It's my 1-Year LAnniversary!

Happy one-year LAnniversary to me! On January 3rd, 2010 I packed up everything I own into my two-door Solara and left this:


and drove across the country with my dad from Kansas to California (I had already driven from Indiana to Kansas) through the beautiful Southwest.

New Mexico...

Arizona...




Before seeing this welcome sign.


All the way across the state...



And I arrived to my new home in Studio City on January 5th! I don't want to show you my apartment (gotta keep my secrets!) so I'll show you Beverly Hills, instead, where I most definitely do not live.


And the next day my dad and I went to my first vegan restaurant in LA, Vegan Plate!


It's been a great year, and I love living here. It's not always fun living alone (pretty much, I do have a roommate) and thousands of miles away from my family. When I first moved here, I really didn't know anybody. But I've met a lot of great people this year and had incredible experiences, both in my career and my personal life. I look forward to many more years in sunny SoCal. =)

Moving on to our regularly scheduled programming.

I've been doing Pilates every day since I got home and yesterday I did a pretty hardcore upper body workout. Today my arms are so sore they're almost useless!

I've been eating lots of salad with roasted veggies and other fixins (am I the only one who thinks the word "fixins" is hilarious?).

I roasted up a bunch of beets and parsnips.

Then broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and a yam with seasoned salt, rosemary, thyme, and basil.



And doctored up my salad.


This has arugula, spinach, roasted beets and parsnips, sauerkraut, edamame, and raw broccoli, carrots, zucchini, parsnips, and red bell pepper.

Did you know that you can eat raw zucchini and parsnips? I hadn't until pretty recently but they're great. But parsnips have a very strong taste so I recommend cutting thin slices. I also think that smaller parsnips are sweeter and more pleasant than bigger ones.

I flavored my salad with some mustard and a couple Trader Joe's specialties.

Fancy! (And it cost about 3 bucks)



It pretty much just tastes like guacamole, but it's lighter. It tastes great with edamame.

All mixed up:

So good. And for some reason, the combination of beets and sauerkraut is really tasty. The sweet and sour flavors kind of balance each other out. Yum.

What's the farthest you've moved away from home or your family? How did it feel? Did you struggle with loneliness? I sure did, and still do. Thank God for Skype.


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