In an effort to get to know my city better, I’ve started venturing to different neighborhoods where I spend hours (literally) in checking out stores, talking to local business owners and trying new food. I must annoy my friends and boyfriend enough — making them wait to eat until I photograph their food, asking them to move out of a shot or filming them for my videos — so I also figured this would be a way to give them a break. It gave me some alone time, too.
Truth be told, I love shopping alone and actually hate shopping with company. Anxious thoughts run through my mind: Am I holding them up? Are they bored? I’ll come back and spend more time in this shop later. Sometimes, a girl wants to spend 2 hours in one shop and 5 minutes in another. Am I alone here?
Anywho, I knew where I wanted to go first: Adams Avenue. We’ve driven down this street in University Heights/Normal Heights/North Park/Kensington (the neighborhood boundaries change as you go east and are in turn, hotly debated) a few times but there are so many small local shops that I told myself a by-foot exploration was in order. San Diego neighborhood divisions aren’t as drastic as they are in, say, New York, but each ‘hood does have a slightly different flavor. Adams Avenue, also dubbed Antique Row for its handful of vintage shops, feels like Old Town, U.S.A. One store owner told me that people liken it to what Greenwich Village was back in the day. Most businesses are mom-and-pop operations, traffic is virtually non-existent and bikes are a popular mode of transportation. In the last few years, the area has witnessed an influx of noteworthy shops and a burgeoning food scene. It’s no surprise that it’s becoming a new favorite.
I didn’t know if it was possible just two months into a new life in a new city, but this past weekend felt like the first normal weekend in a long time. Even though I’m still making weekly Target trips for apartment essentials and despite spending a good chunk of the weekend painting furniture in our still-incomplete apartment, I finally felt rooted. It’s a feeling I missed a lot while backpacking.
Until now, I had felt like I was being led around town, trying desperately to take mental notes only to be overwhelmed by how much I didn’t know. But this weekend I felt like I was starting to get the hang of things. I knew a good cafe for a late Friday night. I wanted to go to yoga taught by a great teacher on Sunday morning. And I knew I wanted dedicated girl-time.
Girlfriends: That’s something worth mentioning. I think it’s tough when a couple moves somewhere new where they know so few people; it’s hard to do anything on your own without making the other person feel left behind. But Eaman and I are starting to make friends and able to get in some bro-time and girl-time, respectively. It’s healthy, fun and necessary because he can hear about my eyeliner issues and I can hear about fantasy basketball only so many times.
I always thought it was total baloney when people said they became friends through Twitter. How do these relationships start? How do you maintain them when Twitter can be such a smorgasbord of people and information? Surely it can’t happen. Well, I’ve been proven wrong, and it’s all thanks to Jessica Packard, an interior designer and blogger based in San Diego.
I first got wind of Jessica and her talents when I stumbled upon her feature on one of my favorite sites, The Everygirl. Three things stood out: She lives in San Diego, has a keen eye for clean design and is from — wait for it — Oklahoma like Eaman! (They even have a mutual friend — crazy!)
In the spirit of being proactive in a new city, I introduced myself to Jessica over Twitter, told her about my blog and asked if she’d be up for a coffee date sometime. Not only was she game, she was also kind enough to meet me on her birthday when she had a day off. Ever since, she’s been a wonderful guide to the San Diego blogging community and a constant source of career inspiration.
Jessica co-owns the interior design company With Love, Design with two college friends — one of whom lives in Dallas and the other in Tulsa — and together they’ve established a collaborative studio that specializes in residential and boutique commercial design, photo shoot styling and events. Jessica also blogs about all things decor over at Oh I Design. Let’s take a look at the rituals that this interior designer calls her own.
Shahs of Sunset is about as accurate as Asa’s idea for diamond water is brilliant. That is to say, it is not. But what we can glean from the Bravo series is that there are a heck of a lot of Iranians in California — the second largest population in the U.S. actually. And while Los Angeles — or Tehrangeles, if you will — is the epicenter, San Diego boasts a decent-size community, which now includes Eaman (and me by default). As we approach Persian New Year next week, there are a bunch of events to usher in the upcoming holiday, and last night we kicked things off with Chaharshanbe Suri at NTC Park in Liberty Station.
The holiday, which translates to Wednesday Feast, is celebrated on the last Wednesday of the Persian calendar — a.k.a. the last Wednesday before the start of spring — and represents a cleansing before the new year. The goal is to wash away any negative energy and purify yourself by jumping over a bonfire multiple times, while singing in Farsi, “My sickly yellow paleness is yours, your fiery red color is mine.” It’s a more poetic way of asking for warmth, wellness and a fresh start.
So what did that mean for us on a misty San Diego night?
Convoy is one smorgasbord of delicious Asian food. It’s a street in the neighborhood of Kearny Mesa that’s filled with eats from Thailand, China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam and The Philippines. Food is usually cheap and almost always authentic, but the problem is picking a place. How do you know what’s best when there are so many options?
Well, you blindly pick one.
OK, maybe you shouldn’t do that, but that method worked well for me on Saturday night. If my recent hunger pangs for pho meant anything, we started knowing that we wanted Vietnamese food. Since Yelp and its too-many opinions can be overwhelming, I flipped through San Diego Magazine‘s Asian Food Guide issue instead and took a shot in the dark.
