Getting more settled

Well, I was successful. I got the shelf put together, and found some help to help me get it upright. Below is the finished product! Only took about a week. And a little bit of a sore lower back. But I got it! Followed by a decision to try to only buy furniture items that I can handle myself from here on out. Which was a good thing to decide before I went to Target this weekend to buy some *more* shelves (I don't have enough kitchen cabinet space and I have too many books!). I had to decide between this  tall shelf/pantry thing I really wanted - which came with a warning that it was a buddy item (meaning it takes two people to lift it safely) and another one that wasn't really big enough but I could lift on my own. After I got the big one by myself onto the bottom of my cart (not an easy endeavor) and walked around the store with it for awhile, I came to my senses and realized that I'd never get that thing out of my car and into my apartment. I put it back. :)

With the shelf up, I was able to get all but 2 boxes unpacked. Yes! I'm finally almost there! this weekend I hope to acquire the couch/bed that my future guests will sleep on when they come to visit me! (hint hint - please come have fun with me in California! I'm almost ready!) I will use it to sit on too.

I also did have some weekend fun again finally! My new friend Rebekah and I went for a hike in a beautiful nature reserve park (Torrey Pines State Park) just north of where I live and work. Its got beautiful ocean views. We followed our scenic hike by putting our feet in the ocean! Ah refreshing. I still have yet to get all the way in. The water is a bit chilly. . .  and it doesn't seem so fun to go hang out on the beach and in the ocean alone. . . surrounded by all the tourists and fighting for a place to park. Sigh. I'll get there eventually.

And then there was internet!

Finally! I got internet today! This is the reason. . . mostly. . . why I haven't posted in weeks! I'm sure I could have written a post at home, and taken my laptop to work, gotten online, and put something up. . . but that didn't happen. Obviously.

So anyway, to catch everyone up on things - I found an apartment and moved in. Yay! Now I have a living room half full of boxes, 2 1/2 weeks later. Someday, I will get them unpacked. I seem to be having some circular problem where to unpack the boxes, I need to put up my shelves, but there really isn't enough room to assemble the shelving unit until I unpack the boxes. . .  But I'm hoping that with my brain that managed to get a PhD, I should be able to sort this one out soon :).

It's a one-bedroom. It's an okay size, and it is pretty updated inside, so that's nice. I just keep thinking that I'm paying twice what my mortgage used to be for just over half the amount of space. Sigh. Its quieter here than I expected it to be, for which I am very thankful. I'm working on getting a couch/thing guests can sleep on, so soon I'll be ready for visitors! Oh, except I probably have to unpack my boxes to fit the couch in here. Well, guess I'd better get to work! I really don't want my lack of a couch to be what stops you all from coming to visit! (hint hint)

I'm now nearing the end of my 4th week of week in my new lab. I gave my first presentation at lab meeting this week. The "what i'm planning on doing" talk, cause I haven't really done any science until today. :( I've been reading/planning a lot, which is needed, but really not as much fun.

I'm not sure there is much to report on the adventure front. Besides that I figured out how to use the card (not coin) operated washer and dryer at my apartment. (sigh, $2.75 for a load of laundry). And I can now get to Trader Joe's without my GPS. (it's only about a mile away - I'd really hope I could figure that out!) These are my current excitements. Hopefully I will have more time to go check out more San Diego soon.

The Laguna Lodge and starting my job!

Last week was my last week without work. Tomomi's condo was being fumigated for termites, so we had to vacate for two days. I took the opportunity to go on a little adventure out of the city. Turns out there is a National Forest (Cleveland National Forest) that is only an hour away from San Diego. And I found a lodge there that rented out cabins. So I got one for two nights and headed out to the mountains! It was a really nice little retreat. There were probably 15 cabins - I think I was the only one there. The only person I talked  to or saw was the guy that owned the place. Absolute solitude. It was nice just to be alone after a couple weeks with people everywhere! It was rather pretty as well. There were tall pine trees, and a family of woodpeckers outside my cabin. It still did have a desert look though. But a nice getaway that wasn't so far away!

But back to reality.  Monday was my first day at my new job. I work in a beautiful new building across the street from the Salk Institute and very close to the ocean. :) Some of the lab windows have ocean views. We are very close to the San Diego Glider Port, so those lucky few get to watch people hang gliding too. I can catch a far off glimpse through the window in the bay next to mine. But my desk is on the opposite side of the room as the window in my bay, and our view is blocked by an office anyway. They made all these offices in little squares that line the outside of the building floors, so you have to go outside to go see the boss. Its an interesting set up.
Anyway, things are going well. I'm just doing a lot of reading at first and trying to get all the proper usernames and passwords and email accounts and orientation classes. I can't wait til I really get to do Science!

