About a GOOD Decision

It's time for Kateri to tell a story.

This is another story of Kateri's, but one that is far more pleasant than a story about a near fatal family car accident; I can assure you.

This is the story of how Kateri came to be living, and writing this post, here in Santa Barbara, instead of Modesto, CA.

I will also now discontinue referring to myself in the third person. It sounds presumptuous. 

So this time, almost exactly one year ago, I was starting back at the JC in Modesto and being a full time dancer with Central West Ballet. It was a fulfilling lifestyle. I always had somewhere to be or something to do. If I had any free time I spent it either reading or being a Writer. Everything was. very. serous. *makes serious face*
But there was a problem with that statement: the single word "always."
I have come to the conclusion that life should almost never be always anything. But mine was. Always busy. Always tired. Always hungry. Always sheltered.
Not a bad life by any means. But still, always.
So about this time a year ago, my step-grandma, The Biologist, visited my home for the first time. She told me about the City College here. It was one of the most beautiful campuses in the nation. It was one of the top City Colleges in the nation. It was on the beach.
It was perfect.
So, about a year ago, I decided that it was time to retire, so to speak, from life as a bun-head, from life living at home, from life as a Modestan. So here I am.
Boy, has it been a roller-coaster! I moved in with my grand-folks in Camarillo, which is about 45 mins. south from here. I found my little cubby hole here in Santa Barbara and moved in. I made new friends. I was gone for two months because of a family emergency. I started school.
But I'm still me, and as a matter of fact, I'm becoming MORE me. Every day.
I have time to do that now. I don't HAVE to be a ballerina to be me, not if I don't want to, at least. I can be a writer, and at heart I can always be a dancer.
If there's one thing that is always, it's the whole world that's out there. With stories reaching to infinity.
Go find them. Go make them.
But don't stay in one place.
You are not a tree.

New Things Means New Things

I was planning on doing this post exactly a week after I moved into my new place in Santa Barbara,

wait...

Did I mention I got a place in Santa Barbara?

So I got a place in Santa Barbara,

and things around here are going pretty swimmingly.

One of the biggest things I've been noticing is how big changes in one's life can mean changes,

even little ones,

just as well.

So here's a little list of the new things that have come of other new things in my life:

1. Drinking tea, specifically chai tea. My folks are coming down to visit me today and apparently bringing a coffee pot with them, but since then I've been without one and forced to drink tea in the morning, since I'm basically addicted to caffeine now. But it's been yummy! Especially with copious amounts of honey.

2. Tins! I've always claimed that I collect vintage tin boxes, but now I can call myself a true collector as I've gotten one for just about everything from pasta to bracelets to pencils...and the list keeps growing. One of these days I'll have to show off my collection on the blog. It's pretty sick.

3. Barely having time for things like internet, reading, and writing. Not that I place those thing equally in value or anything, but they were definitely healthy parts of my normal day to day diet before. Now I've been so busy with moving and making friends that it's been harder to make time for those things, but I also think that mostly has to do with the fact that I have totally lost my home routine and I'm still trying to find one here/have the time of my life living on my own in this great city for a summer. I mean, I understand the importance of staying focused, but writers need to live too, if only a little.

4. Visiting the THREE lovely independent bookstores here: Chaucer's, The Book Den, and Granada Books. I've been to them all and bought books and they're all fabulous! Santa Barbara definitely has a great literary community. Hopefully somewhere down the road I'll be able to get a job with one of them.

5. Speaking of literary community, there's also a great library here, which leads me to the next new thing. I finally got a library card! Shocking that I didn't have one before, right? Well, moving all my books down here has definitely proven difficult (I still haven't gotten them all in here!) and I'll have to go through the same thing down the road when I move after graduating from the city college here. So I'll definitely be using my library more often...and buying only the ones I read that I love or the sequels to books that I'm really excited about...like Maggie Stiefvater's The Dream Thieves coming out in a few months!!!

6. I got an iPhone! I've still been figuring it out, but it's going pretty well. I'm still pretty sure that I won't be on it all the time; I've never been good with staying attached to my phones, but this one is definitely going to be my favorite phone, I can tell. Oh hey, I got an instagram. I think I accidentally got two somehow, but if you'd like to follow look up thekateriransom.

7. Having my own space! This definitely means that I have my own bookshelves as well. I'll have to post pics soon, once I get them all here, that is.

8. Well, you knew this was coming, though I actually haven't visited as much as I'd like to...

but anyway,

THERE'S THE BEACH!!!!

Weekend in Santa Barbara and Other Happy Places

This past weekend I went with my fambam down to visit my grandpa, R2, and his wife, The Biologist.

They live in Camarillo and have an appartment in Santa Barbara, but that was not why I went there.

I went to SB to do some college campus visiting at the city college, which is beautiful and RIGHT. ON. THE. BEACH!

I loved it! Actually, I think I left my heart in SB, and it's ok if it stays there because I plan to make this whole affair a long term relationship.

...ok, not really long-term. Because I DO NOT plan on staying in college forever and we're only talking lower division college right now. But who knows what the future holds. I'll say I don't see myself staying in SB much longer, but hopefully I can manage southern California. I have family there, and it's such a great atmosphere!

So getting off that tangent and back to the fun stuff...

Pitsures!!!

 Backyard at R2's place in Camarillo.

 Seafood burrito...on the sea!

Mom and me

SBCC campus view

The lone semblance of Fall: pumpkins! I'll take what I can get.

 Curious Me

Of course, fun times were had on the pier.

 

More beach. Of course.

Couldn't help myself. Actually, there may or may not have been like five of those scattered around the beach when I left...you will never know.

I am actually doing ballet. Don't ask me what Banana is doing.

Of course you know it's a Ransom household when there's an airplane in the backyard.

Stopped by the monarchs at Pismo on the ride home. Cool story: I happened to need to write a butterfly scene right afterwards. Ah, the power of research!

 

Here's to liking to take lots of pitsures...a lot!

Here's to sunny beaches, anytime of the year!

Here's to the future and all its adventures!!!