1. I am not working. (well, barely)
2. It is January, and it was 80 degrees and sunny today. I wore a sun dress!
3. I am eating and drinking with the kind of abandon that only comes when visiting a new place. (I may have to rename this blog to "Everyday French Fries" or "Everyday Fatty").
4. Staying with friends feels like a weeks-long sleepover party (fun!) and when we are not with those friends, we are hanging out with other friends or making new friends.
5. Every place we go, everything we do is a new, never-been-done before adventure. Like, me finally getting behind the wheel this week and driving on the highways without anyone honking at me for going too slow (that is what happened to me the last time I drove in LA). It was fine. Okay so there was three attempts at parallel parking, but no one saw. No one knows. It's a new car, and I haven't parallel parked in about five years. And when I was done, it looked great. ADVENTURE.
6. I still walk around pinching myself and thinking, "I can't believe we actually moved here." This is all fake, right? We're going back home to New York next week, right?
How long will this keep up? Not sure -- what I am not keeping up with is maintaining this blog and taking pictures and trying to encapsulate these first few weeks in Los Angeles in the way I intended. So, I will try my best here.
I am very glad we have decided to stay with friends first before getting a job/finding an apartment. Not only do we have a chance to get to know different neighborhoods and different living styles, but we get to bond with our friends in a whole new way...in our sweat pants.
We are doing two week rotations, and we spent the first rotation with Brett and Emily in Los Feliz. I loved getting to live their life for a while -- working hard at our computers all day, cuddling with Alfie the dog on the couch, eating out in their hipster neighborhood, taking yoga classes, grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. I felt like I got to know them and love them that much more. And I can't wait to do the same with the other folks.
Sunday Night dinner ... enjoying a delicious lasagna made by mom! Thanks, Susan!
Seeing The Artist at the Vista...
...which is a very cool old Hollywood theater that we (gasp!) walked to from Brett and Emily's place.
Meanwhile, we've been on the dinner circuit, having one-on-one dinners with each of the LA couples. Ara and Sandy took us to a Mediterranean place. Dan and Jacey got us SusieCakes cupcakes (my fave!) and Matt and Katie made a steak dinner I am still fantasizing about.
Dan and I have also been going all over town to have drinks and lunches with people we know or friends of friends. At this stage, it's all about getting to meet as many people as possible who could possibly be our friends or help us with our careers.
Watching the State of the Union and the Golden Globes at 6pm is weird. When I wake up each morning, my in-box and Facebook are flooded with new messages. Even though I have been getting up most days at 9 am, seeing all this news from the east coast makes me think I have already missed out on half the day. And then at 9 pm, it all goes dead, and I feel like I am the only one awake.
The pizza here sucks. There, I said it.
When I see images of New York on television commercials, I feel a bit wistful and sad. I love hearing from people from the East Coast and knowing they are still thinking of us.
It gets better every day.
I think what's helping is not being sick anymore and getting a car and going off on my own a little bit. When you are staying with friends, you are always surrounded by people which makes things fun and interesting. But I am a person who recharges when alone, so the small moments I have been able to steal for myself have been delicious. Take the day I took a yoga class alone, and then walked back to Brett and Emily's house. I finally noticed how lovely their neighborhood is, how pretty people keep their gardens, and how the light looks when the sun sets (because the light here is very different than what I'm used to) and for that moment, I could see small glimpse of what my life looks like. Not the fantasy "I am on vacation" life. But the I-will-one-day-have-a-job-and-a-home-and-live-in-LA life.
And I liked what I saw.
2 comments:
Come on, Lucifer's was AT LEAST as good as any of the pizza we had back east.
The pizza might not be as good, but fresh veggies and fruits at your local farmer's market or even Ralph's can't be beat.
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