California, the time is right.

Today my mom called from the road to tell me she was safe. She called yesterday to say she was safe in Missouri and the day before, she was safe in Indiana and the day before, Ohio, and the day before, PA, and the day before that, she and my father and my sister and my cat and 2 dogs spent the last night at our once-home in Mahopac, New York 10541.

Dad told me he narrowly avoided two car accidents in New Jersey on their first day of driving. Rather than lauding his excellent driving skills, I convinced myself that all statistics stand in favor of my family's certain death or loss of limbs. As I see it, they are tempting fate. They might as well climb a mountain with golf clubs raised in a lighting storm or cover themselves in honey and salmon for a hike in bear country. A pit stop at my grandparent's Arkansas home keeps them safe right now, leaving my worries hushed and my sleep restful. The only threat I can think of Arkansas bringing is a very real one- that a spankin' new Walmart might fall from the sky, crushing my family flat as that posessed smiley face that knocks the prices (as well as my mistaken belief that rampant sexism and monopolies were illegal) down to the ground.

"So, I'm half way, now. Half way between my old life and my new life. I feel weepy," my mom said on the phone.

Soon, the fam will settle into a small house overlooking the Pacific ocean in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. There, banana leaves shade people and Birds of Paradise adorn front lawns. My mom worried about and mourned the move for months. Of course she did. Time and energy drove her roots deep through Mahopac. Circumstances pulled and tugged until my family separated from New York soil and they're all sore and dying a little bit right now. Soon, though, soon soon Thursday soon, they'll be sinking into Califonia soil and their frayed ends will heal while seeking drink and food. They'll settle themselves in the ground again. Friends wait to be made. Boys wait to pass out from Lindsay's hotness. Yoga classes wait to be taken. Legs wait to be slimmed on beachy walks and skin waits to be dipped in the ocean.