Hello, Is There Anybody in There?

10.06.13 

Joshua Tree, CA

Well, I suppose this picture is as good as any to begin an update to this blog. When I told Evan I was considering restarting the good ole LRBC blog his response was, "Really?!?" He was genuinely shocked, considering we both kind of felt like it would just continue to exist as a time capsule. Truth be told I've tried writing several other blogs on several other platforms and nothing stuck. And I cannot even begin to tell you how nice it feels to be back in the Blogger dashboard, or perhaps back on this specific dashboard. It may've taken me three attempts to guess the password and username for this blog but hey, I finally got it and here we are.

So hello...again. I don't if any of you are still out there. But if you are I'd like to thank you for your patience during our 4 year (how the hell did that happen?!?!) hiatus. So much has happened between then and now, and yet so much has stayed the same. I'll do my best to give the Cliff's Notes version of what's transpired over the last four years. We're still together, Evan and me. (As if there were any doubts!) What you see above is a photo from our vow renewal last year. Yep, after five years of marriage we decided it was a good idea to adventure to one of our favorite places on Planet Earth and go ahead to do that whole marriage ceremony over, but this time is was just the two of us...and the joshua trees. Heading to the desert was pretty easy given we now live in Los Angeles, CA. When we closed LRBC we replaced the address on the blog with "Someplace Sunny," and I can't help but find it ironic and yet somehow perfectly fitting that we would wind up someplace that is in fact sunny (like all of the time). We moved here about a year and a half ago. At the time Evan was working for Stumptown Coffee Roasters and they needed some help opening up their new cafe and roastery in DTLA. I was a little hesitant about leaving my post and family at The Woodsman Tavern but I agreed it was time for a change of scenery. In all honestly, after we closed LRBC Portland never felt the same to us. Something changed-namely us. (But that's another story for another day.) So we packed most of our belongings and dogs into a U-Haul with a clean slate in mind and headed south. Speaking of dogs, yeah. They're still here and as weird (and loved) as ever. They've never been happier. They dig the sunshine, camping, and southern California living just as much as we do.

Camping in Big Bear, CA

So we're Californians now. Officially, too- as in our driver's licenses and plates have also converted. But before you begin to turn your noses up at us let me just say, it's not what you think. I'll admit, Los Angeles was not my favorite place on Earth during the years of 2001-2004. But the city has changed, and I've changed, and now it's the perfect place for us right now. Besides, we live about a mile from my old apartment and  Leo is still slinging the best burros and quesos in town after 20+ years. I'd love to tell you more about that and show you just how nice things are here. Which brings me to my next point: we're still food addicts. Hopefully I'll be able to divulge more on that later but in the meantime I just wanted to say, "Hi. We miss you."