Life here...

There are several things I've been wanting to share about life in Southern CA. It is sooooooo different from the South! Some of the obvious differences are: the smog, the traffic, no sweet tea, and total absence of any Bama food products, including mayonnaise--I miss my mayo!!! (I get my mom to bring 3 or 4 jars in her suitcase every time she comes--bubble wrapped of course!:>)
I know you've all heard rumors about what it's like to live on the West Coast, so here's the low-down from someone who knows:

1. People here do not shop at Wal-Mart on purpose. There are no Wal-Mart Supercenters, and generally people avoid it like the plague (including me), because all of them here are really dirty, run-down, and ALWAYS out of carts. (there is no such thing as a buggy here--that is what you find on Main Street Disney, where you get in and ride behind a horse.) Wal-Mart here is like the old K-Mart in Roebuck before they shut it down.

2. Yes, things are more expensive here. Before we left AL, we had pipe dreams about buying a house when we got out here, building the equity for about 2 or 3 years (b/c we'd heard that prices are rising very quickly every day, which is true), and then selling and using our saved-up equity to pay off student loans. Sounds like a plan, right? Uhhhhh....no. Or as they say here, "Um, yeah, no. (Don't ask me how that one works.)
Yeah....so, houses out here are AT LEAST $600,000. I am NOT joking. A 3 bed/ 2 bath house built in the '50's and remodeled is NO LESS than that! And, if you think, well, I'll just look into getting a town home....hahahahahaha, think again. We can't find a condo for less than $400K! Ok folks, we are talking about 1100 square feet in a 30-year old building--2 bed/1 bath. Needless to say, we are very excited to be renting an apartment for a steal of $1225/month! There are not many cheaper than our apartment complex. We are very blessed to be in a good complex where we've made friends, and we like the landlady. Anyway, I think we'll be here a while...

Other things that are really expensive: gas. It's fluctuated over the past 4 months from $2.49-3.10/gallon. But, since Katrina happened, our gas is cheap compared to the South! Right now, it's around $2.65/gallon.

Also, some food is more expensive: I bought a 6 oz. bag of walnuts from the grocery store and paid $4.00 for them! and that was the generic. And you're thinking: yeah, well, she should have bought the bigger bag. Well, the bigger bag wasn't any cheaper per ounce--it was $8 for the 12 oz. bag! Maybe I just won't put nuts in the brownies...

However, produce is significantly cheaper here, esp. fruit. I guess b/c mostly everything is grown in CA and shipped out; local produce would be cheaper here, which is nice. There is also no sales tax on food, which is really nice.

CA has every kind of entertainment under the sun. Several major baseball teams, Disney (which is as good as or better than the one in FL--take it from someone who's been to both), the San Diego Zoo, downtown Los Angeles (that's an adventure!), Hollywood, Beverly Hills, the Beach, Knott's Berry Farm, Legoland (that's a blog by itself), Basketball, Hockey, etc. etc. We've experienced all the fun kid stuff, and it's not uncommon for folks to get off work in the afternoon and then use their season pass and spend the evening playing at Disney. And yes, we've succumbed to that pressure too--we are annual pass holders to Disney and we usually go once every 2 or 3 weeks.

As far as the traffic goes, we just try not to get on the freeway. When people joke about the traffic in Los Angeles, they are really not kidding. There are just so many people here that the interstate is frequently bottle necked, except it lasts the entire length of the freeway! Think of the worst stop-and-go on I-59 right around the airport, or, even better, on I-65 trying to get Birmingham at 7:45 in the morning. Multiply that frustration by about 10 million more people and you have LA traffic. heehee. But, good for us is that we don't have to get on it very often unless we want to go sight see downtown or in Hollywood, which are both about 30 miles away.

Well, that's about all I can think of right now, except for, oh...I know! Everyone wants to know about the celebrities. but, it's late sigh....so I'll save that one for another blog. ttfn.