My first week(s) in La La Land

Dear Simba,

It's been one week since you looked at me... but you seem to like it here enough, girl!

I catch you lying around on the fake hard wood floors, always in a patch of sunlight and with your avocado catnip toast nearby. Sometimes, you're on the couch instead - at home on your gray fleece blanket or your cream colored sherpa that blends with the hair you leave behind. You wake me up at 6:30am, meowing for your daily drink out of the sink or squeaking because your feeder hasn't turned yet. At night though, you make your way into my room eventually and hop up onto the foot of the bed where you can nestle into the warmth of my legs under the covers. Wherever we go, some things never change.

After one week of living in my new Studio City apartment, I have already fallen hard (and all over again) for Los Angeles - her brains and her beauty. I wouldn't say I'm right at her center, but I've landed amongst her northernmost hills and begun to explore what locals call "The Valley" alright! Merely 45 minutes south of my family and 45 minutes east of Jill and Carolyn on the west side, I feel like I'm exploring my very own brand new neighborhood while also sitting right in the middle of everything.

Here's what I love about it so far: - I'm right near some of my staple people in LA - Scott's place is about a ten minute drive through the Valley and Briona is mere steps down Laurel Canyon Blvd. Jess and Scott came over Saturday night for casual pizza and game night. Jill drove up to help me unpack and was so much closer than we were in the past. In my first week, I tested the drive over the canyon to WeHo...my old stomping grounds!
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1. I'm walking-distance from my favorite essentials that I missed for three years while living Down Under. Trader Joes, Vons, Salt & Straw plus a PinkBerry are a short skip and a jump away... with a Blue Bottle coffee, Alfred and Fonuts on the next corner over. I can walk down to the weekly farmers market on Sunday and find a fresh squeezed juice, authentic breakfast burrito, fresh produce and flowers and friendly neighbors all in one go. Even my checker at TJ's the first night was friendly and warm, a veteran Angeleno with loyalty to the "valley." I can get on board with that.
2. I have endless proximity to sunshine. While I'm wary of its force in the summer, I love that Mr. Sun beams through my window shutters when I wake up in the morning and illuminates my entire living room throughout the work-from-home day. In the evening, it ducks behind the same trees that it rose through that morgan and I have a tiny little sunset glow off my back patio, less than a mile beneath the trail head I can ascend whenever I have an hour and a half. I can also see the sunny Hollywood hills from almost every angle around the apartment complex, including over the solar-heated pool through the palm tree silhouettes lining the horizon. The LA sun completes my panoramic view.
3. I have all of my new essentials with me that made Oxnard feel like home. After i got through the massive 48-hour pack-and-move, I looked around my new place and realized that my couch and its chaise lounge, my family desk made of oak, my curvy dining room table and all six of its chairs (not to mention Simba!) feel in the space like gloves and glass slippers. I couldn't squeeze another furniture item just yet, but I'm 95% unpacked and each little Cory touch feels at home here. 

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My kitchen has its splashes of red and my living room with purple accents and Aquabump's "Rise" featured front and center -I have a quaint and yet perfect balcony. I can perch in my comfy rattan chairs from Wayfair, and welcome Simba to come out and join me - at which point, she doesn't hesitate. I have three small tables for all of my plants and we sit out there together, plant family and all - enjoying the aforementioned LA sunshine on my shoulders (and I can't imagine having found a place that didn't have an outdoor haven for us to escape to!). The work from home days are long but the space feels like me- ever under construction but also oh-so-me.

My reminder to self is that to move is to grow, refine and yet expand. As Briona's housewarming card read so fittingly:
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Wherever you go, go with all your heart.

Xoxo,
Abroad Down in LaLa Land