Funny Things About Moving to Sunny CA...

Well, I've been thinking a lot lately about God's will in my life, and why He chose to move our family to CA. Of course, when one is thinking about such things at 5AM, while nursing a baby, or 6AM, while working out on the elliptical machine, or 9PM, when the synapses have long since ceased to fire, you think of pretty funny stuff. So, here's my list of:

Top Ten Funny Things About Living in CA

(10) After attending church for a few weeks with a newborn, you begin to develop 'stroller envy.' Everyone out here seems to push a Peg Perego or Maclaren. It made my Graco seem small and insignificant.

(9) Mileage has absolutely no significance when figuring out how long it will take to get someplace. It is some kind of crazy math where you divide the time of day by the highway you're on and then adding one hour, or something like that. I've never been very good at math.

(8) Speaking of highways....Do NOT say, "Take Interstate 210 to get here," or you will get lots of funny 'you haven't lived here for long'-type looks. You must say, "Take THE 210 to THE 2 to THE whatever..." It's not a highway if it hasn't a THE before it.

(7) You begin fantasizing about how else you can eat avocados...in salad, tuna, grilled cheese sandwiches, on crackers, with chips, tacos, enchiladas, etc., etc. They are really YUMMY and so cheap here.

(6) You long for the days of low-cost gas in CT. I've seen it as high as $3.66 right now.

(5) You understand that the flip-flop is not merely a convenient way to get from the beach to the car. It is a fashion statement. They devote whole isles to them at Target. You can get them with rhinestones, leather, feathers, colors. You name it!

(4) You realize that it might be necessary to sell a child or two in order to put a down payment on a house. Then, the remaining children will have to work full time to pay the mortgage payments.

(3) You get used to putting the heat on in the morning and the AC in the afternoon.

(2) There really is a "Let's do lunch" mentality out here. It's just another way of saying, "I like you," without any commitment to future contact.

and the NUMBER ONE Funny Thing About Living in CA:

(1) All those stars we watch in movies and TV live here. Like, they really live right here. Of course we haven't actually seen any of them yet. I don't think many of them are Christian homeschooling, stay-at-home moms. They're not really the type to be in my circle of friends. But one of these days I may actually see one of them... IN PERSON!


No, really. I thought I would hate it here. I really did. But I am finding that I actually 'like' Southern California. Despite the traffic and the smog and the fact that right outside my door there are a few million people...most of them driving on THE 5 as we speak. Go figure. And, hey, if you're ever in town, let's do lunch.