And the nice part is, I got a holiday in my first week! Happy 4th of July! I decided to go on a little biking adventure. There is a mount called Mount Soledad. On the top is a war memorial. Its an 822 foot hill with great city views. I said to myself, "Well, Its only a 3 mile ride to the top from where I am. I don't know any other bike routes, I should just try it." I used to think that hill on Benton Street in Iowa City was killer. However, after I got slaughtered by this one, I think I little more kindly of Benton street. I did make it to the top, with rubbery legs and all. Unfortunately, it was little cloudy today, so the views were not spectacular. However, I shall include a couple anyway.
So the 3 mile hill up probably took me 45 min to an hour. I got home in about 12 minutes. It might be a while before I try that one again! :)

Some thoughts on California

Well, I've officially been here about a week and a half. I thought I'd post some thoughts on my first bit of time here.

Driving:
I've been learning how to get around here and there with the help of David, my British Garmin voice. He has trouble saying Boulevard. There happen to be a lot of Boulevards that I've driven on lately. Its a bit amusing. And he has not yet directed me to drive into the ocean, which is probably a good thing. Hehe. (that's for all you "The Office" fans out there) Unfortunately, I don't listen well sometimes. Or perhaps its more like I don't judge distance well sometimes, and make lots of wrong turns too early, so David has done a lot of recalculating. However, I can now make it to the grocery store and home again without David's assistance, so that's progress! There's a really funny story about how I missed the car wash and how I managed to drive back again, but you might have to ask for that one. :)

Driving really isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Perhaps it is because I've done most of my outings during the day, when people are at work, but the freeways don't freak me out like I thought they might. I don't really go very far, so I'm doing okay with normal streets as well. Especially now that I'm getting the hang of which ones I actually want to be on. :) I think I've pulled more U turns in the last 2 weeks than in the last several years combined. Although, in some areas, the lanes are small. We all fit, but sometimes I'm just not sure if I want to try. I like my mirrors. . .

Parking:
Parking, on the other hand, is ridiculous. Parking lots do kind of freak me out. They are all very full and very small. And the parking spots are even smaller than midwestern parking spots. Narrow little spaces you are supposed to be able to navigate into. . . I think it takes some getting used to.

And the parallel parking. Because you might not have a lot to park in, or find a space in a lot, so every bit of the side of the road that can be parallel parked on is. (so many cars! so many people!). And that is probably where a spot will be found, so I've been honing my parallel parking skills. Its exciting (sarcasm). I still need to get a bit better.

The weather:
I arrived in June. Sounds like a great month right? well apparently they have this "May Grey - June Gloom" thing. So since La Jolla is so near the ocean, this marine layer comes up in June in the AM and PM and it is more chilly than you might think. I think it struggled to reach 74 some of the days when I first got here. Days which I hear were 90 in Iowa! So it was only sunny some afternoons. And everyone apologizes. But June Gloom is better than -20 degree February and hot humid August in Iowa any day! But now it is getting warmer and sunnier as the month ends. But since La Jolla isn't inland, it should not get too hot, even during the summer.

The ocean:
So I'm a few blocks from the beach (only for a little while longer - I can't afford an apartment over here, I'm still staying with a friend). So I've gotten to take a few jogs down by the beach. And sit on the rocks and watch the ocean and the surfers - we have quite a few on this beach. (yes, I'm trying to make you jealous). However, with the marine layer stuff, it has looked more grey and cold. Not so inviting for a swim. And there is quite a bit of seaweed. And honestly, sometimes it just smells funny. But all in all pretty nice.

Tomomi has been showing me around on the weekends, and this weekend we went to visit Old Town and Coronado Island. Coronado Island has a nice beach! Less seaweed, long sandy shores. Someone needs to come visit so I have an excuse to go back! Additionally, you have to drive across this really awesome bridge to get there and on the bridge is a great view of the city scape of San Diego! Here is a really cool sandcastle someone was building there this weekend!

California!

Here is the last post of Christy's and my journey to California!

We were excited that the last day of car riding had come. We had been having a great adventure, but man, we were both ready to be done driving. In addition, we had not done a good job of our last leg of the journey homework, and we thought we had only about 3 hours to go. Turns out it was 5 and half. That was a bummer. It was hot when we left Las Vegas (prob in the 90's in the AM and to be 100+ later that day) and hot through the desert, although temps in La Jolla were supposed to be about 67 degrees! Talk about a change! 

