Heidi and I don't like to give each other Christmas gifts. It's all our money, so we're just going to give each other something that effectively we're buying for ourselves, but without much actual input. Instead, we like to take a trip early in the following year. We weren't sure if we could do anything this year, as money's been a bit tight as of late, until Heidi saw that JetBlue was opening service to Chicago in January. They were offering $36 one way from O'Hare to Long Beach. Problem solved.
First, let me sing JetBlue's praises. OK, they were close to two hours late coming into O'Hare, but that wasn't a JetBlue problem, that was an O'Hare problem (we left when the nasty rain just got started). On JetBlue, they don't have first class, and they doen't have huge airplanes, so they can treat their regular passengers (read: everybody) with respect. They don't have huge seats, but they're all leather, which is nothing special to me, but a pleasant touch. What is special to me is the inflight entertainment. It's a small screen imbedded into the seat in front of you, but it's 36 channels of DirecTV. On the flight out, I saw all of NBC's Thursday night lineup that I care to, and, on a different channel, I saw Supersize Me (which is one of those movies that makes you really want to change your lifestyle).
Long Beach airport is a joy to fly into. It's a small airport, so it doesn't have heaps of amenities, but the baggage claim is quick, and the car rental place is right across a slow-traffic street. Most of the airport is open to the elements (much like the Burbank airport), which can bite you in the ass, but in this case it was freakin' lovely. We also got a free upgrade on our rental, for no reason other than they were in a good mood. We could have had a Hummer, but I'm morally opposed to driving one of those, and we plan to put a lot of mileage on our car; we don't want to waste our travel savings on gas.
We're right now staying in a Residence Inn in Manhattan Beach, thanks to our pals at Priceline. It's built to make people comfortable with long-term stays, so it's quite a breath of fresh air from your typical hotel room.
But here's the thing. I used to live in LA (not down here; I hardly ever came this far south), and I left completely defeated. It took me years to get over my failures when I was in Chicago. Now I'm back, admittedly just to visit, but it feels very "right." Heidi's feeling it, too. She's said a few times, "Yeah, if we could afford it, I wouldn't mind living here." I have yet to see any of my friends, but I'm sure once I do, my desire to return here will increase tenfold.
I had a lot of problems living here before. I was underemployed pretty much my entire time here (when I was employed), I lived in some crappy places, and my social life was limited to mostly uneducated people with a "what can you do for me" mentality. I'm not saying this place is perfect, but, like the rest of life, you have to make wise decisions. My life in LA was pretty much a series of bad decisions, and I suffered the consequences. Moving back here could potentially be significantly easier, now that I'm wiser, and (more importantly), that I have a wise wife by my side.
I'm not saying that we're going to move here next week; but I am saying there are a lot of good reasons to move here. It's an option that has become much more palatable in the past few months, and although we're not making any definite plans (let's see how this year works out), it's something that we won't dismiss out of hand.
In any case, whether or not we end up moving here, this is one of the most relaxing vacations we've taken in a while. It feels good to be here, and that's what a vacation should be.
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