Santa Cruz, Ca.

[slang]

I visited Santa Cruz last week and just wanted to report back some thoughts.

1. It's absolutely beautiful out there. Not particularly important to me, nor worth paying the high taxes and such, but most certainly a gorgeous area.

2. The public at large was very polite to me. It was my goal to go out of the way to be nice and this was returned in kind to my amazement. I know some of you here are not normal Christian white bread. That's fine with me although many "strange looking" ( read hippy types) have tended to make me nervous in real life. I guess long hair on a guy will always make me look twice but these types in Cali were just as nice as my Christian white bread hosts.

The people in Cali are trying to make their society the best they can, and although I dont agree with how they are going about it, I can at least understand their point of view.

3. The women out there are outrageously attractive. Not all of them, sure and they may very well be the most vacant sort of humans but wow, they look great.

4. The gun laws are not strictly enforced, or maybe I should say....they depend on who you are and where you live. Enough said on that subject.

5. Conservatives are alive and well in Cali. They arent the majority but they are there and they are much the same as the conservatives here. That's re-assuring to me personally.

6. If you have title to more than 3 square yards of earth in SC, you are a millionaire on paper. The property values are ridiculous in Ma, but holy smoke, they are out of this world in Cali. Our host owns a very new and comfortable home in a development. It's nothing to mock or ridicule but not worth *that* sort of money any where else that I can think of.

The parents of the host own a home with a deck on the roof and a ocean view, although not on the beach. It was so nice I didnt even want to go through it. I could work several lifetimes and not afford this home. For that matter, I could win the lotto and not have enough.

UT's got a rockin' pad in the burbs and it's awesome. This place in Cali just plain made me uncomfortable though.

There is also a senior member of the family that is high up in the management of an "un-named" defense contractor. The possibility of going out there for work seems remote at this time but not impossible and I was encouraged to look for UG work there.

That may be a option for me in the not too distant future.

Imagine that! My perception of Cali has been changed for the good.