Eating like a local

I'm amazed at how my eating habits change when I'm in different places.

Nashville was where I learned to eat (and love) sushi and Indian food.  Biryani was definitely a thing.  I also ate a ton of chicken noodle soup because it was cheap, and I was a poor college student.  Somehow, I avoided ramen.

In State College, I developed my love of spicy food, as we would order hot sauces off the internet and eat drops of them on tortilla chips.  What can I say, sometimes rural Pennsylvania was a slow-moving place.  I'd say it was at this point of my life in grad school where I really learned to cook, especially as I started wanting to get healthier and lose weight.  A good set of knives was, and still is, invaluable.  So was Food Network.  I definitely had my share of East Asian noodle dishes, and I learned about the wonder that is yuk gae jang, and also Korean food in general.  State College is also where I learned to drink and love copious amounts of coffee.

Toronto was where I developed an intense love for pho.  I really liked it but didn't eat it often.  Canada also has a few foods that are much more prevalent there than here, such as persimmons and beets.  And we cannot forget the wonders that are back bacon and Timbits.  Canada was, ironically enough, where I discovered avocados, and I realized that a quarter avocado sliced up on toast was really good.  This was years before the avocado toast revolution.  I like to think I was ahead of the times.

I learned to embrace the winter by cooking and eating lots of hearty soups and stews in Michigan.  Pho and various Korean dishes were super prevalent, and I really developed a love for local sandwich joints.  The farmers markets had all sorts of great stuff in the summer, but the winters definitely proved a bit sparse.

Now that I'm in California, I find myself trying to eat local things.  The farmers markets are filling up with citrus, and the mandarin oranges are fantastic.  I'm eating olives (!) and eggs (!!), two things of which I've never been very fond.  I incorporate lots of lime juice and Mexican flavors into my cooking, and I take full advantage of the spoils of my adopted basil plant, which has been growing like a weed.

I cook a lot more pescatarian/vegetarian/vegan than I ever have before.  Probably some of that is me being lazy, but I know some of it is because it's so hot here, I don't really want to use a lot of heat for prolonged periods to cook.  I'll order things with meat in them if I'm going out, but I don't know.... a slab of steak doesn't seem all that appetizing most of the time.

However, I have no problem eating pho on the hottest days of the year.  I have a separate stomach for pho, and having about ten pho places in my immediate vicinity doesn't at all hurt!

Hiking Mount Calavera

I love cloudy weekends, because then I can hike without having to reapply sunscreen!  Yesterday I decided to try Mt. Calavera and Lake Calavera, and was it ever worth it!

Mt. Calavera is actually a volcanic plug, but you can hike up to the ridge.  The view from both the bottom and the top are stunning, though obviously the caldera can only really be observed from the bottom.

Mt. Calavera quarry.  People at the top!

Getting to the top from the east is a real scramble in places, but I got up it (slowly).  Here it was from the bottom looking up, and then the top looking down!

The top was well worth the climb.

Looking southwest towards Carlsbad and the Pacific Ocean

Looking straaaaaight down (!) and northwest at Lake Calavera

There were a couple of shrines to loved ones who have been lost.  I imagine in wetter times, they look more like the "gardens" that they are purported to be.  All that was in Lala's Garden was a prickly pear cactus.

Lala's Garden

What goes up must come down, and coming down on the west side was as much a scramble as it was on the east side.  Sliding looked like a good option!  Here are pictures from the top looking down, and the bottom looking up.

That erosion, though.  I imagine that when it rains, this is treacherous.

I finally got back onto flat ground and hiked around Lake Calavera, which is dammed and very tranquil.  There were a few trail runners, bikers, and walkers, and I got to say hi to some cute doggies.

Lake Calavera, looking northeast from the dam

It was only 2 miles, but it was a great workout, especially because of all the unsteady climbing!  I earned a pho lunch after that.  I'd love to come back at different times of the year, especially once the rain and plant life start to pick up a little in the winter.

Mission accomplished!

This.... state.... is on FIRE.

With apologies to Alicia Keys.

Southern California has been in the national news for the past few days because of our fires.  The biggie is the fire burning up in Ventura, near L.A., but this week, we got a taste of our own fire.

I don't actually live in San Diego, but rather north San Diego county ("north county"), in a town called Vista.  On Thursday afternoon, when I was busy with some on-site clients at the lab in Carlsbad, we noticed that we could see smoke out the window.

Then some coworkers got the call for mandatory evacuation, and they took off posthaste.  One of my colleagues' smoke detectors were alarming by the time she got home.

People were dropping out of work at an alarming rate as more schools and homes were evacuated.  I was definitely scared, but distracted by my clients.

And then I got home and made the mistake of turning on the TV.  Horses running everywhere, people evacuating, traffic backed up, and camera shots that looked like hell was being unleashed down the sides of canyons.

Wouldn't you be scared?

The Santa Ana winds were blowing to the southwest, and Vista was south of the fire zone.  I put Franz's collar on just as a precaution, and then they started making rumblings of evacuating Vista.

