california, here I am.

Today was my first day back in California for my two-week retreat. So far I've gotten to enjoy a few of the things I miss the most -

- Fresh seafood
- Bartenders who know how to make a real drink
- Sourdough bread
- The San Francisco hills
- My parents, of course!

My flight left Oklahoma City at 6:00 a.m. which was awesome, minus the whole two hours of sleep part. Being a Monday, the airport was packed [as packed as it can be for Oklahoma City] but once we were in the air I was sound asleep, my Bose noise-canceling headphones strapped firmly to my ears filtering in the "sleep" playlist on my iPod.

By the way, I am now convinced that normal-sized airplanes are unable to fly into the OKC airport. The plane for the three hour flight into Los Angeles was tiny, yet the plane that flew me from LA to San Francisco was a 757. Go figure.

I upgraded myself to Economy Plus for my flight to SF [I would have done the same if it were offered en route to LA], and it was worth it. Being fairly claustrophobic I need my space when I fly and my seat going to SF was against the window. The seat in the middle was empty so I was far more comfortable than I was going from OKC to LA. We even got pre-flight orange juice. I felt so important.

Dad picked me up on time in San Francisco and my luggage had already gotten there via an earlier flight, so we were on our way. We chose Spenger's for lunch - it's a great seafood restaurant in Berkeley right on the Bay and as a kid I used to love their shrimp scatter. We stopped in Brennan's for a drink before Spenger's opened. We had lunch at the bar there - a dozen raw oysters on the half-shell, sourdough bread, fried shrimp and fries with malt vinegar. I even had a Absolut Ruby Red and grapefruit juice, and the bartender squeezed the juice at the bar. It tasted fabulous.

After living in the Midwest I now realize that the Bay Area is the only place you can really get sourdough bread. It's like New York bagels - the only good ones come out of lower New York. Seriously, anywhere else and you can't compare. The same goes for sourdough bread - boy, did I take it for granted when I grew up here. Now I can't get enough of it when I come home.

The oysters were amazing. I practically grew up eating weird shellfish; I remember being 10, at my dad's friend's crazy parties, downing barbecued oysters like they were chicken fingers. I tried raw oysters for the first time when I was 16 in Boston at the Union Oyster House [the oldest restuarant in the United States]. And I've sampled from NYC's Oyster Bar's vast menu of half-shell delicacies. So it was really nice getting some good oysters here - you could still taste a bit of the salt water in them. We had sake to drizzle on them, but I preferred them without anything. The sourdough bread in the sake, though, that was tasty.

Tonight we had dinner at Sticky Rice here in Fairfield with my parents and my grandma for a belated Mother's Day dinner. It's so good being home, even though it's only for two weeks. I missed Patty and my cats and being around my parents. I really believe that me living in another state, being married and having my own life has strengthened the bond with my parents. My mom was telling me in the car today, that when I moved to Oklahoma two years ago with my Escort packed full and no marriage license or apartment of our own, it took a lot of guts, regardless of everything going on at that time. That was the best thing I could have heard. It was scary as hell at the time, but we got through it and now we're settled and things are content.

It's going to be a busy two weeks, and I'm completely okay with that. There's so many people I want to see and things I want to do. San Francisco, shopping, movies with Mom, j-kid reunion, party at Flo's, Cloud 9, visiting Dale, visiting with Grandpa and the in-laws... it's just what I need.