Headin' South

I don't usually do those survey things that some people post on their blogs. You know what I'm talking about ... the survey that asks you whether your favorite color is purple or green, then declares that you are a middle class suburbanite with two cats who likes to watch Jeopardy in the afternoon. Except that on Wednesday, I'll be driving from nothern California (where I live) to southern California (where I grew up) (we pastors take our vacations after Christmas), and I just happened to come across a quiz that would tell me whether I'm a northern Californian at heart, or a southern Californian.

I wasn't sure which I wanted to be. Southern California is a little crazy, but it's my home, and every once in awhile I get homesick for the San Fernando Valley, with its palm trees and TV studios, with a horizon formed by the Hollywood Hills to the south and the Verdugo Hills to the northeast. I do feel kind of stuck, which is all the more strange given that there is a rivalry between northern Californians & southern Californians. It's a rivalry between San Francisco & Los Angeles, the Giants & the Dodgers, the "Bay Area" and the "Southland."

Well, I don't live in the Bay Area. In fact, some people in my part of California laugh when the Bay Area is referred to as "northern California." "Look at a map," they say. "San Francisco is more central than it is northern." The problem is, ours is a rural, sparsly populated part of the state, so all our yapping is like a tiny chihuahua barking at the heels of a giant--no one pays any attention.

Anyway, I'm on my way south, to see family, and take my kids to the Griffith Observatory (a place I used to ride my bike to when I was a kid). And as the survey results show, I'm not sure where my heart lies...

Are You a Northern Or Southern Californian Your Result: You're One Confused Californian Okay, so maybe you've been transferred around the state, but most likely you're just from Fresno. I mean black beans and pinto, really, both are good. All you know is that you are proud to be from the state of fruits AND nuts, and you're a little of both. :)
You're a Northern Californian
You're a Southern Californian
You Don't Know Cali
Are You a Northern Or Southern Californian

By the way, my wife, who grew up in northern California, took the survey and got the same results as me. She was so insulted, she took it again, deliberately changing some of her answers, intent on proving that she is "northern California" through and through. See what I mean about the rivalry?