Wednesday, September 12, 2007

california dreamin'

I had the following conversation over the phone this weekend.

My sister had just sent me a text message with the latest picture of my niece Serena doing something cute.

Sister: So, did you get it?
Me: Yeah, it’s cute. I just showed Jesse.
Sister: Yeah, isn’t she adorable? I was trying to get a picture of her eating and then she posed right as I took it. Here. Do you want to talk to her?
Me: Yeah, of course.

Muffled sounds as the phone is passed to my niece.

Serena: HI! (giggles)
Me: Hi, Serena! What are you doing?
Serena: Uh...eating French fries.
Me: You’re eating French fries? Yum!
Serena: Yummmm!
Me: They’re good, huh?
Serena: Are you coming home now?

At this point, my heart sunk all the way down to my stomach. I couldn’t believe she asked me that. A lump formed in my throat. I wanted to tell her, Yes. I wanted to see her right then and there and just hug her with all of my might. But I couldn’t because I was on the opposite side of the country.

I took a second to compose myself.

Me: No, Serena. Not yet. But I’m coming home soon.
Serena: Ok. Love you!
Me: I love you too! (that lump in my throat suddenly doubled in size)
Serena: Ok, BYE BYE!

Muffled sounds as the phone is passed back to my sister.

Sister: Wow. I can’t believe she said that.
Me: Neither can I. Did you tell her to ask me that?
Sister: No, I didn’t. I swear. Isn’t that cute though?
Me (thinking), Sure, if you call your heart breaking cute.
Me: Yeah, that is cute.
Sister: So when are you coming home?
Me: Soon.

And I am going home soon. My tour of the West Coast starts Oct. 17 in San Francisco and then I’ll fly down to the OC to celebrate my birthday with family and friends.

Oh and I can’t wait to see this little angel:
sleepy serena

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cute pictures!

And yay for California! :)

Oh, you should take the Amtrak Coast Starlight down if you can! I've always wanted to do that. It looks sooo cool. There's an observation car, dining car, and "sleeping" cars ;)

Oh, and I met someone yesterday who said that SoCal is friendlier than SF (someone who grew up in LA & did his residency in SF).

Anonymous said...

btw, I'm making a list of the top ten things I miss about Cali.

heehee :)

media concepts said...

Have fun here in Cali. Last night I found out from some SoCal locals that the LA/SF rivalry is only 1 way (SF people complain about LA people, LA people could not give a rat's ass). It was fun to hear about the possible reasons why. I say it's jealousy about the weather.

Anonymous said...

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!

*hugs* on the other post too-- that's so very hard.

Why must life be annoying?

an orange county girl said...

sunchaser--yes, woot woot! i'm pretty excited about going home.

is so cal friendlier than sf? ummm...i don't know. but the bums in sf are definitely nicer than the ones in la!

sunchaser2--i can't wait to see the list. in-and-out better be on there! :)

media concepts--oh yeah. the weather in la doesn't even compare to the weather in sf. it's so much nicer in la, hands down. but sf has a lot of things to offer that la doesn't--wine country for one.

and yes, i can attest to that rivarly being one-sided. there are lots of things that la-ers are indifferent about. :)

madame--thanks! isn't she cute? i have the same reaction every time i see a pic of her. she gets more adorable with every picture.