And so begins the first of many, many titles of blog posts with popular culture references to California in them.
My road trip to our new home in Northridge was successful. I saw a lot of America along the way -- much of it boring, but much of it very beautiful as well. But needless to say, it was a very long trip and I'm glad to be here. What I have accomplished thus far:
- Checking into our new apartment. It is of a decent size and for the most part well appointed.
- Purchasing a new mattress. Expensive but comfortable.
- Getting a new bank account at local ubiquitous financial institution.
- Hooking up rudimentary Internet access. I'm using AOL. Don't laugh at me. Okay, fine, laugh at me -- I'm laughing at myself. It's only until Samantha arrives with the DSL modem.
- Picking up our cats from the airport. They made their travel unscathed, and have adjusted surprisingly quickly.
- Exploring the surrounding area a little. It's basically suburbia, endless suburbia, in all directions. How exciting.
- Buying a refrigerator. This actually only happened today.
- Almost going broke. Moving to California is a lot more expensive than I thought it would be.
- Housing the peerless Peter Pearson whilst he attends the SCBWI conference. And it's really only been housing -- I haven't been in his presence and conscious for much longer than 4-5 hours in the past two days due to the extreme intensity of the conference. But it's been fun nonetheless.
- Not eating well.
- Missing Samantha a lot.
- Going to work.
My initial impression of California is such: The weather is very nice. There are a lot of people here. Many of them are nice too. There is a lot more radio diversity than in Bloomington. Everything is really far apart. But much of it is the same as the rest of America.
I'm still feeling pretty discombobulated. This is assuredly due to the fact that I am still missing 1) most of our worldly possessions and 2) my wife. And most likely the latter much more than the former. I cannot wait until she arrives. Everything will be right with the world then.