The Road to Cali: Day 3

California Desert

Flagstaff, AZ

We made it to California today! Not LA though, we're about 120 miles or so from LA. I won't be able to get into my apartment tonight so we decided to stop in Barstow, which is basically a desert town.

We drove from Gallup, NM to Flagstaff, AZ (which is absolutely gorgeous, my goodness! Snow covered mountains, the city itself is at the top of a mountain. Very very cool). I ended up driving all the way to Needles, CA, which is the first town once you cross the border into California. Once you get into Cali it's...well, the desert. The Mojave Desert. Lots and lots of mountains, little cactus, dry land and well...that's about it!

We didn't go to the Grand Canyon. We thought about it, but after actually calculating the amount of time it would take to get there and back, plus the fact that we wouldn't be able to spend a whole lot of time there (especially with a cat in tow) we opted against it. Would rather get into my apartment early tomorrow morning and get the whole moving process started!

It was quite an interesting drive. Drove through a lot of mountains and saw some pretty awesome landscape. Glad I'm not making a return drive though...definitely going to fly home to St. Louis for visits, not drive. This has been a fun trip but it is exhausting!

The Road to Cali: Day 2

Albuquerque, NM

In what will likely be the LONGEST day of our trip out west we accomplished driving almost 700 miles today - wow! Started out in Oklahoma City, then as we hit the Texas border I was promptly greeted with a tumbleweed. Nice. Drove across the Panhandle (B-O-R-I-N-G). Even Amarillo has nothing. I thought Oklahoma was flat but oh no, the Texas Panhandle wins.

I was so excited to see New Mexico. Mountains! Mesas! Red rock! Trees! New Mexico is very scenic. Albuquerque is pretty cool. It's a city that's settled right in the middle of the mountains. So pretty much anywhere you look, there they are. I can't help it though, every time I think of Albuquerque I hear Bugs Bunny saying "I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque." Ah, childhood.

We decided to continue on and are spending tonight in Gallup. So we're about 20 miles from the Arizona border! Tomorrow I think we're going to take a detour to see the Grand Canyon. It means we won't likely get to my apartment in California until Wednesday, but since it's ready and waiting for us why not take the detour, right? Who knows when I'll have the chance to see the Canyon in person again, maybe never. The cat would probably prefer to get to the apartment ASAP so he doesn't have to travel in his carrier anymore, but well, he'll deal. He's been SO great so far so I know he's going to be fine.

That's the scoop on Day 2, going to head out and find a place to grab some dinner. I'm so glad we decided to make the drive ourselves, I'm really enjoying spending the time with my dad and also seeing so much of the country during the drive. It is truly amazing to see how the landscape changes, especially once you start seeing mountains and so forth.

Can't wait to see what it'll be like driving through the desert - yup, Mojave Desert is on the route to LA so we'll see that too.

The Road to Cali: Day 1

Oklahoma City, OK

Today I officially hit the road and am one my way to my new California home. My dad, the cat and I left St. Louis around 10:15am or so, and as I type this it is about 7pm and we are spending the night in Oklahoma City. It would have been nice to get a little further today but there's nothing really in between Oklahoma City and Amarillo, and we weren't going to make it to Amarillo. So, 8 hours down, 20 more to go (yahoo!).

Perhaps an ambitious goal, but tomorrow we hope to get to the New Mexico/Arizona border. That's about 10 hours of driving though, so we'll see. Albuquerque may be as far as we get. Good thing is I have an apartment waiting for me in North Hollywood so we can afford to take our time and not tire ourselves out too much.

I drove all the way to Joplin, then my dad drove us through to Oklahoma City. The cat was amazingly good. He wasn't happy of course, but he only cried a few times and was mostly silent. He's been such a good sport through all of this so far, I hope he can make it all the way to LA.

So we're on our way, should be in LA by Wednesday. It's all so surreal still but I'm definitely excited and ready to start my new life out in California!

More updates from the road later! :)

Last Night in St. Louis...

Well, here it is. By this time tomorrow I'll be somewhere in Oklahoma, or maybe Texas, if we're really ambitious.

I moved everything out of my apartment today. I'm already tired of moving and sorting through stuff. It's going to be hard deciding what to keep and what will stay behind at my parents' place. At least if it's at my parents it's not gone, just not with me for the time being.

I had breakfast this morning with my cousins and grandma, which was really nice. It happened so fast though! I felt like I hardly had time to hang out with them. But that's how it goes, I suppose.

Tonight I had dinner with my parents and my second family, The Fletcher's. I'm going to miss them so much! It was very nice and I'm starting to feel a bit...well, sad I guess. I'm not my usual perky self. I knew the move would be hard though. It will all work out for the best, but this initial transition will be hard.

Getting ready to head out and hang out with some more friends before hitting the road. Will post more updates later!

Last Week in "The Lou"

I can't believe that this is my last week in St. Louis! Where has the time gone?

As it stands, the only big items I have left in my apartment are a computer chair, an air mattress and my 42 inch TV. Ha. Sounds like a typical guy's place, huh?

