Guilt Free Weekends
As my week started to wind down I began to think about all the things that I have on my personal to-do list … Clean, laundry, pay the bills, sort thru old things to donate, unpack boxes still lingering, clean up my desk, run errands, etc. The list goes on and on and on. The weekends used to be something for me to look forward too. They were a a time when I could relax, unwind and do whatever I felt like. I’m not sure exactly when that all changed, but somehow my enjoyment of the weekend has been overshadowed by the growing beast of responsibility. I just can’t relax until I get some thing checked off the to-do list, the only problem, the list isn’t getting any shorter. I know I’m the bearer of my own misery, and I keep thinking there is some light at the end of the tunnel, the only problem is that I’m always relying on just one last weekend to get everything done and that last weekend has yet to come.
Perhaps it will never happen but I dream for the time when I can get back to a guilt-free weekend where I can lay in bed and watch tv, pick up a new book to read, or just watch movies all weekend without feeling like there is something else I have to or should be doing. I wish I could just brush off responsiblity, and let things become a mess around the house instead of keeping a mental to-do list because no matter what anyone tells you, growing up into a neat, clean, minimally responsible and slightly obsessive-compulsive adult is so completely overrated. Cheers.
The Boredom Of Flight
I’m sitting here on my flight back from the Jersey Shore unable to sleep and bored with my surroundings. I wish this plane had WiFi so that I could be more productive and work on something important like harvesting my crops in Farmville.
Since im sitting here bored I thought I would try out the offline ability of the WordPress iPhone application. It’s pretty good but due to the nature of typing on an iPhone, I think it would be functional for a quick blog posting but not my usual tirades.
Anyway only a hour until I land in Denver to catch my connection to Los Angeles. While it was a good trip, I’m looking forward to getting back home to my boys, Justin & Berger. I hate being away from them.
I think I should download some more games for the phone for situations like this. Maybe I’ll play solitare or something to pass the time since I actually have that one. Cheers.
I Love New York City
Manhattan
Well with everything that’s been going on I neglected to write about my brief business trip to New York City last week. This is my second trip to the Big Apple in the past 2 months, so I’m not complaining. I was there primarily for business but since I had to travel to the other side of the country for a meeting I figured I would take advantage of the opportunity to stay in the city. Luckily, my meetings scheduled on Thursday ran late enough to keep me from being able to get a reasonable flight back to LA, allowing me to stay in the city on Friday night as well. My meetings were in New Jersey, but since I decided to stay in the city, I chose my usual spot in Manhattan, the Sheraton Four Points Chelsea on 25th & 7th, which provided me with a prime location in the event I felt like walking somewhere for dinner or going out on the town for a few drinks. Both of which I did during my trip.
Bryant Park
It was cold, windy and very blustery outside while I was there, but it didn’t matter to me, I put on my wool overcoat, a scarf and gloves and took advantage of being back in New York. On Thursday night I walked down 7th to my favorite corner hot dog shop, Chelsea’s Papaya and grabbed some chili cheese dogs. After taking off my gloves and scarfing them down I walked over to G-Lounge, had a few drinks and enjoyed the scenery. I only stayed until about 2 AM before heading back to the hotel because I knew I had to wake up in a few hours to head over to New Jersey for the meetings. On Friday night, I took a long walk up 7th to Times Square to grab dinner & drinks followed by watching about 20 super hot NYPD officers run into McDonald’s to arrest a slightly intoxicated girl for punching the McDonald’s security guard. There was no lack of entertainment while I was there. It started to snow just a bit while I was standing in Times Square, which really made the evening for me. I’ve never actually seen it snow in New York before, so it was a nice change. I was actually hoping to get snowed in so I could say another night, but the big storm missed the city by several miles to the south.
Empire State Building From My Hotel Window
I’m really not sure where my love of big cities comes from, especially since I grew up a small town boy in the Pennsylvania countryside, but there is something about being right in the middle of a city that appeals to me in a way I just can’t describe. New York ranks up there as probably one of my favorite big cities along with London, Paris and San Francisco. While I love living in Los Angeles these days, LA doesn’t really compare to NYC with the big city feeling. Los Angeles is a big city in population and size, but New York, like San Francisco, is a walking and public transit type of city which yields a completely different experience. One of the other things you quickly notice about New York City is the lack of blond hair, blue eye boys scattered everywhere in California. New York City has no lack of diversity as a city, and that in itself is one of the other reasons that makes it a great city.
