Wow. I found reasons to love LA

Have you ever felt body-slammed by a gospel principle? I've experienced it once or twice in my life, one of those times being last week. We had just recently had an Enrichment activity about gratitude. And I realized how sucky my attitude about gratitude has been lately. Since moving to LA, I've had a lot of complaints. "I'm not close to my Texas family anymore" "Traffic is awful" "The city is so dirty" "There are no good running trails" "Everything here is so expensive" etc, etc. You get the idea, I haven't exactly been thrilled with our location lately. But at that Enrichment activity, I decided I need an attitude adjustment. I've been here for over a year now and it's about darn time I start liking at least some things about living in California. It's about time I started being grateful, because things could certainly be a lot worse. So here is the list of things I have come to like about living in California.

Best produce ever- We get our produce straight from the valley, which is just a few hours away. It's not sitting in the sun for hours and hours on a truck, it gets to us pretty much freshly picked. This leads to California having the best farmers markets ever. I've never seen so many varieties of citrus fruits and they all taste wonderful.

You can walk almost anywhere- It's true that traffic sucks, but in LA, most of the places you want to go are within walking distance. I have a grocery store less than a block away and another one half a mile away. Walgreens is also half a mile away. There are a million restaurants within a 2 mile radius. And I've walked down to several friends houses plenty of times.

I live close to the beach- This is definitely my favorite part about living in Santa Monica. The beach is only 3 miles away! I love being a beach bum and everything that goes with it (mostly the tan!) And did I mention that there are mountains on the beach? Try and beat that!

There's a lot of money here- Normally, this would be one of the worst aspects of living here. But I have to admit that without the insane amount of wealth that exists in LA, my husband would be out of an airline and out of a job right now.

Everything is so expensive- Again, this is about money. But I'm grateful that I am living in a place that is so expensive, because wherever we live next, I will appreciate how much less expensive it is!

Variety of foods- There are so many local and ethnic restaurants around here, it's impossible to eat at all of them. Because there are such a wide variety of ethnicities that have settled in LA, they have brought their ethnic cuisine with them. I mean, right down the street from me is a Kosher grocery store. And there's a specialty Italian grocery store that I've been dying to go to just a short drive away.

The weather really is nice all the time- We have about 3 weeks in the summer that we need to turn the AC on (and even then, it's less than 90 degrees outside). In fact, most apartment units don't provide central AC, because it's so rarely used here. And winter? 50 degrees is the lowest it gets and that's only if you're outside super early in the morning.

My ward is awesome- Seriously you guys, it's the best. We have girls night out, amazing enrichment activities, game nights, ward activities that people actually show up for...it's the best. Tons of young families, so Cage is never lacking for a playmate.

Beautiful sites- If you've never done so, you have to drive up the PCH once in your lifetime. It will provide the most stunning, beautiful, breath-taking sights. But be sure to take anti-nausea pills if you tend to get car-sick.

The movie industry is here- Although it gets on my nerves that all our waiters are "actors" and that we have a few scanky movie billboards on our streets, there are some cool aspects to being so close to Hollywood. I mean, it's kinda fun to say that you have a friend who is writing the script for Avengers 2. And that we can drop by for a studio tour of ABC Studios and see the set for Once Upon a Time whenever we want.

You can't really be bored living here- You've got Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Legoland, SeaWorld, San Diego Zoo and Six Flags all within a 2 hour drive. And even if you don't have money, there are still a million inexpensive things to do in LA. There are a million free museums, art galleries, site-seeing opportunities, etc. You're only bored here if you choose to be.

I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting, so any of my LA friends can feel free to remind me of them. For now, you get the point. I'm trying to be grateful for where I live and appreciating every minute of it. Because when we move, I'll regret not having visited more sites, not having eaten at more local cafes, and not having been happy. Opportunities for happiness don't just show up. We have to make them up. So I'm going to be happy here. Wait... I AM happy here!