leaving california

Drew and I are leaving California for Green Bay tomorrow morning. I don't think it's sunk in yet. I've waited so long time for this moment and while I'm happy to leave this place, at the same time, I'm also a little sad. I lived here for nearly eight years, so in some respects, it's hard to say good bye.

  

A dear friend from graduate school recently moved to Minnesota (interestingly, there are a few of us making the move from California to either Minnesota or Wisconsin). In her farewell to California facebook post, she began by saying something about how she came to California as an adult but grew up here. I can relate. I was 26 when I started graduate school, and I grew up a lot here. 

I wonder what I will miss about Southern California. Most of what I think I'll miss revolves around food. Lately, I've been asking myself such questions like: Why didn't I eat more California burritos? Why didn't I eat at In-n-Out more often? Why did I wait until my last year in California to discover banh mi? How come I didn't make it my mission to find the best fish taco? Why didn't I eat more dumplings? And so on. But then I remind myself that I just didn't have the time and that the reason I came out to California was to earn a Ph.D. and not eat my way through Orange County. In my state of food-related panic, I've been eating my weight in avocados, and I made two trips to In-n-Out in the past couple of weeks, which is more times than the past few years.  

 

Sometimes, I wonder if I'll miss the beach. Other times, I'm not so sure. I see the ocean a lot as I'm driving by or when I'm running, but I don't get to the beach too often anymore. Whenever I feel like having a beach day, it's when everyone else feels like going to the beach too, and dealing with the traffic, crowds, and parking is just too much of a hassle for me. 

I know I will miss the palm trees. I never get tired of seeing them. 

I recently showed Drew what I think is the most fantastic palm tree I've ever seen. It's just in this neighborhood in Irvine, and I discovered it on the way to get dumplings. 

On our last night in Irvine, we ate dinner at Royal Thai, got gelato at Gelato Paradiso, and had a nice walk on Laguna Beach, just enjoying the sand between our toes and the sounds of the waves crashing on the beach. I don't know how this tradition started, but anytime one of us (usually Drew) leaves for a significant period of time, this is what we do. So when we contemplated how we'd spend our last night in California, it wasn't at all difficult to decide what to do. After Laguna Beach, we headed home and went to one of our favorite spots near campus, the adirondack chairs at the top of University Hills. From there, we could just barely see the Disneyland fireworks. They go off every night at 9:30, and I can hear them from my apartment. It is odd to think that soon, my evenings will be silent.