I guess I never explained how or why we got here. Here’s the story illustrated with photographs:
It all started in the end of 2009. After taking a few trips to Cali and seeing this,
we decided to drive cross country and start a new life there.
One reason we wanted to move away was because of this:
And that picture was taken in June (kidding!). It was April.
Taking photos for the food blog was especially difficult in Cali. Our one bedroom apartment was 600 sq. ft. and provided the worst possible kitchen in the world:
No windows. The cabinets had a musty, mildewy odor. I got electrocuted in the bathroom once. We were living on one income, and I was looking for a job for the first two months until my husband forced me to take this test because he knew something was ‘off’:
Which meant, no more of this:
9 months later (or 8, if you’re counting from the test on), we had this:
and had to move to a 2 bedroom apartment in Escondido, CA.
The kitchen slightly improved:
But my lack of sleep hadn’t. 2-4 hours of sleep for months and months. We lived here for 5 months until moving across the country again to a great job opportunity in Atlanta, Georgia.
It was an opportunity we couldn’t afford to pass up. Cali’s expensive. Too expensive. We packed up and for a month we were homeless, so we decided to visit family and friends in NY state. Then we lived in a hotel for a couple weeks to look for our new home. We rented a house in Georgia with this kitchen:
Other than the dreadful wallpaper, things were getting better. More for your money and all that. We didn’t know how to picture Georgia before we moved there. This is what it looks like:
No nearby oceans, but plenty of scenery and opportunity to get fat on rich southern food. I felt like we ate fried chicken for a year straight. After deciding to settle down here, we started looking for a house and found one. So we packed our boxes (hopefully the last time for awhile):
And this is what my kitchen looks like:
It has an island.
The stove has 5 burners. Not 4, but 5. I haven’t had the chance to use all 5 at the same time yet.
Our fridge isn’t white nor does it have a layer of ice you have to chip off the inside of the freezer. Instead, it has water that comes out of the door into your cup. And it’s shiny. You would think I would be food blogging like crazy now that I have the space, lighting and fancy appliances. Sometimes I still snap a quick pick or two of what I’m cooking:
but I’m always picking up things like this all over the floor so I don’t break my neck,
and then I get so stressed out at the end of the day,
that I can’t muster up the motivation to blog. Which is ironic, because life has finally started settling down for us and this should be the optimal time to get Soupbelly going at full force. In the past 3 years, we’ve moved 4 times, back and forth across the country. My 1.5 year old baby has had 4 homes and lived in 2 states. She’s flown 8+ times (I’ve lost count), more than most adults in their lifetime. I am exhausted just thinking about it.
Sometimes I wake up and forget where I am. Or I’ll drive to the supermarket trying to look for Ralph’s when I really need to find a Kroger. I’ll think Target is across the street when it’s really 3 miles away. I walk around our new house and think the closet door leads to the basement, because that’s how our old house was laid out in Rochester. I guess my mind needs a longer time to settle in.
So, that was our crazy adventure that landed us in Georgia.
