I'll See Your Brown Bear and Raise You a Lone Star

Whenever you ask someone about California, or Cali as non-Californians like to call it, everyone seems to paint the same sort of picture in their head. Sunshine, long, blonde hair, hippie-liberals, celebrities everywhere... It's all true, except for the long, blonde hair thing, and the celebrity thing, and the hippie-liberals thing. The granola out here is 3 parts liberal and only 1 part hippie.

One of the things I enjoy the most about the area I'm in is that you can't spot the Christians by their no shave November beards, Chacos, or Breakaway/Impact t-shirts. It has been an interesting, and thus far, fulfilling experience to be immersed in a culture full of people that think in a completely different way than I do. Although taking a break from the black-and-white of Texas has been refreshing, it's also been a challenge. I haven't quite grasped how making everything a gray area is productive or even justifiable, but I'm not going to give up on trying to understand. One of the most valuable lessons I've learned since moving out here is that just because I don't comprehend how someone else thinks or why they believe what they do doesn't mean that they're wrong.

Even with all of this enlightenment there are some admittedly petty things that I've been annoyed by: people say "hecka," as in "That test was hecka hard." That's hella stupid. Also, I know you're state is cool, but it's not as cool as Texas. I'd appreciate it if everyone would quit trying to one up with a state that's broke as a joke and is governed by the kindergarten cop. Lastly, cars are made with blinkers for a reason. It'd be sweet if you quit yelling into your bluetooth for a quick second and flicked that baby on every once in a while.

Oh, and maybe I lied a little bit about the celebrity thing. Me and Jordan spent an hour or so on Rodeo (long "a") Drive last week and saw John Stamos and Javier Bardem. For all you Gleeks out there, don't worry, I spoke with Uncle Jesse and he assured me that Mr. Schue was going to quit being a slut very soon.