San Francisco

I went to San Francisco last week for three days and it was amazing! It was a last minute trip, and well worth it! We drove up Route 1 on the way there. It was a beautiful drive. I'd never been to northern California before. I knew it was different from southern California but I didn't know how much. It reminded me more of what I imagine the Northwest is like than California. The topography was different, the vegetation was different. Most of the drive up along the coast was foggy but in a sort of ethereal, beautiful way. Plus, it was a little nice to not have to realize how high up we were as we drove along the windy road in the mountains right next to the ocean. One of the things I love most about California is how the mountains and cliffs run right into the sea. And the redwoods! I'd never seen them, and they were amazing. And huge! Good Lord, were they big.

The drive up was not all nature etc though. We stopped by some interesting places though not for long because we did the drive in a day and wanted to be able to see San Francisco once we got there. We drove though Buellton, the "home of split pea soup" (I didn't know there was one lol), stopped for a quick lunch in Big Sur, which was gorgeous. We stopped in San Luis Obispo to see the Spanish mission there, which made me immensely happy, being a student of history and architecture. We stopped in Monterey, where my boyfriend grew up as a baby. We wanted to stop and find their old house but ran out of time (we were able to stop on the way back though).

We got to SF in the mid afternoon and hit the town. Fisherman's Wharf was our first stop and we walked the city on the way. We immediately loved it. Like a west coast New York City but with more color (and more fog too, at least while we were there...). It was really nice to be in such a walkable city after being in LA, which is, for the most part, anything but. At Fisherman's Wharf, we toured a bakery, saw Alcatraz (but only from afar, we didn't enough time for a tour there), saw seals that hang out off the pier, and just generally walked around and had a great time. We intended to go out that night but I was too tired (we'd gotten up at 4 to leave at 5) so we hit the hay early to get ready for a full day the next day.

Enough for now, I think! I'll conclude SF in in the next post. Needless to say, if you ever have a chance to go (and drive up the 1 on the way), I'd highly recommend it. It was an amazing city! I'm very glad I suggested it last minute, which is very different for me, and I intend to learn from that and keep suggesting new, different things in the future.

Back home!

I'm back home in LA and loving every minute of it! I'm finally moved into my new place, and its amazing. I'm so glad I made the decision to move into my own place. It was a somewhat big thing to do for me, since I've never lived on my own before. But I'm glad I did. And I am very glad that I had the realization I did, that I can live my life the way I want to, that I control my life and destiny. That doesn't, however, mean I have to be controlling over every aspect of my life. I tend to be rather uptight and anal-retentive about things. Things have to be a certain way all the time. I do things the same way every time, or I get anxious. And I still do sometimes, but realizing that things do not have to be like that--that I can the master of my own life without having to be controlling to the point of obsession--has left me feeling a lot freer than I ever have before.

I am already trying to be more spontaneous and live my life to the fullest. Before, new ideas that I had would often get filed away in a list in my brain entitled "would be nice to do someday." Now I think, "why not now? what's stopping me?" So in that vein, I decided to go to San Francisco for a few days with my boyfriend next week. We've been talking about doing it for awhile and love to travel. And now, we both have time. So I said, why not? let's just go for a little bit. It may seem like a small thing, but this was a big step for me-- merely asking myself "why not?" Because the answer was that nothing was holding me back but myself. I want to use this idea in all parts of my life. Most of the time, there is nothing holding me back from doing things but myself, and I don't want to spend any more of my time on the sidelines because I'm too afraid to take the plunge into something new. That's the fun in life, and instead of letting the prospect of the unknown hold me back, I intend to let it propel me into new and better things.

New beginnings? I hope so!

Some introductory thoughts (aka about me and about this blog):

I'm a pretty normal, quiet, more than slightly neurotic girl. I moved to L.A. a year ago, and I'm loving my life. I just moved into my own place and I have a year left in grad school. And I've decided that I want to revamp my life. I'm not going to drop out of school, completely derail things, or anything like that because I love what I do and how things are going so far. But I'm restless and its time for a change. I've always been a conventional girl who followed the conventional path. But I'm done with that. I want to live outside the box after living firmly and squarely inside of it my whole life! So this is going to be the place where I outline my goals, catalog dreams, keep track of my progress, and record my adventures (hopefully!) Because what I've discovered is that I don't need to veer off on a completely different path, I just need to live my life the way I want to live it and do what I want to do. What I want, not what anyone else says. So this will be me, recording this new direction, living my 20-something life and making the most of it!