It never rains in southern California

Holla if you remember that cheezy song! Part of the great cultural legacy of music that 1990 left us. This includes "Funky Cole Medina" and "You Got What I Need (You Say He Just A Friend)".

And, as it turns out, I was being lied to by song. It does rain in southern California, sometimes spectacularly so. For example, on my last full day in LA, it rained five inches. !!!

[I do realize that this is just the tip of the iceberg, water-wise. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it, what with the death toll from the tsunami at 118,000 and growing. In all seriousness, the stories coming from that just break your heart. People, redcross.org can take donations. Okay, now I'm getting depressed. Did you guys read the story about the guy who saved 30 orphans by loading them into his boat and outracing a wall of water? Holy shit. If this were a movie, I'd be rolling my eyes right about now - unbelievable.]

But back to me. The visit home was wonderful. I got to hang out with friends (shout-out to Mags) and catch up on Gilmore Girls, which, oddly enough, is on the Family Channel several times a day. They do know it's about a woman who had her daughter out of wedlock, right? Just checking.

It is strange, though, hanging out at your parents' house as an adult. I guess this isn't new, but the situations have truly reversed. I'm the one lecturing my parents about potential fire hazards (really, though - who puts a lit candle right behind the toilet?), singing the importance of fresh vegetables, and pointing out mold in the bathroom. Hmm, reading that, you'd think I was a demanding guest. I'm really not a principessa, despite my URL.

And yet, simultaneously, you find yourself falling back into your sullen teenage groove. Anyone seen "Napoleon Dynamite"? Around my family, I get about as surly as the title character in that movie. I know it's hard to believe that someone as charming as myself could get that hard to take. Well, believe it folks. I find myself fighting with my brother about whose turn it is to do the dishes and quarreling with my sister about the car radio.

The best part, though, is that you also pick up where you left off. My sister and I spent an "enjoyable" (I use that word advisedly, because that was the biggest piece of shite that has ever graced the airwaves in our household) evening mocking the latest Growing Pains reunion movie and fell victim to a giggles fit while at church. Plus I'm getting to know my parents as people, which is nice and, I realize, a luxury. All in all, it was a good respite from life in DC.