Plan an Escape
So Mike and I are thinking about moving back to Southern California in a couple of years. The prospect freaks me out somewhat because I grew up there, and I never really thought I'd go back. Growing up, I had this beef that the California culture and architecture and setting were all some kind of cheap cardboard imitation of something -- that the proper state of the world involved snow in the wintertime, decent public transit, housing stock more than forty years old, neighborhoods instead of strip malls, and a downtown that people actually live in. You know -- New York.
But now that I've lived in New York for eleven years, I'm beginning to change my mind. In my grand total of two trips west since I left in 1993, I've been able to wrap my brain around the concept that California culture is its own thing, not a knockoff of something else -- the stucco and the strip malls and the sprawl and the occasional sun-addled dippiness are on purpose. Perhaps even in a good way.
In any case, I'm kind of over New York. It's cold, and dirty, and too many people live here, so it's rude. The places I've seen palmed off as livable homes would boggle the mind of a suburbanite. The rents charged for those places would drive the suburbanite to autolobotomy.
So it's time for a change. Mike, at the age of [REDACTED FOR SECURITY PURPOSES] has never lived anywhere else, so he's got to get out of the city for at least a few years or he'll start to grow moss. It will be great to be close enough to my mom to see her more often than once a year. And if we actually swing more than one bathroom, I can pretty much die happy.
Plus, Disneyland. Remember who you're dealing with here!
Word count: 9,452 (+3,059)
But now that I've lived in New York for eleven years, I'm beginning to change my mind. In my grand total of two trips west since I left in 1993, I've been able to wrap my brain around the concept that California culture is its own thing, not a knockoff of something else -- the stucco and the strip malls and the sprawl and the occasional sun-addled dippiness are on purpose. Perhaps even in a good way.
In any case, I'm kind of over New York. It's cold, and dirty, and too many people live here, so it's rude. The places I've seen palmed off as livable homes would boggle the mind of a suburbanite. The rents charged for those places would drive the suburbanite to autolobotomy.
So it's time for a change. Mike, at the age of [REDACTED FOR SECURITY PURPOSES] has never lived anywhere else, so he's got to get out of the city for at least a few years or he'll start to grow moss. It will be great to be close enough to my mom to see her more often than once a year. And if we actually swing more than one bathroom, I can pretty much die happy.
Plus, Disneyland. Remember who you're dealing with here!
Word count: 9,452 (+3,059)
posted by kathy monahan at 12:15 PM
2 Comments:
Wow, look at that word count!
Of course, you know how *I* feel about you moving back to CA. Ecstatic. Not that our housing market is in any way affordable, but we do believe in 4-room apartments. You'd have to have a car, though, that's the downside. And SoCal has NO public transport. I'm with you, though, there's something nice about perky blond people who smile at you, wearing flip-flops year-round, and walking on a sunny beach on Christmas Eve. The SoCal architecture really does suck, though, for the most part. NorCal's got that, thank God.
Come to sunny Socal. You will thrive here! There is more creative energy here per sqaure mile which you can tap just by walking around. You'll visit the happiest place more frequently and wake-up refreshed each morning ready to write more. You'll enjoy the bloom of flowers all year long and may even take-up gardening. You'll develop a year-round tan. Life will be easier. Come! Stay! You'll be glad that you did.
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