Behind the Orange Curtain

Well, I made it! Exactly three weeks ago, I moved from Ashland, OR to Brea in Orange County, CA (yes,it took a while, but I now understand that the OC is separate from LA--I'm an East Coaster, what can I say).

For those of you who don't know, I spent 13 years in NYC and then three years ago, moved to the tiny Southern Oregon town of Ashland to build the marketing team at Musician's Friend, the largest direct seller of musical instruments in the world. 

I decided to take a new job as VP of Marketing at PennySaverUSA, the largest direct shopping publication in the country, to help build their Web business and make it cool online. (That's right, the PennySaver is going to get hip, y'all, mark my words. :))

I took a week off to unpack and get settled and then took a much needed break in NYC. Last week was my

first week in the office and it was uneventful, aside from the terrible cold I caught. The poor people I work with must have hated me!

According to a friend of mine, at the executive level, you should be spending 50% of your time just thinking. With not a single meeting all week, "thinking" and planning was all I did and it was wonderful. The last three years at Musician's Friend, I spent all my time in meetings, so it was heaven.

It is hard to believe I've only been here a few weeks. Oregon seems very far away. The weather is AMAZING here, I adore my loft, and my commute is exactly 7 minutes! Aside from that, I already love the diversity of the population and the food--I'm surrounded by authentic Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Mexican, etc.--and just the sheer amount of interesting stuff to do.

This past Friday, I went to see indie band Black Kids at the Glass House in Pomona, a scant 20 mins from me, and tonight am going to the Newport Beach Film Festival (about a half hour away). In Ashland, I was 4-5 hours from anything. For a New Yorker like me, that was tough. 

It's a lot greener and hillier here than I thought it would be which is lovely. And sure, there are a lot of malls and the OC is more conservative than any other place I've ever lived (I considered commuting from West Hollywood, but now am so glad I decided being closer to work made more sense), but maybe I can convert some people--lol. I can't tell you how excited I am to be back in civilization!