I still have tons of boxes, and the Salvation Army is getting quite a large donation from me. It feels weird to get rid of so much stuff and start over and then yet, I realize more and more that I am totally spoiled and I have lived my life owning more things than are necessary. Truly, I must remind myself to not buy so much crap in the future. Some of this was inherited, of course. My mother gave me a lot of it. Holiday decor, old items from when I was a child, etc. I guess she thought since I had moved out it was time for me to have ALL of it. That's how my 575 sq foot apartment ended up jam packed with all sorts of stuff.

I also am a bad pack rat. I'll keep stuff until I'm forced to purge. Which is why this move is good in many ways. I'm finally getting rid of things that I've needed to get rid of for some time. I have 3 full boxes of clothes! And it's not clothes that are in that bad of shape either. They just don't fit, or I don't care for the style anymore, etc.

The cat is super confused by all of this, poor guy. He's in for quite an ordeal, I hope he gets through it all right. I'll need him to be my buddy in Cali!

I'm about *this* close to getting an apartment. I'm trying to negotiate a deal, I know my credit was approved and they are interested in working with me so I hope to have something figured out this week. It would be a HUGE weight off of my shoulders to get this taken care of. It's a great apartment too, it's in North Hollywood/Toluca Lake. It's walking distance from my new Catholic Church and it's 2 miles from work. Can't beat that! Keep your fingers crossed!

Packing Up My Bags...

Packing sucks. Packing up your life to move cross country? Triple sucks. I cannot fathom how in the world I've ended up with so much stuff (cue in George Carlin's "stuff" comedy bit. RIP, George!). I have already thrown out at least 10 bags of stuff to just trash, and at my last calculation my Salvation Army donation totaled almost $700 (and that's with me going with the low end pricing on their site for items donated!). Next year's tax return should be awesome!

It's getting barer in my apartment, my friend Sarah's boyfriend bought my bedroom furniture and he came and took that last night. So I've been sleeping on my futon, well, until Monday until that's taken away and I'll be using an air mattress. Not for too long though because I'm sure I'll end up sleeping at my parent's place as it gets closer to move day.

Sunday, March 28th is the day! My car will be packed and me, my dad and Ringo (the kitty) will be hitting the road and making the LONG drive from St. Louis to LA. I'm kind of looking forward to the long trip though. Driving across the country is something I've always thought would be cool. Stopping at different places, just getting to see things. I'd like for us to make a stop at the Grand Canyon. Why not? We're already driving that way, might as well get a little fun out of it!

The apartment search in LA is...exhausting. I have a place that I really like in Toluca Lake, which is next to Burbank and would be awesome commute wise. But, I have to negotiate with them on rent because their price is just a little too high. However, they are offering a special (one month free or certain amount of months rent discounted) so I'm trying to see if instead of using those incentives if I sign a 12 month lease can I work those discounts into the monthly rent. We'll see. They have two units open, I have good credit and I'd be able to move in right away. Why not work with me, right?

If that doesn't work out, I think my dad and I will be hitting the Burbank area and trying to find something there. I had a place that I liked in West Hollywood, but it's street parking and I'm a little concerned about the safety aspect of having to do that, even if parking is easy to find, you know? Plus, it's 7 miles from the office and in rush hour traffic that could be...well, nightmarish. So I'm still hitting up craigslist to see what's open and we'll take a day when we get there to find a place (unless the above situation works out!).

I still in so many ways can't believe this is happening. I ALWAYS dreamed of making the move to California but had long ago thought that perhaps that wasn't ever going to happen. Is this going to be easy? Of course not. But I have a feeling that many good things are coming my way and this move to California is going to provide the opportunities to me to become even more successful and independent in my career and personal life.

As I am packing and so forth, I found my college senior memory book (thanks Liz!) and was flipping through it. The book contains all sort of fun stuff, including letters from my friends. I had to pause and read my friend Barbara's note. Why? The closing of her note said "may all your California dreams come true."

Well Barbara, looks like they are! :)

Hollywood Bound...

Well, my LA adventure is about to begin. In just a couple of weeks, I will be an official California girl. Not that I haven't always had the California blood in me. Ever since I was a child going to California always excited me. Of course I have relatives in both northern and southern California and I love seeing them, but there was something else. Something about California pulled me in. Maybe it's the mountains, the palm trees, the sun...whatever it is, it's always felt like home to me in some way.

So now I am about the live the dream that I have always wanted. I'm moving to Los Angeles. I have an amazing job opportunity with my company's office in LA and am looking forward to having the chance to work in the radio industry out in LA. Working for Power 106 is going to be awesome!

Anyway, I thought I'd start a blog about my big move. After all, I've only lived in the midwest my entire life, more specifically, only in Missouri and Indiana. California will be quite a change! Plus it'll be a way for me to keep in touch with all of my family and friends. :)

Still lots of things to do and moving out of my current apartment has been a pain! Somehow though, it will all work. And in a little over two weeks, I'll be a California resident!

The picture is the view from a potential apartment I'm looking at moving into. Pretty cool, huh?