Of the Moment

Of the moment // 7.28.17

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One of the reasons why I blog is simply to have the space to write: getting things “on paper” helps me to process my feelings and organize my thoughts. I also love having a record of my life over the past few years: a place that holds all of my stories, my photos, the ups and downs of travel. But sometimes, I also just want to remember and share the little things that brought me day-to-day joy. Every Friday, I’ll give you a peek into the book I currently can’t put down, a great restaurant discovery, a fun new product or an inspiring quote: a few things that I think you might enjoy before we all take off into the glory that is the weekend!

I guess the big news this week is that I officially live in San Diego now! We moved into our apartment in North Park and I’m absolutely in love with our space and the neighborhood. This week has mostly been settling into new work-from-home routine (and working-East-Coast-hours-on-the-West-Coast schedule), and making a ton of Ikea/Target/West Elm runs to get our place all set up. Although it hasn’t been too glamorous, we’re really happy to be here: I’m already making a list of all of the places I want to explore in San Diego and Southern California!

California Living

Quick note on the drive from Sacramento to San Diego: omg it is so long and boring. I have two vivid memories of this drive. The first was when I went down to look at universities in Southern California and I absolutely HATED the long drive: I basically told my parents I would never drive home if I went to school there, and promptly applied only to schools in Northern California instead. The second was when we drove down on a Chico State lacrosse trip to play a bunch of schools in Los Angeles and San Diego over spring break. There was some sort of oil spill or big rig accident, which led to standstill traffic up the entire freeway: we left early in the morning, got trapped in the most awful traffic jam in the middle of nowhere and then were turned away from the Grapevine because of snow: it was an 8-drive that took more than double that. Anyway, I was NOT looking forward to doing the drive by myself last week but it ended up not being toooo terrible. I mostly caught up on every podcast imaginable, pulled over whenever there was a “vista point” and tried to stay extremely zen going through traffic in LA at Friday night rush hour. That said: I’m here now, and I’m already planning to exclusively fly Southwest whenever I need to go home!

Podcasts

My new favorite podcasts that I listened to on the drive: Mogul, which is this really interesting look into the life and mysterious death of hip-hop producer Chris Lighty (who was behind the careers of stars like Nas, 50 Cent, Missy Elliott, etc.) and Here to Make Friends, because I’ve now completely bought into The Bachelor/ette franchise. I’m also not usually too into “chatty” podcasts, but I have found that they’re nice and easy to listen to while driving.

Blooms

I’m obsessed with all of the flowers blooming everywhere! There are so many tropical varieties and succulents that I’m not familiar with at all. I’m really looking forward to having a year-round garden and a dedicated plant nook, although I need to go have a dedicated Q&A with someone at my local nursery about what’s good to grow here.