All said, I really do love New York City. Even though it was a brief trip it was a good trip and the only thing that would have made it better was if Justin was there with me and we had a little more time to explore. I think a trip out this summer is in order for us. Cheers!
I Made The Switch
So after nearly 6 years of using Blogger I finally decided to make the switch to WordPress. I’m actually excited about the functionaly that WordPress offers over Blogger. With the new decade brings changes and a new adventure. Stay tuned.
So Many Things On My Mind
Did you ever have so much to say but when it came time to speak or write you either drew a complete blank or didn’t even know where to start so instead you simply said nothing? I guess that’s how I feel right now. I have a million things an hour running through my head and all day long ideas present themselves to me to which I think “I should write about that”. That is until I get home, grab my MacBook and sit down to write. Everything seems perfect right up to that point and then it happens, the writers block. Nothing I start typing reads correctly and I just get frustrated because I can’t express what I’ve been thinking. I guess I’m having one of those nights. Everything I’ve been thinking about has just slipped out of my mind and fingers. Annoying. Argh. Ok I think it’s time for bed. I’m trying to make a conscious effort to be in bed by 11 PM these days. I’ll try this again tomorrow. Cheers.
Changes To My Website & Blog
Interestingly enough the World Wide Web was founded only 18 years ago. I remember this clearly because I was a junior at Penn State and it was a much hyped event among computer geeks. I began to learn HTML and quickly published my first web page on the university server. Not to date myself but this effectively means I’ve had a website in existence for nearly 18 years now. Back then my website was never really more than an information page about me and a test bed to hone my internet programming skills.
Around the same time frame I began keeping a formal written journal, basically for my own sanity. It wasn’t until around 2000 that I was in the midst of the dot-com boom and living in San Francisco that I decided to merge both my journal and website together. I started writing static HTML pages about my adventures around San Francisco and manually publishing them on my website for my friends to read. Little did I know at the time that I was blogging (term later coined from web-logging by Pyra labs who developed Blogger.).
I can’t remember when it was that I started using Blogger. I think it was sometime around 2003 when blogging started gaining traction among the masses and gave ordinary people the ability to have a web presence. I found blogger an easy way to quickly post and upload photos to my website without having to go through the motions of coding the page manually. For many years my blog remained just a ‘part’ of my website. It wasn’t until around 2006 or 2007 that I decided to actually make my blog the main page of my site, with the rest of the website being secondary to the blog.
For over 10 years now I’ve had this marriage between my website and my blog, one being a complementary to the other, however things are about to change. I’m in a bit of a dilemma at this point. I received an email from blogger, with whom I have over 750 blog entries stored now, that in March they are going to discontinue the ability of Blogger to post to external websites. It’s an understandable move with the overwhelming migration of web apps and hosting to ‘the cloud’, however seeing that this is primarily how I use Blogger, just to post the entries I write to my own website, I have to make a decision on how I’m going to proceed. So many choices and hours’ worth of evaluation and design time ahead of me.
I always knew it was eventually going to come to this; it’s just happening a little sooner than expected and not exactly on my terms. I’ve wanted to redesign my website for over a year now, so this is probably going to be the motivation I needed and after all change is good right? Cheers.
Looking Forward and A Look Back on 2009
Rich & Berger Smiling to the Future, Saturday January 16th, 2010
We’re now a few weeks into January and I still can’t help to smile at the simple thought that 2009 is now a memory. A bad memory, but none the less a memory. I think it’s been the general consensus of everyone I’ve spoken too that 2009 was probably one of the worst years in recent history. 2009 was one big reality check. Not that having a reality check is necessarily a bad thing, because frankly I think it was a much needed reality check for most of us, but the events that brought about this reality check have not necessarily been the most pleasant to deal with.
I think the biggest impact to everyone in 2009 was the financial aspect. Most of us had to deal with either job losses, pay cuts, reduced spending or all of the above. Even for those who weren’t impacted directly by job loss, there was an indirect effect such as increased work hours and expected productivity increases as a result of decreased spending and downsizing. All of a sudden the ‘do more with less’ motto became the management slogan for 2009. Everyone became fearful of loosing their jobs and people either bucked up and worked harder or risked the possibility of being downsized themselves. It’s been a tough year for everyone in one way or another.
