Valentine wine

R and I drove north to Sonoma Valley last weekend to spend a few days away from our regular lives; to see some more of this beautiful state; to indulge on some excellent food and wine; and to celebrate Valentine's Day, just the two of us. Maybe it was foolish to drive seven hours to get to a wine region when there's a fantastic one right here in Santa Barbara County, but on the other hand it was time to pay our respects to the birthplace of the California wine industry and see what all the fuss is about. Needless to say, this trip helped deepen our immersion into oenological snobbery. It was also great fun.

New Zealand: one year later

[Photo by Christine]

[Photo by Don]

[Photo by Karen]

[Photo by Karen]

I've been thinking a lot about our trip to New Zealand lately, probably because this month marks our first anniversary of being there (here's the post from then). Among other things, it was an adventure that inspired us to do more exploring of the outdoors. As a result, we camped more in 2008 than any other year in our lives (if you exclude R's summer as a camp counselor), and we are planning to get out even more in 2009. Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and Big Sur are on the list... and that is just this spring. The goal is to try more overnight hikes as well. We're gearing up so that we can carry everything we need for a couple of days on our backs, leaving the car and associated crowded campgrounds behind. California is a good place to attempt it.

Speaking of CA, the trip to NZ was what first seeded the idea of living here in our heads. I remember talking to my dad afterwards and telling him how we were "California dreamin'." This was even before transfering here for R's job was a known possibility. A number of the people in our travel group were from CA and spoke highly of the place. One of them, from Pasadena, was in charge of hiring some engineers for his company. R checked into it at the time. That opportunity didn't work out, but when we she was up for re-assignment in the spring and luck placed Santa Barbara on the list of potential locations, we pushed for it. It meant leaving some great friends, giving up my membership in the Delaware Independent Filmmakers club, and having to spend a lot more money to buy a smaller house... but I, for one, have not regret the decision, as you I'm sure you can tell. In fact you're probably tired of reading how much I love it here.

The photos above were not included in our original gallery from the NZ trip. They were taken by other people in our group and were sent to us after our own photos were organized. So I'm posting a few of them now for an alternate perspective of an amazing country. If you ever have the chance to see the place for yourself, I highly recommend going for it.

There's no place like home

We made a day trip down to Hollywood last weekend to have some lunch on Sunset Blvd and see the Broadway musical Wicked. I will go so far as saying that this was probably the best play I’ve ever seen, but to be fair, I haven’t seen too many other plays of this caliber. I’m usually not a big fan of plays. I don’t like the over-acting and voice projection. Dramas are too dramatic; comedies, too annoying. But Wicked was enthralling. I liked the music, the visuals, the clever plot... it was an impressive show.

The weather has been amazing around here this week. Our friends in the Midwest are suffering at 40 degrees below zero while we are enjoying temperatures in the mid 70s. To top it off, the oranges on the trees in our courtyard have been ripening over the past few weeks and we have been indulging in them. This is the time of the year when SoCal really shines.

My post-work project this week has been to construct a star field generator, as seen below. Shooting an actual starry sky doesn't work because it's too dim (or my camera isn't sensitive enough), so I poked holes in a cardboard box, stuck the camera in it, and shone a light at the holes. The results looked great. I even had the ability to control the twinkling.

All of this was for a one second shot in my music video. The closer I get to finishing the video, the more excited I get about it. I also get more and more worried that my hard drive will crash or I'll fall and break my wrist before it's finished. I really need to wrap it up soon, but there is so much going on during the next few months that I have a feeling it's still going to be a while.

Next week Lost returns and the first single from U2's upcoming album hits the airwaves. It's an exciting time to be alive! I'm actually re-watching last year's finale of Lost as I write this. It just so happens the episode shares its name with the title of this blog entry.

Tea time (the fire situation)

Click on the map to enlarge it. That way you can see the scale and the legend. The little red target is where we live (and where I spent an intense 10-hour work day typing away at this computer for a bunch of coworkers who had no idea about the wildfire up the street from me). So we're about half a mile from an evacuation warning. I think we're safe, as it seems unlikely the fire will come any further into the town, but it has made for an exciting last 24 hours, and I'm definitely keeping my eye on the news.

