Homesick, Yet Again

Being home all summer, I’ve had a lot of time to think – Dennis would argue WAY too much time to think. One of the most frequent things I think about is “home” (aka, California). While home is always where your heart and, mostly for me, my family is, there is something special about Southern California that keeps my cockles warm.

Therefore, as therapy, I decided to make an exhaustive list of these things so that in the dead of winter when I’m cursing all that is Iowa, we have something to reflect on fondly. Ironically, many of these items are food-related, so perhaps returning to California someday would not be beneficial for my already distressed waistline. Hmm…

Nonetheless, here’s my list:

• DRY heat (God wasn’t fooling around when He created Mid-West humidity!)


• Eight-lane highways (yeah, FOUR lanes on BOTH sides?!)


• Not having to share the road with LOTS of big rigs – especially in winter snow storms


• Not getting stuck behind a tractor on the road (at least when you’re in traffic in CA, it’s because there’s actual traffic)


• Mimi’s Café cobb salad and strawberry lemonade


• In’N’Out (that one’s for Dennis)


• Jack in the Box tacos


• Baskin-Robbins (You know there’s only ONE in all of Iowa?! An hour and a half away in Des Moines, and it’s downstairs from Weight Watchers, if that’s not enough of a guilt trip.)


• Claim Jumper chocolate cheese pie


• SoCal foliage: palm trees, bougainvillea, birds of paradise, periwinkle lilies, sweet peas, camellias, magnolias, gardenias, jasmine, fruit trees…


• The security of being "a local"


• Being able to share and experience our own childhood memories with our children


• Disneyland trips and watching D-land fireworks any ole summer night


• Adventure City (Frankie would LOVE it at his age!)


• Knott’s Berry (and Scary) Farm


• Sea World, San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park


• The Huntington Museum and La Brea Tar Pits Museum


• Big Bear trips


• Day trips to San Diego


• Friends and family who live within a day trip from our house


• Bible "study"/social hour with old friends
  
• Falletta family reunion dinners
  
• Tom’s Farms in Corona


• That flower field place off the 5 on the way to San Diego
  
• Wine tasting weekends in Napa


• Spending a day at the beach


• Driving on PCH with ALL the windows down


• Chocolate thumbprint cookies from Old World Deli


• Red Vines


• See’s Candy


• Del Taco chicken soft tacos


• Northwood’s Inn cheese bread and salad


• Healthy Food Place CA rolls and miso soup


• El Torito – especially their Sunday brunch!


• The Coffee Bean
  
• California Pizza Kitchen
  
• Watson’s chicken salad sandwiches (mmm... I'm getting hungry!)
  
• Outdoor BBQs (where you don’t have to bathe in bug spray to avoid getting eaten alive)


• Decent malls: South Coast Plaza, Fashion Island, The Irvine Spectrum, The Block – even Brea Mall would suffice at this point


• Having something do to or someplace to go when we ask each other, “What should we do this weekend?”


• Santa Ana winds (only natives can appreciate these!)


• Weather not being the dominating news story from October through May


• Being able to “visit” winter instead of hoping we all live through it


• A drop of rain being called “Storm Watch 2007”


• Earthquakes instead of tornados


• Diversity (as in people other than white ones)


• Cars that don’t have that ugly, yellow Iowa Hawkeye logo window stickers


• People whose wardrobe is more than tee-shirts that say “Iowa” or don that ugly, yellow Iowa Hawkeye logo


• Not having to worry about what size our kids will be wearing in what season (it's impossible to predict growth spurts and I never get it right!)


• My old hairstylist, Blanca


• Albertsons (why do we have to choose between variety and low prices?!)


• Fresh fruit and vegetables at the grocery store
  
• Fresh flowers that don't cost a small fortune
  
• The absence of cornfields


• “Soda” or “Coke” instead of “pop”


• Eating “dinner” instead of “supper”


• Not knowing anyone who wants to grow up and “run the farm”


• Swim teams at high schools


• Earning salaries that we are worth


• My Dad’s grave


• Being in big crowds around town, but still running into people we know


• Warm (bugless) summer nights


• Seeing mountains when we look north


• More than one choice of doctor’s office


• High gas prices because it’s CA, not because it’s Iowa and you’re paying CA prices

I could go on forever, but it’s getting late.

Next, I will create a list of all I am thankful for here in Iowa: 1) My family; 2) Our home; 3) My job. Hmm, our family is mobile, and the other two could be recreated back home… I know, I know. If I’m/we’re really that miserable here, then move back, right? Trust me, it’s being worked on…