I'm Not... Complaining

I have a friend that abandoned northern Ohio some seven years ago for the “greener” pastures of Los Angeles, California. I’ve fought with him over the past three calendar changes about the merits of living there when most of his closest friends and all of his family are back East. Eight months out of the year he feeds me some line about LA being where his preferred industry makes its home and how he somewhat enjoys his time there. All I hear is, “Blah, blah, blah.”

The other four months he chooses not to speak at all, instead torturing me with pictures of sunny skies and palm trees, ‘nuff said. And it IS torture.

To say I dislike snow is putting it about as mildly as possible. I mean, we’re talking de-veined jalapeno mild. I loathe the stuff (snow, not jalapenos). What it does to my car; what it does to my back; what it does to my mood; all of it. You can have it; store it wherever you keep the Winter Olympics.

But that brings me back to the palm tree pictures. Those pictures are supposed to insinuate (and often times accompany a not so subtle message that), “Why, again, would I want to live there?” Well, “there” is northern Ohio, and that question is 100% valid. As you probably figured, I’m going to take a stab at an answer.

It’s pretty simple, really, and Tupac said it best, “For every dark night, there’s a bright day after that.” Well for every dark, dreary and freezing winter, there’s a beautiful spring after that. In 2010, its start happened to coincide with March 1st. The first 11 days of the 3rd month have been beyond gorgeous, and I’m sorry, but people who live in more temperate climates just don’t understand that feeling; that desperately thankful feeling.

That’s why I love living here. There are very few feelings that match the greatness of the first time you step outside and smell that warmth in the air. Or rolling down the driver’s side window and just inhaling a crisp, but warm breeze. For that matter, it’s unbelievable the first time you have to keep your car open a few minutes before climbing in because the sun has just baked the interior. Warm weather people take these feelings for granted, even complain about them occasionally! Gasp!

There are all different variations of the phrase “you can’t appreciate the sun without the rain.” I know tons of people would argue that point, but I really think they just don’t get it. Sure, I’d love to wake up 365 days a year knowing I could go for a run through neighborhood streets or play basketball oceanside, but I’m perfectly content where I am, and I know the struggle to push through the winter months will all be (more than) validated on that one perfect spring day.

I’m sure I’m jinxing the weather and the next few weeks will blast the area with rain, wind and probably a couple more dustings of snow, but at this point, I think we can take it.

You haven’t lived until you’ve seen the bright golden sun against a cloudless blue sky after a long Ohio winter; and then again after three weeks of spring rain, sleet and snow. That’s why I want to live here. For all the cold, dark nights, I love the bright warm days after that. And the irony is Tupac was a So Cal boy.

To live and die in LA, indeed.

Be well.

PS - Thanks to Myrch for the inspiration to write this. See his take here.