Last night I could see the orange glow from right outside our front door. R saw flames in the hills on her drive home from work. We lost power for a little while. Actually, that's how I found out about the fire. I was getting all excited about having an excuse to eat an ice-cream sandwich, and then a neighbor starts running around the courtyard shouting "We all need to leave! I've seen this before -- these fires move fast!" She left, so I haven't heard any more from her. The other neighbors have assured me we're not in danger (at least not yet). But that didn't stop me from getting a few things together (e.g. insurance paperwork, computer backup DVDs) just in case I had to head out of the door in a hurry any time soon. I never did have that ice-cream sandwich.

There is still ash, smoke, and the sound of helicopters in the air. Those aren't features associated with hurricanes, but I'm reminded of the storms we experienced in Alabama nevertheless. I have a fun map of Hurricane Ivan pointed right at our house saved on those computer backup DVDs. 24 years in Minnesota and the worst I experienced was a snowstorm. Upon leaving, R and I been exposed to a surprising number of natural disasters. Let's hope the "Big One" can hold off a few more years.

The name "Tea Fire" is being used as a label because the fire apparently started at some tea house or possibly a tea garden in Montecito. I haven't gotten the official word on that yet. The name doesn't sound that frightening, but tell that to the 200 families who lost their homes. When I was a kid my biggest fear was our house burning down. I can't imagine how devastating that would be. Let's mark wildfires as a point against California.

I should go. I feel like I still have a ton of things I want/need to do online, and I would eventually like to get away from this desk tonight too. R has been working late hours, but being that it's Friday and everybody in the area seems to be distracted by the fire, I expect her home soon. The other night, however, she didn't make it back until after midnight, so you never know. It's been a tiring week like that. I set my alarm for 2:00 this morning, so I could check out the news and make sure the fire wasn't heading our way. I don't think we are set up on the reverse 911 call. There's another thing I should look up online...

Bay area

Don’t get me wrong: San Francisco is an exciting place to visit with plenty of attractions for the weekend tourist, but being in a crowded, bustling city again after five months of “easy living” in laid-back, sunny Santa Barbara gave me a sense of relief that R’s latest corporate relocation did not bring us there or somewhere similar. Driving through Silicon Valley on the way up last Thursday evening did make me think the place could do wonders for my career (we even spotted the Oracle mothership along our way), but, at least for the time being, I’m happy hiding away down here and being done with my work day by 3 or 4 o’clock most days. In case I haven’t mentioned it enough yet, I am really happy with my life right now. I still don’t have as much free time I want, but I’m beginning to think having enough is an unattainable fantasy. I’ll take what I’m getting now, despite the fact that weeks still go by without the chance to open up Adobe Premiere and dig into my latest editing project.

Before I get any further off track with additional long-winded reflection, let’s get into my purpose for this entry: to cover our mini-vacation in the bay area. If you’d like an accompanying visual, see our photos here.

We spent three nights in a very cozy (i.e. small) room at a hotel downtown. Our location at 4th & Market Street was perfect for hopping on a cable car, a bus, or the BART, all means of transportation we made use of. My buddy from college, L, and his new wife were also in town and staying two blocks down the street until Saturday morning. We hung out with them all day Friday at Fisherman’s Wharf, the Golden Gate Bridge, and various other scenic hotspots around the city that you would probably recognize from the opening to Full House if nothing else. We had some lunch next to the water and a dinner out at an unpretentious place with motorbikes hanging from the ceiling. I enjoyed seeing these folks again, and it was helpful to have them show us around, being that they had already been visiting for a while and knew the city better than us. I’m so glad we were able to meet up and continue staying in touch with some friends from back home.

On Saturday, R and I were on our own. Since the tourist scene was starting to wear on us, we got off of the beaten path a little bit (but not too far). First we checked out the famed Haight and Ashbury district followed by a walk through the park to a Japanese tea garden where we sipped green and jasmine tea in an exotic setting amplified by a surrounding mist. Then it started raining. After a stop at the hotel to pick up some warmer clothes, we took the train out to UC Berkley and enjoyed a walk down the one-of-a-kind, funky Telegraph Avenue. Somewhere in there we also had a chocolate sundae at Ghirardelli Square and visited Chinatown, where I bought my only souvenir, a San Francisco T-shirt for $1.88. (Now that I think about it, Chinatown happened the night before, but it just doesn’t fit into that paragraph). The night was capped with a late, indulgent meal at an ultra swanky place called Ame. This is where I realized I didn’t pack appropriately because I felt severely under dressed in khakis and button-down shirt. Luckily R classed it up enough for the two of us and we enjoyed some of the finest Rice-a-Roni in the world :-).

