Two Months in SLO
Today is my two month anniversary of living in San Luis Obispo, CA, and while I'm loving my new lifestyle, I'm still wondering what it is that brought me out here. When I first visited SLO two and a half years ago, I told my friend Kirsten, "I'm gonna move here." I liked the hiking, the beach, the proximity to so many other great towns and cities in California. The wine. The people. The laid back lifestyle. The change. The fact that it was named the Happiest Place in America. I knew without a doubt that I would be moving here. With no hesitation, I got rid of most of my belongings, rented out my condo, packed a large suitcase and flew out here with my 20-year-old cat to start a new chapter. But I also know that there's another reason why I was drawn to SLO. Why I upended my wonderful life that I had built for myself in Chicago the past 20 years to come out to this little town that many people still haven't heard of. Only the Universe knows what that reason is. Soon I will find out.
I'm a big city girl. Living in Chicago, I had every thing I could possibly want or need literally across the street from me. Now if I need to get one thing at the grocery store, I have to drive two miles to get it (I know, First World Problems). It's an adjustment for sure. But it's only temporary. Maybe I'll stay in SLO for a year or two, then move to another part of California. Maybe San Francisco or Los Angeles. Or maybe I'll move to another state like Colorado or Oregon. Or another country. Nothing in life is permanent, and that's how I like it.
I took a road trip to LA this weekend to attend the Writer's Digest Novel Writing Conference and came home ready to dive in to my next writing project. I've had a few plot ideas simmering in my head for a several months now, and I'm ready to put the fingers on the keyboard. Tomorrow is the first day of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where writers all over the country (or maybe the world?) are joining together online to churn out a first draft of a novel in 30 days. After attending the NaNoWriMo Pep Rally at the conference, I decide it was the best way to get my first draft completed. So I joined. Gulp.
Today I worked on some minor character development. Tomorrow I begin bringing those characters to life. We'll see where I end up on November 30th.