I got back from New York last week and all though it wasn't a real vacation, the trip was rewarding in the sense that I came home with a new outlook and and some new realizations. One thing that rang true for me is that family and friendships really make my world go round. Without the help of my parents and their frequent flyer miles I wouldn't have been able to make it out there at such short notice to help my friend. A big thank you to them. Also, the friendships that I have cultivated over the years really mean more to me than I can express here. Through good times and unfortunately the bad ones as well, I believe we have really struck gold in the friend department.
On one of the few days out I had there I went on a walk to take pictures of a house that my great, great, grandfather lived in for my mother (top pic). I'm glad it was still there. I met up with another friend and went to Fort Greene, made our way to Soho for a bit and ended our day at a super amazing Japanese restaurant in the East Village. I really adore that city but I realized more on that trip than ever before that I am a West Coast girl at heart. A pretty great realization for me since I have felt misplaced living in Southern California most my life, am as pale as can be, married to a surfer and surfboard craftsman, and tend to complain a bit about weather over 80 degrees. I'm not sure if it is age or what it really is but I'm beginning to find comfort in the overall easy life this weather affords us and the amount of beauty, all in a relatively close proximity to home. I think it's pretty safe to say now, I love California! Now if I could only get all my friends and family to move back here I'd be as happy as can be.
yay! i'm so glad you came to that realization! i do know how hard it is to be far from your family and i have just a few in norcal that i'm missing:) keep campaigning... maybe you can win them over... that's what i'm doing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Julia! When I read your blog I'm always inspired by the love and enthusiasm you have for our city for sure. It really is a pretty great place :)
ReplyDeleteI arrived in S.D. in Feb. 1964. Yes, I'm an O.B. (Old Broad.) I felt like Dorothy, as in The Wizard of Oz. I had flown from the East Coast in the depths of winter, to emerge from the plane in S.D. warmed by the sun and zephr breezes. No yellowbrick road, but I went from gray of winter to the dazzling colors of S.D. I have been an unabashed "California Girl" ever since. The smell of eucalyptus, the sight of bird-of-paradise flowers, the hues of bouganvilla, and always the ocean, make me homesick for socal. I've joked to Texans that I have California branded on my heart. So-o-o painful, but true! There is a poem by Wordsworth in which the first line goes: "My heart leaps up." Even with the pressure (and pollution) of socal, it still retains so much beauty...a place where one's heart can leap up!
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