California, my home, does things just a little different than everywhere else

[a la izquierda]

12. I lived in L.A. for four years. Loved every minute of it.

I just moved to West Virginia, so I don't know much about it. I grew up in NJ. The show Jersey Shore ruined it. So I'll talk about Oklahoma.

It's not as flat as one thinks. There are mountains in the east, complete with forests. There are mesas in the panhandle.

The Red River separates Oklahoma from Texas. You can pretty much walk across parts of it. Especially if there's a drought. Many of the lakes were man made.

In the book The Worst Hard Time, the author describes the feeling that settlers felt underneath huge open sky. Freaked out. I felt the same way when I moved there. But now trees and mountains make me claustrophobic.

Tornadoes can be scary as hell, but the weather folks are the best. On the planet.

People are mental about their sports teams and Jesus. It's true. Don't talk Jesus or politics with strangers and they'll like you just fine.

Oklahoma is beautiful in the spring, brutal in the summer, colorful in the fall, and haunting in winter. And it's windy as hell 365 days/year.

Oklahoma girls are beautiful too, but tan too much on the whole.

We don't ride horses to work, unless we're cowboys/cowgirls. There are actual roads and actual cars.

There are a ton of churches here. It's unnerving.

There's nothing like an Oklahoma sunset. It takes a long time for the sun to dip below the horizon.

Our politicians are idiots, but the people are a good lot. It was a hotbed of socialism in the '30s. Too bad people forgot their political roots.

I love Oklahoma and I miss it every single day, despite having grown up near NYC and living in Los Angeles. It's real, the people are genuine, and the weather is exciting.