Saturday, December 29, 2007

California Dreamin'


While enjoying a birthday pedicure yesterday....ah-h-h bliss!!....I was engaged in a lively conversation with my friends. Karen is a nursing colleague; her daughter, Holly, is a PhD candidate at Yale (something about sea birds) and also a birthday girl this day. We talked about wine, Paris, Holly's research adventures in New Zealand, good restaurants, on and on. But the conversation wound around to California. Holly did her undergrad at Santa Cruz and Karen did a travel nurse assignment there as well. Karen remarked that she was so excited to talk with a student in one of her trauma nursing classes because he was from Santa Cruz and they could talk about California! Soon we were chattering about all the things we loved about my home state.


What a switch from what I usually say to people about California! Iget so tired of defending it..."I really resent that remark about California being the 'land of fruits and nuts;' I'm from there and I am neither!!" And..."No, all those people moving here from California are NOT ruining your state...I moved here from California and I'm an asset!" It's a beautiful state, full of diversity. Flawed, to be sure, and over-crowded, over-priced, and over-the-top in a lot of ways. But after living in the Rocky Mountains and now in Iowa, I appreciate its mostly gentle weather, mostly perpetual sunshine, and general good mood. Sure...it gets foggy, there are droughts, the Santa Ana winds are horrendous, but so are tornadoes, ice storms, muggy days and blizzards! And those Midwest weather events are so much harder to deal with.


We all agreed that one of the things we loved most about California was its beaches. From its warm, smooth sandy beaches in San Diego to its rough, rocky, chilly beaches in the north, the sea adds an element of mystery to California's allure. I close my eyes, I breathe deeply, I listen....I can feel, hear and smell the ocean...


More on that tomorrow!

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