth, what color his hair is in this light, how many tables with hordes of tanned young people are toasting to life, how many people are closing and opening tabs, how many people are around in general. This is one of the things that I’ve decided to start doing if I’m ever at a table on vacation and everyone suddenly plugs in–take notes. Maybe everyone will think I’m on my phone, similarly “likeing” or “checking in” or whatever it is people do the moment they pull out their phone. But really I’ll be using the situation to my advantage.

It’s kind of like when I’m standing in line for the girls bathroom at a crowded bar, trying to see how many words I can make out of the word “Restroom.” Scratch that, it’s nothing at all like that. I’m just saying, you do what you can to use the situation to your advantage.