The long weekend.

You know you live in Bakersfield when...

1. You see one of those motorized disabled-person carts (like at Target) driving down a main street with a giant rainbow umbrella attached.

2. You see, on the same day, on the same street, a personalized golf cart painted in brightest bright colors with several people onboard.

3. You pull, when walking into the restroom at the local pizza place (the nice local pizza place) a shower curtain to close the stall instead of a stall door. Ingenious. They should have tried those at my high school, where at least half of the doors were missing in the girls' bathroom.

4. They close an entire highway on big weekends because all the latin-folk love to party at the park All.Day.Long. and listen to mariachi music All.Day.Long. and drink beerbeerbeer All.Day.Long. Which is really annoying if a non-park-going person such as myself has relatives with super-cool house right by the park and can't get to it because there is a police barricade between said person and said cool house.

All this to say that I, in all the wisdom God has granted me, am headed to Redding for the long weekend. To "get away." Which, if you know Redding, is ironic to the extreme.