Anyway, we were happy to be in California! Although this is where it really began to hit that this wasn't a roadtrip that had an "on the way back" as Christy and I kept joking about. I was far from home, and I wasn't going back. A sobering thought. A bit of a scary thought.

The drive was pretty uneventful, although once we got out of the desert there were some really pretty mountainous areas with tons of trees! The only real event was that Christy almost got herself left in California, a little over two hours from the destination :). So she held out days past the prediction of getting left in Colorado! The story is that she called me a nerd at lunch. Perhaps it was deserved. . . but still! I told her I was leaving her there. She said it was okay, she would just go back to Zion. :) 

Anyway, we moved on closer toward the outskirts of LA and San Diego out of the lonely desert. Let me tell you, there are a lot of lanes of traffic! This is something I'm just going to have to get used to.

But we arrived safe and sound, just a little nerve-wracked after the traffic that I'm not used to, and reunited with our friend Tomomi in San Diego. She showed us around La Jolla, and we all went to the beach so Christy could put her feet in the Pacific Ocean. It was cold. Both the weather and the ocean :). But it was a good end to a great journey! Thanks Christy, for going along!

Zion and I-15

Well - we've actually arrived safely in La Jolla, but that story is for the next post (but just in case you were wondering. . . )

First of all - Christy and I had an AMAZING time (albeit a short time) at Zion National Park in Utah. All I can say is. . . I'm going back. If you'd like to sign up for that trip, please let my secretary know and we'll get planning! (um, yeah, I am my secretary).
Here is Christy and I in the canyon, and some shots of the canyon.  Really, these pictures don't even come close to capturing this sight. Here you drive into the park and you are in this canyon with majestic rock walls (made of layers of sand) towering above in reds and tans and dotted with green from vegetation. A river runs through the canyon - here is a small waterfall we hiked to along the river and some views of the canyon walls. It is Breathtaking. And there are areas where the water has seeped through the pores in the rock walls and it drips down the sides of the walls near the bottom, and plants (like columbine flowers) literally grow right out the rock wall. They call them hanging gardens. So cool.

 

 Sadly, we had to leave. If we had realized how cool it was, we would have skipped Vegas and stayed! The Narrows is begging to be hiked (or waded through - as we hear there are creek crossings)! Nevertheless, we proceeded on toward Las Vegas. We got to travel through both Arizona and Nevada to get there adding two more states to the list. And I just have to say - Nevada - not the prettiest state ever. I think Iowa beats it. At least Iowa has rolling hills of green farmland. Nevada is just piles of sand. And not even pretty sand like Utah. Ugly piles of sand.

 We stayed in Henderson, so not really in Vegas, as it was on the way to our next sightseeing spot -the Hoover Dam. It was pretty cool - a marvel of civil engineering right?  But really - it was huge! Amazing to think about how they built it. You can see the Colorado River behind Christy and I. The upper right picture is of Lake Mead on the other side of the dam. And the panoramic at the bottom shows only the top portion of the dam. It is too huge for one photograph and extends further down where at the bottom is the power plant and the Colorado River.

Stay tuned for the arrival at our destination!  (sorry I'm so far behind - we just had way too much fun to keep up)

Fun and scenery on I-70

Well, after we left Denver on Sunday we traveled along I-70 through Colorado to Utah. Man! We saw some awesome scenery! I've been through Colorado before, so that was expected, but this was my first trip to Utah besides being at Four Corners. I didn't expect it to be so beautiful!

Here are a few pictures of the scenery from Colorado. A beautiful mountain peak with green trees and some panoramic scenery from a scenic stop by a little mountain stream.

We stayed Sunday night in Fruita, Colorado. Mostly because we wanted to check out this local statue of Mike the headless chicken.  You can check out the story online - there is even a festival and a 5k for Mike, but we missed it by several weeks. We got our picture taken with Mike, and decided to not let him be headless alone!

After staying in Fruita, we continued on I-70 to Utah!

Utah was pretty awesome. There were a number of overlooks in the beginning of the state. Christy was driving and I kept telling her that we probably wouldn't need to stop at most of them, but then I would catch sight of some amazing views at the last minute and I had to change my mind!
Here is the view of Black Dragon Canyon (top one) and some other views of scenery along I-70.

And here's Christy and I to prove we were really there!!  Next time I'll have to post some pictures from our adventures in Zion National Park!