I was originally going to write this post after being here a year, but I procrastinate so now it has been 14 months. This year here has been wonderful, crazy, and lonely. And this post will explain exactly why those three words perfectly describe my first, of hopefully many years here in Sunny Cali.
Wonderful - I live in California which other then the cost of living being ridiculous it a pretty great place to be. You have beautiful mountains and oceans, the weather is typically always perfect, and people always want to come and visit you when you live here. Also I truly LOVE my job, I enjoy and look forward to going to work everyday, and everyday something new is going on that keeps me on my toes. Even on days when I don't feel well or have migraines I go into work and any one of our 35 residents will say or do something that reminds me why I am so blessed to work at CDA. For instance last week I worked a double shift from 2:45PM til 8AM and then volunteered my time to go and help our residents "Walk for a Cure" at the Susan Komen walk. I was with our residents for 23 hours and 20 mins. I would have stayed the last 40 min if I didn't think my patience was about to break any second. It was totally worth it to see the look of accomplishment on their faces as they finished the 5K and the fact that they were thinking of others. Also, since moving here I have gotten to know my Aunt Barbara, who unfortunately while I was growing up I did not get the opportunity to know. Barbara is a wonderful person, who I have greatly enjoyed getting to share life with. Lastly I have some great friends here, even though one in particular keeps bringing me hideous fake flowers in wine bottles. It has been wonderful to have my friends and family from TX come and visit me and get to see what all I'm doing and meet my friends here and see the amazing place I work at. And now I have my own studio apartment and that too is wonderful!
Crazy - That started on the first day of the drive out here. My moving truck was broken, half way through loading the truck I broke my right foot (who knew standing on a particle board bookshelf was a bad move), and then I had a huge anxiety attack on our first night on the road. My aunt Val had her hands full with me on that three day journey of driving a Penske truck towing my car... oh yeah and we had my dog Chloe with us (although Chloe was the least of our problems). Then my movers never showed to help unload my truck and the craziness just continued. Thankfully my Aunt Barbara (who I stayed with when I first got here) had an amazing dinner & wine waiting for us when we got to her house. I started work 2 days after getting here and had to wear flip flops (not in the dress code) due to my broken foot. Going back to work at an organization you work for previously is also a little crazy, because you have been there before and you sort of know the ropes, but there are tons of new faces ready to tell you that you don't know anything. Plus I came back in a new position, so it was weird seeing someone else doing my old job. I also pretty quickly changed positions again and then had to learn all new ropes again, but I tend to like change. The last bit of crazy lasted the longest and will be just brushed over and that was the roommate situation, I had one that I really enjoyed and another that helped me see why living alone is the way to go.
Lonely - Can easily be summed up with it was REALLY hard to move away from the amazing group of family & friends I had back in Texas. Hence the reason for my anxiety attack. I don't have the best relationship with my mom and my dad who I was close with died 11 years ago, but there is no reason to feel sorry for me because I have been HUGELY blessed with an amazing group of Aunts and Uncles who fill those roles in every way. Plus I had my sister living in the city, so when living in the country made me stir crazy (most weekends out of the year) I just drove up to hang out with her. And then I had a wonderful group of friends in good 'ole east Texas that were always there for me and loads of fun. So when you move about 2000 miles away from all that goodness it can get a little lonely, but you figure out who your real friend were/are. They are the ones who call or text and check in with you, maybe not regularly, but they make the time. Some of those family & friends have even come to visit!! And that takes us back to the wonderful part.
So there you have it, my first 14 months in Sunny California have been wonderful, crazy, and lonely, but worth every moment! I am hoping within the next 14 months I can finally make a trip back to TX to see those amazing family & friends. I also hope that in the next 14 months I will keep up with this blog a bit more too.
