Sweet Home, California - 3/21/01

• March 21, 2011
• 1 note
• #ten years gone
• #california

[Ten years ago, I moved from Washington, DC to San Diego, CA. I am re-publishing the things I wrote during that move exactly ten years after they happened. Read the intro here.]

Like many before us, we have braved the elements, the grueling hardships, and the spotty cell phone coverage to share in the Manifest Destiny of this nation. We have made it to Carlsbad, California - our new home.

Making it, however, required two cross-country drives, one cross-country flight, a new tire purchase in the Mojave Desert, and countless time at the craps tables in Vegas.  We have braved ass-crack displaying movers, the DMV, confusion about the availability of Hellmann’s mayonnaise (it’s called Best Foods out here), Texas state troopers, and Utah. And we are stronger for it.

I’ve always been fascinated by Southern California. Now I’m actually here. Sure, I’m an hour and a half from LA, and not exactly having lunch at Spago’s with Neve Campbell* every day, but this feels like southern California. I take freeways to get just about anywhere. I wear shorts all the time. I watch the sun set over the Pacific from my deck. I’m wondering what impact a writers’ or actors’ strike would have.

*Hard to believe that’s the most famous actress I could come up with 10 years ago.

To paraphrase from Pulp Fiction, they’ve got the same stuff here that they do on the East Coast, but it’s just a little different.

Every day in the paper* there’s an article about some LAPD officer in trouble for beating up a suspect, selling drugs, or REALLY beating up a suspect. There are surfer crossing signs. There are border control checkpoints. There are outdoor malls.

*Hey look - I used to subscribe to an actual, dead tree newspaper! As you can tell, I chose the LA Times over the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The time difference makes watching live sporting events a challenge. The NCAA Championship at 6 o’clock? When the time comes for Redskins games to start at 10 AM, it will be even more confusing.

I’m thinking about learning Spanish, if for no other reason that to navigate the streets. We live right off of Paseo Del Norte (the stroll of the north), the mall is over by El Camino Real (the dirt road), and my new favorite fast food place is El Pollo Loco (the crazy chicken).*

*I think I only got one of those correct. there was no Google Translate back then.

To save time, here are the answers to some frequently asked questions:

• Pretty much 65 degrees, every day, with morning clouds. Apparently, the sun takes a month off this time of year, with I suppose it deserves, considering it’s sunny almost 300 days a year.
• Can’t a guy move 3000 miles with no job in a slumping economy without people badgering him with questions?  There’s nothing wrong with having his wife be the breadwinner for a couple of weeks — I don’t think Bill Clinton gets this kind of grief. Nonetheless, I will be living life as a contract IT professional for hire until I find that next great permanent job. But what I really want to do is direct.
• No, the caverns are in New Mexico, wise guy.
• Legal assistance, which means that she helps out Marines with things like credit problems, adoptions, wills, etc.
• No, we haven’t experienced a rolling blackout or an earthquake yet.

I don’t know what adventures await us out here on the Left Coast, but I welcome them. I’m sorry, I meant, “I welcome them, dude.”