In Hiding

It's graduation weekend for UCSC and to celebrate, Becky and I are hiding. We stocked up on groceries beforehand in anticipation of driving precisely nowhere all weekend.

The one thing that got us out of the apartment was the Santa Cruz Boardwalk 100th anniversary, featuring canned tunes blasted over loudspeakers (weirdest song: Dani California by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I know that song because the video for it is really cool) and lots of fireworks. The music didn't bother us because we were up on the tressle bridge by the BMX park instead of down on the boardwalk proper. We had a perfect view of the fireworks and easy access to scampering home after.

The coolest part of it was the sense of solidarity in walking down to watch the fireworks - everyone who lives downtown was on the streets, tromping along with their kids or riding their bikes, looking for a choice spot to take it all in. What I feel most lucky about now that it's been almost a year as a California resident is that we ended up in a genuine community, not one of the endless strip-mall hell-holes this state is better known for. I feel like I'm allowed to represent some local pride since we've made genuine efforts to put down roots here. And I'm forced to take back some of the shit I talked on every place in Cali south of San Francisco over the years (of course, now I can just shift that practice to focus on everything south of Carmel, but at least I'm making an effort...)

I think a lot of people who live here do the same. Everywhere you go, you see cars sporting Santa Cruz bumper stickers and people sporting Santa Cruz (skate company) shirts, and you can tell that the people wearing them are locals. It's kind of redundant to brag about living somewhere when you live there, but I think my point is ultimately that it's nice that Santa Cruz is worth bragging about.