Week 1

This post is for my grandmother, Granny, who wants to keep track of me as I change locations.  Two weeks ago, I moved from snowy, wintry Illinois to sunny California.  So far, the drastic weather change has NOT resulted in me contracting a cold, much to my advantage!

The drive out here was pleasant enough, and Al and I took turns driving the three days that it took to get from Manteno, Ill. to Los Angeles, Cali.  We only encountered snow in the drive through the Rockies in Colorado, and even that was just a round of flurries.  We stopped briefly at the Arches National Park in Utah, and were able to look around a bit before we traveled on.  There were two casualties to the trip, as with all trips.  I lost one of the decorative rims on my car the first day.  So, somewhere in Iowa is a plastic Toyota rim.  My car doesn't look too bad without it, luckily.  I also lost my set of keys to my car somewhere in California. Again, luckily I could make a new set.  Unluckily, I lost a key-chain that I had purchased in Belize, another that I had, had since forever, and a key topper of a purple monster.  Those three items will be missed :(

I moved to a studio apartment above the garage of a nice couple, the wife of whom is a well-renowned author (http://www.syriejames.com/).  The apartment situation is thus: we have street parking in front of the house, and our own mailbox.  You enter a locked gate to the right of the main house, pass by the pool and outdoor flowers and bushes, and arrive at the garage.  We have a patio in front of the garage, with two chairs (one upright and the other a lounge), a juniper tree that the owners gave to us and a rose bush that we purchased in November that is still surviving outdoors and doing well.  As you stand in the patio, you face two doors, one a glass sliding door and the other a white one.  The glass sliding door leads to the landlord's workout room and our laundry room.  The white door opens to a staircase, at the top of which is our studio.  The staircase railing divides the apartment nicely into a living-room/kitchen area and a bedroom area.  We have a walk-in clothes closet and a shelved closet for misc. items; there is a small bath and a kitchen with a large counter area and lots of cabinets.  There is also a heater, but no air conditioning.  The apartment seems to sit on the eaves of the garage, so there is a central seam to our ceiling, with a gentle slope to the kitchen, and a more drastic slope toward the main part of the room.  Near the central seam we have a ceiling fan.  The drastic slope is cut, on the right side of the apartment, to a window that looks out toward our landlords house and the street beyond.  The sun comes in that window most of the day, so if you are a sun-lover (like me) you tend to perch yourself next to that window nearly all day.  We have a small card table and three chairs next to the window.  My orchid sits on the windowsill in the morning, and I light a tea-light in a lantern-like candle holder there at night.

So far, I am just chilling here, and hanging with my friends.  I will let you know if anything exciting happens, and I will post photos of the place soon.  I wouldn't want to take them now, since it is already dark here.  So, instead, I will drink a cup of tea and watch some television :)

<3
C