betcha didn't think you'd see a post from me on your Google Reader...

And I didn't think I'd be writing one! Hello friends. I hope you all had wonderful holidays and New Years' and are feeling productive and happy in the beginning of 2012! I've been feeling like something has been "off" for the last 6 months or so, and I think that goes hand-in-hand with my (long!) break from blogging. I wasn't blogging because I wasn't quite feeling like myself (and, uh, who can blog about themselves without really knowing what exactly that means), and in turn I was really missing this creative and supportive outlet in my life!

I still don't think I'll be churning out the posts because, unfortunately, I'm still stuck putting in 11 or 12 hour days at my all-consuming job, but I'd really like to jump back into this, reconnect with all of you (and I've been reading your blogs the entire time and following your wonderful adventures! It's been so fun to read about new engagements, new houses, new babies and fun parties!) and document a little more of my life here in LA. The adjustment has been w-e-i-r-d, to say the least, but I won't be here forever and when I'm gone I might just actually look back and wish I had taken more pictures and written more.

(I just re-read that last line and it sounded like a morbid meditation on life, when I really just mean I won't be in LA forever. Not, you know, on this earthly plane.)

It feels good to be back :)

gainful employment. finally.

Today is a good day. Today, I am not waking up feeling anxious, with a stomachache, and unwilling/unmotivated to work out or do anything productive that requires energy. That is because today is the first day I've woken up knowing that I have a job!

A few days ago I learned that though I was in the top two for the teaching position I had really wanted, the school had offered it to the other girl. It was a blow, and I really started to feel down in the dumps. I felt a little spoiled-- here I am, in this beautiful apartment in this fantastic city with my wonderful boyfriend, feeling sorry for myself. But I just didn't pack up my life and move across the country, and leave my family, to lay by a pool and run errands and shop all day. I needed to feel like I was doing something meaningful.

Then yesterday, I finally got the call-- the other job for which I had interviewed offered me a position! I start on July 25, which gives me some time to finally relax and get in better shape before I start. I was feeling guilty that L. was at work all day and I was home, so I was running around all over the place, cleaning and grocery shopping and cooking these three-hour meals and doing laundry and getting the car washed, to feel like I was contributing. But now that I only have two weeks left in my last summer vacation ever, I'm going to lay by the pool a little more!

I can't tell you where I'm working (and in this industry, it takes NOTHING to get fired, so I'd rather keep work-related posts, if I write them at all, completely vague). BUT. I will give you one hint, in addition to a hint I gave a couple months ago:

LA is exhausting!

Hooray! We just got wireless TODAY, so after being on the road for a week and in the apartment since Friday, I finally have both the time and the wireless connection to write a post! Just a short one for now, but I have tons of pictures to upload and organize from our trip and our first few days in LA. So far we've been to West Elm (three times), Ikea, Bed Bath and Beyond (three times), Z Gallerie, the bank, the power company, the Social Security office, the pharmacy, the grocery store, Living Spaces Furniture, and countless other places. We've gotten a ton of furniture, and I can't wait to share pictures! We've also gotten to try out some local restaurants and I finally cooked my first meal tonight (after not having any food in the refrigerator for four days). We've also had delivery people come to the house literally every.single.day since we've been here.

More soon! I'm alive!

ps- It's been so much easier to catch up with all your blogs on my laptop rather than L.'s iPhone!

interviews and more interviews

A short update: some of you have asked if I already graduated and have moved out here to Ca, but I just wanted to clarify and say I definitely haven't yet! Unfortunately there's SO much I have to get through before graduation, such as finishing my thesis, defending my thesis to the English department and my super-smart peers who will no doubt push me (in a good way!), finishing up my other classes, and preparing to move out here in June--all before the big day on June 5.

There's also a lot of really fun things happening before graduation too. After classes end on May 13 and we finish our papers and our exams, we'll be heading down with the rest of our senior class to Hilton Head for a week, a Williams tradition undoubtedly left over from the time when it was an "old boys' club" college. (We actually didn't admit women until the 70s!) After Hilton Head we go back to Williams for Senior Week, filled with fancy dinners, dancing, champagne brunches, and bonfires. Graduation is on June 5, then L. and I will stay with my parents for about a week while I pack up my room, donate/sell my stuff, and then we'll finally head out here!

So quite awhile to go.

