Los Angeles, Je T'Aime

We love to complain about Los Angeles -- traffic, smog, industry, deluded mindsets, pretentious psyches. But I think underneath it all, most of us really love the sprawl. The action is here. And if you're tired of it, you can easily slip away to a quaint beach town or secluded mountain top for a weekend.

Enjoying my recent trip back east, I had zero time to grow L.A.sick, racing around to visit as many family members and friends as possible. After a hellish United flight home, I sunk into my couch, fondling the fibers, missing its touch. (I spend a lot of time on my couch as a freelancer.) I smiled at my bamboo plant sitting on my living room table, my desert succulents sunbathing on my kitchen sink windowsill, my everlasting yellow daisies swimming in their blue vase on my kitchen table, the roaring Venice Boulevard. The realization of how at home I feel in Venice shocked me slightly, though a tinge of SoYoCosickness stabbed my stomach.

The events of my first day home delighted me. Without planning, I found myself at places I had missed after just one week. Revolution Fitness in Venice, Wednesday's Santa Monica Farmer's Market, Trader Joe's, Firefly on Abbot Kinney to buy my fancy French soap and Intelligentsia for a heavenly cappuccino topped with a frothy heart. Each of these stops made me incredibly happy, hugging my heart, thanking me for returning to a land which I once loved, then loathed and now love once again.

Though I may not reside in L.A. forever, California has stolen my heart and soul, just as I knew it would years before I uprooted and moved my life to an unknown, coveted coast.