We hit the road early Sunday morning, taking the slower but more scenic coastal route down and stopping for lunch in Monterey and a few other spots to take in the view. It would have been nice to have more time to explore this area. We will have to return sometime and maybe do some camping in Big Sur. Speaking of Big Sur, I want to leave you with some Mason Jennings lyrics from his GREAT song by that name. This is the kind of stuff we had playing as we drove along the rugged coast:

Forty miles south of Monterey and the San Lucia hills
The sunshine shone me to sleep, and I dreamt I was alive
I sang myself a song, it went, know what you know
Stay when you stay, and go when you go
And I call it intuition, flowers bloom and hummingbirds fly
Yes, I call it intuition, it gets me by

Californified

That has to be the cutest fake mug shot I've ever seen. (I'm not sure if it's okay to display your plate number on the web, so I pixelated it just in case.) R and I received our CA driver's licenses and new plates after taking a surprisingly challenging written test the week before last. Here's a sample question:

To avoid last minute moves, you should be looking down the road to where your vehicle will be in about ________.

A) 5 to 10 seconds
B) 10 to 15 seconds
C) 15 to 20 seconds

What the heck? There were 36 questions like that. I passed, but just barely. R, being the over-achiever she is, aced the thing.

The DMV also requires a smog test when you register your car. Of course they don't do this on-site and can't even give you the name of a convenient place to have it done. You have to find your own automotive shop and spend another $50 and half an hour... in my case, it took just long enough so I couldn't make it back to the DMV on the same day, making the process a two-day affair. But let's focus on the positive: we are now officially California residents. I, for one, am proud to call myself one!

By the way, the correct answer was B.

The end of the beginning

Mom Murdock sent us these flowers (as well as a care package full of Minnesota goodies) to help detract from the debris.

Our stack of packing paper is going to be taller than R soon. I should have asked her to stand next to it for a comparison.

R left this message for me on the wall of the office. Isn't she sweet? I didn't want to paint over it.

It takes roughly 2 years for me to forget how much I dislike relocating. That’s part of the reason I was willing to leave Wilmington: I had forgotten what it's like to be unsettled, to have to clear a path in the boxes to go from one room to another, and to make decisions about what to put where (that is, if there is even space for everything). The last week has been sort of like that. The excitement of being in a new home is mixed with a dirty floor that’s too cluttered to clean and walls that need paint before electronics can be hung on them. It is at this point in the process when I say, “I’m never moving again.” But then a few years pass and I get excited about living somewhere new and the process repeats.

Our transition to this town was actually pretty smooth. It was nice to rent a furnished place for the first four months as it allowed us to put the physical work of moving on hold and to focus on learning our way around and getting used to new/changed jobs. Aside from the job part, being here without our own home felt a little like a vacation. It didn't feel permanent. Eventually we had to put some roots down and stop living out of a suitcase or, more accurately, out of somebody else’s dresser.

The condo could haved needed a lot more work than it does. The fact that we might be disorganized for only two or three weeks is quite a relief. There's still a lot to do, but we're settling in fast. I'm hoping the photos above show some of the beauty amid the chaos of the last week.

We really like the place. I like how the big windows in our living room let a lot of light into the place during the mornings. I like how we can open our sliding patio door to a little courtyard and hear the fountain running out there… and how this place is cozy by lamp light after night sets… and how each room seems to have its own personality... and the how the kitchen stove heats a pan evenly. We’re going to enjoy making a home here. I get the impression the hassle of moving is worth it when you move to Santa Barbara.

