Another Beautiful Day in Paradise

So here I am, in beautiful San Diego - actually, north of it, and south of Escondido - feeling, as one of my sisters would say, that "baby steps" are the only way to go. It's been a great time, and fun. The trip to L.A.? Like I said, baby steps for my art, and enjoyable and interesting on its own merits. Love the weather here - I told the security guard at the Spokane airport, "I hope it snows while I'm gone." She said I better not make such wishes - "you're coming back here," she pointed out. Ah, yes. The dreaded "I shall return."

For as beautiful as the weather is in Southern California, and for as unique (in a good way) living here would be - there's the traffic. Such traffic. Everything takes forever in travel time. I got started back up north yesterday at about 4 p.m. after a visit in southeast San Diego, and hit that dreaded traffic. It ebbed and flowed, for which I was grateful (for the flowing, not the ebbing). But - man. In Spokane, I'm five - maybe ten - minutes away from pretty much everything. Sometimes 20 minutes. Sometimes 45, if it's in Idaho. But things are close in, and the traffic is almost never the reason for the length of time it takes to get from one point to the other.

Still - I don't know - there's something wonderful about being here. It's like a return to home. Which, for me, that's true, since I grew up in Poway (near Escondido). As I first arrived, and got my rental car (what an interesting fight that was - I won, btw), and was driving up I-15, I looked to my right and there was a car all painted up with "Go Poway" whitewashed on the windows. Must have been in preparation for an athletic event... I felt like honking my horn and waving. The set-up felt designed to be my welcome-home greeting.

And then there was watching my dad play tennis this week with his group of men that play tennis together every week. They were funny, and nice to me. Very Californian. I watched them play a few games. I was the only audience member, but that didn't stop me from applauding encouragement at particularly good volleys. One of the guys in the tennis office came out and told my dad and the others, "Don't get nervous. This is the biggest crowd you've had all year!" So, funny.

More to go, as I'm here through Monday... I've volunteered for a family thing tomorrow morning, totally forgetting about the Eagles game (egads!), so football is not on the horizon (although we might go to a sports bar in the afternoon, since the Vikings/Packers are not on TV). Baseball's good to watch too (except when the Yankees win). And it's another beautiful day. The sun's come out for the weekend it seems. Life is good on the coast.