I read this article today in the NYTimes, and now I can't stop thinking about frozen yogurt and Southern California. I went to the Pinkberry website and observed that the closest location to my mom's house is in Temecula, about a 50 minute drive away. Temecula is more of a bedroom exurb of San Diego than an irritating shithead enclave of LA, so going there for a single serving of frozen yogurt would only be mildly ridiculous.
I, like Joan Didion, am from California. So separated from it I feel I can only discuss it in Didionesque terms. Which is pretentious. I left when I was 18 and have only returned on a visit-only basis. I always knew deep down that I would never make my adult home there. It's not just the crowds, the cost of living, droughts and earthquakes, and the deeply retarded focus on physical appearance there that drove me away. It was something else. My soul and the California soul just don't match.
Still, I hate it when people start bashing California. It's a large, diverse state. The Valley Girl population is rather small. In my mind, it's a bunch of Mexicans plus some irritatingly misguided white people plus a beach. And tacos. And Fresno, of course. Fresno is like LA's wanna-be stepsister that tries way too hard to be cool. Fresno had a mission and a purpose and that was to be an agricultural outpost. Feeding the masses is a noble cause, but someone's fat Armenian wife got in the way and started demanding nicer things. Pretty soon, the fruit orchards and vineyards within the city limits were plowed over to make room for pink stucco strip malls, some on all four corners of an intersection, where the wives of wealthy men peddle useless wares in gift shops named after their spoiled children that serve more as hobbies than businesses.
I had a terrible dream last night that I had to go back to high school. I didn't understand why I had to go back, but I did. Awful, awful dream.
I had the best lunch today at Casa. Enfrijolades with black bean puree, guacamole, and sunflower seed goo that stands in for cheese and is salty and delicious. Their salad dressing is always gorgeous. I feel so good after eating there.
I've noticed that east coast people who have not been to California much (or at all) often say "California" or even, ridiculously, "the west coast" when what they mean is "L.A." -- how silly.
Posted by: margaret at February 21, 2007 09:00 PM