Valley Girl

I have been an L.A. resident for 14 whole days now.  I never in a million years thought I would say this, but I actually kind of like it.  Do I wish buildings were closer together?  Yes.  Do I wish bikers were respected and not forced up onto the sidewalk to feel safe?  Of course.  Am I confused when I can't find a separate recycling bin in a restaurant?  Very (I mean, I expected to lose public composting, but recycling??).  But overall?  It's been pretty neat.

Allow me to take you through a photo tour of my first 14 days:

 Andrew before I arrived, melodramatically placing all of his stuff and just a little bit of my stuff in front of the camera. Trust me, if you think this looks cramped just wait until we unpacked the storage unit.  I had several days of "THIS APARTMENT IS TOO SMALL" panic before we got everything sorted out.

Unexpected beauty flying into LAX.  We can see those mountains from the park where we work out in the morning.  It's too great.

The City of Angels herself.

Oh wait, here's that picture of TOTALLY NEVER HAVING ENOUGH ROOM FOR ALL THE STUFF.

First meal in the new place.  On the floor, amidst the rubble.

First room we had set up!  It has since fallen into a state of moderate disarray, but we do our best to keep the place tolerably neat.  Lemme just say, not having a dishwasher after having one for two years:  I feel like we are just constantly doing dishes.  I mean: every. time. you. eat.

Getting my library card!  First thing I checked out?  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  For Andrew.  Who was with me. And had his own library card. In his pocket. 

We were going to the grocery store and stumbled upon this great Farmer's Market instead!  The people there are so nice!  My favorite is the lady who sells dates.  She has crazy eye shadow and jokes around with us every time we stop by the stand.

So Andrew works nights and I'm currently basking in unemployment for a little longer, which means that I am frequently at home alone in such wonderful situations as this:  sitting comfortably outside on our balcony (you hear that SF? Comfortable outside, even at night, no jacket required), watching a movie, eating a home-made snack from organic locally grown veggies.

Andrew had an audition in Santa Monica the other day, so we decided to go exploring.  Santa Monica is great.  Cool, breezy, smells like the ocean, tons of bikes around.  And here is a weird dinosaur fountain on the 3rd street promenade.

And then we went to the beach!

And Andrew's pale ginger skin got terribly sunburned.  And the water was too cold.  I mean seriously, what are all those people doing in that ice bath?

Yesterday we made Preacher Cookies, but with almond butter, coconut oil, and shredded coconut.  They are basically fudge, and we have eaten about half of them already.

Last night we went to this really trendy restaurant bar that basically charged the contents of your bank account and your first born child for thoroughly middling tapas and debilitatingly strong cocktails.  Andrew wouldn't let me take a better picture of it though because Bill Nye was sitting three feet from his left shoulder and he didn't want it to seem like we were trying to sneak a picture of him.  (Yes, Bill Nye the SCIENCE GUY.  L.A. is crazy).

Up next?  Get a job.  Or start an acting career.  One of the two.  But neither sounds quite as fun as "go on day dates and shop at World Market."  Oh hey, did I mention I actually live in the Valley?

"Valley Girl" by Moon Unit and Frank Zappa