california

I love California, I practically grew up in Phoenix.

The problem with being a second-generation Californian is you're not objective about California itself. I think a lot of people come here for the comfort of it, or to reinvent themselves, and maybe creative people are natural searchers, searching for someplace to be. The lifestyle becomes very appealing--Clint Eastwood

If California is a state of mind, Hollywood is where you take its temperature. There is a peculiar sense in which this city existing mainly on film and tape is our national capital, alas, and not just the capital of California. It's the place where our children learn how and what to dream and where everything happens just before, or just after, it happens to us.

The setting sun burned the sky pink and orange in the same bright hues as surfers' bathing suits. It was beautiful deception, Bosch thought, as he drove north on the Hollywood Freeway to home. Sunsets did that here. Made you forget it was the smog that made their colors so brilliant, that behind every pretty picture there could be an ugly story.

Tell me once more about the eternal surf.

There__ a passage in John Steinbeck__ __ast of Eden_ that does a pretty good job describing California__ rainfall patterns:The water came in a 30-year cycle. There would be five to six wet and wonderful years when there might be 19 to 25 inches of rain, and the land would shout with grass. Then would come six or seven pretty good years of 12 to 16 inches of rain. And then the dry years would come ...

the California supreme court, following the English common-law, decided that the owner of land bordering a watercourse was entitled only to the usufruct of the water; that if he used it he must return it to its original course unimpaired in quality and undiminished in volume.

Trust the horticulturalist: California's genius may be green, but it's underlying beauty is brown.

Dear Matt, In less than a day, I_ ll be standing on the same sand you stood on so many times before. Well, not the same sand, with the tides and winds and erosion and all of that, but the same symbolic sand. I__ so excited and scared that I can_ t sleep _ even though I have to wake up in five hours! You know, I saved every one of your postcards. They__e here in a box under my bed _ all the little stories you sent, like little pieces of California. Like the beach glass you guys always brought me. Sometimes I dump it out on my desk and press my ear to the pieces, trying to hear the ocean. Trying to hear you. But you don_ t say anything. Remember how you_ d come back from your vacation on the beach and tell me what it really felt like? What the ocean sounded like at dawn when the beach was deserted? What your hair and skin tasted like after swimming in saltwater all day? How the sand could burn your feet as you walked on it, but if you stuck your toes in, it was cold and wet underneath? How you spent three hours sitting on Ocean Beach just to watch the sun sink into the water a million miles away? If I closed my eyes as you were talking, it was like I was there, like your stories were my stories. In many ways, I feel as if I have memories of you there, too. Do you think that__ crazy? Matt, please don_ t think badly about Frankie__ contest. It__ just a silly game. It__ so Frankie, you know? No, I guess you wouldn_ t. You_ d kill her if you did! She just misses you. We all do. I_ ll look out for her, though. I promise. Please watch over us tomorrow, and for the next few weeks while we__e away. You_ ll be in my thoughts the whole time, like always. I__ going to find some red sea glass for you. I miss you more than you could ever know. Love, Anna

He owes me nothing, yet gives me everything in return. __HEA

I can__ take any more of being careful around her. I want her. Not just for now, but for always.__EW

All the bad in my life led me to her, which makes me think that I can live with the past if she is my future. __EW

For the first time since I met her, I understand her need to keep her name secret and respect that. Here, someplace other than at home, we can be who we want, be with who we want, as long as it makes us happy. There__ no past today, only this moment together, right now. __EW

Shea is in my arms in seconds. We__e not just holding each other but pressing out all the bad, letting it seep from us, and allowing it to disintegrate in the air, leaving room for only the good within our embrace. With everything that we have with each other, I think there is no room for anything negative. Not anymore. __EW

She went weak in the knees and could barely walk as she followed him, trembling with fear. Her hopes for a happy future with Jordan came crashing down. Whoever had told Jordan she was free to travel under the name of Maria Brooks must have misled him.

Yes, I just_ Should I be honest and sound like a complete loser? Oh why the hell not? __ have not had a kiss like that in a while._ I licked my lips.He looked me dead in the eye. __ood._ A wave of silence crashed over us. I didn__ know what to say to that. __ell, I better get going. See you soon?__ nodded dumbly. __mm-hmm._ He smiled and began to walk away. I couldn__ just let him go! __eclan!__e turned. __es, Cake?__ome on, brain! Think of something! __hat should I wear? I mean, what kind of place is Shellshock?_ Yes, yes, that was fine_ damage averted.__alifornia casual.___h, ok._ I think I knew what that meant. Spend three hours getting ready to make it look like you just threw any-ol_-thing on. __ave a nice night.__e flicked his head my way. __ou too._ Then he was gone.And then I was sad.It was ridiculous. Preposterous, even. I was going to have to come clean about the ring- eventually. I hoped he didn__ bring it up because I would probably tell the poor guy my life story to get to why the ring he bought meant so much to me.

California has legislatively barred alimony payments to a dependent spouse who has attempted to murder the supporting spouse. Cal. Fam. Code § 4324.

Maria, it sounds like he was insane. Rational people don't intentionally addict people. I feel sorry for those poor people who were unsuspecting victims.