I always knew I had good taste....

and this just confirms it! Apparently, it enjoys being stared at. I think a weekend walking tour is in order to check out the other winners.

You might be a grown-up if.....

1) You start going to bed before 10 PM

2) You wake up naturally by 8:30 AM on weekends

3) You finally understand the appeal of a high thread count

4) You iron your clothes

5) You're especially excited to get the mail on Tuesdays because that's when the coupons and weekly circulars arrive

6) You buy plants (the kind that require water and sun rather than dusting)

7) You fantasize more about the luxurious outdoor living space you walked by rather than the hunky, shirtless runner

My new 'hood

This post is way overdue since I've been living here for over a month now, but I've been busy getting settled in, yo!

Living so close to the beach I've tried to make it a priority to get an evening walk in. I've seen some pretty cool things on my walks. I took a picture of this house during my first week here. It was my favorite at the time. It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but I love how the all white flower scheme in the front pops against the black. This house sits right across from the beach so I assume they are used to taking pictures of it all the time, but I still looked both ways before snapping the picture and scurrying off.

I haven't been good about having my cell phone or camera with me on many other walks and have missed some of the other cool houses, one had a cool rusty iron dinosaur head in the garden (it was classy I swear) and another yard had a bunch of bizarre shaped shrubs. I think one of them was a small child, but I can't be too sure. I think I remember what street it was on, so I'll try to document it next time I pass that way. But come on, with a view like this it's easy to get distracted, and walk around smiling a lot. :]

It's also a little like Pleasantville around here. Kids ride their bikes to school, play unsupervised in their front yards (and presumably don't get kidnapped), and take evening strolls with their cute Dads and dogs.

I've also had a few run-ins with some Texans. I was out one night wearing my Tech shirt and a guy started giving me the guns up. At first, I was taken off guard wondering why he was waggling his finger at me, but then I got it. Another time I was walking through the Del and had a group of kids start smiling at me and one of them gave me the guns up. I pulled off my head phones and asked if they were on spring break to which the kid replied, "Yes Ma'am". Ah, how cute.

One not so cute incident happened on my way into Panera. I was walking in behind a guy and his girlfriend when the dude let the door slam in my face, and it wasn't one of those times where I was aways behind him or he couldn't see me. I was literally walking in right behind him and he just let the door close behind him. I remember thinking to myself that would NEVER have happened in Texas.

Texas, oh how I miss your manners, but I think I'll stick with the So Cal scenery.