Update on the California Life

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(Post by Tracy)

Big News. We have been living in California for 6 weeks. Why is this Big News? Because I have officially broken my standing record of how long I have been away from home. Until now, the longest I have ever gone without visiting the ol' Chaput Homestead in Deerfield was 6 weeks, and that record was set during my brief stint abroad in Lyon, France. Perhaps to some it is surprising that I've never been away longer than that, but then remember that I have never (until now) lived more than 2 hours (110 miles) from the only house I grew up in.

So what has been going on in the last 6 weeks? Well...

Mom and Dad stayed with us this weekend. (Mark and Brigette's beautiful and fun wedding was last weekend in Phoenix. Mom and Dad stayed the week in Arizona and then came to see us before heading back to the Midwest.) And we had a great weekend:

- Ate at The Counter - Mom and Dad's favorite LA eatery
- Visited "The Autry" - "Cowboy Museum"
- Went to Mass at another new LA Catholic church
- Ate at Carousel - tasty Middle Eastern Cuisine
- Saw a sketch comedy show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre
- Shopped at the Studio City Farmers Market
- Played with puppies up for adoption in the park, barely leaving without a new family member
- Made 2 impromptu visits to some Studio City open houses, accidentally checking out the same house as Corbin Bernsen and his wife Amanda Pays
- Had a home-cooked dinner and played some gin rummy (Tom and Mom beat me and Dad)

I am looking forward to their next (not-yet-scheduled) visit!

To catch up, here are some of the other highlights of the last 6 months of California life in a nutshell:

- The DMVs here are awful. It took 3 days visiting the DMV (multiple locations) to get our stuff organized.
- The pizza here is great. We have found our favorite take-out place, and the first time I ordered my favorite pizza (pepperoni, pineapple, black olive), the lady on the phone thought it was "cute."
- I splurged and took the Honda to a hand-wash car wash since there's no rain or snow in sight.
- I also splurged for my first California mani/pedi and ran into two of my new co-workers while at the nail salon.
- While I was missing terribly the best season to be in Milwaukee or at Legend Lake, Tom and I were lucky to be able to spend plenty of hours at the beach in Malibu.
- Although it also tore me up to miss the last weekend of the summer at the lake and miss the Shawano County fair for the second year in a row, Tom and I had a great weekend with family in Phoenix to celebrate Mark and Brigette's wedding. The wedding and reception were beautiful, and I really enjoyed the mini-vacation with some of my family.
- The drive out of the LA area on the Friday of Labor Day weekend was the longest, slowest strand of city traffic in my recent memory, replacing the (awfully long and slow) drive between Hammond, IN and Milwaukee, WI on a Friday evening. It took 3 hours to go 50 miles. Previous Hammond to Milwaukee record: about 3 hours to go 115 miles.
- Overall, this traffic does not faze me. My commute is about the same distance and time as it was between Milwaukee and Elm Grove. With that said, people here do not seem to understand what I am saying when I tell them I don't mind the traffic here because "I am from Chicago."

By the way, school is going great. Being an internet-savvy teacher, I know it's best leave out specifics while blogging. So suffice it to say that things are great at work - great coworkers, great work environment, great students. Block scheduling is kind of a different world, but I think I like it. (It's hard not to like a schedule that lets you leave at 1:15 a couple Fridays each month.)

There you go - an entry without much focus but that covered a lot of ground. Also, Tom and I have heard some really nice comments from y'all about the blog. Thanks for checking in on us! Next post: a re-cap of our trip in pictures! Oh, and we'll tell you about how we became buddies with Martin Sheen.

P.S. Thanks again to Mom and Dad for visiting. Come back soon!