I will admit to having a mild freakout.  I threw a suitcase of essentials together for both girl and cat and gathered crucial documents and keepsakes for easy car loading.  Only northwest Vista was being evacuated, but I was ready for the call.

I didn't sleep well, as I kept waking up and checking for alerts on my phone.  But once those winds died down, the fire crews were (amazingly) able to hold the line on the Lilac fire.  Schools were out as a precaution, and half my coworkers weren't there the next day, but as far as I know, no one's home was burned.

Here are the current boundaries of the Lilac fire.  Fire crews have now switched to an offensive fight from a defensive one.  It is predicted to be ten more days before the fire truly is extinguished.

Lilac fire boundaries, Dec. 10 morning

I've endured tornadoes, hurricanes, ice storms, and blizzards, but my fear in those paled in comparison to the fear I felt with the threat of fire.  And with these dry conditions, the threat is constant, as well.

It was a real wake-up call.  I'm no longer in a land with an overabundance of water.

Hello winter my old friend....

...it's nice to play in you again.

As much as I enjoy my new temperate climate, I'm trying to grapple with it being so unfamiliar.  So yesterday, I took myself to the local skating rink at Icetown Carlsbad for a little bit of winter sports and comfort.  The reviews said to expect it to be SO COLD in there.  I say, internally, bring it on.

I never skated much until I moved up north for graduate school, and the Penn State Ice Pavilion (which sadly is no more) would offer public skate afternoons on the weekends.  For $8 with a student ID, I could get a great workout in and better myself in a new area.  Being cold while ice skating has never been a problem for me.  I commonly emerge from the ice quite warm.

I really worked to get in shape in 2008, and it showed on the ice.  I could go faster, and for longer, the fitter I got.  I made friends with an older gentleman, a very graceful figure skater who also frequented the free skate days, and he complemented my ability.  I still remember it to this day.

There's something about ice skating that's therapeutic for me.  You get the endorphins of exercise, but you've also got to strategize, especially with younger (aka kamikaze, no fear) or inexperienced skaters.  You're constantly gauging the situation and figuring out what you're going to do next.  Can you safely pass?  Can you make that turn?  And my favorite: oh god, can I stop?!

I'm still not great at stopping.

O Canadaaaaa, my home and adoptive laaaaaand!

After an hour of skating, the crowds were getting oppressive, and a few near misses convinced me that it was probably time to quit.  But I walked out of there happy to have spent at least part of my day in the mid-fifties, even if some ladies outside warned me that I'd freeze at that temperature in my flip-flops.  Quaint.

Southern California Culture Shock

As a new resident of southern California, and having not lived anywhere even remotely close in distance or climate, I'm having a significant adjustment period for certain things.

• The heat

I am a child of four seasons.  In Atlanta, they weren't so extreme as they were in Pennsylvania and Michigan.  I quickly adjusted to extremes, because there was always something exciting to look forward to.  I never thought I loved summer until I moved up north.  Even winter had its beauty and charm.

However, it's obvious that my new home is much different:

Temperature (F) with respect to time, evaluated monthly, courtesy WolframAlpha.

I moved in September, which is a transition month for Michigan.  However, my transition was halted, and I was catapulted into temps in the 80s and 90s.  It was 90 F on Thanksgiving.  The highest temperature I've felt here in Socal was 104 F in late October.

• Taxes

California income taxes are, to put it bluntly, bonkers.  Let's do a quick comparison:

Income taxes by salary.  Filing status = single. Top: Ypsilanti, MI. Bottom: Vista, CA.  Calculator: SmartAsset

You can see that my federal increased because I got a cost-of-living increase (for which I'm now incredibly glad I negotiated).  But that state marginal rate?  Wow.  My rent is also ridiculous, but we won't even go into that.

The Sunshine Tax is real.

• Fall is for FIRE!

I've weathered tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, and ice storms, but fires are completely unfamiliar.

I have a special spot in my heart for autumn, because it's when the weather turns cold and you get to wear boots and put more blankets on the bed.

No.  Fall in Socal means FIRE.  I learned very quickly what a red flag warning was, and what Santa Ana winds are.  The dry hot wind comes sweeping through and BAM!  Fires and allergies.

• The giant disparity between nighttime and daytime temperatures

Get your SPF 50 out, because the sun here is intense (my plants love it), and it makes it feel way hotter than the air temperature during the day.  But once that sun drops?  Get ready for a reset, because that mercury dips a lot.

Ah, the beauty of the desert.  It makes for great sleeping weather.

• The sun sets WAY early

I've lived most of my life on the western part of the eastern time zone, so the sun tends to set later-ish.  In Michigan during the summer solstice, you still have light at 9:30 pm, and even in the winter, the sun doesn't set until after 5.  In Socal, the sun sets at 4:40, before you even leave work.

It makes me tired much earlier.  Since friends in the east stop talking to me ~8 pm because they've gone to bed, I tend to go to bed really early as well.  This is actually a good thing for work!