the West Coast

Right now I live in Oklahoma, but I'm planning on moving to California sometime soon. Wether to go to college or what, I haven't quite decided. I've been joking that, "I don't really care what college I go to, as long as it's in California and it's not a college!" My family thinks I'm nuts. My mom is from a very small town in SE Missouri, and she gives me a horrified look whenever I talk about how much I want to live in Cali. I believe she said, "Ewww! Yuck! Why would you want to live out there with all those liberals?" My dad grew up in Anaheim and hates the West Coast mainly because of the high cost of living, and said that our house would cost around $3 million, were it in California instead of Oklahoma. "I could transfer out to LAX anytime I wanted [he works for a certain airline] but they'd pay me EXACTLY the same amount as they do now." Well, yeah, I know it's expensive and I'm not looking forward to the butt-munch liberals who run everything. Am I nuts? Should I go with the West Coast, or look elsewere? I've heard that a) in Los Angeles, it costs $80,000 a month to own a house, and b) in NYC, $80,000 a month to own a car. I think I'll trade this job for what's behind Curtain A! No teeny little towns where everybody knows everybody else. No thanks!