Rebuttal to a snob in Riverside

I rarely spend time reading strangers blogs, but sometimes, late at night, when I have a bought of insomnia, I’ll type in a keyword here and there and read something that catches my eye. The other night, I came across a blog from a woman in Riverside. She is a transplant from Orange County, no wait… her “Beloved OC”. Now… I am all for loving where one comes from, whether it be back east, down South, or from abroad. This lady was really forlorn for her beloved OC. She claimed to be a Christian, claimed to be a wonderful person. As I was reading her bio, I began to grow increasingly offended. With just a few keystrokes, she was able to put down living in Riverside, “a place she never would have believed she would ever live” as a place chock full of Pick ups, toy haulers, tats, Stater Bros, Meth labs, Farmer Boys, Bakers, and neighbors who tether their horses to their front yards. Is she kidding? My husband has been working in OC for 23 years, and while we both agree is it nice, it is really no different from where I live, or the rest of Southern California. This person is under the illusion that the borders of Orange County, CA do not contain people that own toy haulers, have tattoos, drive pick up trucks, patronize Stater Bros or Bakers burgers, or ride horses. Really? So NO ONE IN THE OC MAKES DRUGS? Is she kidding? The only difference between the OC meth labs and the IE meth labs, is the IE ones GOT CAUGHT! (which, when you think about, is better, and probably means we have LESS meth labs than the OC, because according to this lady, OC has NOTHING REMOTELY WRONG WITH IT!)

Oh! and I have another question… When did it become a BAD thing to be able to afford extra curricular vehicles (toy haulers) to have fun on weekends? She is typical of a lot of people that live within the confines of anywhere EXCEPT the 909 area code, and immediately look down their noses at “all us hillbillies” out here in no mans land, also known as the Inland Empire. Would she be that surprised to learn that people actually CHOSE to live here, not only because circumstances deemed it so? Allow me to shed some light on what the 909 has to offer. Where I live, near Riverside, is centrally located to absolutely everything cool about So Cal. 40 min to Disneyland, an hour to LA, 30 minutes to Palm Springs, 3 hours from Vegas, 45 min to OC beaches, 20-40 minutes to mountain resorts depending on the resort.

In the IE, you get be a city dweller or an urban dweller,

and have the best of both worlds if you so choose.

We have lOTS of different playgrounds to play in… mountain, desert, and suburban. We have great colleges, mansions, hospitals, hotels,neighborhoods and opportunities in the IE. We have great malls, outlet centers, school districts, private schools and colleges, stadiums, concert venues, casinos, and one of the most spectacular winter views of snow capped mountains anywhere. The weather here is only smoggy because it comes from the west… OC and LA. We can see the brown slug wafting here on a clear day. Thank God for our windy days, it makes it so clear you can see forever sometimes. We vacation about 6 times a year at the beaches in OC and I have noticed plenty of native “tats, toy haulers, and toothless wonders”, living in the beloved OC of this “Christian” woman. OC isn’t all Coto De Casa. There are plenty of cities in the OC I would never let my kids walk around in at night, not even before 7 p.m. Although my husband and I, as well as MANY people I know, can afford to buy a house almost anywhere in the OC, why would we? Bill’s and my parents are all still alive and well, and live here. My Mom and Dad are immigrants from Italy, a really cool place that has coolness and beauty and forward thinking in SPADES OVER THE OC, and they CHOSE the IE to make their home. They saw the potential in it. My Dad lived in San Pedro, Maywood, Irvine, San Clemente and Yorba Linda when he first came to this country, and wanted no part of any of it. He wanted an area where he could start fresh and make it what he wanted it to be. I’ll get off my soap box now. I just get so mad when people, who live in the same state as me, put down other people because of an area code or zip code. The truth is, there is good and bad in EVERY CITY IN AMERICA, and it is what you make of it. If she is so upset that she HAS to live in Riverside because she couldn’t afford a house in the OC, maybe she should have made better choices for herself as far as marriage, career choices or otherwise. If it is so hard to buy a home in the OC, why are there so many people buying homes there, every year? hmmmmm. My guess is that she can’t cut it, and has to put other people down to elevate her own social status in her own mind. So sad… We here in the Inland Empire have to put up with a lot of backlash and name calling from surrounding areas. All I can say is… my area code was 714 for the first 15 years of my life, here in the IE, and my area code and where I lived didn’t define my quality of life. My home is where my family is, whether it be in a cardboard box, or a mansion in the hills, or my little 1500 sq ft. piece of heaven right here. As long as I have my hubby and kids and parents here… I’m good. Real good. Ciao!