California

At risk of incurring the wrath of the loyal Californians in the family, I'm going to admit that I don't know quite how I feel about this state. Or this part of the state, I guess, because it's the only part in which I've had extensive experiences. I think about this every time I go home. On the one hand, it's awfully nice to escape to a near guarantee of sunshine and, if not warm, then warmer weather than whatever chilly state I happen to be residing in at the time. When I came out here back in January I just soaked up the sun, knowing that I was returning to another three months of snow and ice and subfreezing temperatures and gray skies back in Ann Arbor. And when we take Logan out on a walk through the neighborhood at dusk, as the weather cools down to a very comfortable warm and the sky turns pink west of the mountains and the trees are green and the birds of paradise and bougainvillea are blooming, I feel quite happy, at ease and at home.

It's sort of fascinating to me that I grew up in this place and it felt entirely normal. Classrooms at school opened up to outdoor walkways instead of hallways, and no one ever ate in the cafeteria at high school because there was plenty of sitting room outside. I never wore anything heavier than a jacket to school, never had to scrape ice off a windshield, prayed for rain on Christmas day, wore short sleeves to Disneyland in October. When you live here it all seems perfectly normal, and when you move away it suddenly feels as though Californians are living in an odd sort of pseudo-reality. The real world isn't like this. (Of course, the truth is that a good portion of the real world is also not like Michigan or Utah or Virginia - living there skews my perception every bit as much as living in California did.)

The problem with this kind of weather is that you really don't appreciate what you have. You think you do, but you really don't. My dad has made fun of me for this since I experienced my very first spring (at least, my first that I was able to be fully aware of) and declared that I would forevermore live in a place with seasons. "And yet you complain all winter," he tells me. Well, yes, but I also take great joy in spring and summer. Growing up I may not have experienced the misery of a long, cold, gray winter, but I also didn't experience any degree of ecstasy over wearing short sleeves outdoors for the first time in months, or watching the world turn green, or sitting on the lawn. Sure I hate the winter. But I also love the summer. Before I was more or less indifferent to it all.

The other thing that makes be a bit ambivalent toward California is the traffic. I find driving in Southern Californi to be mildly depressing. It's city after city after city, cars upon cars upon cars, telephone wires and smog and traffic signals. I have a hard time with so much civilization stretched so far in every direction.

But let me also say that La Crescenta is a great little community. It's pretty and quiet and peaceful and close to grocery stores and movie theaters, as well as mountains and trails. It's family-friendly. It's diverse. It's safe. Overall, it was a wonderful place to grow up. Kelsey often accuses me of hating California, and that is very much not the case. There's an awful lot I like about it, and I'll bet that if life brought me back here I would probably find even more to like. So far I have learned to like everywhere I have lived. But I've also enjoyed moving around a bit, broadening my experiences before I ultimately settle down (after all, my parents did the same and ultimately they left behind their roots as well, in favor of California). Do I like winter? Turns out I don't. But do I like seasons? Turns out I do. Very much. Do I prefer small towns, mid-size cities, big cities, suburbs of big cities? Do I like the west, the midwest, the mountain west, the east coast? Do I prefer mountains or water, greenery or the blessedly dry heat of the desert? It's kind of fun to figure these things out as I go along.

It's also kind of fun to see what other people decide. Will Kelsey fall in love with the midwest this summer? Will Eric stay in Utah despite his long-term plans to leave? Will Sean, after having a taste of the other side of the country, return to his roots or keep exploring? Will Mom and Dad retire to Aspen? Where will we all be twenty years from now?

Hmmm...