A Little PST Can Be A Good Thing...

My little brother Matt got married this weekend to his bride Kelli in a beautiful ceremony led by my grandfather in Beverly Hills overlooking Los Angeles. With airplane seats for three and a family of four we made the trek across the country to participate in this blessed event.

We rented a house with the Baker's in Santa Monica that was ACROSS THE STREET from the beach (corner of Ocean and Pacific St). There was family flying in from all over the country to be a part of this wedding. There were three different locations for the rehearsal, the wedding, and the reception. Beth was a bridesmaid, Allison was the coordinator, I was a groomsman, and Levi was a ring bearer.

Even in the midst of wedding stuff, child management, and sleepless nights I could still feel the remarkably slower more laid back pace of Southern California as compared to New York. Sometimes I forget that I live in a bubble. Whenever I leave that bubble the world is so different and not just because of surroundings but different in feel, energy, and especially pace. It's like life throttles down to 60% capacity once you leave New York and that's just going to Los Angeles it's much lower than that other states!

I know I go on and on about how great NYC is, and I realize how annoying that aggrandizing can be (see Texans), but I do see how the pace and feel of NYC can't work for most people. And truth is it doesn't always work for us either. It's nice to leave sometimes to decompress a little. But we know NYC works for us because so far it's always nice to return to the city we call home.

It was a short trip so the dichotomy between the two cities was acutely felt. For example from Wednesday to Sunday I had no real idea what was going on in the world. Even though I listened to KCRW 98.9 (a station I podcast) I still felt the absence of breaking news, and it was a good thing (I must detox after this election). In contrast, I knew the big stories of the day just from walking by the news stands on my way to work this morning.

I like being in the heart of it all. The Pacific time zone feels about three hours behind the rest of the world to me. And in NYC terms that might as well be the whole day. But sometimes letting the world get ahead of you isn't such a bad thing.