They told me not to do it, so I did it anyway...

My Aunt Tilly wrote me this email in response to a happy birthday e-card I sent her. Reading it now from my apartment in Oakland, CA while watching Batman Returns and eating chocolate rice crispies makes me laugh. I like knowing that I could've said "I told you so" even though I spared her the gloating.

On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 8:22 PM, Aunt Tilly <tillyhenderson@roadrunner.com> wrote:

Hi Faluvia,

Thank you so much for the cute birthday card. My friends tell me that I should look on the bright side, as next year I can start to collect Social Security!

Honey, I was very unhappy to hear from your Mom that you are planning to move to California. California is probably the worst state in the Union right now, in terms of economic stability. The jobless rate is so very high, and the state budget is a mess. The state is going to have to start cutting programs right and left, and still will not be able to dig itself out of this debt-ridden mess that it is in.

When I graduated from college in 1971, many of my friends wanted to move to California - it always seemed so glamorous, sunny, healthy, etc. It's not so. Right now you have a decent job (OK, not your career goal, and benefits). If you up-root after only a few months, it will not look good on a resume. And what will you live on while you drive cross-country and try to find a job in a state that is bordering on bankruptcy?

Please reconsider this decision. I'm not averse to trying new things and thinking outside the box. But I think this decision is going to be very bad for you in the long run.

Love,

Aunt Tilly

So my plan for this blog is to document all of the reasons why you shouldn't always listen to "worldly" advice from your Aunt Tilly. No matter how smart or accomplished she might be, she's still from the 50s when computers didn't exist.

I don't know about the "long run" or how "very bad" things might turn out for me, but I also don't care because there's no going back. Nowhere in this world could be better for me right now than California, the East Bay Beast, and funky, freaky, foggy Frisco.