Catching up

Hey everybody (or nobody, depending on whether or not anyone is still following this blog). Other than my little notice about the rain, I haven't written in a while. Work seems to be occupying the vast majority of my time these days. I'm realizing I don't have a firm boundary between working from home and just being at home. The accessibility of my laptop combined with some recent big deadlines is making for extra hours in the virtual office. We also joined a gym recently, and that's been soaking up some additional time, but I'm not complaining because a daily workout is the only reason I'm able to sit at my desk for the rest of the waking hours in a day. I can't attribute all that time to my job though. My masochistic tendencies have me sitting here even after the work is done, surfing the web, snooping around on Facebook, curiously not blogging--nor editing--more. If R is working late one night, it's not unusual for me to eat all three meals of my day in front of the computer. Somehow I feel like it's not even enough time.

Last weekend was relatively uneventful. The notable bits were dinner at a restaurant with a scenic location on the beach on Saturday and a wine appreciation gathering with the Newcomers on Sunday. The latter event took place at a home in the hills with an impressive view of the sun setting over the town. It was another chance to mingle with the rich and sample some offerings from a local winery. That's life in Santa Barbara for you.

This weekend was laid back too. We've been sleeping in, eating dinners out, and of course we attended the avocado festival in Carpenteria yesterday. My appreciation for that wondrous fruit has deepened upon our arrival here. Lately I've been slicing them up and putting them between toast with some humus and calling it a sandwich. At the festival we tried avocado ice cream. I wouldn't say it was the best ice cream I've ever had, but is there really such a thing as bad ice cream?

After exhausting what the festival had to offer we walked along a pleasant beach in Carp. The sand was soft and waves rolled smoothly in. We found a spot to sit and watch the surfers do their thing. The pull to try surfing ourselves is growing in intensity, although it will probably have to wait until next spring, unless we want to rent wet suits along with the boards. Until then, I have my skateboard. I'm considering buying some bigger, softer wheels for it, which will limit my ability to do tricks (which, believe me, is quite limited by my skill level already) but will make transporting myself over cracked sidewalks quite a bit easier.

A guy who lived on my floor during our freshmen year at college found me on Facebook recently. It turns out he lives roughly a mile, maybe two, away. We met downtown for some beers and food last Thursday night. R joined us after she got out of work. It was an odd experience to catch up with somebody after 9 years. He is a guy I never knew that well, just from a few residence hall functions and maybe an occasional dinner in the caf, but the simple fact that he is/was a Minnesotan--and especially a St. Thomas alum--made him a welcomed find after the last 4 years of associating with people who at least started out as strangers.

I have been liking Santa Barbara a lot lately. R and I have a good situation going right now. Each of the places in which we've lived has had its redeeming qualities and provided an experience I'll never forget, but so far California is the only place, other than Minnesota, I can see us staying long term. The high cost of living and the distance away from family may be the only factors that could stop that from happening because otherwise I can't find anything wrong with this place.

We've been walking downtown the last couple of nights for dinner and soaking up the spirit of vacation all around us. Music pours out of almost every restaurant. People bike by with surf boards in their arms. Limos full of bachelorette partying women drive up and down the street. David Byrne holds a concert at one of the local theaters. There's inspiration and adventure waiting out there every night. Sure, I'm sitting at my computer or in front of the TV for most of those nights, but I like knowing what's out there and the idea that we're just getting started in this town.

(Editor's note: From now on all photos taken with my phone will appear in the smaller size seen above. Photos taken with the DSLR will be shown in the usual, larger size.)

Hello rain

It's drizzling this morning. California isn't always sunny, you know. There might be some moisture in the air every four months or so. I don't want you to think we're becoming too spoiled out here. Luckily, I'm pretty sure the weather will clear up this afternoon so we can head down to the avocado festival...

Beachy keen

California scored another point today for its convenient beach access. R and I boogied it up this afternoon at a beach that was more scenic, less crowded, and much closer to home than any of the beaches in Delaware or Alabama ever were to us. (Alabama also has the hurricane season working against it these days, so we're not exactly missing living there, although I will say its low cost of real estate does sound appealing right now.) The beach was fun today. I hope the end of summer doesn't keep us from returning in the coming weeks/months. Around here I'm guessing we have a little longer to work with.

