Show me love! Get buzzed; let's get fxxked up!
"California"
Hollywood Undead
Today, I woke up, and started thinking about (and missing, for no specific reason) California (Hollywood Undead reminded me where I'm from).

I Am SoCal
Though I'm glossing over large swaths of history, I didn't live the California-lifestyle. Having left the 661 before moving to Arizona November, 2008, I have a a huge vault of lame memories from that state. More than twenty years of my life were spent living in various cities in its southern and central sections. There, I had lived a mildly introverted, quiet life, fixated on getting high grades in school, avoiding risque experiences (I didn't actively seek to start trouble--it found me, mostly) until senior year, where I decided I could teach myself better than the schools could (I graduated, of course). I was decidedly less than what I am today, though I'm understandably torn between shunning and regretting the inactivity that smears my prior history and lauding it for what I've become because of it.

Probably the best memories I have are of when I worked out in the oilfields for a year, raking in cash, enjoying myself, and living with a girlfriend (now an ex).

This New World...
I never did get the chance to do everything I could have done over there, which directly translates into a desire to get into mischief out here in Phoenix. I've become involved in a number of amusing, disheartening, angering, infuriating, yet mostly positive scenarios while living out here, due to this 'mischievous' quality.

My desire to -do- something has become unsatisfiable. I seek to become involved in almost everything I hear about, and have begun considering how best host my own events when I'm not involved in something else. To further this end, my job search efforts have gone full-bore. I've put a hold on everything else I've been doing to take care of this overly neglected requirement (too much socializing and invites to parties kept luring me away from the effort, because it was too new to resist).

California defined and ended a chapter of my life. Two years after having lived one-quarter of a century, my life has changed dramatically in Arizona. I anticipate some of the best things have yet to come, and if I can help it, I want a number of my closest friends to benefit from whatever massive goodness comes my way (though it's up to them if they want to be a part of it). Until then, I do not regret leaving California as much as I regret being incapable of showing my home state how much I've changed.

Eventually, I will go back. Not forever, but for a visit. I'll make the memories worth the trip.