At times I have to remind myself I am in California and not back in New Zealand.  There are a lot of similarities between New Zealand and our new Californian neighborhood.
For example, our local Century theatre in Walnut Creek is much like our local Reading Cinema theatre in Wellington.
Last night my husband and I were watching NBC and listening to a news story about long queues of people outside Century theatre Walnut Creek for the midnight Batman screening. Like other parents of young children we marveled at the inclination to watch a midnight movie screening. We recalled attending the midnight screening of Lord of the Rings first movie.
this occurred back in the day when we were young and unfurrowed of brow.
This morning we awoke to news of horror.
We are in California and not Colorado. The two states may as well be different countries. Not knowing anyone in Colorado personally, I wasn’t immediately affected by the Colorado shootings. It is egotistical to borrow trouble.
I thought I was unaffected by the news story until I stopped to refuel our truck. I fueled at a station I had never visited before. When the fuel lock clicked off it made an audible Bang. I jumped like it was gunshot. I also wished I’d made that bathroom stop previously.
To make up for the not-so-near miss of pissing myself, I was then able to console myself with a spot of T.V. while checking my air:
 America is all about convenience. The picture above is of a pump station with a convenient TV screen. After refueling I carried on driving to pick up these guys from Summer Camp:
Two normal boys leaving a Skyhawks basketball and baseball Summer day camp held by refreshingly normal 20 yr old instructors. At a normal American school. America has been so normal that  I don’t feel remotely threatened by the shootings. I feel devastated at the thought of the loss parents and others must be suffering and I’d love someone  to take a gun to the little c*-/, I mean, little prick. But America still feels like home.
Coincidentally, the previous day, a fellow Mum of a school swimmer and I were conversing by the pool. This friend has a New Zealand friend who lived in California until the Columbine shootings. Her Mum begged her to go back to New Zealand; the family moved back and have been in Auckland ever since.
The subsequent decade has shown that you can’t run and hide from insanity anywhere in the world.