From my personal view the financial impact has been the biggest negative aspect of 2009. While Justin and I have always talked about leaving Arizona and heading back to California at some point, I don’t think either of us ever imagined this would be the way it would happen. We are both extremely happy to be living in Los Angeles, however in an economy which doesn’t exactly support the sale of a home which has now lost over $130k in value, Justin and I are still trying to decide how to successfully deal with a $2500/month mortgage on our house in Arizona while paying $2000/month for our small 2 bedroom apartment in Los Angeles. That’s yet to be seen how it’s all going to play out here over the new few months. I can’t help to look at that cash outlay and think about what type of place we could have in Los Angeles for $4500/month, not that I would ever spend that type of money on a single living space at this point in time, but still my point remains.
Anyway, I guess I’ve done enough of soul searching and introspective analysis to last me for the next few years. I’m looking back at 2009 as the container to leave all that last little bit of negativity and self loathing that I’ve been wheeling along with me like a set of bad worn out luggage for the past year. It’s a new year, a new decade, and time for a new outlook on life.
So with all that said, I’m really ready to leave 2009 behind and shift my focus on not only 2010 but also the new decade. This new year brings with it the promise of a more financially responsible society, a growing economy and host of new opportunities. I couldn’t be more excited to be living in a city like Los Angeles, an economically and culturally diverse city where anyone’s simple dream can easily become a reality. I’m excited about the new friends I’ve made, the business contact’s I’ve met and the growing professional and social networks that I’m building. It’s always difficult to speculate on the future, but the prospects of a good year are already peeking out.
It’s amazing how the simple act of rolling into a new year can shift everyone’s perspective into believing things can and will be better. If anything else, I’m hoping that this global perspective shift will have a positive impact on the world around us. “Can you feel it? Oh I felt it!” Here’s to 2010 and an amazing new decade for everyone. Cheers!
[One last side note ... While I personally have a renewed outlook for the future, my heart goes out to the entire country of Haiti, who is going through an unimaginable tragedy. My thoughts are with you and your families.]
Happy Holidays 2009
I just wanted to take a moment today and send out my best wishes to everyone for not only the new year but also for the new decade.
Next week brings to close the end of the first decade of the new millennium, and for me this decade will be remembered by the fall of the dot-com era, the explosion of the internet, the start of my now 9-year relationship with my partner Justin, the iPhone, Facebook and my relocation from San Francisco to Phoenix to Los Angeles, among other things. For me, it’s personally been a decade full of changes and new experiences and I don’t expect the new decade will be any different.
I know it’s been a stressful and challenging year for most of us, but at the end of the day I look back on this year and am thankful for all friendships I have and the great people I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with since moving to Los Angeles.
I wish all of you, your significant others, your children and families my best wishes for a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year as we start off this exciting new decade!
My Warmest Regards,
Rich Brown
The Writing Is On The Wall
It’s a simple phrase, “the writing is on the wall”. We all know what it means, what it refers to when we hear someone say it. I’ve heard this phrase several times over the past week and months, and by many different people. I got to thinking about it a little tonight and my question is … how do you really know it’s true. Isn’t this statement really just an expression of any particular individuals emotions or perception at the moment. I mean short of a posted note or billet, it’s just a phrase of perception.
I guess when many different people are reading the same thing, then maybe it’s true. I don’t know, I hate to think that the writing has been on the wall for so much time now that I’ve been overlooking it. No one wants to be the one who has put extraordinary effort into a situation when he or she ’should’ have known better. No one wants to be the last man standing when it all goes bad. No one wants to think they should have made better choices when the writing was ‘clearly’ on the wall. I certainly don’t want to look back and think that I should have trusted my gut instinct from the beginning and now instead I’m left standing here bewildered while reading the graffiti alone.
I guess my question is … When do we really know when ‘the writing is on the wall?’
Birthday Thoughts
Rich Brown on October 31, 2009.
Well here we are again, back to that day of the year to which I have still not decided if I love or I hate. Today is my birthday, my 39th birthday to be exact. Everyone always remarks about how great it is to have a birthday on Halloween. It is pretty great, but to be honest when I found out sometime between 5 and 10 years old that it wasn’t all about me, I sort of lost interest.
So here I am once again looking back on the last year of my life and doing an evaluation. What did I like, what did I do right, what would I change. It’s something I do every year on my birthday, as I’ve never been a fan of resolutions on New Year’s Day, but rather a reassessment of myself and my path in life on my birthday.
I can still remember the night of my 30th birthday, sitting in my apartment in San Francisco, scared and excited at what the next 10 years were going to hold in store for me, and here I am now looking back and moving into the last year of that era of my life. I can’t believe how fast time passes.