The last week has been all about L. and me trying to nail down jobs before we actually move out, so that we're not, you know, driving across the country and renting an apartment with no income! I had four meetings/interviews: last Saturday (the 19) I attended a job fair of sorts for independent high schools to interview for teaching positions, then Monday I had my long-awaited interview at a big, wonderful publishing company about a half hour outside LA, and last Wednesday I met with two literary agents. One guy was a big-whig talent agent and was a total tool; I'll have to give him a post of his own.

My teaching interview with a great private school in North Hollywood and my interview at the publishing company both went really well, and though I haven't been offered either position yet it seems promising for both. I'll have a big decision to make, since the publishing job, while it would be perfect, would be about a half-hour commute each way depending on traffic, perhaps up to an hour. Teaching would be a short commute but it sort of terrifies me.

L. had such good luck out here! I don't know if I mentioned before, but his initial offer from the UCLA biochemistry research department had a contingency; the person who has the job now had to get into med school to free up the position for L. to take. On Friday L. and I went into Westwood so he could meet with some more people at UCLA (and so I could stuff my face with cookie sandwiches from Diddy Riese), and his boss told him that he officially had the position, no more contingency! Color me HAPPY.

Now that we know where at least one of us is going to be living, the apartment hunt is on. We're hoping to live in Westwood since it's a perfect little mini-city, with enough bars, restaurants, shops, and movie theatres to keep us busy, plus it would be great if L. could walk to work. What I don't want, however, is to get into a situation where we're living in an apartment building with a bunch of UCLA undergrads-- I am SO READY to be out of college and do not want to feel like I'm going back to school in the fall!

When we haven't been interviewing in LA, L. and I have been relaxing in Santa Barbara. We had a fun date night on Saturday that I'll write about in another post. Unfortunately it's been rainy almost the entire week we've been here, which is a huge bummer.

So that's my short update! I'm leaving California tomorrow to spend some time at home with my parents in New Hampshire, and then I go back to Williams for the last time EVER on Sunday to hopefully fly through this last month and a half.

Santa Barbara, LA, and some exciting news, finally!

At the end of January, L. and I couldn't handle the blizzards, the sub-zero temperatures, and the fact that our ceilings were leaking and about to collapse over here in good old Williamstown, Massachusetts. So we escaped to Santa Barbara for a week!

How much more beautiful can it get?

We had lunches on State St., took walks, L. played golf with his dad, we had some amazing dinners including The Palace Grill which is one of my new all-time favorite restaurants (their jambalaya was to.die.for!), and basically just had a wonderful relaxing time.

One night, we had dinner at the Boathouse.

This was our view.

Can I go back? Please?

One day while L. and his dad played golf, L.'s mom and I took their Standard Poodle, Obi, on a long walk along the coast. We stopped to be nosy/creepy and took some pictures of this (amazing) famous house. Can you guess whose it is?


If you guessed that it is the approx. $22 million 14,000 sq. foot Montecito, Calif. home owned by Beanie Babies creator Ty Warner then yes, you are correct! I wish I had come up with the idea to understuff stuffed animals and make a fortune off unwitting children. Sigh.

But perhaps the best part of our trip was the Wednesday that L. and I took the car and drove down into LA so that L. could interview for a job. I won't say where, but let's just say that it's for a research position at a prestigious university at which he hopes to attend medical school in two years.

Oh, and...HE GOT THE OFFER! Which means, ladies and possible gentleman who may read this blog, we are officially moving to Los Angeles in June!! YAY! You have no idea how relieved I am about this, because for the last three months I've been having anxiety that L. would end up in San Francisco and I would end up in LA, and there's no way I could do that long distance relationship for two years. And then if we couldn't make med school/grad school plans match, we would have waited those two years for nothing. So I am so, so, so happy to be able to say that we're going no matter what. Of course, I don't actually have a job yet, but I've decided that I'm going no matter what. I'm not following a boy across the country, although having a built-in roommate who I really, really love definitely helps; it's just nice to have at least one huge factor of life after college (location) nailed down, and a lot of companies won't take candidates seriously until they live in-state, anyway.

SO, this all means I am even MORE excited to share photos of our wonderful day trip to LA with you!

I had so much fun navigating our future home. Of course, when we went we didn't really know it was going to be our future home, but I was determined to make it happen one way or another. I just get this great feeling from LA. I know it's not a lot of people's (anyone's? so many nay-sayers!) thing, but to me it's amazing--sunny, expansive, relatively easy to navigate, and it doesn't have that run-down look of these old New England towns that have been around since the Revolution in which I've been living the last twelve years of my life.