Tomorrow is the first day back at school, isn't it? I get shivers thinking about that for some reason, even if it has little effect on my life any more. I remember all of those Labor Day evenings spent in dreaded anticipation, reviewing my locker combination over and over, wondering about my new class schedule and if I'd be able to find the right rooms, worried my classmates wouldn't like me anymore. To be honest I still have dreams related to those fears. I get a sense of relief when September comes around and my job doesn't change. There are things about school that I miss, but the first day of a new year is not one of them.

By the way, I'm planning to do some EDITING this week. My inspiration has been lost, but this weekend has gone a long way toward finding it.

Yellow watermelon

Feeling adventurous, we left for Los Angeles on Saturday morning without so much as a map (although we did stop at a tourism office along the way and picked up a stack of maps and guidebooks, so that's probably cheating). We've met a number of people who "escaped" LA and moved to Santa Barbara for the slower pace and others who claim the trip down to the City of Angels is more bother than it's worth. Even Mason Jennings warns he "will stay away from LA" in a favorite song of ours. Nonsense. If the center of the world's entertainment industry is just down the freeway from us, we're going to see it. We've been in Santa Barbara for going on two months now and hadn't gone more than 10 miles out of town. It was time to explore.

As you may notice in our photos from the trip, we took the coastal highway down through Malibu and then cut up through Beverly Hills and into West Hollywood. We saw the Walk of Fame, ate lunch at a Polish place in Atwater Village (which has another story behind it), drove by Paramount Studios, took in the view from Mulholland Drive, walked a pier in Newport Beach, and had a milkshake during sunset in Laguna Beach. We drove the Sunset Strip, Rodeo Drive, Santa Monica Blvd... all kinds of iconic streets. LA, at least the parts of it we visited, seems to be much more accessible of a city than New York was from Wilmington. We didn't even have to pay for parking the whole day.

Some quick observations: Hollywood is a little more run-down than I expected; Laguna Beach, a little more posh; Newport, a little more wild. The LA area as a whole seemed oddly smaller than it appears on camera and in my imagination and memories from 13 years ago (when I made a trip with my parents). And contrary to popular belief, there are not famous people walking all over the place. Rather, there are simply people all over the place. Yeah, we weren't the only tourists in town.

I'd definitely go back. Maybe next time we can see some TV show tapings or check Venice Beach off our list.

Our final destination on Saturday was actually Carlsbad, CA, which is about halfway between LA and San Diego. This is where R's uncle, aunt, and niece live. They were at a wedding on Saturday afternoon, so we met up with them later that night and spent it at their house. R's grandparents from Jersey and another uncle from Alaska were in town for the wedding too, so we were able to visit with the whole bunch on Sunday while we ate some excellent food, most memorably some king salmon straight from Alaska, Lee's amazing homemade pies, and, lastly, some bright yellow watermelon. Have you ever heard of such a thing? When you cut it open, it doesn't look how you'd expect watermelon to look, but it tastes great all the same.

Neither shaken nor stirred

California's 13th biggest earthquake in recent history struck on Tuesday, and it went completely unnoticed by me. R noticed -- in fact, they evacuated her office building. She said it felt like the ground was swaying for about 5 seconds and then it was done. I was eating lunch at my desk at the time, and I have to say I'm a little disappointed I missed it. I got the call from R asking if I was okay. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" I asked, completely oblivious. I guess hurricanes Ivan and Katrina will have do for my natural disaster experiences for now.

Skating or dying

The rumors are true -- I bought a skateboard. R thinks I'm suffering a post-quarter-life crisis, and that might be true, but knowing it is not enough to stop me from having a good time with this. I rode a skateboard until about the 6th grade and then it became something only punks did. I didn't fit the image in junior high, so I gave it up to play video games instead. California seems more accepting of different types of skateboarders because, frankly, it's a nice way for anyone to get around town. My impression is that even nerdy (not necessarily geek chic) looking people can get away with it if they are using the board as a means of transportation. I don't exactly plan on joining the 12-year-olds to do hand plants at the skate park, but I already mentioned how nice it would be to skate down to the coffee shop once in a while. Yesterday afternoon I made it to the used record store to look for old albums by The Replacements; a record store is about the coolest place you can take a skateboard.

