Santa Barbara Mirage

Ever lose yourself in a moment, because it presents a piece of your past for a few precious seconds? Imagine trying to hold on to a fleeting deja vu experience. You savor the time, no matter how short it is, as if it is a gift of something greater than you.

The light of day is dwindling fast as I am driving home, taking one of my usual routes. Everything is in order, the same curving line of street lamps burning that unison of yellow, the cascading set of rooftops of garden style condos set against the fading to black sky. This time I am not driving through my neighborhood of cookie cutter perfection. I am driving into the mountain set of America's Riviera. The same mountain range that runs the panoramic of Santa Barbara into the pacific is right in front of me. It must be. The same north range in Santa Barbara that has the west coast sunset dropping off the tapering mountainside is seriously right in front of me. The same cascading rooftops that normally break up the solid blue canvas is now set against America's Riviera.

This was my moment to be in two places at one time.

I could not shake the feeling that I was driving towards the mountain range I grew up with 2800 miles away. Why would I want to change the moment? I was some how cheating time by living two moments simultaneously.

Gotta love the unexpected.