Santa Barbara

Saturday my grandma and I went to Santa Barbara. We loved it! It was the cutest town, with the prettiest beaches. There was so much shopping (and eating)...I was in Heaven.







Other than traveling the coast on Highway 1, it has been a pretty lazy/relaxing week. We had a massage today and I have been laying by the pool and exercising a lot. We also found a really neat Greek grocery store. I'm getting used to living in this big city, but one thing I decided is that when you live downtown, there are a lot of "conveniences" that are not so convenient. For instance, you have to drive for a while to find a normal size CVS, Walgreens, or grocery store. I guess people just sacrifice those conveniences when they want to live in a central location. Also, there is just generally a lack of space. Lack of parking spots, lack of space IN the parking spot, lack of parking lots, lack of space in your lane, lack of space in the grocery stores, lack of space really everywhere. Except, of course, the shopping. There is no lack of shopping.

I must say though, I'm quite proud of myself and my grandmother for being such good navigators. Of course, there are still places that we haven't been. But for the places we have been, we have a pretty good sense of direction and knowledge of the layout of the town. We drove through Beverly Hills (oh. my. gosh. I would have taken pictures, but I didn't want to be a stalker. But those houses are GORGEOUS....and another exception to that "lack of space" rule....mansions in Beverly Hills- no lack of space there) and we found our way back to the apartment with no Garmin!

We have also checked out all the shopping. The TJ Maxx and Marshalls here are HUGE. I have been on the search for a summer romper, and I finally found one at TJ Maxx. Thankfully, I didn't buy the $115 I found at a little boutique because I found one, almost identical to this one (only mine is bright red with a little more ruffles) at Marshalls for $16.99:



Everything is going wonderfully at my internship. I am still loving it. I have been able to sit in on some pretty cool meetings.Also, I've made it clear to my boss that if. Robert. Pattinson. ever. comes. in. I. need. t.o. meet. him. He was creeped out, but said ok.

Bill is coming in 12 days which I'm so excited for! I'm already trying to plan all of the stuff we're going to do, but its been hard. I want to go to San Diego, I want to take him to Santa Barbara now, Disneyland, San Juan Capistrano, the beach, several restaurants....we're going to be busy.

Also today I rearranged the apartment. There is just so much to do with 400 square feet, I want to experiment with it all. I made an effort to separate our "dining room" from our "living room", by moving the couch more towards the opposite corner, and I must say...huge difference.

And..I started reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo...its off to a slow start, but the series is supposed to be awesome. So I'll have to give an update on that later. That's what I'm doing now...just sitting by the window reading my book with a glass of wine. I have to say, so far, I think I'm really enjoying California.