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I don't know what I would do without it. Be on the street, obviously -- but seriously I don't know.

I was driving home today from work, heading down Digital and I just felt an overwhelming peace. I don't know what it was. For some reason I got this notion that where I was or whatever I had ever become my home would always be there waiting for me at the end of the day.

Of course I don't live in a HOUSE house or have a yard or any of those other nice things. It's just a condo. But I know the people who live here, their faces, their cars, and even their pets. I know what they look like and that they know what I look like and that I can always count on a familiar smile or "hello" as I'm grabbing the mail on my way in. I know what smells I'm going to walk into each and every day and that my parking spot will always be there waiting for me in E09.

I have grown to know and love the curves on our streets and the 7-elevens around the corner that always have my choice redbox stand and Barefoot Pinot Grigio on a late Saturday evening.

The hallways of our building are nothing less than cozy and often make me feel as though I'm living in a Penthouse suite on Park Avenue, especially when I look outside from my bedroom window at the gleaming lights of other buildings across the way. I like to dream for moments at a time that I'm in NYC writing to you, like Carrie Bradshaw. I always bring myself back to reality, though, and remember that I'm just in my cozy Signal Hill-area nook that is a playground of its own.

Up and down the hills of the main drags lie many important stores, restaurants, and other various buildings to which I have grown accustomed to and marked as favorite places to be. And even if I am not there often, like Sandy's vet clinic across the street, I know it's there in case I ever need it.

It's quiet, simple, and clean yet unfamiliar to most who don't know our community's here. It's got me in a trance from time to time just thinking about how comforted I feel when I'm here...