Californians

[DBOldford]

Kimmi, you will fit right in and you will love the L.A. area. There are a gazillion jobs and wonderful places to live there and it is a really great town for young people. I lived there as a 20-something single woman and had a ball. Yes, we prefer the Napa Valley now. But I wouldn't trade Friday nights at the best happy hours in the world or Saturdays at the world's most diverse farmers' market or weekend sails to Catalina Island or skiing in the morning and going to the beach the same day's afternoon or getting six job offers in a week for anything. You can get your little heart broken pretty easily in Lotus Land, because some of the guys think having a girlfriend is like taking a sandwich to a banquet. But people do things in groups more than in other parts of the country. And there are so many things to do there (many free) that your head will swim.

Both of my stepsons live in the L.A. area, Brentwood and West Hollywood, respectively. They grew up just outside Aspen, CO but now wouldn't live anywhere else. We love going to visit. You will love L.A. and it will love you! :clap_1:

 

[Kimmifunn]

Kimmi, you will fit right in and you will love the L.A. area. There are a gazillion jobs and wonderful places to live there and it is a really great town for young people. I lived there as a 20-something single woman and had a ball. Yes, we prefer the Napa Valley now. But I wouldn't trade Friday nights at the best happy hours in the world or Saturdays at the world's most diverse farmers' market or weekend sails to Catalina Island or skiing in the morning and going to the beach the same day's afternoon or getting six job offers in a week for anything. You can get your little heart broken pretty easily in Lotus Land, because some of the guys think having a girlfriend is like taking a sandwich to a banquet. But people do things in groups more than in other parts of the country. And there are so many things to do there (many free) that your head will swim.

Both of my stepsons live in the L.A. area, Brentwood and West Hollywood, respectively. They grew up just outside Aspen, CO but now wouldn't live anywhere else. We love going to visit. You will love L.A. and it will love you! :clap_1:

Ohh I want to go soo bad! I have lots and lots of work contacts out there. One day Donna...one day. Maybe I can go out to Macy's West?

 

[Allifunn]

Kimmi, you will fit right in and you will love the L.A. area. There are a gazillion jobs and wonderful places to live there and it is a really great town for young people. I lived there as a 20-something single woman and had a ball. Yes, we prefer the Napa Valley now. But I wouldn't trade Friday nights at the best happy hours in the world or Saturdays at the world's most diverse farmers' market or weekend sails to Catalina Island or skiing in the morning and going to the beach the same day's afternoon or getting six job offers in a week for anything. You can get your little heart broken pretty easily in Lotus Land, because some of the guys think having a girlfriend is like taking a sandwich to a banquet. But people do things in groups more than in other parts of the country. And there are so many things to do there (many free) that your head will swim.

Both of my stepsons live in the L.A. area, Brentwood and West Hollywood, respectively. They grew up just outside Aspen, CO but now wouldn't live anywhere else. We love going to visit. You will love L.A. and it will love you! :clap_1:

I have only been to San Fran...but I loved the area!! Went to Napa too.. But my favorite place was Sausalito

 

[Cil]

Donna
I think you got in at the right time.
I have many relatives in California, and while SoCal my aunts and uncles have temporarily lived in other places, it was always understood that they would move back to the Golden State. Their sons and daughters, other than one briefly studying abroad, have never lived anywhere else; they could not imagine it. They are all married and all settled there.
Something I have noticed: all of them have begun trickling northwards. Maybe it's the June Gloom, I dunno. Maybe they are feeling crowded. But first one moved to Morro Bay, then more followed.

There is no one perfect place to live.
I've lived in both CA and NY with Colorado in between, they all have their good points, and they all are fun to poke fun at.

Here are some one-liners about Colorado:
You might be a Coloradan if:

Your city has more helicopters than snow-removal equipment.

Mountain-lion-wrestling is a suburban backyard activity.

Hummingbirds and bears visit your bird feeder.

Three days of overcast weather make you wonder if Granny will share her Prozac.

You advertise a bunch of fourteeners you've never climbed on your T-shirt.

You sit in your 2-year-old home and complain about the newcomers.

You know that the People's Republic of Boulder is not a foreign state, but a foreign state of mind.

You think your SUV allows you to drive faster than normal on snowy days.

You're concerned about the local economy, but confident about divine intervention.

Your hands are so chapped in the winter you are able to exfoliate your face with your very own fingertips.

 

[Kimmifunn]

Hey Donna...I saw this in the Times.

NY Times- LA

I have such a fascination with LA...Can't wait to get out there soon! :clap_1:

 

[DBOldford]

Cil, I wonder if we might have been neighbors at some point in time! We have lived in Denver CO, Newport Beach CA, Scottsdale, AZ, and have resided in St. Helena (Napa Valley), CA for the past 18 years. We liked all these places, although I felt like Scottsdale was 250 sq. miles of kitty litter, missed my green stuff terribly. It is lovely there, but not a place to live year round. We were there temporarily and were so happy to get back to CA. Yes, a lot of people in Southern CA would prefer to live in Northern CA. It is a different world up here, both from the standpoint of the landscape and seasons and a different political profile. The challenge is that housing is much more expensive in the Bay Area than in Southern CA and there is more competition for jobs (that also tend to pay lower than in Southern CA). It is particularly difficult for young people, who need a healthy job market with less competition for those jobs. But my stepsons adore living in Southern CA and tend to get bored after a few days up here "in the country."

For all of California's challenges, it really is a state of mind. The things I value most are the diversity of landscapes and people, the live-and-let-live attitude (although this doesn't apply in places like Orange County), the variety and quality of fresh food products, and the progressiveness of CA, in general. Every national trend seems to have its germination here. One takes this for granted until you live somewhere else for a while. In AZ, for example, we were shocked to find that they were about 15 to 20 years behind the trend on so many important factors. "The New Yorker" ran a story about 10 years ago about the special, white natural light and soft air of the L.A. Basin that was so fascinating. It is so true! I still fall in love with that area all over again every time I go down there and bask in it. Even the commercial airline pilots gush about the soft air. It is truly Valhalla. But we grew tired of the rat race and the concrete and we love being able to get into San Francisco so easily by auto, ferry, or train. I love being able to live in the country with ready access to a beautiful world-class city.

I will always remember the first time I ever visited the location of our former home, Corona del Mar, which is a part of Newport Beach right on the Ocean. I vowed to move right then and there, and did. The world looked so clean and new and beautiful to me, since I was then living in Denver and we were sitting in a foot of melted snow and mud after a spring snowstorm, all the leaves off the trees and all the grass was brown. My mom visited right after I moved to CA, watched two young bikini-clad blonde beauties strolling across the street in Laguna Beach, turned to me in the car and said, "Donna, people out here don't look all that dissipated." Cracked me up.

Well, enough of my love letter to CA. Have not even included the fact of having met my husband here in CA. We love South Walton, where I grew up, but nothing could entice me to move away from this area again on a permanent basis. It is worth every challenge and stress and cost associated with it, to us.

 

[kathydwells]

I loved reading your letter Donna!