Things I Love About the City

As most of you know, I love in Northridge. Technically, Northridge is a district of Los Angeles meaning I live in Los Angeles. It is quite different than living in the actual city of Los Angeles but still city life all the same. Too often Ryan and I talk about how great things will be when we can move from the city. On multiple occasions we have expressed to each other how much we hate it here and cannot wait to leave. So this post is coming to you for many reasons. First, after a talk with a friend I realized that there are so many good things about the city I wasn't choosing to focus on. Also, hopefully by counting the great things about the city I can more fully enjoy my time here. Really we have no idea how long we could be here. Just because Ryan graduates next Spring does not mean we will leave then! So here, in no particular order, are the things I have grown to love about living in this city.

1. Culture- I really wish I took advantage of this a lot more. There are so many museums, exhibits, galleries, shows, and all manner of cultural venues and events in Los Angeles. A couple weeks ago Ryan and I were able to see the Great Wall of LA. Something right here in the Valley. Most things are in downtown LA but even those things are really not that far and should be taken advantage of!

2. Food- Before living here I'd never had food from a truck. It is probably the coolest thing to go to a food truck gathering and have so many different kinds of food within a small space. Like a mall food court but so much better! Also, in about a five block radius of our apartment there are so many kinds of food. Thai, Sushi, Mexican, Italian, BBQ, and all kinds more. we sadly haven't been able to enjoy a lot of these places but having the options is awesome! And, if I wanted to, I can drive for about twenty blocks and hit at least three McDonalds.

3. The Beach- I love the beach, Ryan loves the beach, so far Dax likes it well enough. The beach we like to go to is still about an hour away but there are ones that are closer. Taking a beach trip doesn't have to be a big affair that we plan a month or so in advance we can just go on a nice day and usually it isn't even that crowded.

4. Driving- Really this is something I hate too. But living in the city has made me a better driver. You'd think the opposite right? Well before moving to the city I had about zero driving experience. This was only made worse by the fact that the only car we had for the first year and a half of being married was a stick shift truck we couldn't drive. Before I would never turn right on red, I only changed lanes when there was no one even on the road with me and my first month or two of yeild lights I'd let a couple cycles go by before turning. Now I am a little more aggressive, in a good way and I can mostly navigate my way around the freeways in the city. That's another thing! When I first started driving to school, I'd take surface streets. It took me forever to get to school! Now I can get to school in about half the time and I know about six different ways to get there.

5. The Library- Where I grew up and lived my whole life before moving to Northridge was Apple Valley. In San Bernardino County there are 33 branches of the library. Not to shabby right? Los Angeles county has more then 70 branches. I'd gather this has something to do with the population in the two counties. You might wonder, why does that matter? Well first, there are about ten branches that would take ten minutes or less to get to, depending on what time you go of course. This means if I'm tired of the selection of kids board books at the branch just up the street I can head to another one that might have a bigger selection or if I really wanted to I could probably hit multiple toddler story times in one week. Also, if I put a book on hold usually there are a good number of copies in the system so even if I do have to wait it's significantly shorter than I had to wait for a hold back home.

6. The people- For one thing the is so much diversity here. For another the wonderful people I have made my friends have made the city a pleasant place to live. Ryan and I have been able to meet some amazing people with all different kinds of backgrounds who have all helped us in one way or another. I know you can find good people wherever you go but in this large city it could have been terribly hard to find them.

There are many other things I like about Northridge, the parks, the hiking trails, The Apple Store, the farmers market, just to name some but I feel like the things I forget about too often when I start to complain about the layout of the streets or getting ANOTHER parking ticket. I hope if you live somewhere you don't really want to be that you can find things that make it a great place!