The California Bubble

For these last eighteen years of my life, I have always lived in California. California- where the girls walk around in shorts and tank tops in December and the boys surf at 6:00 a.m. in January. We get about a ten degree variance in our weather year-round and the only way anyone is really able to tell that it's winter is when the clear-cupped, iced Starbucks coffee drinks in every doting hand transform into the red Christmas cups adorned with cardboard sleeves.

Now that I have escaped the California bubble and am experiencing what is it's like to live in a place that actually has seasons like the majority of the rest of the country, I feel awake. I wake up to snow every morning. I have to get up in the middle of the night to close my window so that I don't wake up to a puddle of water at the foot of my bed. I leave home wearing two pairs of pants, a sweater, a sweatshirt, a heavy jacket, a scarf, a beanie, long socks, boots, and mittens. I have to decide whether or not it's worth it to trek through the snow to get myself food. My eyes must be glued to the ground at all times while walking so that I don't slip on the ice and break my tailbone.

Now that I have escaped the California bubble and am in the middle of this bitter winter, it irks me when I log onto Facebook and see people back home complaining about the "cruel sixty degree weather" and about how they can't "take their kids to the beach." Girls are brought to tears by the fact that they have to actually wear clothes on more than 30% of their body so they don't get goosebumps that will ruin their freshly shaven legs. Men throw their hands up in defeat because they have to decide if they want to risk wearing shorts and a T-shirt to work.

There have been news reports in which the reporters are actually concerned about the fifty degree weather and saying that "it might snow if the temperature drops even just a little bit more." They feel that they can justify that it is cold outside because the "leaves are blowing all around and the trees are swaying." They complain that the cold is "not only affecting people, it's affecting crops," as they hold up two oranges that they found on the ground in the parking lot of a shopping center. Apparently it was so excruciating that "customers at Starbucks were choosing the drive-through, as warm beverage after warm beverage was handed out."  One reporter even reports that, "you can see we have a bit of a breeze here, as you can see my hair is blowing around, the leaves are blowing around behind me so that can cause you some problems here this morning."

Really, people? You live in paradise. You see a cloudy sky maybe fifteen days out of the year. The temperature never drops below 45 degrees. And you are complaining that the "leaves are blowing" and that you have to go through the drive-through at Starbucks? It makes me want to literally blow up the entire state.

Granted, when I lived back home I complained about living there all the time. I could not wait to leave home behind. I couldn't stand any of the people from my high school, I hated the consistency of the weather, and I wanted to experience something new and different. I was counting down the days until graduation by the time I had started my sophomore year of high school. And now that I am experiencing these people, this weather, this place, all I want to do is go back home. All I want is the comfort of my old friends, the familiarity of my family, the consistency of the weather. I want it all back.

I enjoy being an adult, but I hate the responsibility. I love being on my own, but I hate the loneliness of it. I like not having anyone looking over my shoulder and telling me what to do and when to do it, but I hate that I don't feel in control.

I want it all back. Just to be back in that bubble again...where my biggest worry was whether it was going to be 70 degrees when I stepped outside or 65. Where my biggest decision was if I should order an iced coffee at Starbucks or a hot one. Oh, what I wouldn't give to be back in that bubble again.