The place? Phuong Trang. The prices? Crazy good. (Like $6.25-for-a-large-noodle-entree good.) The food? Also crazy good — Vietnamese with everything from pho and noodle bowls to hot pots and rice paper wraps (a DIY dish Eaman loved in Vietnam). Apparently my blind pick was pretty on-target because the next morning a friend told me that Phuong Trang comes highly recommended from her Vietnamese friends.
Between the six of us, there were shrimp noodle bowls, vegetarian noodle bowls, pho and garlic chicken wings. The bun xao bo hoac ga — a beef noodle dish and our favorite street eat in Hanoi — was a faithful rendition and the garlic wings had a nice kick and tender meat. Oh and as for the pho, after all those dreams about hot, tangy soup, I wasn’t even paying attention when I ordered and asked for the vegetarian noodle bowl by accident. (It comes with its own non-fish, vegetarian sauce!) Fortunately this place is so good that even when you order just as absent-mindedly as your process was to pick the place, you still get something worth writing home about. (See: this blog post.) And I don’t totally mind that I messed up my own order; it’s a good excuse for going back sooner rather than later.
Whether we’re new to a city, travel often for work or have hectic daily schedules, what manages to set our heads straight, re-calibrate our emotions and give us a sense of quiet is routine. For some people it’s reading the New York Times with a cup of tea every Sunday morning. For others, it’s a weekly bike ride through their favorite neighborhoods. And for many, it involves a couch, popcorn and Netflix. I know for me, moving to a new city and starting from scratch has been more overwhelming than expected. I often feel like so little is in my control because I’m still green, but what keeps me from pulling my hair out are simple routines. They help create a sense of a home even if I still need a GPS to get anywhere.
But I know it’s not just me. How many times have you heard someone say that they need to start their day with a run or else the whole day seems off? Or that a week without watching Nashville is a sad one. (OK, that last one may or may not be me.) Routines take on an almost religious quality because they become a way of life. It’s only fitting that they be called rituals.
So that’s what I’d like to explore with this new weekly series my rituals: What are the rituals that make us tick, give us comfort and are almost mandatory to feel sane? I’ll be featuring notable folks from a variety of backgrounds and professional paths, who’ll share with us their rituals and why they’ve grown so accustomed to them. And to start, I’m sharing mine! I’m still in the process of figuring out the day-to-day in a new city, but these are the things that are keeping me happy at the moment.
Name:Archana Ram Age: 27 Hometown: Cherry Hill, NJ Current:San Diego, CA Profession:Freelance writer and social media manager for PR agency
Our living room wall will soon be filled with paintings and photographs from our travels, but there’s a lonely space above my bedroom dresser that’s just asking for some sort of art. I teeter between something feminine versus something totally neutral (see tropical fruits print above), but I do know I want a piece that complements our white- and turquoise-colored bedroom.
A part of me just wants to paint something on my own, but I couldn’t help but fall for these seven prints. No matter the outcome, it doesn’t hurt to window shop for now, right?
1. I like that Jessica Durrant’s Pink Peacock Feather is simple with a twist. Blue feathers are so been-there-done-that; this one is fiery hot pink — my favorite color!
2. But then I started looking at Jessica’s other works and fell in love with this “Chevron Tunic” portrait, too. I generally shy away from those overly feminine prints (i.e. a Chanel perfume bottle or the red Louboutin soles) that make women think they’ve inherited Carrie Bradshaw’s life, but this one feels different. I don’t know if it’s the blue color or the dripping paint or the fact that she’s wearing winged eyeliner just like I always wear, but this is my favorite of the group.
Two weeks after this, I was back in L.A. This time, I headed over with two new San Diego girlfriends, Jessica and Conni, to hit up a West Elm/Etsy event hosted by the hilarious, self-effacing and talented Emily Henderson, interior designer and star of HGTV’s Secrets From a Stylist. But what started as a visit to the event turned into a full-blown foodie girls weekend.
Now, I’m more a low-key, off-the-grid kind of traveler/diner, but every now and again, I like to splash out and try buzzed about places to see, well, what the buzz is about. This getaway was a splurge, but I took it as an opportunity to eat at some places on my Life List (a less gruesome way to say the Before I Die list), and once I got past the very L.A. crowds at these places, I could appreciate the great food and even better decor. (But I gotta say, every trendy restaurant in L.A. is obsessed with the same black stools. What gives?)
I ate. I window-shopped. I waited in line for scene-y brunch spots. And I took notes. Take a look at the 8 simple steps to a trendy, seen-to-be-seen kind of L.A. visit.
Step 1: Fancy brunch. We started the weekend not by checking into our hotel, but by settling into the beautiful interiors of Laurel Hardware, a former hardware store that’s been converted into an industrial-styled restaurant. I just about died over that wallpaper and light fixture. And then I died when I saw Rosie Perez in the restaurant because girl is awesome. And then I died over my fruit scone, which was more like a warm toasted biscuit topped with berries and clotted cream. It was delicious so long as you’re OK with dessert for breakfast. And why wouldn’t you be?
