The Move...

Married life has been blissfully serene so far. While we didn't get to go on our honeymoon right away, I formed a sort of peace with the idea as it meant I got to begin playing house right away and what could be bad about that? Unfortunately the reality of what could be bad about that came crashing in pretty quickly...MOVING.

My new husband has a job not close to my/our current neighborhood. The commute was beginning to wear thin and with all the warnings of "make things simple" during the beginning of your marriage, this seemed like a bad combination. For example, the day we were leaving town to head up to our wedding (we live in the city, were married in the mountains) he worked his first 7pm to 7am shift. Not only did it take him 2 1/2 hours to get to work, it took him 3 hours to get home. To say he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown a few days before our wedding is an understatement. It was at that moment I decided apartment hunting was of top priority upon our return.

Begin apartment hunting for the first time in seven years and enter all the emotions of moving. I love my place, I don't want to leave, but close quarters leads to many things such as me thinking, if my husband talks to me one more time when I am writing I am going to rip his head off. Literally tripping over each other every time we head to the kitchen is not a fun way to spend a day. The pile of presents stacked in corner of our one bedroom apartment is pressed up against the heater, so we should move before it gets cold or we are the definition of a fire hazard.

Apartment hunting in the greater Los Angeles area is not a fun time. Let's not mention how far apart everything is in this city, let's just add that technically my husband would love for us to move to Orange County. While to many this might not sound like a big problem, I will liken it to him telling me we are moving to Oklahoma or a Manhattan girl being told she's going to Long Island. No matter how you cut it, I am a city girl. While I love the mountains, if we are moving to somewhere it should either be far out of civilization like Mammoth or Yellowstone or a city, NOT a suburb, I HATE the uniformity of suburbs, they just aren't for me. I love to visit them. I love my friends who live in them. But I don't choose to live in there. Full country or full city, no middle ground, make a choice.

So after the torturous task of narrowing down the options, we get to go search together on Thursday. I bring reinforcements in the form of our good friend Craig as he brings a guy perspective but also doesn't want to see me move to Orange County. Two guys performing a task they aren't fond of...I really didn't think this through. After the first apartment not only being rather blah I must endure the guys continually talking about how they have no idea if there is really enough room for our pet monkey in the place and what is the pet deposit policy anyway? Ugh!

We do go check out the one place in the OC that was, even I have to admit, nicer than the rest. Lucky for me there were multiple screaming babies on this particular day. So while the townhouse was mere minutes from Chris's job, the sheer thought of children was enough to force us back up to Long Beach.

This is the moment. This is the come to Jesus moment where you gave in and said...Long Beach is a pit, why would we go look there...only to arrive and find a sort of middle ground heaven you never knew existed. It is not perfect, it is not as close to the LA as I would like BUT it is new and pretty and feels like a city and has everything a girl could want. Am I giving up my principles? Not really, we're technically still in Los Angeles COUNTY. Do I love the area? Yeah, gotta admit I do. Am I happy that my new brother-in-law's only complaint about the area is that it was a bit too seedy late at night? Hell yeah! It's perfect! I think Brett would think West Hollywood is seedy, scary and strange too. Sounds like a perfect mix and a better commute. All in all I learned compromise isn't that bad and even if a place sounds horrible you won't know until you go. I can't wait to watch football at Hooters, walk to the movie theater, and sip fruity beverages by the pool. Did I mention I love the new apartment?

Post-Wedding Motivation....

So, obviously my first shot at a blog did not last very long. The sudden onset of inspiration quickly faded in the light of all the "real world" things to do such as making deadlines for work and planning a wedding. But as I sit basking in my post-wedding glow, I find myself re-inspired. It seems everywhere I turn while expanding my writing potential, everyone wants to link to one blog or another, so it behooves me to actually get this up and running. The truth is in that, I need to find an angle. If I am going to be the "blogger" what will my angle be in order to get people to take a look at what I write, well in order to extend beyond family and friends.

The answer, of course, seems obvious, given my new change in status and name. I think I should document the many changes that will happen in my world now that I have become married. For anyone out there looking to get married or who has recently gotten married, be sure to check out Jenny Lee's book, "I Do, I Did, Now What" as she is extremely witty and is actually intimidating me as we speak. Only in my head, but living up to her very insightful look back at the beginning of her marriage I am not yet convinced I have anything to offer. We never know unless we try...so this will be my beginning. The world is full of advice. I am just hoping my recounts will lead others to see a bit of themselves in the process and maybe find a bit of inspiration, decent ideas, and a way to laugh through everything that seems life altering in the process of getting married.

Today is the Day

I am not even going to pretend I had time to post this blog on my wedding day, but I did want to do a post-posting of how grateful I am to my friends and family for all they did to make our day special. Everyone traveled a long way to be a part of our event and we felt so very loved. From Stella calling in the troops to make the bonfire flawless, the Davis family making sure our centerpieces were lovely, my Mom for staying amazingly calm and keeping me so, my Dad for being the wonderful support he is always and keeping me in the moment, my new in-laws (all of them) for being a great place to turn when we needed anything, our bridal party for taking care of all the details, Dawn for making me stay on track: basically this list could go on and on and on. We love you all and we had the best time at our wedding. We are spoiled by my Dad for throwing it, Chris's dad for throwing the rehearsal dinner and all of our friends and family for coming together to put water bottles together, design things, stick things, place things, and then show up and be in the perfect party mood.

I am not sure if the wind made us all a little crazy but I know I could have kept dancing the rest of the night. I have already begun putting the photo booth photos in the book because I am all about instant gratification! Thank you everyone! Okay, the rest of this blog will be for all people not just wedding people ;)

If you feel inspired check out Father of the Bride, Gretchen, my Mom, Mallory and I watched it while prepping the wedding supplies...still funny after all these years.

So I have avoided this entire blogging world for long enough. I guess I figured I don't have children to update the world about and I have never been good at keeping a journal, so what's the point? I am not sure I will use it as a way to keep in touch with anyone, actually for this moment I don't even know what this is going to be. But as I sat here doing research for an article I am writing, I found myself inspired by the 74 year old long distance runner who ended up being the best source for me, making me not only meet but beat my deadline.

Anyway...if anyone finds this in the blogging world, I will try and find something more interesting to discuss in order to encourage you to come back!