Green House

No more Flamingo, we're changing the name of our apartment to the GREEN HOUSE.

Room 1: Green!

Room 2: Greener!

Room 3: Greenest!

Room 4: BLUE!

After we painted our bedroom, Dan goes, "Not sure how I feel about the blue. Kind of wish it were green." We did not paint our bathroom, which is cream.

Coming from white-walled, no-paint-allowed apartments in New York City, having color on the walls is something new to me, and I am so in love.

The past two days, I have been visiting all the rooms in my house and basking in their prettiness. I remember when I was little my grandmother and mother used to do the same thing anytime they painted, bought new furniture or changed a room around. It always seemed so silly to me at the time, but now I completely understand.

I am so grateful for the help of my in-laws Susan and Henry who came down from Visalia for the weekend to help us paint, build some Ikea furniture, scrub the kitchen floor and treat us amazing dinners along the way. 

It was a lot of work, but it was all worth it! Our apartment feels more like a home. Now, we just have to get some furniture!

(Sorry for the crummy iPhone pics! It doesn't do the paint justice! You'll just have to come visit and see!)

LA Notes

Rain Days

The weather here is always the same. About 70 degrees and sunny. But once in a while, you get something called “rain.” There is a lot of anguish about this rain. People are like, “oh, it’s going to rain tomorrow” and they say it in a gloomy voice.

What ends up happening, from my three months here, is that it rains for about an hour overnight, and by the time you are ready to start your day, the sun comes out and then it is like every other day. Only the city seems crisper and prettier because the rain has washed the smog away.

Since I have been here, there has only been one legitimate rain day where it actually rained all day.

Weather Woes

The girls at my office are freaking out today because it is 60 degrees (cold) and windy outside. “I am NOT going out there,” one announced. Guys, I promise you. It’s going to be okay.

This is my office building in bad weather. It is cold, windy and rainy today.

Sunglasses

The sun is stronger and brighter here. I used to wear sunglasses only in the summer (when I remembered) and now it’s everyday.

Clothes

People don’t dress up to go to work. All the girls in my office wear jeans and blouses. One day, I actually saw someone in a sweatshirt. This is odd for me. I worked in women’s magazines for the last 10 years. I am used to work being a fashion show. Now I am the one who is the most dressed up.

Where I come from, there are winter clothes and summer clothes. Here, my winter clothes are too heavy and my summer clothes too light. The temperature fluctuates during the day so it’s cold in the morning, hot in the afternoon and cold at night. Layers are key. I am not good at layers.

When it is very sunny, I feel like an oddball wearing black. BLACK. My basic color. But when is it appropriate to wear white? Memorial Day to Labor Day seems limiting since it’s always so warm here, but pulling out a white “summer” dress seems strange in April, too. Then again, you see people walking around in wool gloves and scarves when it is a "freezing" 60-degrees out.

Work

I work on the 21^st Floor and can see the city of Los Angeles from my desk. You don’t need to get too high for a good view of this town.

View from the office

Easter

We spent Easter in Visalia, my first time.

Believe it or not, but not everyone eats Polish Ham at Easter time. We had American Ham.

We had a pretty good meal though – scalloped potatoes, asparagus, pasta, and other things, plus a strawberry tart. That means the ratio was that there was one dessert selection for everyone, not one dessert selection per person. Everyone was happy and it all turned out fine. (Mom, take note).

New Apartment

We’re getting situated in the new place. Every day we're pinching ourselves that we live in such a lovely neighborhood. We have no furniture to unpack our things, so we have been living out of boxes and shopping a lot. I haven’t cooked a meal yet, and the meals we do eat, we enjoy sitting on beach chairs. With no internet or TV, we end up going to bed early because we have no other way to occupy our time.

Paint the Town Green

This weekend, Dan’s parents are coming down to LA to help us paint. After years living with New York City white walls, we’re looking to add some colors….er….color to our lives. It seems like we want to paint nearly every room a shade of green. I am nervous that this is a bad decision, but Dan says, what difference does it make if all the walls are all white or all green?  

Final paint selections happen on Friday. We'll let you know how it goes.