Ode to LA

If you remember, I wrote a post when I moved back to LA that was basically about how I hated LA, but since I was going to be here I was going to make an effort to at least reach a point where I could be neutral about it. The other day I was driving home from work when this Rilo Kiley song came up on shuffle, and when it got to the line "No matter how cruel I've been, LA you always let me back in" I realized something. I don't actually hate LA anymore. I don't know how it happened! Somewhere along the line I started admitting there were some cool things about LA, and now I can admit that there are actually a lot of things I would miss if/when I move somewhere else.

So yeah, I guess I'm begrudgingly grateful that LA always takes me back, even when I'm being a jerk who refuses to admit that maybe she kind of likes it here now.

<3

Voyage Autour de Ma Chambre

Welcome to my room!

We moved into this house just a few months before I moved to Oakland, so before I could really settle in to this room I was already focused on setting up my dorm room. As a result, it hadn't really felt like mine, it had just been kind of thrown together and was mostly full of stuff I didn't want to take to college with me. Last summer I decided I really needed to work on this space, so I took inspiration from  blogs with excellent interior design like Rachel's and I made an effort to spruce it up.

I don't have any pictures of what it looked like before, which I am partially thankful for because it was really a mess. I had a desk in here, my bed was in the middle of the room and it had a bright red duvet that was too big so it draped really heavily over each side. It was very cramped and there was almost no space to walk around in here.

Last summer the first thing I did was move the desk out into another room, and with the extra space I moved my bed, chair, and wicker drawers to where they are now. (I also spray painted my wicker drawers white). I brought in the glass side table from another room in the house, and just that re-arrangement made a huge difference.

I went to Ikea and picked up a duvet that actually fit my bed, along with some new pillows and by the end of last summer I was really happy with the changes I had made.

Since I've moved back, all I've done is add in the gallery wall (which may be my favorite thing about my room now), lamps that used to live in my dorm room, and a mobile that I got in Oakland is now hanging over my reading chair.







I still have a lot of art that I want to frame and put up on the walls, and the space over my bed clearly needs something, but so far I'm proud of how it's turned out.

What's your favorite thing about your room?

<3

Los Angeles

I was born and raised in LA, so it might come as a bit of a surprise when I say that I really don't like it here.

I remember being little and thinking I was so lucky to have been born in LA where I was close to the beach, the mountains, and Disneyland; I thought it was amazing that I was from a place that some people dream about going, when I could have been born somewhere boring in the middle of nowhere.

By the time I was in high school I was starting to feel differently, so when I was applying for college I set my sights on the Bay area and narrowed the search down from there. As most of you know, I ended up at Mills and fell head over heels in love with Oakland and the Bay, which cemented the thought that had been growing in my mind that LA was not for me.

When I was studying abroad in London, I would have a moment at some point almost everyday where something would make me pause and think "I can't believe this is my life. I live here." Whether I was doing something completely routine like swiping my Oyster card to get in and out of the tube or something life-altering like seeing a play at the Globe, this thought was never far from my mind while I lived in London. I had recaptured the feeling I used to have as a kid. Oakland made me happy but London made me feel lucky.

Currently, while I gear up for my next big adventure, I am living in LA. And I don't want to be here hating it, so in an effort to appreciate my hometown more I'm going to start a new series of posts called Fun in LA. (I'm not sure if I'm really feeling that name, so it may change.) I'll be seeking out cool things in LA and posting about them here.

How do you feel about your hometowns??

<3

san francisco

As you can see, I'm still working out the kinks with this whole posting regularly thing. We'll get there! I promise.

Last weekend my friend Lena came up from LA to visit me during her spring break. It was so nice having her here! I've never had a friend has come up to Mills to see me before.

I've been up here for so long that I'm used to everything, but Lena had never been to Mills, so when I was showing her around it felt like I was seeing everything with new eyes. I kept remembering what it was like to see the bay area for the first time and it was nice to get to see it from that perspective again. This might just be a symptom of my senioritis though. Any excuse to get sentimental as graduation approaches.

But anyway, we spent a lot of the weekend in San Francisco wandering around the Mission and Japantown and we got to catch a few of the Signal Flow concerts, which were excellent. It was so awesome that it makes me sad that it'll probably be the last time that I have someone visit me up here! There I go again with the sentimentality.


Waiting for the bus.


Tartine!


Pastrami


Best coconut tart in the world.


Sign we found in the Mission that pretty much encapsulates my feelings about Pho.

Minka

My mom got a fancy camera recently so I've been using it to take pictures of Minka. Even though she covers everything I own in cat hair, she's definitely one of the best things about being at home.