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.

Drawn to the fiesta

Does that look like us? We don't think so, but who are we to tell.

The people of Santa Barbara were celebrating what they lovingly call Fiesta last week. It's a celebration of the town's heritage. We checked out some Flamenco dancing at the courthouse lawn on Thursday night and went down to the market in De la Guerra Plaza on Friday. The town was hopping. This annual event will probably be like Point-to-Point was for us in Wilmington. It will likely get better each year as we make friends and become more comfortable around with the local culture. We didn't know what to expect this year and felt a little out of place. Confetti eggs--yikes! Get this: we ran into some nice Minnesotan folk on the trolley ride home on Friday. They mistook us for locals. Imagine that.

On Saturday we attended R's company picnic. We ate some BBQ, played a water balloon toss, and had the caricature drawn (notice how R is the one holding the camera -- see, it does belong to her). Good times. After that we went for a hike in Rattlesnake Canyon. Yeah, the name freaked us out a little at first, but our hiking book ensured us it was just a name. The trail followed a creek through the woods and ended, at least for us, in a little meadow. The impending sunset kept us from continuing on any further. The scenery may not have been as breathtaking as on some of our hikes with the Sierra Club, but it was fun exploring on our own this time. It was such a nice evening for being out in the woods. I sure don't miss mosquitoes.

Our house hunt is coming along. For those of you who don't know, we finally sold our townhouse in Delaware. It's a relief to have that behind us. The other big news is that we put in an offer on a cool, but small, condo. Being that it is bank-owned, well-updated, and located even closer to downtown than our current rental, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to place a bid. However, it sounds like we weren't the only ones: there were quite a few offers made. It should be about a week before we hear if ours was accepted. We're trying not to get our hopes up too high.

Gotta run (literally, I've been meaning to take a jog). Later, dudes.

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.

Hesitation

This blog has been lacking imagination lately. Let's crank up the crazy quotient a little bit. Let's all go to the best farmers' market in the world. Let's visit with R's uncle Tom during his daughter's regatta on Saturday afternoon and take the above photo afterwards. Maybe we'll add a few more photos to the gallery as well. Don't forget to include Friday night's hike--pardon me, chase--to Inspiration Point and be amazed we can get there so fast. Let's all think about how to prevent ourselves from being too self-absorbed, a side effect to the drug of living here. Let's all find a church to attend, for networking if nothing else. No, there is something else... something we may have forgotten. Let's get back to editing. Let's read more. Let's get addicted to coffee. Everybody's doing it. Let's all spend the day living like a slob but getting paid for it. Let's apply for new jobs and fear we'll hear back about them. Let's look for houses, too ridiculous to afford, and question if we can afford them and wonder what can break us or make us rich. Let's drink Firestone beer at Taffy's and the cheapest wine we can at home, except during a romantic dinner. Then we'll drink a smoothie because we're out of wine. Let's take long bike rides in both directions along the coast. Let's find notes from friendly people on car windshields and hesitate to call. Let's worry that if our lives aren't happy when they are full, what will happen when they empty out again. But nevermind because they are happy when they are full. Let's all go to bed and wake up at the desk, blurry eyed, by the light of the monitor, almost ready to face another day in some strange paradise.

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.

Holy hiking and wine drinking weekend, Batman

The title of this entry sums up our weekend pretty well, but I'll go into more detail anyway. Let me first say it was a good weekend, very Californian. Maybe the novelty will eventually wear off, but right now our excitement over our new location is going strong. We are definitely enjoying being here.

We joined the Sierra Club for a Friday night hike that started at the Hot Springs trail head and took us up to a lookout, where we saw the pictured sunset, and back down on a path that pretty much crossed through Jeff Bridges front yard. There certainly are some characters in the club: a guy who played the harmonica throughout the hike, two guys who talked about some rather wild times in Thailand for anybody to hear, the occasional Hash House Harrier, text book writers, and a few others who are difficult to explain. In our limited experience, Cali appears to have no shortage of characters like this. But maybe they think the same thing about us... the crazy Minnesotans.

On Saturday we got up and moving to the local coffee shop and then to the biggest and best farmer's market we've ever seen. The produce around here is amazing -- watermelon, peaches, avocados, lettuce, strawberries -- all so fresh, so good. We loaded up.

Next we were off to a wine festival happening along the beach. R's bike revealed a flat tire so we took the trolley down instead and proceeded to drink/eat all the wine and hors d'oeuvres we could for the next 3 hours. It is yet to be determined if living here will turn us into wine experts or wine snobs. We tasted so much wine that we have no idea any more what was good and bad, but overall I'd give the event a thumbs up.

When we got back from the fest, we took an hour nap in a swirling world before getting on our feet again to hoof it down to a showing of The Dark Knight. The Arlington theater reminded me of the farmer's market; it too was the biggest and best I've seen. It's a Spanish mission style, single-screen theater that seats 2,000 people, in this case, 2,000 people excited to see Batman done right. I loved the movie. Its director, Christopher Nolan, is one of my favorites working today. He's done Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige -- all great, highly recommended movies.

On Sunday we went out for breakfast at a neighborhood joint and attended a few open houses. We've seen most of what is available in our price range, and it's nice to know we have some options. The market is certainly in our favor for buying (we need to make up for our poor selling performance in Delaware). Every place we look at seems to have some positives (maybe an amazing view of the mountains, hardwood floors, or lots of space) and some negatives (usually work that is needed, a higher price, or a lack of space), so it's a tough decision. If we could get a really good deal on any of our top choices, however, I think we'd be happy.

That's the news from the weekend. Talk to you again soon.

