And just like that...

Natalie (my roommate) just left for her last semester of college in Boston. I keep getting messages from friends that they are arriving at school and here I am, still in LA. Left behind by the summer crowd.

Summer in Los Angeles is hard to describe - probably because it is the only LA I've ever experienced. It's hard to define any of its specific characteristics:

1) Throngs of students return for internships, jobs and the like
2) Afternoon trips to Starbucks, Jamba Juice and The Coffee Bean are spread throughout long trips to Melrose or (if you can afford it) Robertson.
3) Congested streets in the middle of the afternoon (per no. 2)
4) Intermittent trips to the beach (hopefully arriving in a drop-top convertible)
5) Long days
6) June gloom, smog, dry dry dry
7) Hiking
8) Trips to Palm Springs and San Fran
9) Late night trips for frozen yogurt (Yogurt Land, Big Chill ... not Pink Berry)
10) Lying by a pool all afternoon with a $2 bottle of wine from Trader Joe's
11) Visitors from every era of my life (most recently, Gina from Middle School)

Ok, maybe that wasn't too hard, but the list is more specific to my experiences. I'm looking forward to fall in Los Angeles. What will change - what will stay the same? Am I really going to need a sweater like everyone says I will? I don't believe the weather will change that drastically.

I think Natalie leaving for Boston solidified a strange fact - summer is over. My best friends are at school and I'm still working. The further I push into this world of mine, the more important it is to ask myself:

1) Am I balancing my work and personal time?
2) Am I staying in touch with my friends and family?
3) Am I doing at least one thing a day to further my career/life? (Thanks Kelly)
4) Am I happy?

I need to post these somewhere in my bedroom so I'll see them everyday and answer them. I don't even know how to approach the question of whether or not I am happy. That seems so relative; in that, even if I wasn't - maybe today's stresses are for the benefit of my future happiness. Happiness seems so inconsequential? I don't know.

I do know that right now, in this moment, I am happy and content. That might (and probably will ) change in the next week, maybe tomorrow, probably in next few hours. That's part of living I guess; holding on for dear life as I ride the ups and downs and doing my best to enjoy the ride.

That's all anyone can ask of themselves. For now.