musings: things I will miss about California

Friday the 13th (of July) was my last day as a resident of California, and I spent it in a 26-foot moving truck. It was also the first day this year that I can remember it raining in Los Angeles, a fitting departure that echoed my sentiments about leaving such a beautiful, golden place that has been my home for the past four years.

After a slow burn of packing and tearful goodbyes, we shoved the remainder of our belongings into the truck as we inched our fingers out of the way to pull down the garage-door of the trailer. Our friends took one last picture of us on our street, the looming truck in the background with our Prius trailing behind. We hugged our friends at least one too many times, and as we scrambled into the truck and shut the doors, raindrops pitter-pattered on the windshield. The truck groaned up the street and we turned away, en route to our new destination.

After a three-day Odyssey across painted deserts and miles and miles of cornfields, here we are at our new home in Chicago, Illinois, with only one moving truck mishap to speak of. This new place has a golden glow of its own, just not sourced from the eternal summer of California, but something else. It’s more a glow of a summer that is temporal, laced with the promise of seasons that mark time and feelings.

I owe so much to California, the place where I ambled my way awkwardly from college student to “adult,” from single girl to “wife,” from observer to “doer.” In the interest of giving my time in California its due memorial, herewith, a list of things I will miss, in no particular order:

-Going to the beach on New Year’s Day, every year
-The seemingly endless line of planes en route to LAX that light up the city like a string of Christmas lights
-Judging each day on a scale of Gorgeous to Pristine using the visibility of Catalina Island as a benchmark
-The view from the Getty Center
-The majestic drive up Pacific Coast Highway, any stretch of it
-Palm trees for days
-The Doubroff’s patio, and all the good wine and laughs we had there
-Flat-roofed houses and picture windows
-Sunsets when there are clouds in the sky
-Being able to see snow-capped mountains from the beach
-The garlic balls at C&O’s in Venice
-Father’s Office burger
-Rosti on Montana
-Rock Youth
-Celebrity sightings (if I’m being honest)
-Referring to highways as “the” 405 or “the” 101
-In ‘N Out, particularly the neapolitan shake
-Bret & Carey being a mere, like, 15 steps away
-The unparalleled beauty of Big Sur and the Central Coast
-Thanksgivings in Paso Robles wine tasting
-Drinking white wine on the beach in the summer
-everything.