We had my trusty GPS, a british fellow named Daniel, who was more than helpful. It was especially funny to listen to the strange way he pronounced the streets (Wheel-Shire Boo-lay-vaard).



I had our day all planned out. Thanks to the lovely Mara's help, we decided on Joan's on Third for lunch.

I had absolutely the most delicious sandwich I've ever eaten in my life; fresh mozzarella, basil, tomato and olive oil on a crusty rustic roll. I'm drooling just thinking about it. I need to go back. I'm already fantasizing about doing some of our grocery shopping at Joan's' (weird, making a possessive a possessive) marketplace and making amazing paninis for lunch on the weekends at home...mmmm....


I strategically planned lunch so that right afterward, we could walk across the street and enjoy a scrumptious dessert at Magnolia Bakery. I have to say, I had really high hopes and had heard amazing things about their cupcakes.



The verdict? They were okay. The frosting was really fluffy and just tasted a little strange to me. They were certainly pretty, but in terms of sheer deliciousness, I have to say the cupcakes we had at WhoDidily on State St. were the absolute best. We split the Lolligager, a chocolate cupcake with lime-colored buttercream frosting and a hunk of cookie dough baked into the center. YUM.

One of my favorite parts of the day was when I dropped L. off at his interview and drove over to The Grove for some shopping. I resisted the urge to buy anything, but it was difficult, especially since it was a gorgeous 80-degree day and I was wearing a long black cardigan! Blech!


Before we went home the following Monday, we took a trip down over the weekend to Newport Beach to visit with L.'s grandparents. It is so beautiful down there (plus, there's like three Ikeas on the way!). Being sandwiched between Newport on the one hand and Santa Barbara on the other isn't such a bad place to be...

I am so looking forward to doing some more cupcake-tasting when we get back to LA, as well as trying out all the restaurants I had wanted to hit on our last trip: Ketchup, Don Antonio's, La Brea Bakery, Toast, Diddy Riese, The Foundry and soo many more! I'm also really enjoying beginning our (tentative) apartment search. If you guys know of any great affordable complexes or anyone who is subletting in West LA, let me know!! And now I'm crossing my fingers that one of the job interviews I have lined up in March when I fly back out works out...

All Alone in the Big City

This afternoon I did something bold, exciting and completely terrifying. See, you guys might remember my having hinted a little that I have an exciting interview coming up in March at a really big, really awesome publishing company outside of LA, and I also have a teaching conference to attend in the same week, where I'll be having many mini-interviews with administrators from private schools throughout the state of California. Orbitz is having amazing deals right now on tickets from Boston to Los Angeles (like, under $300 amazing), and I was getting anxious that if I didn't book soon, I'd miss out on these prices (which, honestly, are all I can really afford). So, I did it. I took the plunge, and booked my ticket out.

The only problem? I have nowhere to stay, hardly any money, and no means of transportation. I'm flying out Friday morning and getting in around noon, and my conference isn't until Saturday morning at 9am. That means I have a couple options. I could leave the airport and walk around/splurge on a cab/do some sightseeing/possibly scope out some apartment complexes in the area for my move in June, but the problem with that is I'll be lugging a giant suitcase since I'm not flying out for 11 days (I'll be heading to Santa Barbara with L. and his parents the following Wednesday). Plus, I wouldn't want to get too far from the airport since I'll most likely be sleeping there (it's free, I'm broke, and I don't know what I would do for transportation from a hotel to the conference location anyway, since it's about an hour from the airport with traffic). I could try to find a cheap hotel, but that again leaves the problem of transportation--I could splurge on a hotel or a cab ride, but probably not both.

Is this crazy? Most likely. I picture it being like a scene in a movie--young about-to-be college graduate ruthlessly pursues job opportunities, at the expense of sleep, showering and overall comfort. I picture myself curling up on the floor of the airport, linking my arm through my baggage so no one steals it while I sleep, and spooning my business suit, which will be laid out to avoid wrinkles.

Luckily I'm not homeless for the entire 11 days. I'll hopefully be staying with a good friend who lives in Palos Verdes for the weekend and then I'll be heading up to Santa Barbara, as I mentioned. But the thought of being homeless and carless for over 24 hours--and having to look professional and presentable the next day--is a little terrifying. But also? Maybe I'm masochistic, but it's really exciting. The things we do for our dreams, right?

Let's just hope I don't get mugged...


Image 1, Image 2