I think overall my 30’s have been a really great time of life for me. They are completely not what I expected for myself, and that’s a good thing. It’s been a decade full of adventure and surprises and I’m looking forward to actually using this last year to help turn the tide of negative energy that’s taken over me this past year.
If I just focus on the last year, it’s probably been one of my worst. I do realize that I’ve become quite the negative and cynical person in the course of just a year, but that’s partly because I made some bad decisions and I let myself be put into a position which I had no control. It was unlike me, and completely unavoidable, but I did it anyway and because if it I suffered greatly this year. I’m not one to talk about my feelings with people outside of my inner circle, but this year has taken it’s toll on me both emotionally and physically. I’ve let myself get into a financial mess to which I’m still trying to formulate a plan for recovery. I’ve allowed myself to remain at probably one of the most miserable job’s I’ve ever had in the history of my career, to work for a company who’s only motivation is greed, a company who has no integrity, no vision, no goals and no respect for any of it’s employees. Against my better judgement, I’ve allowed myself to stay there in the hopes that things would change, but I realize now the only thing that has to change is my self-realization that I can do better and my self-image that I am better then that.
It’s funny because when I get down emotionally, everyone always tries to point out the good things in a persons life. I do realize I have a lot of good things going for me and in my life, but sometimes it’s just hard to see them through the veil of negativity. If I do anything at all this year it will be to get rid of all this negative energy and make this last year of my 30’s a great year so that I can start 40’s on a positive note. I want to look back at my 30’s and know that I while I made both good and bad choices, I made my own destiny and I set myself on the right path for a healthy and happy future.
This next year is going to be one where I focus on myself, my relationship, my finances and my career. It’s going to be a year of better decisions. It’s going to be the year that I finally explore Los Angeles and try to understand why nearly my entire life I’ve somehow been drawn to live here. It’s going to be a year of discovery, hope and new dreams for the next decade. I know I have the drive and desire to make this next year a great one, and I’m going to start now.
Happy birthday to me, now step aside, I need to get through. Cheers.
Atlantis Cruise = Swine Flu Party?
LOL … I just read this on the CDC website …
What is CDC’s recommendation regarding “swine flu parties”?
“Swine flu parties” are gatherings during which people have close contact with a person who has 2009 H1N1 flu in order to become infected with the virus. The intent of these parties is for a person to become infected with what for many people has been a mild disease, in the hope of having natural immunity 2009 H1N1 flu virus that might circulate later and cause more severe disease.
CDC does not recommend “swine flu parties” as a way to protect against 2009 H1N1 flu in the future. While the disease seen in the current 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak has been mild for many people, it has been severe and even fatal for others. There is no way to predict with certainty what the outcome will be for an individual or, equally important, for others to whom the intentionally infected person may spread the virus.
CDC recommends that people with 2009 H1N1 flu avoid contact with others as much as possible. If you are sick with flu-like illness, CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.) Stay away from others as much as possible to keep from making others sick.
Um … Ok.
Remember This Moment
Every once and a while I have one of these moments where I look around, take in my surroundings and think to myself “remember this moment” as if that triggers my mind to snapshot both the visuals around me and the feelings I have at single point in time and store them somewhere up in that mess of a brain I have. Since I’ve only done this a handful of times, when I think back to those moments I have an almost near perfect mental visualisation of people and objects around me and an overwhelming sensation of the way I felt during that moment. It’s bizarre to be honest.
Morning & Afternoon View of Westwood from the Parking Garage on my way in/out of the office
This is one of the rare times where I actually have a photograph of what my brain actually remembers as one of those moments. The two photos above are a morning and afternoon view of the same corner of Wilshire & Glendon that I see every day to and from the office, but to me the visual represents so much more.
I’ve always had some strange fixation with this view of building in the center, probably because I see it everyday and caught in the correct light the building appears almost surreal, as if it was just painted into my viewpoint. About a month ago or so I was on my way into work, I stepped into the elevator of the parking garage to go down and just had this overwhelming feeling come over me with thoughts about myself, my job and what I’m now considering this new chapter of my life. I turned around to catch a glimpse of my favorite building and thought to myself “remember this moment, this will be what you think of when you remember back to the time you live and worked in Los Angeles.”