Off with my head

Just want to get you caught up on last weekend before another one comes along and pushes it into the past. Mostly it was a recovery weekend. I needed to get caught up on sleep and to settle into life on the west coast again. Friday night I was out of consciousness before R had the chance to say good night. On Saturday we grabbed some coffee and met our new realtor for a plow through seven houses. We saw some decent options and are feeling good about our chances of finding a place around here. We talked it over during a walk down to the Verizon store (R is now a customer) and dinner at the wonderfully atmospheric Cafe Buenos Aires on State Street. Then we went home and I began reading The Da Vinci Code (I'm a little behind on the times) before passing out cold for the second night in a row. On Sunday, we rode the bikes to the French festival, where R decided it was time to execute her husband with le guillotine :-). We ate some savory crepes and a pain au chocolat for lunch, watched the end of a dance show, and got on our way to a couple of open houses. Throw in some laundry and a trip to the grocery store and you've got yourself a weekend.

On working from home

A few people, mostly coworkers, have been asking me how I like the new arrangement of working remotely. Well, it's too early to give any sort of long-term feelings because I've only been away from the office for a month, one week of which was spent on vacation and another working at a client site, but I can tell you it's been sort of a love/hate relationship so far. Actually, "hate" is too strong of a word. Let's say it's a love/dislike relationship.

The convenience of being able to roll out of bed and begin working in less than 15 minutes can't be beat. It also gives me the opportunity to talk to myself all I want, play music over speakers rather than headphones, get minor chores done around the house during random coffee breaks, and slip easily between modes of intense concentration and slacking off, depending on the urgency of my duties. Yes, it's easy to be distracted when the work is slow, but I make up for it by working hard other times with minimal interruption from talkative coworkers. My schedule has been on more of a get-what-needs-to-be-done-done basis than a firm following of the clock. I'm still putting in 8 hours between 6:00am and 3:30pm, but I spread out the hour and a half of break time over the course of the day. This is my preferred style of working; it's an echo of my college days, when I would study all day and all night but take plenty of breaks. The process takes longer over all, but it's more fun while it's happening.

Of course there are downsides to my arrangement too. Maybe it's because we're living in a studio apartment, complicated by the fact that my own home office furniture is still in storage, but I'm feeling a little cramped. The desk I'm using is too small for me to spread things out on, the chair isn't extremely comfortable, and I'm not getting good cell phone coverage. But these are temporary, minor drawbacks. A bigger concern is the frustration of trying to communicate with people all over the country. Time zone issues aside, I'm a visual person, so working over the phone is difficult. I prefer the email and instant messaging mediums, which are typically slower and less likely to elicit a response at all, but they allow me the opportunity to be more thorough in what I want to say and receive in conversations. But the fact remains: sometimes I want to drop by somebody's desk and bug them in person.

By the end of the day, I'm usually pretty anxious to get out of the house. So far there have been plenty of opportunities. At the very least, I get out for a jog or bike ride... and those activities have never felt so good. My social interaction doesn't extend much past R and Facebook (I finally signed up!) these days, but for some reason I'm fine with that for now. It's hard to jump into making new friends right after leaving some good ones behind, but it will happen in time. We've done all this before.

So I'm not exactly laying out on a beach with my laptop every day, as I joked before we arrived, but I do get to see the California sun often enough. It's still quite high in the sky when my work day ends.

Oh yeah -- I don't know where the specks of dust in photo above came from. I do use that keyboard every day, I swear.

Transient times and 4th of July

A month ago I was living in Delaware. The following week I was living in California. The week after that I was on vacation in Minnesota. Then I worked at a client site in Wisconsin for a week. Now I'm back in California, thinking of three different time zones each time I look at a clock. I need to start work at 9:00 EST. I have a daily meeting at 12:30 CST. R comes home at 4:30 PST. This is getting confusing.

Our definition of "home" continues to blur. Each place we leave is moving on without us. Our first week in California obviously wasn't enough to establish roots, but right now it's the best we can do. Returning to it after a two-week trip sort of cemented it as our current home. Some of our possessions, 10 boxes that didn't go into storage, have been delivered to the apartment. That helps, even if it would still feel more natural to fly into Philly and pull up to our townhouse (we do still own it -- not much luck with the sale). I think R would agree with me that there is an appeal right now to being somewhere familiar, somewhere settled again. There is certain amount of comfort involved with being in your own place, and we haven't been there in a while. That's not to say our temporary living space isn't comfortable; it's just not long-term.

Our vacation in Minnesota was great. Thanks again to our wonderfully accommodating parents. It was nice to take a nap on a hammock, hit the lakes, see relatives, and eat a bunch of home-cooked food. Other highlights were a stop in Coon Rapids to watch my brother's band rehearse and a stop in Rochester (on my way to Wisconsin) to have breakfast with my buddy L and his fiancée. Lowlights were R coming down with a cold for the second half of our vacation (she's doing better now) and a five-hour delay due to thunderstorms in Phoenix on my way back to Cali. Isn't Phoenix supposed to be a desert -- what's with the rain? Normally I would have loved to have the extra time to read, but I had finished my book during the first flight and didn't bring another one with me. Total bummer.

By the numbers:

- 1600 miles driven in a Yaris
- 540 photos taken
- 5 thunderstorms witnessed
- 4 long days worked
- 3 hours slept on Thursday night
- 2 go-kart rides taken
- 1 clown band watched

I've narrowed down my photos to a more reasonable number. Check them out here: EmptyGym rehearsal and the rest of the vacation.

Sorry, no pics from the Madison leg of the trip. But don't worry -- you didn't miss much.