Soooo apparently it's my blogiversary?? Didn't know those were a thing, but apparently they are. And even though I've been doing this for a year now, I realized some of you may be a little confused about this whole "blog" thing....
I have posts on here about embarrassing stories, DIY projects, little things that make me happy, work experiences, tv shows, California happenings, Mr. Feeny and a whole bunch of other random topics.
So what's the skinny?
Truth is my mind just never stops, things are ALWAYS inspiring me!
Picture if you will, the dog from Disney's Up. He gets adorably distracted from a thought whenever he sees a squirrel... If you take "squirrel" and replace it with PRACTICALLY ANYTHING, that's basically how my mind works. It's just one thing after another, like a never ending domino effect in my brain. An old married couple walking hand-in-hand, the smell of fresh cut grass, a funky design in a store window, a quote on a billboard, movie, or tv show, the sunny skies of Southern California, a happy text from my grandmother, something I heard on the radio during my morning commute, a hand written letter from a friend I haven't heard from in a long long time, and SO much more. My mind was going so fast, all the time, that I needed a place to put it all together.
I have always loved writing, though as some of you may have noticed, I cannot spell to save my life (or punctuate for that matter). As some of my friends can also tell you, I love telling stories. They are usually very long winded, detailed and elaborate (as you can probably tell from reading my posts). I am also a very visually expressive person, I like to paint the scene for a situation as I tend to find myself in the most random of circumstances and have "this would only happen to me" moments more than the average Joe.
But I'm also a very creative person. I have a die hard passion for photography and design that I felt was getting squashed by the daily struggles of being an (at the time) unemployed 20-something. I needed a creative outlet, and one bigger than Instagram and my handy-dandy craft trunk (more on that later). I wanted an excuse to photograph this beautiful city in a way that was for me and my own enjoyment, and not to brag about my new life or get caught up in Insta "likes".
Also, I've found that post-grad life is a vastly more lonely time than any I've ever experienced. Sure, I can probably chalk that up to moving half way across the country to a massive city where I only knew a handful of people to begin with. But no matter where you are, life after graduation is a little more lonely than the life you once knew. Don't get me wrong I do have many true & dear friends out here, but most of them have very busy work/life schedules or live on the other side of the hill, and you better believe I'm not about to fight the 405 every day. Mix that with my fairly inconsistent employed/unemployed schedule and I found myself with A LOT of free time.
And thus this blog was born.
This space started out as an outlet but quickly became a place for friends and family to keep up with my California adventures, for me to motivate myself and take advantage of my twenties, to focus on happiness and little things, to share some of the embarrassing stories I have from weird circumstances at work, and it gives me the excuse to explore this always entertaining town that throws beach life, beautiful nature hikes, laughable trends, fancy billionaires and struggling artists all together in one palm tree obsessed place.
I am not perfect, far from it actually! I have leftover Chinese food for breakfast more than I care to admit. My type of a deep conversation is about diet coke vs regular coke (who are we kidding people, diet coke tastes WAY better). My rather intense love of one hit wonders from the 90's is questionable at best. I am still struggling to find my dream as so many others are too. I question if anyone really cares what I'm putting out into the world wide inter-webs. I like to sleep, a lot. And it's actually a huge struggle to motivate myself to get out of bed and do something productive with my day. But this blog helps to keep me in check and is a consistent reminder that I am NOT my career, I am NOT alone, and I am NOT just one thing. I know I have a lot to offer this world, and if a day goes by where I know I have done nothing beneficial for myself or anyone else, I can always come here and change that by sharing something that hopefully leaves you with a smile on your face (or a laugh or two).
So thanks for all your kind words and sticking with me folks, and to that one reader in Japan... YOU RULE.
***Full disclosure: the above photos are a direct result of my awkwardness & how uncomfortable I feel taking pictures by myself. I am in no way trying to show you how "cool" I am, that's just a little bit of me being me (which is the definition of awkward).