It has been a year since we made the move to California, and since arriving, I haven’t left the state. But early tomorrow I’ll be on a jet plane for a super quick trip to Arkansas to officiate my niece’s wedding.

A year ago we spent two weeks in Arkansas, and to tell the truth, there was a pretty real feeling of not knowing when I’d get around to making it back. For one, it isn’t easy to make trips from California to Arkansas when you don’t have any money. For two, it isn’t easy to make time for trips from California to Arkansas when you are a 38-year-old law student. For three, on the rare trips we get to make back, a major goal of those trips would be to see our oldest daughter who may or may not be in Arkansas. For four, you just never know about the future in the first place.

Anyway, I made a point last year to drive around my hometown and take pictures of everything. Just for memories.

But I’ll get to see my hometown briefly on this crazy fast trip, and I suspect it will be an odd feeling. After a school year in swanky Malibu. And after a summer in congested downtown Los Angeles.

I know I won’t be complaining about the traffic there.

It will be good to see my mom again, and it will be good to see my two sisters whom I haven’t seen in a year. It will be good to see nephews and nieces and my niece-in-law (is that an actual status?) and some old friends who show up for the wedding. All sorts of good in store.

But I’d better pack. And I’d better sleep. LAX awaits awfully early tomorrow morning.