I guess that’s where I am with things right now to be honest. I’m trying to overcome the negativity and look at everything that’s happened over the past few months as a learning experience for me because while I’ve been able to hide it quite nicely from most people I’ve actually been quite depressed lately in dealing with a host of unforeseen personal, financial, relationship and work issues. The type of issues which I haven’t been forced to deal with in quite a long time. Making this move, the new job and all the baggage that was thrown at me after making such a drastic and sudden change has been a huge weight to carry for the past 8 months. I’m finally starting to have a feeling that things are about to change for the better, and honestly I’m ready for it. I’m ready to take a break from the long work days, take a much needed vacation here in a few weeks and come back ready to embrace and move on with my life. I believe it’s probably time I look at what I have at hand and make the best of the current situation because as I read once “Don’t look for the next opportunity, the one you have in hand is the opportunity!” I’m pretty sure whoever wrote that was probably correct. I guess well see. Cheers.
Not Impressed With Windows 7
I have to be honest I’m not really sold on or impressed with Windows 7. I installed it on my desktop about a month ago but my experiences with it so far have not been very good. I have minimal installed and still the browser crashes quite frequently and lately the computer seems to just lock up for no apparent reason. I guess we’ll see if it improves, I can’t determine if it’s a good replacement for Vista at this point or not. Cheers
Tired
That’s about all I have to say at the moment. I’m tired. I need some time to relax and recover but unfortunately my self imposed work schedule doesn’t permit it. I worked late tonight, got home, going to bed and back at it again in the morning. I know I’m a sucker for punishment, but I see it all as being necessary at this point in time. At least I might be able to relax a little this weekend. We’ll see. Cheers.
Something To Look Forward Too
Summer in Los Angeles. Now that’s certainly something to look forward too after spending the last 6 summers slow roasting in the dry heat and sweltering temperatures of Phoenix. I can’t say it’s actually something I miss. Don’t get me wrong, I really like certain aspects of Phoenix, but over all it was very easy for Justin and to make our departure with little fanfare and not too much looking back. It’s never been a secret that ever since we arrived in Phoenix after leaving San Francisco we quickly began to long for being back in a more developed city. We had our reasons for staying in Phoenix for so long, and we also had our reasons for wanting to leave. Like I said it’s not a bad place, it’s just not the right place for us anymore.
There are a few things I miss about Phoenix, but the way I feel about living in Los Angeles, far outweighs anything that I could possibly miss about Phoenix aside from my Mother and a handful of remaining friends. I’m honestly surprised at how well adjusted both Justin and I have become with Los Angeles. Sure there have been some big adjustments for us to make, such as moving back into an apartment, and there’s also the adjustment of making less money and having things be a little more expensive then we were accustomed too in Phoenix, but I’m realizing those sacrifices are what everyone makes when choosing to live in a big city. I’m also realizing that downsizing your life isn’t really a bad thing either, it’s just a minor adjustment.
So with that said, I think things are looking up a bit these days. The more comfortable we feel living here, the more Justin and I find to look forward too. Dancing all night at local club with our friends. True cultural diversity. Diddy Riese Cookies. The beach. Amazing restaurants. A real gay neighborhood. I could go on and on. The fact that I’m here with Justin, I have a decent job, good friends, and I’m healthy is about all I can ask. The rest is all added bonus. Sure I sometimes wish things would have turned out a little differently, but life is unpredictable and I had to remind myself recently to stop looking in the mirror, hang on, embrace the change and enjoy the ride, wherever it takes us. After all, if nothing else, summer in Los Angeles, now that’s something to look forward too. Cheers!
Over It
Well so as to avoid having no blog postings dated in July, I decided to write this as it will be August in a few short days.
I can hardly believe I’ve been living in Los Angeles for 6 months now. I’m still loving every minute of living in Los Angeles with Justin but as for the rest of my life …
I feel like poor white trash from the burbs. I guess it is what it is …
I’m hopeful next month might be better.
Tuesday Blues
I’m a little tired today but that’s no surprise since it’s a work day. I find that I have too much going on in my life these days to get to bed at a reasonable time anymore. When you sit in the office until 7PM it doesn’t give you much time in the evening to do much else before feeling like you ’should’ be going to bed. The problem is that I know I should but usually don’t which leaves me awake until 1, 2 or even sometimes 3AM before finally getting to sleep.
I’m not all that thrilled with my life at the moment. Somehow things seemed much better last year at this time but much has changed for both me and the rest of the world since then. I know I can’t live in the past but it’s difficult when you think things should get better over time, and they don’t.
