Home Sweet Home: Hella Sweet!

I'm finally back in cali - thank god!! I know I said I wasn't going to write about my daily dealings - so I'm going to try really hard to avoid it, but it's hard - I haven't been back to Cali in 4 years! I haven't seen some of my friends for longer than that!! In a way, I've come to realize I'm a little glad that I moved away from Cali...now everyone from Cali don't get all sad on me yet. By leaving Cali it set in motion some sad events: leaving my Cali friends behind (waaaaah!), getting stuck in lonely Evergreen, and not getting into Stanford (yes, I blame not living in Cali for that one - they take a huge population from Cali). But at the same time I don't think I would've grown to appreciate Cali and all of my Cali friends as much if I had stayed. I came back to Cali and I was soooooooooooooooo happy just to be here. For me it was truly a "return home". I jumped up and down the streets of San Francisco that first night - quite literally, ask Sue-ting. I feel so much more at home here and I find that I relate to people who I meet for the first time here better right off the bat. I walked through some of Stanford the other day with Will playing frisbee golf. It made me really want to come there for grad school - I truly miss Stanford....why didn't they accept me...why???? I was born in freaking Stanford Hospital!! Agh! Well, it's ok that they didn't accept me - otherwise I wouldn't have met my great group of friends at Cornell either! Nevertheless, Cali calls to me, it's always my home. And it's comforting to know that even though I really don't live here anymore I still have all my friends where I can 'live' if I need to (thanks everyone who's housed and will be housing me!).

There are some things I realize I miss about Cali much more than I previously thought. 1. The people (duh). 4-6 years is too long to go without seeing each other. Not to mention the general populace is awesome. 2. The foilage - so much better than the East, Midwest, and Mountain - and yes, I've seen them all. 3. The warm rain 4. Having a beach nearby! 5. Old bike paths/routes 6. The restaurants 7. The atmosphere of Palo Alto, Portola Valley, and definitely Saratoga 8. Definitely definitely San Francisco. The only big cities I've seen and spent time in in the past 4 years have been Denver (big?? maybe..) and New York. New York is so grungy and dirty unless you hit up the financial district. Not to mention it's so busy and I always end up leaving exhausted even if I was just relaxing the whole time. San Francisco is much more tame. I miss it's terraced hills and the cable cars (the only moving national monument). I miss Fisherman's Wharf and Ghiradelli Square. I miss how quiet the city gets at only 10pm on Sunday nights. I miss the different benches you can find that look out over the Bay and the Golden Gate (so romantic late at night ;) ). Oh and I definitely miss the Golden Gate. Sigh...long live the Bay Area.

It's funny - my perception of California geography is so messed up because I didn't drive here ever. I thought Berkeley was South of SF...oops. San Diego north of LA...big oops. Lived 1hr south of SF? Try more like 30 miles....oops...(but yay!). I'm making sure I correct all of these misconstrued ideas in my mind before I leave :p.

And no, I haven't forgotten about her. At Will's I can see out over the Bay from my room. It made me think about what was not only across the Bay, but across the Ocean. In a way, it sort of made me feel close to her. I've had good dreams about us lately, nothing in particular, but I always felt happy and refreshed when I woke up from them, so I'm banking on those ^_^. I've finally gotten control of myself again. I have been acting immature at times. Even though it affected me greatly I know I should handle myself better. But anyways, I'm still hoping and I won't give up hope ^_^. That's the way to live - with hope and not worry. Sounds like some stupid cheesy religious pick-up line (hope don't fear! (see donnie darko)) but I'm sticking with it ^_^.

So now all being said and done and as the sun sets (well it already set) Cali calls me for another night of fun with friends. Did I mention I'm staying with my friend, Andrew, who I've known since we were 6 months old? I'm dead serious. Amazing huh? And we've never been to school together - different districts. Perhaps tonight we'll go ice skating with some of my Toga friends in San Jose - I'll have to run it by Andrew when he gets back from running (Harvard track/xcountry star :p). (And oh god...I just noticed that pun...how shameful). Until next time (or rather hasta la pasta!).