The Getaway

Ahhhh, California. How I've missed you!

Across the aisle from me en route to California on Wednesday was a VERY chatty dude and his very attractive girlfriend. Among other topics they tried to include me in chatting about was The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I had to admit I hadn't kept up with their newer stuff, but back in the day, they were a fave, and hearing Under the Bridge always feels like getting to hang out with an old friend.

That's what inspired my song choice to mark my days in Cali:

That’s right you’re right
We will do our thing tonight alright
Take me through the future
It’s time you’re fine
Just another color coded crime
Incision and a suture
You told my friend
We would get it on no matter when
A supercavitation
Let’s go you show
Me something no one will ever know
A love hallucination
Another lonely superstar
To get away inside your car
Take it much too far
Surrender to the brave inside
A lover that another tried
Take it, too my ride
You don’t have to keep it if it’s mine
(Another lonely superstar to getaway inside your car)
Another place maybe another time
(Surrender to the brave inside a lover that another tried)
Complete repeat
Sitting in your car and on your street
Lost in California
Let’s steal this wheel
Take a spin to find out how we feel
Just around the corner
Slow down for sound
Turn it up and no we can’t be found
The body that we transcend
Asleep, you weep
Find out that the trick is never cheap
A melancholy girlfriend
Another lonely superstar
To get away inside your car
Take it much too far
Surrender to the brave inside
A lover that another tried
Take it, too my ride
You don’t have to keep it if it’s mine
(Another lonely superstar to getaway inside your car)
Another place maybe another time
(Surrender to the brave inside a lover that another tried)
That’s right you’re right
We will do our thing tonight, alright
Drive the constellation
It’s time you’re fine
Just another color coded crime
The song is fascination
Another lonely superstar
To get away inside your car
Take it much too far
Surrender to the brave inside
The lover that another tried
Take it, too my ride
A May December might not be so smart
(Another lonely superstar to getaway inside your car)
Arrivals that we wish would not depart
(Surrender to the brave inside a lover that another tried)
Don’t be late cause you’re my savior
Make it great whatever stays
Golden gate my rearranger
Hold my name inside your rays

That's a whole lotta words, especially since it's the last line that most resonated for me. Yes please, California, as I prepare to head back to the impending Winter in Wisconsin, please hold my name inside your rays...

Speaking of, until the tide washed it away, the beach in Santa Monica held my lover's initials:

Green Green Grass Of Home

Resting on the soft grounds of the Cal campus

Once when I was talking about moving to California when my kids go off to college, my Dad said he hoped it wasn't a case of me thinking the grass is greener.

Being out here, I realize that I don't just think it's greener, it is greener.

Just ask Tom Jones:

The old home town looks the same as I step down from the train,
and there to meet me is my Mama and Papa.
Down the road I look and there runs Mary hair of gold and lips like cherries.
It's good to touch the green, green grass of home.
Yes, they'll all come to meet me, arms reaching, smiling sweetly.
It's good to touch the green, green, grass of home.
The old house is still standing, tho' the paint is cracked and dry,
and there's that old oak tree that I used to play on.

Down the lane I walk with my sweet Mary, hair of gold and lips like cherries.
It's good to touch the green, green grass of home.
Yes, they'll all come to meet me, arms reaching, smiling sweetly.
It's good to touch the green, green grass of home.

Berkeley may not actually be my home yet, but it sure feels like it. More than any other place I've ever been...

Hotel California

Dinner with my Dad's stepbrother

After a long night of travel -- I took the red eye home from LA last night and my plane from Chicago to Madison was delayed three hours -- I was just pulling into my garage when the DJ aptly selected this number from the Eagles:

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
"This could be Heaven or this could be Hell"
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year (Any time of year)
You can find it here

My Cal gal pal & me in Venice

Yes, find it there I did. A break from the severe cold we've had to endure this winter. An inspiring visit to a charter school network doing great things for kids. Time to reconnect with one of my oldest and dearest friends. Time to rediscover familial connections. Time to run on the beach in the sunshine. Time to run in the rain.

I'm grateful to be home, but there is also a part of me that is just fine with the fact that there is a part of me for whom home will always be California, no matter where I live:

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
"Relax, " said the night man,
"We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave!"

Nearly Lost You

Heard this song on the radio today as I navigated my rental car around LA, and when I did, I felt grateful:

Did you hear the distant cry
Calling me back to my sin
Like the one you knew before
Calling me back once again

Grateful to be back in Cali, which in some ways always feels like home to me (it's where both my parents' and grandparents grew up).

Grateful to hear a familiar song, immediately grounding me in the way that music so often does.

And, yeah, grateful that though it seemed for a time I might lose my lover, and in some sense I did, it's looking more and more like nearly is the operative word:

I nearly, I nearly lost you there
And it's taken us somewhere
I nearly lost you there
Well let's try to sleep now
I nearly lost you there
I nearly lost you
I nearly lost you there
I nearly lost you there
I nearly lost you there
Oh yeah, nearly lost you there