A little bit on "home"

Typically I like to share about our adventures in the great land of "away". Mark and I love to travel and with family and friends living far and farther, it seems we are always on the go somewhere. However, we have lived in Seattle, Santa Barbara/Goleta, and now we live in Los Angeles, CA and soon we're going to live somewhere else. Right now we're living in a part of LA that's nestled in right by LAX. I thought today I would share a little bit about what it's like living in the land of ten million and what our lives are like in between our great adventures.

We live in a Costco-sized apartment complex, but our unit is more like those fun-sized candy bars. Very tiny! A few weeks ago we had a very clear day after a bunch of rain and Mark took some pictures from the roof of our six story parking garage.

Mark actually parks in garage B (we have two six story parking garages) and I park out on the street. So you can just think about that for a minute. Our apartment complex has two six story parking garages and I still have to park on the street. Here is the street where I park, with a view of the snowy mountains. We lived here for five months before the smog cleared enough for us to see the mountains, and then we almost crashed our cars out of shock. 

What, you can't see the snow? Ok, here's another picture of it. 

As you know, Mark as been working at LMU this year. The campus is beautiful and has some of the best views we've been able to find of LA. I should note that all of these pictures were taken on the clearest day we've had so far since moving here in August.

Living in our part of LA means we also shop at what we are told is the busiest and highest grossing Trader Joe's in the country. It is airport-themed (right down the street from LAX) and though the lines are always long and the aisles crowded, we find it a fun place to shop. They are always fully staffed, the people shopping there are used to it being crowded and don't do dumb things, and just like at all TJs you might find yourself discussing the merits of cooking with wine you would drink vs. cooking sherry with the person next you in line. But shopping anywhere in LA always means shopping with a rent-a-cop. For some reason the prevalence of store security guards is completely standard here. We have slowly gotten used to seeing these underpaid uniformed people with flashlights who text instead of watch for shoplifters, but nothing screams "our neighborhood is ghetto!" more than having mall cops at every storefront. (Photo stolen from the interwebs... yelp.com)



And then there's the commute... While Mark may only have a ten minute drive into work, it takes me about forty-five minutes to drive twelve miles every day (one way). Everywhere in town is 15-30minutes away and getting honked at or hearing someone else get honked at is completely normal. I am going to need new brakes before we move.

So when we're not commuting, standing in line at the grocery store, choking the smog, sneaking away to Disneyland.... I'm usually here, in my favorite place in the apartment. Note the Tide, since my kitchen is also my laundry room, my garage, and my attic. I keep my china in my pantry and my Christmas decorations in my cupboards.

So that's home for us! It's going to be different soon...