Aside from all that, a skateboard is simply an iconic Californian thing to own. I like seeing it propped up against a wall in the apartment. I bought the board used off of Craigslist, so I don't have a lot invested in it. If it turns out this isn't for me or if we buy a house that is quite a way out of town, I'm pretty sure I can sell it and recoup the minor expense.

It is more difficult to ride one of these things than I remember. Either that or I was a lot more fearless back in the day. Just balancing seems to be quite an effort now. Somehow I was expecting to remember how to ollie (or jump, for those of you not in the know), but apparently the feel for that doesn't stick with a person like riding a bike does.

I'm paying attention to the surfaces of roads and sidewalks more than usual these days. When I was shopping around, I couldn't decide between a long board with larger, softer wheels or the more compact, trick-friendly board that I ended up with. I may have made the wrong decision because on my board the wrong road can cause some major vibration and the cracks in pavement can be unexpectedly dangerous. The last thing I need is a broken wrist. That would make my job quite a bit more difficult (not to mention video editing).

Speaking of editing, I'm looking forward to re-entering the world of video production after my biggest break from it in years. I don't have any new paid jobs lined up yet, but I do have three of my own editing projects waiting for me. I'm also getting anxious to shoot something new, before I forget everything I learned about my camera. I've been too busy enjoying the weather outside during the evenings to dive into anything. Give me a little more time.

Just a reminder: I've been adding photos to my online Santa Barbara gallery, located here. Check them out and expect more soon.

California girl

I couldn't decide which of the above photos of R I like better, so I'm including them both. I actually have a bunch more, so at least I was able to narrow it down this far. (If I were a truly discerning editor, I'd be able to pick one and live with the decision). We had a good photo shoot last night at Franceschi Park, overlooking the town. We walked around the neighborhood almost every night this week. Okay, one night was just to the ice cream parlor, where we easily consumed more calories than we burned, but we could have drove and we didn't.

Our cars were delivered on Tuesday, Delaware license plates in tact, making us stand out as east coasters, which is ironic because I don't know if we ever considered ourselves to be from the east coast. We were still working on becoming comfortable there. R's car had a dead battery on arrival. It wasn't a complete surprise, though, because she did have to get a jump in order to get it on the truck the week before. Lucky for us the battery was covered under a warranty and with only some minor hassle we got it replaced this week.

Tonight I walked by myself down State Street to grab a Chipotle burrito and ate it at a park on the way back. R is in the air right now heading for Minnesota. I'll meet her at her mom's house tomorrow night after a long day of travel. I'm flying into Milwaukee and driving up to northern Minnesota in an effort to save $700 on a plane ticket. I need to be in Madison for work on July 6th - 10th, so I booked a round trip ticket getting me out there a week early. Sure, there's an extra 8 hours in the car involved, but the plane ticket will be reimbursed, so I'll make out okay.

The week in Minnesota should be nice. We've been making this trip home for the 4th of July every year now. Our days spent with family are few but precious.

Just another observation related to my subject line: Santa Barbara appears to be run by young women who look like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. I never realized how popular those over-sized sunglasses are until we got here. The girls here buy them three at a time. I saw one do exactly that at Nordstrom's last weekend when R and I were looking, with no success, for a decent pair for under $100. Then she hopped in her Beamer with the HOTTY87 plates and drove home along the beach. (That might have been a different girl). I overheard another one breaking up with her boyfriend over cell phone while walking down a sidewalk. "I can't be everything in this relationship... I'll give you back the bracelets," she yelled, between obscenities.

These teenage divas have nothing on my R... my R who can switch to a northern, southern, or eastern accent on the spot... my R who misspells words like "massage"... my R who drives a Honda Civic LX and saves the receipt for her battery so she can get it covered under a warranty... my California girl.

Miss you, R. See you tomorrow.

Santa Barbara, 93103

R and I are feeling a little like Brandon and Brenda Walsh (although thank goodness we're not brother and sister) after they moved from Minnesota to ritzy Beverly Hills, 90210. My inferiority complex is telling me everybody here is more attractive, healthy, wealthy, intelligent, and charismatic than I'll ever be. Not that I'm complaining -- the best way to develop those traits is to be around people with those traits, even if I'm insecure the whole time.

