Diversity

I'm homesick.

On this trip, Marilee and I have been apart longer than any time in the last five years. I miss her laugh, her smirk, her... everything. And while I could just stop there, I have to add more.

I long for open space. Seeing Huntington Beach along Pacific Coast Highway on Sunday helped a little, but was short-lived, as afterwards I went south a bit more to Newport Beach.

Twenty-some-odd years ago when I lived in Newport, we were virtually across the street from the beach. Late at night you could even hear the waves crashing on the sand. The place where I lived was still there, on the corner of 32nd Street and Balboa Blvd. But the crush of people even then, was stifling. I reminded myself why we'd moved from there - the crowds were just too great. Now all of Orange County is that way.

I've seen more of humanity in the last week than I have in the last year in Utah. While the population of Utah is about two million, that's spread out over 84,899 square miles; the population of Orange County, CA is three million within just 948 square miles.

Driving down Valley View street on the way to the school I'm attending, I have several times hit the Bott's Dots dividing the lanes. Not that I'm drifting all that much - I am driving the Silverado while I'm down here - but there are three lanes on that street that in Utah would have just two lanes.

The freeways are just as bad, but the saving grace is that the drivers are much more forgiving. After all, they're not Utah drivers. You know who you are.

I can handle the cultural diversity, but the population count is just a bit too much. There are just too many people. And I can't wait until I get back home to Utah.

Because the longer I stay here, diverse it's going to get.