GA on my mind

Part of my finding my footing here in SoCal has been finding the local food community. I moved here to be with a friend, and I love her to pieces, but she and her family are meat-and-potato-eating lawyers. I've been having to push to get them to try anything new and fun. So figuring out where farmer's markets and the like was really challenging for the first two months. Thankfully, I stumbled on the farmer's market one morning, which helped, and then I got my current job working with the catering company. The chef has been a godsend, he really has- he's not only taught me a lot, but more importantly, he filled me in on where to get the freshest seafood in the city. It's gotten me so excited! I can actually play with food I want to eat again. I haven't been able to do that since I lived in Atlanta. Even better, here in California,  I am literally making more money with two scantily part-time jobs than I did having 3 simultaneous jobs on the East Coast.  I can afford to go to specialty stores and blow $20 on a 12oz bottle of olive oil (my mom nearly had a heart attack when she heard I did that!). Even better, I am able to afford to take a trip back to Atlanta and spend most of my trip at my favorite hotel, the Georgian Terrace. California is a wonderful, wonderful place.
But, as much as I love this coast, I think I'm going to go back east in a couple years. See, while California has really helped me focus on my life and what I want, I've realized that what I want is still in the Southeast.  I'm staying here long enough to sort my life out and become a proper adult, but afterwards I fully intend to go back and fight for the life I want. California is paradise, but the South? The South is home.

I wanna play hooky...

I looked at my second-choice location yesterday. It was quite an experience! The building was an old fire station, with amazing open brick walls and the majority of the structure intact. There was a lot of newer refurbished rooms, apparently the place had been used as a recording studio recently (and by recently, I mean 3+ years ago). The more I think about it, I can see my bar/restaurant coming together there. I'm still going to look at a few places, but as long as this place stays available, I might have a winner!

This weekend I need to finish my business plan. I have the majority done, but I'm about to start working on the financial aspect... And numbers terrify me. They literally make me sick to my stomach when I think about them. I don't want to do them at all, but if this is going to work at all, I need to suck it up and finish them up. Then I get to do fun stuff! Jeez. Business plans are like the shittiest grown-up homework ever.