I already feel inspired to eat healthier and get more exercise. That should be easier than usual considering this place probably has the best weather in the United States. It's been in the 80s and sunny every day since we got here, and the real kicker is that we're not expecting rain until October. Actually people saying the weather has been unusually hot; a comfortable upper 70s is more typical... and that's YEAR ROUND. Maybe this isn't a good thing, however, as I do enjoy having an excuse to stay in once in a while. I might just miss my reclusive January.

There will be plenty to do outside though. We have an ocean in front of us and mountains behind us. And they're close. From where we're living right now, we could probably WALK to either one in 30 minutes. If we hop on a bike we can do it faster. People travel from all over the country (world?) to visit a place like this, so we're going to try to make use of it. We've been wanting to get more serious about hiking since before the New Zealand trip, so now's our chance.

We're also anxious to take some driving trips. Hollywood and Beverly Hills are only 90 miles away. San Francisco is more like 300, which is doable for a weekend. Wine country is right up the road. Vegas isn't too far. Plus there are a bunch of famous national parks in this state that will be a must to see.

We'll want to spend some time in Santa Barbara itself as well. It's a smaller town than I expected and pretty easy to get around in. The streets are biker and pedestrian friendly. (I want to buy a skateboard and "commute" to work at a coffee shop a few mornings each week. Let's consider that a goal.) They have open-air malls and old-style, single screen movie theaters. All the roofs have Spanish tiles. There are exotic plants and cacti everywhere. It's quite scenic indeed.

It hasn't all sunk in yet. I keep thinking I'm on vacation and we'll be returning to the real world soon. We can't possibly live here. But I think I'll get used to it okay. The problem will be getting used to somewhere else after this.

Goin' out west (the big news)

A little over two years ago, when I announced our plans to relocate from Mobile to Wilmington in my old blog, I used the following song lyric from one of my favorite bands, Spoon:

In traffic we become on the way back home
Part of something bigger than just on our own.

I'm including it again now because it has become sort of a personal motto for the years-long journey around the country that R and I are making. I use the present tense in that sentence because the circle (actually, cross is more accurate) is not complete. As much as I love the city of Wilmington and the surplus of opportunity we've found here, it was never meant to be a final destination. It's a stop along the way, albeit a stop that lasted long enough for us to explore much of the upper east coast and to dive into the local culture, make some good friends, and possibly even leave a small but noticeable imprint. In some ways I think I grew more attached to this place than I did to even the Twin Cities. There is something more manageable about Wilmington. It lives up to its slogan, "A Place to be Somebody," in that it's small enough to almost be conquerable, yet large enough to feel like that would be an accomplishment. For those reasons, it will be difficult to say good-bye.

We are moving to Santa Barbara, California in June.

R is being transferred within her company, and as usual I'm along for the ride. But I am by no means dragging my feet. The biggest downside to moving around the country for R's job is that I would typically need to sacrifice my own in the process. That is not so this time. I've decided to retain my current job -- my employer is allowing me to work remotely. I will admit part of me was hoping to have to quit so I could have a few months off to enjoy the beach after the move and explore different career options, but the income will be nice to have considering the increased cost of living in Santa Barbara, and plus, there are still a few things I want to see through at this company. If I'm going to quit, I want it to be on my own terms.

R's new job sounds exciting. She's going to be helping develop organic light emitting diodes, a technology that is comparable but superior to liquid crystal displays. I'll let her tell you more about it sometime, rather than misrepresent it myself. She'll be working the afternoon shift out there, from 3pm until midnight, so there will be a schedule adjustment for us. It's a good thing I will be working out of our home, otherwise I'd never get to see her. Maybe we can eat lunch together this way anyhow.

California... I never would have guessed I'd live there one day. It's such a mythical place for me, a place from movies and Mason Jennings songs. My parents took me and my brothers out there on a vacation one summer during my high school years. We drove from San Francisco to Los Angeles along the coast. My memories are bits and pieces, but I remember being enthralled by the chance of running into stars and being inspired by the energy of the people and the beauty of the ocean.

When the possibility of moving to California first presented itself to R and me, there was no way we could resist going for it. Right now it seems like an absolutely necessary part of our life experience.