This past week, I rounded the halfway pole, kinda.  It marked the 6 month anniversary since my move to California and my start at JPL.  It almost passed unnoticed to me, because to say things have been complicated this past couple weeks is like saying ahi tuna makes a good sashimi.  For one thing, it’s been really hot, in the 90s here.  Without air conditioning in the house, it’s been a challenge keeping the pup and I cool.  We aren’t even getting the usual mountain winds blowing off the San Gabriels to at least push cool through overnight.  Since I don’t have good outdoor furniture, I am stuck trying to sit on folding chairs and hope the pup doesn’t dry out from trying to eat leaves.  It came on so quick that I didn’t have enough white wine chilled, but I have a heck of a lot of reds.  I spent a fair bit of time in traffic during the week too, either on the 110 from LAX coming back from a day trip to San Jose, or parked on the 405 and 91 running around Orange County.  The ongoing challenge of home buying has become even more challenging and ongoing this week, that honestly deserves its own blog post – but I am waiting for things to change soon.

If none of that made sense to you … chances are you aren’t California.

Quite simply these are California problems.  Problems that last year at this time I wished I had.  Problems I wished I had six months and a couple weeks ago.

Unlike Boston I have yet to have to shovel my car out of snow drifts taller than the car itself.  Or have I sat outside my place and hear gunshots.  And while I did get a parking ticket once when I didn’t feed the meter enough for a haircut in Pasadena, its nothing like the my weekly orange slip I used to find on my car from the City of Boston (also known as a Boston Greeting Card).  Unlike Boston, I have new friends, get out often to do things, and even feel like I am fitting in around here.  And that’s the stuff I am willing to talk about that isn’t like my life a year ago.

Oh yeah, and I love my job too.  Weird, huh?  Who knew you could love your job.

So yeah, six months in there are still problems.   But I’ll take these California Problems.