& that's the way life goes

Day Five of My Michigan Bloggers is Mae from Thereafterish. Most of you don’t know that Mae is actually my cousin, but since it’s by marriage I haven’t known her my whole life.  She is creative and inspiring.  Many areas that I lack knowledge or experience in Mae has.  I’m so glad to have her as part of my family.  Hanging out with her is like hanging out with an old friend and my mouth seems to just let all my thoughts come pouring out.  Luckily she stands it and keeps the secrets that seem to rush out.  Love you cuz!

Enjoy!

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Because my cousin Ria is visiting my hometown, I though I’d write about it. (Have fun, Ria! Make sure my town treats you well!)

San Diego.

I once lived there. All of my formative years, and most of all my childhood memories were formed there. It is sometimes my pride for close to twenty years to say I grew up there. It’s such a golden, warm, beautiful town that it’s really easy to forget that there’s a whole world out there to be experienced and explored. In Southern California, we all lived in some sort of sheltered bubble, encased with our endless seas and perfect sandy beaches.

About five years ago I met a man on the internet that tore me out of dull-brained existence, and woke me up. Meeting him left me salivating for a greater world. And in June of that year, I packed up most of my worldly possessions and moved across the country to Detroit.

Before I left, I wrote San Diego a good-bye letter.

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Dear San Diego, Once upon a time, I loved you.

As a little kid, growing up on the border of the ghetto, I would feign a ghetto-fabulous accent and holler “reppin’ the 6-I-9″ (for 619, the original sole area code of the Greater San Diego Area). I’d frequent San Diego-only chat rooms on AOL as a teenager. If we saw a San Diego Store (like the Made in Detroit store in Detroit) I’d go there and try to find a bunch of San Diego gear to sport my loyalty for you.

But the thing is, you’re just one big typical Southern California town with a big attitude, pretensions of being a big, bad bustling metropolis with edgy urban things to offer, but you’re really just a vacation town for old Republicans to retire in if they have the money, and stupid fat head frat boys and sorority girls from all over the US to come and make party time hell for the people who actually live here.

You’re stunningly beautiful, don’t get me wrong. Very beautiful. And you have a history and culture all your own. There’s no denying that. There is an artistry in some of your neighborhoods that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. There is a poetry that can be felt in the nature found here. Balboa Park and it’s gardens and museums. Historic Gaslamp Quarter and its restaurants and old building facades, and the many drunken Friday and Saturday nights I spent there, giggling and dancing with my best friends… Hillcrest and all its vintage shopping grandeur. La Jolla Cove and its cliffs and small grotto. The beaches. God, the beaches. The mountains. The quaint tea and coffee shops hosting acoustic folk pop and poetry slams well into the indigo night.

You’ve got a simple gorgeousness that you won’t find in big, complicated, drama-filled LA. There’s nothing else like you anywhere else in CA.

But after living here for so long, you’ve lost your lustre for me. Even this letter is losing its lustre.

Let’s just say I’m ready to move on. For now. My eyes are looking East. Detroit. Chicago. Toronto. Enyce? Maybe. Anything is possible. And the only thing I know is that my love for this city no longer resides in the city itself but in the people who live here who love me and I love in return.

After all, home is where the heart is. So, I guess, you’ll always be a home to me. A place where I can return and still feel all the warmth of love I’ve always felt.

I just didn’t know it was possible for me to call more than one place home. I guess I can now.

Take care of yourself. And never change. I’ll see you again some day.

Love, Mae

Img cred: Balboa Park Lily Pond (www.sommersetsuites.com>; Historic Gaslamp (Ron Niebrugge via www.californicating.wordpress.com ); Hillcrest (hillcrestlodgings.com); La Jolla Cliffs (www.pdphoto.org); San Diego Beach (www.cbnsandiego.com).

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