What a wonderful escape, however brief. It was so nice to be out of here and with family for four days. Never thought I'd write that about the family, but things mellow with age. The only sour note over the whole long weekend was the needless slaughter of my beloved, yet hapless Bruins at the hands of the demon spawn of USC. As a longtime UCLA fan, it's to be expected, although this year proved to be particularly gruesome.
Family time isn't the only thing that mellows with age. It's amazing how time and circumstances can alter your perspective. When the time came for me to leave my rinky-dink hometown for the bright lights of big city college life, it couldn't have come a moment too soon. I found my city to be so backwards and provincial, so conservative and narrow minded, stuck in time and culturally stilted. Now, having lived in Bakersfield for two years, it feels like the fucking Hamptons. I'd move back in a heartbeat if I could.
I'm embarrassed and ashamed to admit this, but every time we leave town, both the boyfriend and I hope for some natural calamity to wipe Bako off the map, like a meteor strike. Ashamed because, sadly, that's unlikely to happen. The odds are greater on winning the lottery, which would also work for our purposes. Still, if you don't have hope, what do you have?
We left a little early to avoid the traffic back and the drive was relatively easy. I found myself dozing off the last half hour of the drive, both dogs asleep in my lap. I didn't even have to open my eyes to know we were nearly home. The air grew ripe with the stench of a thousand Port-A-Potties and I knew we were back in Bako.