Times are tough and I can’t say I haven’t been impacted. I’m stressed out, moody and miserable that I have to work my ass off just to make ends meet these days. Come and gone were the days of irresponsible spending, travel and unmonitored finances. The move to Los Angeles has been a difficult once since Justin and I now have the overhead of an apartment as well as the mortgage payment on our home in Arizona. I know it’s not a unique situation to us, but it’s a first for us to feel this way and I’m not sure if things are really going to get better any time soon.
I guess I wish I would have made some different choices over the past few years, but again, I have to deal with the situation as it’s now in front of me and do what I can to make the best of it.
I like living in Los Angeles, it’s full of nearly everything I’ve wanted in a city, the only problem is that now I really can’t appreciate it the way I might have given a different financial standing. I guess this is life right? Many of our parents were faced with difficult times and now it’s the turn of my generation to experience. Knowing this doesn’t make me feel any better. I do have some hope that things will slowly get better, as I need something to look forward too these days. Cheers.
I Love The Weather In Los Angeles
Are you kidding me with this …
It was so hot in Phoenix this weekend and it’s only May. I’m actually glad that for the first year in a long time (about 6 years to be exact) I’m not going to have to suffer through an entire Phoenix summer. I guess things are already looking up for me. Cheers!
My Mom Took Over The House
So yeah … After spending the weekend back in Phoenix moving my Mom
into our old house … She was effective at converting the house back
to almost exactly the same dated way it looked when we bought it 6
years ago. *eyeroll*
Much On My Mind
It’s interesting how much my life has changed in just a few short months. I’m sitting here in the living room of our new 4th floor apartment with the sliding glass door to our balcony open, enjoying the cool night air, listening to the sounds of the city and looking out at the high rise apartments across the way on Barrington Street. It’s a scene somewhat like this, which I’ve played in my mind for some time now, but not something which I expected this quickly.
I’ll have to admit that I’m still a little shaken from the quick uprooting of my life from the suburbs of the Phoenix area to the city life of Los Angeles. It’s not that that the change was unwanted, it was just unexpected. Unexpected and perhaps not on exactly my own terms which made the entire move a little more difficult. I’ve been playing the positive attitude, telling everyone how much I love it here, and how glad I am to finally be out of Phoenix, all the while masking the doubt and fear I’m keeping hidden inside myself. Don’t get me wrong, I do really like it here and it is 10x better then Phoenix, but it’s different and just a little overwhelming to say the least. I became very comfortable in Phoenix over the last 7 years, maybe too comfortable, and while I feel like I’ve been wanting to escape from there for a while now, I can’t help to think that life was just simply easier in Phoenix.
I think Justin and I are both in the same situation here. We both know that Los Angeles is such a better place for us, but we’re both nervous about the entire situation. Trust me, it was not easy to leave the comfort of our 4-bedroom home to move into a 2 bedroom apartment. Downsizing and community living is not an easy task after you’re used to suburban living. The downsizing and the pure increase in basic living cost of being in a place like Los Angeles both weigh in heavily on our inability to feel completely comfortable in this city.
Like anything I suppose it’s just going to take time. I am happy here, which is a good start. I guess it’s better then being miserable, which I’m sure is probably the other possibility, but a pretty non-typical emotion for me. In the end, it doesn’t really matter where I am, as long as I have Justin and Berg, I’m at home and I’m sure I’ll start to feel like Los Angeles is home in no time. Cheers.
Photo of Justin and I from March
I was looking through some photos from our Atlantis Caribbean Cruise aboard on the Celebrity Solstice in March and I found this one. I think it’s a cute photo of Justin and I.
Getting Settled in Los Angeles
It’s been a hectic few weeks here. Not only did Justin and I finally gather our belongings from our house in Phoenix, but we already moved into a different apartment in Los Angeles. I’m not sure what we were thinking but apparently our 4 bedroom house didn’t consolidate down into a 1-bedroom apartment very well. After trying, and I do mean trying, to fit everything into the 1-bedroom, we found out a much larger 2-bedroom just up the hall from our apartment came available. It was perfect, so we jumped on it and took it, which means we once again had to move.
So with that said Justin and I have been spending the past 2 weeks between moving, unpacking and more unpacking. It’s going to take some time, and we have a year that we’re committed to here, so we’re taking our time. I’ll be glad when everything is done and we can just relax.
Other then that I’m still loving every minute of being in Los Angeles. I find new things to love about the city every day. I have quite a few stories already, but that will have to wait for another day. Cheers!
