Coming home...to California!!

We visited Phoenix for this long weekend (Memorial Day 2007). It was a helluva trip. Met up with one of my best friends, and one of Subhash's too :) Visited the Grand Canyon (there goes another one off my check-list;) ) and also crossed out Utah and Arizona from my states-to-visit list;)

Came home last night. Flight was landing in San Jose airport. Suddenly I thought of the time when I did this first. A little more than a couple years ago (Jan 2005) I was landing here for the first time. I was that not-seen-California-yet-but-HATE-it-already WI person. You hear so much of California, how the people here brag about the good weather they enjoy, the DESI atmosphere (ahem, one hotel/Indian store per street is DESI all the way) etc etc. They were in my eyes, the last ones to wake up and the last ones to sleep (well, how can you help being on PST/PDT, they say), always gave off an air of complacency and pride about being part of California. I hated them, hated them all, vain people.

I still remember how when I landed, I was shocked to see that you actually WALK from the flight to the gate (last night there was an air-bridge). So much pride about being in good weather!!! And the first thing that caught my attention, sheer number of people, so populous it looked, my my!

I have flown into San Jose, about a dozen times since then, but I never thought about that first time. Last night I did. Because for the first time, it felt like coming home:) I was back in the Silicon Valley, which didn't feel like a far-off land anymore. This place has truly been the symbol of good times for me in the US and I was coming home to it :) From other far-off lands!

I feel that attitude I had years ago about California, in others now. Towards me. But I don't worry. Because perfect or otherwise, this is home, for now at least:) I still hate the traffic and hate the cost of living here, but well, its home all the same.