California Dreaming

Birds of Paradise grow all over in California

Since I last posted on this blog, I've been to California twice.  The first trip was to the L.A. area where we spent a week in a cute rental house and did serial real estate hunting with our agent every day.  The result of this trip was that we have a contract on a house in South Pasadena.  As anyone who has ever bought or sold a house knows, any deal can sour until the closing, so I continue to keep my fingers crossed that it will work out.  This does not mean that we will move to California any time soon, but just that we will already own our retirement home when the time comes.

View from house with spiral staircase to rooftop deck

Our interest in this house proves a real estate adage that I've been told:  "Buyers are liars."  Originally, we told our agents that we wanted a condo near the beach in a walking neighborhood.  Well, this house is none of those things.  It's small, built in 1939 though has a modern California look.  The selling point is the beautiful 180° view as the house is high up in the hills.  If you would like to see photos of the house and view, shoot me an email and I will send you a link.

Santa Barbara

My second and more recent trip to California just ended on Sunday when I returned from what my daughter referred to as my "hippy retreat" in Santa Barbara.  In reality, I went to a seminar called LifeLaunch at The Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara with my good buds from Atlanta, Cloe and Haley.  We had an amazing time.  Santa Barbara was so lovely; the seminar was very different from anything that I've ever attended and requires a lot more time to explain than I have right now; and I loved spending time with my wonderful friends.

Moi, Haley & Cloe - 3/3/12
(Photo by Jozef Lievens)

So a little over 2 months into 2012 and I'm happy to say that I have been working on my new year's resolutions - in particular, these trips to California work right into Resolutions # 2, 3, 5 and 8.  I review all of the resolutions often and hope to stay on track as the year goes by.