Living in Little Italy

MOVE IN DAY!!!

Last Saturday the movers finally arrived with all our stuff and I could officially move into the apartment. Here is the moving truck trying to find a place to park in the middle of downtown on a Saturday...it was not a fun experience...

Once they finally found somewhere that was semi-legal to park, they got to work! The apartment started to fill up fast!

Since they didn't need my help, I started unpacked. Starting of course with the most important stuff - the kitchen! I couldn't even believe how much wrapping paper we went through. It was unbelievable. It took me like 10 trips to the dumpster for the paper alone!

Joey did a really good job packing though and everything made it safetly. Except for our IKEA furniture. Here is our wardrobe on arrival...

The strap was holding it together! I declined having that moved in so they took it straight to the dumpster. I guess some things aren't meant to be moved across country..

So, here it is! The current state of the apartment. I managed to unpack all but about 5 boxes in the first 24 hours. I am so proud of myself! The only things left are pictures and knick-knacks. I decided not to decorate until Joey gets here so it will feel more like OUR place and it wont be too girly or modern. So its white walls for me until June.

LAZY SUNDAY AT THE BEACH

After all my hard work on Saturday, I decided to take Sunday to relax and enjoy my new proximity to the beach. I went up 20 min north of San Diego to a town called Encinitas in what they call "North County." Apparently North County is where all the GOOD beaches and people are so I decided to check it out. Here is a picture driving into the downtown. I love how EVERY downtown around here has a sign like these with the city name.

And here I am at Moonlight Beach. It was much quieter and cleaner than the beaches downtown. The views were beautiful. I just laid in the sand for a couple hours and enjoyed the ocean breeze. And I even remembered to wear sunscreen so I was not burnt at all!

GETTING USED TO THE TRAINS!!!

So I love the apartment so far. It's a great location, lots of space, cute layout, nice views...but of course there is always a downside. And for this apartment the downside is without a doubt the trains. As you can see from this picture out my apartment, we are RIGHT NEXT to a trolley/train intersection.

While that might make for a cute picture, it is slowly driving me mad. The intersection itself makes the ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding noise, which I can get used to. The trolley makes a little noise from the rail but not too bad. But the TRAINS, those horrible, horrible TRAINS are so loud!!! There are different types- those that carry people and those that carry stuff - and I think its the ones that carry stuff that are the worst. They blow the horn repeatedly and SO loud. Listen HERE.

And it goes on all day long, the trolleys every 5-10 min and the trains at least once an hour. I think the last one is around midnight and they start up again at 4am! So I bought some earplugs today so maybe that will help...

Hopefully I will get used to it. People must or there wouldn't be so many condos around the tracks. I just hope I don't go deaf or crazy before that happens...

SATURDAY MORNING RUN

So now that I'm finally getting settled in, I'm thinking it is time to venture out and make some friends. I joined a Social Running Club and my first run was supposed to be yesterday morning. Unfortunately, there was a huge festival at the park the club meets at so I couldn't find parking! (Always a festival in San Diego!) So instead I went to the beach/bay area and ran on my own.

Here are a bunch of people searching the bay beach with metal detectors. This cracked me up...

And here I am after my run. I DID NOT remember to wear sunscreen for this so I am a lobster again...But the run was beautiful! I ran around the bay and then up the coast side on the beach boardwalk. There were so many people out running and playing volleyball. So nice!

And I even saw an authentic beach bum living out of his beach van!

STROLL THROUGH MY NEIGHBORHOOD MERCATO

Every Saturday my neighborhood, Little Italy, has a farmers market. Join me!

Here we are leaving my apartment. It's a cute little street.

Mmm.. Delicious quiches, pastries, desserts, and more!

Oooh! Fresh flowers!

Authentic Chicken Tamale anyone? This was my first ever tamale and it was delicious! I don't really have anything to compare it to but I'm pretty sure this is better than Taco Bell!

They even have live music! I've seen these guys performing now at 3 different festivals around town - Earth day, Art fest, and now the farmers market. They may become recurring stars on the blog..

There was a lot more to see, buy, and eat! There were also a lot of places selling homemade salsa (which I bought), hummus (which I bought), pesto (which I'll buy next time), nuts, fresh meats, vegetables and on and on. I plan on making this a weekly event!

They also has a stand selling plants and I really wanted to buy a cactus as a housewarming to the South west but they didn't have any I loved. So instead I bought this basil plant. Let's see if I can keep it alive without Joey around to water it...

FLYING HOME!

Next weekend I'll be coming back to Atlanta for Marc and Nicole's wedding. I'm so excited to see Joey! It's only been three weeks but that feels like forever. It will also be nice to see all our friends all in one place and I know the wedding will be a great time!