From LA With Love

Change is nasty, or so it seems at first. Almost always it eventually turns out to be a blessing in disguise. But as a habit we always detest it, like I did a couple weeks back when I was asked to travel to California for 2 weeks for my work.

Having moved from California to Connecticut just a month back, it was painful to start packing my bags again. To add to the pain, I was very glad when I had left LA. I hated the place so much, I had sworn to myself that I would never set foot here again. Now while the world associates this place with white sands, fashion, Hollywood and zero snow, I associated it with bad memories, fake people and zero friends. I always used to say “Nothing’s warm here except for the weather.”

Have you ever noticed how the things you want to run away from the most always come back to you? They always do! It’s almost like there’s no escape. So even though I had let myself believe that I was done with LA, here I was back again….grudging and muttering curses as I landed at LAX.

As always, after so much gone wrong, things had to take a turn for the better. This time I had to work quite far from where I was earlier. So that ensured I never bumped into the same people I hated so much (phew!). This place (Camarillo) is actually 55 miles away from the airport, and a good 25 miles away from my earlier work place and residence. I was all alone for 2 whole weeks, and got an opportunity (which so rarely comes along) to make truce with the place, and create a fresh perspective. Everyone deserves a second chance, so why not this place?

This time the place was desperately trying to please me. All it had to do was look its best, which it did for me. California has always been beautiful, but these two weeks it was something else. While the freeways were blocked with the incessant rain waters, the valley (Camarillo) was surrounded by green majesties of mountains that exhaled the freshest air and the dewiest breeze. It was almost like witnessing the Indian monsoon. Every morning I went for an hour long walk, then drove 9 miles to work into the valley, all 9 being absolutely worth the drive. I zigzagged between the mountains that were half covered in misty rainclouds, and looked for the sun that was only just there. It was pleasantly warm-cold and my jacket took a rest in my car. As I drove each morning down into the valley, I took in the delightful view while sipping on my steaming coffee. At work I met new people and liked them all.

Now how can something like this not earn my forgiveness? I let bygones be bygones and now long to return again. Good memories have overridden the bad ones. As I drove to work this morning, I knew it was my last day here and I may never have an encore opportunity to return, or to witness a rainy weather in the valley, and I realized just how much I have begun to like the place! Oh, and did I tell you the name of the exit where my tiny work building proudly stood? – Pleasant Valley :)