Some Final Thoughts.....

"Closing Time"
By Snatchy McPickles
March 25, 2012

It is Sunday, March 25th. Tomorrow, I leave Sacramento and the California Republic to embark on a new life in Atlanta. Before I leave, I wanted to express some thoughts about the last 7 1/2 years and my time in Sacramento. So, I have come back to my now empty house to write down some things from the floor of what once was my living room.

I guess for me, Sacramento will always be about the people, my friends, who I came to know and love since my arrival in 2004. "The Amazing California Adventures" would not have been as "amazing" without the companionship of some truly unique and wonderful people. It is my blog, so I will take the time to name these people: Jeff, Courtney, Rochelle, Joel and Rebecca, Matthew and Elissa, Jeff Anderson, David, Gil, Jenny, Danny, Aimee Varner, Grant, Sean, Andrea, Sherry and Michael, Andrew, Tammy and Amy, Larry, and Melissa. These people will always comprise my Sacramento. I should go ahead and say that there was also a huge supporting cast of colleagues, acquaintances, and "friends of friends" who amplified the experience - who gave the overall movie its fun and often wacky character. Too many to recount now. But they made up my overall community, and in the end made Sacramento more charming than I ever thought it could be.



And then of course, Sacramento will always be about the places - the scenery helped define this experience. The Sierras gave me ski trips and backpacking. San Francisco gave me a much needed urban escape when I needed it. Yosemite gave me religion. Napa and Half Moon Bay provided the locations for amazing visits with my Mom and Dad. The Sonoma Coast and Highway 1 always renewed my spirit when it needed renewing. And in Sacramento, Midtown, Downtown, Land Park....these places were my community. I can say now with some confidence that I lived in the most incredibly beautiful part of our United States. And I understand completely what the California dream is all about. It is based around a sense of Freedom and Possibility and living every day to the fullest. And the places I mentioned amplify that sense - they make you believe that whatever you want to do is possible, and that whatever challenge stands in your way can be conquered. (Note: I realize I am rambling, but whatever).

I will always wonder if I lived the California dream. Does me going back to Georgia mean that I didn't? Did I live each day to the fullest? Did I seize the opportunities that were afforded to me? Did I embrace the Freedom of the West? This blog and its entries show an incredibly active and positive life that I led for the past 7 years. Was it reality? Yes and no. There were also some hard experiences - Rochelle dying, frustrations with dating, cars stolen, houses robbed, to name a few. But that's only the surface...dig deeper.

I came out to Sacramento from Washington, DC a young man. I didn't know the first thing about being a lawyer or the first thing about relationships (as I soon would learn). That would all change, however. Sacramento molded me into a pretty damn good attorney. It also made me a pretty thoughtful and caring person with a strong understanding of friendships and relationships. I think it will always pain me that I didn't meet my wife in California, but that doesn't mean I didn't meet some incredibly wonderful women. I did. Of course I did.

Maybe in the end, that's what this move is really about - it's about finding "The One" and filling the one void -the one amazing adventure I didn't have in California. And of course, it's about filling the void of family. A family I love and adore who I have not seen nearly as much as I would have liked over the past 18 years. One could argue that I am taking a leap of faith by going to Atlanta. That I am giving up a community of friends and a chance of adventure that I will never be able to reproduce in the South. Maybe so. But I think the excitement and opportunity to fill these two huge voids in my life are worth taking that leap for.

I have to say that overall I have loved my time in California. I will not look back on this experience with any negative slant. It's just not in my nature to do that. As Laura once said to me - "Stay positive, have fun, and hunker down when you need to." That's the motto I lived by in California, and that's the motto I will live by in Atlanta. California is, after all, a state of mind. In any event, if Georgia stinks, I am moving back.

But to answer the question I raised above: Did I live the California Dream?

(Pause)

You're goddamn right I did.