Ojai California

Greetings from California! I'm currently in Ojai, which is a small town outside of Santa Barbara. I'm staying at my cousin in-laws aunts house haha, and it's super super super big. It's so bright and green and beautiful and sooooo unlike New York City, but getting here was kind of a pain in the ass; we ended up missing our first flight to LA (because they changed our gate the last minute without making an announcement), so they ended up putting us on another flight to San Fran 3 hours later, with a connecting flight to Santa Barbara. Anyway, I wanted to show you all some pics of where I stayed for the past 2 days, because later today, I'm heading to Long Beach to stay with my cousin. 

Catch you all later, and if you have any suggestions on what I should visit in Long Beach/L.A. please let me know. 

Midtown

Wow, I haven't updated in almost 2 weeks, not acceptable! I've been so busy, with the same old same old, nothing exciting so I didn't think to publish anything, BUT I'll be flying to Los Angeles this Saturday! I'll be there for a week exploring, visiting, and hanging out with my mom, aunt, cousin, and his fiance haha. Anyway, in case you're wondering these photos are of some buildings in Midtown Manhattan, the photo in the middle is of Carnegie Hall. 

Gonna keep this short, but hope you all are doing ok, check ya later. 

St. John's Cathedral

St. John's Cathedral is one of the biggest and oldest cathedrals in New York City. It's super huge, and the architecture is incredible. I've never been inside, and unfortunately I was unable to go inside while I was there, but I took some pictures around the premises. It also has an attached park, and a couple of walkways, which are also very beautiful. It's on top of a big big hill that overlooks Morningside Park, and part of Central Park (wish I took pics of that but I had no time). I'm not sure if it's bigger than St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is in Midtown but they're both crazy beautiful. NYC has a lot of really nice churches, and I've been meaning to explore some of them.

I spent my morning playing for a Lutheran Church Service, and now I'm home, relaxing for the rest of the day. I'm not much of an early riser, so getting to the church early with the 2 hour commute isn't easy, but I'm definitely super grateful. Many musicians unfortunately do not get the opportunity to play as regularly as they would like to. They start falling out of the routine, and then after a while, it becomes super difficult to pick it up and start playing again. When I had my terrible job for 6 months, I did not have the time, nor the motivation to play music, because I was so stressed out. Every time I sat at the piano or organ, I felt stiff all over, like I had a cement block in my brain. It's been about 6 months since I quit, and I finally feel like I'm back to normal, thankfully.

Anyway, so are there any cool churches around where you live?

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Brownstones are so cool (seen in photos 1 & 3). If I had to live in nyc for the rest of my life, I would want to live in a brownstone. They're usually about 3 stories, they're surprisingly spacious, have a backyard, and unfortunately cost a fortune haha. But for the price, they're a steal in comparison to those overly-priced high-rise apartments down in Wall Street or on Park Avenue. I've been to a couple of brownstones that were completely refurbished, and dayuuumm, were they beautiful. A brownstone is not necessarily my dream home, but it's wayyy up there. 

My ultimate dream home is a medium sized 3-story English Tudor-style house in a neighborhood with lots of trees. It would be located preferably somewhere close to nyc because let's face it, I can't quit nyc cold turkey, despite my love/hate relationship with it hahaha.  

What does your dream home look like, and where would you want it to be located?