California Dreamin'

I am not a true California girl like so many of you are. I don't have the same fanatical feelings of the truth of the place like others do. I can, in fact, quite easily admit that there are other worthy places to live in this country. But still, I did live there for just over six years. That's the same length of time that I lived in Logan, and I claim to be FROM there.

I know that California is generally one of those places that people LOVE or people loathe. There are certainly good and bad things about it, and I consider myself to be more objective than you natives on this point because I can't truly claim it as my home. That said, the thing is, California is a place that is dear to me now, in a way no other place will ever be.

In California I:

1) Got to live by myself in a cute little apartment where I painted my first stripes.
2) Made truly amazing friends that I am counting on having for the rest of my life.
3) Met and married Tyler.
4) Had not one, but two dear little babies.
5) Fell in love with and bought our first little house that seriously, I miss as much as a real person sometimes. That house was a friend to me.

It's hard to describe the way events of life get entwined with the places they occurred. So many emotions and experiences come back to me when I think of one little sun drenched spot in the vast Inland Empire. I will always have a fondness for it. I will be one of those annoying parents who drive my children around the places of my past that will then be ghettos and run-down flop houses and tell them how idyllic all of these spots used to be and they will think I am crazy.

I may not have California in my blood, but I will always have California in my heart.