It Never Rains in Northern California

One of the things people love about California is the fact that it is sunny and beautiful 95% of the year. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but sometimes I crave a good thunderstorm! The kind where you curl up with a good book and listen to the weather rage outside of your window. The kind where you work on scrapbooks or bake cookies and don't feel guilty for not going outside. The kind that makes you jump every time the thunder claps. I miss the smell of rain, the feel of a damp afternoon, the crash of lightning . . . Sometimes I need a good thunderstorm just to remind me how much I love the sunshine!

The other thing nobody ever tells you about California until you live here is that California is on warp speed. What would take you thirty minutes to accomplish anywhere else somehow eats up two hours here. Not that we work slower out here - the time clock just seems to move faster! The days (12 hours of sunshine) never seem long enough. Weeks fly by like days here. I think it is our punishment for living in perpetual sunshine near the ocean and several national landmarks!

I'm positive that this is purely a California phenomenon because I have traveled to New York, Rapid City, SD, Memphis, and Milwaukee since moving to California, and the days seemed to pass normally there. In fact, I felt I had so much extra time when visiting other locales that I was not quite sure what to do with the surplus. I should have saved the extra hours for my return trip to California - I certainly wish I had them now.

Take, for example, the fact that we have already lived in California for six months. Six months!?! And our five year wedding anniversary was already two months ago!!! And I am already three months pregnant!!! What in the world is going on? At this pace, I may wake up tomorrow to find that it is January and time for me to give birth. AAGGHHH!

If you don't believe California is on warp speed, I invite you to bring a project that you are working on when you come to visit. Plan to stay for at least two weeks. Do not go outside to enjoy the incessantly sunny weather. Work as you have never worked before. And I am positive that at the end of two weeks, you will be no closer to finishing your project than you would have been if you had spent one additional eight hour day working at home. Try it if you dare!