Reminiscing

I like to watch Cops whenever it's an episode in Las Vegas. Don't get me wrong, though. I love my new home in Alabama, but I really miss living in the desert. The scenery was incredible and so unique. Heck, I even start missing the desert when I see a car commercial filmed in the desert. One of these days, I'm going to see a place I recognize in one of those commercials.

It's funny, too. I see pictures of my friends back in Death Valley, and I realize that they have moved on without me. There was a certain hard-to-define quality there. Some of the same things that made it good also made it bad. The fact that it was such a small community made it feel homey, but at the same time it made things kind of claustrophobic.

I think that I'm feeling this way right now because  in a little over three weeks, it will have been exactly one year since I left the beauty of the California desert. At the time, things weren't going so well for me and I couldn't wait to get out of there. As much as I miss that place and as much as I miss some of my friends, I really don't miss it at all. I don't actually miss most of the people there, nor the cramped living arrangements. I know I've made the best decision possible, and perhaps it is time for me to sever ties with my friends from Death Valley. I act sometimes like I'm missing out on something and they've moved on, but in reality, they are the people stuck in a rather dead-end situation. They all have crappy jobs and crappy houses, and they really don't have much of a future there. I'm not missing anything.

I think that eventually I will go back to Las Vegas for a vacation, but I will definitely not be visiting Death Valley. One day I will go back, but it will be when I'm sure that people I used to know are long gone. I do love Death Valley, and I always will. It's hard to live there for 3 1/2 years and not develop an affection for it.