Settled in my new place

So I made it to San Diego in one piece yesterday - actually, in several pieces. I had a ridiculous amount of luggage to transport from the I-house to the San Jose airport and then from the San Diego airport to the car rental place to my new home in La Jolla (that's pronounced La Hoya for my fellow non-Spanish speakers). But we (myself and my suitcases) survived the journey.
Yesterday was a tad overwhelming for me. To be honest, I was sort of sick of feeling like I was attached at the hip to eight other people, and I thought I was ready to be off on my own. Then I had to fly in a tiny plane (tiny planes scare me) to a city I didn't know, rent a car on my own (which I'd never done before) and find my way to my new home, which was inhabited by people I didn't know. All this newness, coupled with the culture shock of SoCal that I experienced while trying to find food, became a bit too much for me. La Jolla is....crazy. Take any overcrowded, ritzy area you know of, throw in some palm trees and a few thousand speeding cars, and that's close to what it's like. The sheer number of apartment complexes and condos boggles the mind. And there's no grass - well, hardly any. And there's an ice rink...in the mall. I'd never really felt like a Midwestern bumpkin before, but believe me, La Jolla will do that to you. But I did get some yummy Indian food for my dinner and had some reassuring converations, so by bedtime, I felt much better. And now I'm a whole bunch better because Megan's here! It required some coordination, but I picked her up at the airport this morning, and then we set off to find our places of employment (or, in her case, potential employment). We were successful on one count (hers), but after more than an hour of driving around the city, we needed sustenance. Thank goodness for Rubio's. Yummers. We also found the path from our complex to the mall (score!), went grocery shopping with two of our housemates and visited two of the pools in our little neighborhood. Quite a productive day, I think.
Tomorrow I start at the Union-Tribune. I'm not too nervous; I think it's because I did this last summer at The Plain Dealer, so I think I know basically what to expect. Tomorrow's just HR day anyway - meaning I'll probably get to view some killer videos on sexual harassment and fill out mounds of paperwork. Oh well; it's all part of the process. I'm hoping my posts will get more regular once I establish a routine. And I promise a link to a slideshow of photos from San Jose will be included next time. If that's not enough to keep you coming back, I don't know what is ; )