who what where when why wednesday.

q:

where are you from?

as in - where is your home?

a:

san diego.

if we're getting specific, i'm from a rural, unincorporated "haven in the hills" 15 miles east of downtown called jamul. 

it's literally a "one stop light" town.  there's an old wooden sign on the corner of that one intersection - next to the jamul market - that tells you it's pronounced "haa-moool" 

but san diego is san diego, and as far as i can tell, it's the only city in the world that feels like it's a "one big happy family"... a 3 million person family. so, jamul or encinitas or mission valley or poway... there's always a legit reason to be all over the county... san diegans feel like san diego is home no matter what corner of the county you're from.

rachel, am i right?  one big happy family... traversing all of san diego rather than keeping to your 5 square mile radius...?  i'm right, right?

i googled pictures of san diego... and skipped all the pictures of the harbor skyline and the coronado bay bridge for pictures of jamul... because that's my real home.  i only picked the glamorous ones.  homes on hills.  fog.  always fog.

but then i found this one and i think it's a little more accurate.

kids with rat tails in cut off sleeves and a beat up pick up in the background.

jamul is a backwards place sometimes.

jamul is also the town that burns down every three years.

my parents moved to la jolla this summer.... sad.

but no more annual exodus from the flames.... happy.

i'll miss dinner on the patio at sunset, but i will not miss the ash that falls like snowflakes or the fire drill run through the house to gather a car load of valuables.

we all have home town pride.  but can anyone love their home as much as i love mine? i even love the natural disasters....