How you know you've become a Californian...despite your best effortss.

So, we've been living in Oakland since November. When we first moved to California, we sort of felt that we were surrounded by crazy people. We don't really feel that way anymore. In fact, we really feel at home here now...that we belong among these "crazy people." However, that sometimes makes us reflect upon what that says about us...Tonight, we catalogued the ways we've become more "Californian."

1. The number of coffee-making-apparatii you own has increased exponentially and you consider beans that have been roasted more than 2 days ago to be "undrinkable." Also, you refuse to drink coffee at any restaurants that serve only brewed coffee instead of espresso.

From L-R: Chemex, Mokka pot, air-tight bean canister, (2) sizes of French Press, and Toddy for cold press coffee

2. You refuse to buy produce that either:

a. Isn't grown in an immediately recognizable Bay-area city,
b. Isn't on your "farmer's market calendar," or
c. Has no farm/city/organic label next to its price tag.

d. Also, you're so concerned about seasonal produce that you're willing to preserve lemons; spending 2 hours preparing them one evening and then storing them in your already crowded closet, taking care to shake them at least twice a day (we have no idea if these are even going to be edible/tasty).

3. You're willing to either
a. pre-order your Tartine bread 72 hours in advance
b. wait in line for an hour to purchase said Tartine Bread - or -
c. read a copious amount of blogs, feed your own starter, and stay up until midnight to make your own bread at home...all the while hoping you might be able to produce something even REMOTELY reminiscent of Tartine bread (THIS IS STILL RISING!!!).

4. You plan your morning runs/bike rides around the days that the garbage/recycling/compost folks come because you can't imagine getting out of bed before 6:30 a.m. for any other reason...let alone getting to work before 9 a.m. AND you wear extra gloves on said runs/bike rides because it is below 50 degrees.

5. It's not enough to have merely one variety of salt in your home for cooking. Aaron insists that these all taste unique...

6. When it is 55 degrees outside, you wear (3) layers of wool PLUS a rain jacket because you're FREEZING. (Also, when there is a ***SNOW WARNING*** you're afraid to leave the house because your heater might stop working and your cat might freeze to death.)

7. Your living room doubles as a wool-drying clothes rack...

AND...you own his and hers yoga mats.

8. You don't have a gym membership but you have (3) or more wine club memberships. Including one that totally stresses you out because they are only open Tuesday-Saturday from 11-6 and you have to rent the zipcar because the wine is so good that you buy too many bottles and they are too heavy to carry to the bus stop (which is 9 blocks from the store).

9. The act of buying fish has become a serious moral dilemma.

10. Your "green sensibilities" have taken over your reason. You are both members of Zipcar and you become enraged when the Prius isn't available to reserve so you have to take the GAS-HOG Mazda 3 for your errands. More importantly, you start bringing home kleenex, paper towels, and fruit peels in your pockets because you are APPALLED by the fact that restaurants/offices/coffee shops don't offer composting.

Please, please, please don't let us lose our Midwestern sensibilities. We're quite concerned that we've become, shall we say, "soft." Kindly remind us that average highs of 50 do not equal winter, an absence of fresh lettuce at the farmer's market is not a catastrophe, and that people actually do, in fact, go to work before 9 am...and that isn't some sort of socialist manifesto.