I meant to blog this a while ago, but I can't seem to find it, so I must not have.

One of my favorite things in movies or music or novels is when something nails an extremely common feeling which no one ever seems to notice or talk about. Two examples:

a) The last line of Come Back from San Francisco: "Damn you, I've never stayed up as late as this." It's a line that anyone who's ever had an east coast to west coast long distance relationship will understand immediately. 3 hours time difference is the perfect amount to make you stay up till 3:30 or so far far too often.

b) The first verse of one of my former housemate's song California. The song is about moving away from a loved one after a year here in Berkeley. The hook is "It won't be California I'll miss." Anyway, the first verse is:

Blue sky looks tired after weeks of no rain.
And I'm checking the forecast for more of the same.
It's this unrelieved sunshine I'm tired of.
No, it's not California I love.

The moment of the first rain my first year here is perhaps the most vivid memory I have of Berkeley. The feeling of "When is it going to rain?" I think is pretty universal for people moving to this sort of climate, but somehow it never got the press of one's first snow.