So living in Southern California, I have never had the privilege of really living in the eye of a storm, until last week. South Pasadena was hit by hurricane winds that took out not only our power but even affected water service. It was Little House on the Prairie in our apartment for about 24 hours with no internet, no hot water, no heat and no use of the stove. 

The damage was limited on our street. I was happy that our one car, Vespa and our two new-to-us bikes were all tucked safely away underneath the carport. The Gold Line even survived pretty well although power outages forced trains to stop at EVERY track crossing for two days. This made the ride twice as long (30 minutes vs. 15 minutes), but my coworkers report it was still better than driving through streets without street lights or closed due to fallen trees and debris.

The storm did make me happy about one thing I’ve been struggling with a lot recently- the idea of not being a homeowner but yet still being an adult. The Bearded Man and I have held off on purchasing because everything in our price range is either too small or far away from where we’d like to live. This means that I’ll be entering my 30s as a renter, which in most big cities is par for the course.

As I watched all the homeowners spend their weekend, cleaning up all the leaves, fallen branches and dislodged roofing materials it made me thank my lucky stars. As a renter there was no clean up besides the sink full of dishes that hadn’t been washed in 2 days. I think we’ll wait a little while before we jump onto that “adult” life goal.