Week 1: LA is Strange

I say this with the utmost respect for the city.  I mean, I live here now and hating the city I live in would be a bad move on my part.  All that said, its such a strange place.

We're a mile from the ocean and the most popular places to eat are hamburger places.  I love hamburgers, and so far I have had Habit, The Counter, In an Out and plenty other burgers from places who are not necessarily known for their burgers.  That just seems like that's where people want to eat, so that's what it has been.  They've been good, but lets get some of that (irradiated) seafood I know and adore.

EVERYONE has some place to be, and they need to be there faster than you... no matter what.  People race me off the green light, they cut me off, they can't quite figure out which lane they want to be in, but they are pretty sure it is ALL OF THEM, and then, when they are half in your lane driving sideways down the 405 they are inevitably still in the wrong 3 lanes and need to be in the 3 lanes over.

You become something of a hermit because you think: "I should go out and meet people/Get food because I'm dying"  and then you remember the last time you did either of those things it took you 20 minutes to find a parking spot. The rest of the time you were there hoping there wasn't some sign stipulation that is going to leave you with a ticket or a towed car.


These are my first impressions but they have certainly left impressions so far.

All in all though, I'd say I'm doing pretty well.  Within 5 days of being in the city I had an audition schedule for a film and was going to be an extra on a friends movie.  I've quite possibly found a temporary place to live where I'll be able to have my own space up in NoHo.  I've got another audition looming on the horizon and I've done some fun stuff.

The fun stuff.

I hesitate to say "fun" for this, but I signed on with Central Casting.  Background work is definitely worth the effort.  You get paid... you read books... there is a lot of holding.  Good times.

Chloe works at Golden Road, and I was supposed to wait to go there with here, but after I signed on with Central Casting, I was already over there.  I dropped in for a bear or two and had a blast tasting the deliciousness of this fun brewery.  The gose was quite good.

I've been to Manhattan beach 2 times so far.  Once was with a hamburger day date with Lauren.  We tooled around and drove the streets looking at random things and getting acquainted with the city we live.  There is a free aquarium on the pier which is neat and food and shopping all around there. Afterwords we snagged a bite to eat at counter that was something of a great experience.  I may have sounded like I was complaining abut all the hamburgers earlier... I wasn't. The second time was with a friend from Nashville who happened over while she was touring colleges.  They were both pleasant experiences.

Flowers y'all

I spent an afternoon (mostly because I was locked out of the apt) in the park across the street from where I currently stay.  While it would have been convenient if I could have not been stuck out of the apt, I did enjoy enjoying the sights smells of the park.  They had wild flowers of some caliber growing around the edges of the park and they were quite sweet to the nose.

One of my honorary flatmates had her birthday which was a blast.  We went out for a mellow evening at a place called public school n Culver.  It was a lot of fun and, while so much stuff here is supremely expensive, it was easily worth it to spend the evening with my friends here!

My gracious hosts

I went swing dancing.  This was by far one of the better experiences I've come across since I've been here. I've been down and out on swing dancing since I left New Orleans those weeks ago, and I've been feeling anxious to find  a place to go.  Luckily, I finally sat down and looked for one on Thursday, found out there was a dance happening on Friday and it was 10 minutes from me.  Snazzed myself up (best I can with what I got) and sprang on out the doors.  I danced and laughed my way from 8-12pm at Rusty's Rhythm Club and met a lot of fun people while I was out.  It was cathartic for sure as I had been feeling cooped up an anxious for a little bit. New city jitters.

I'm not sure exactly what life will be like here, but so far I'm doing good.  There have been some moments when I want to just get back to what I know in Nashville, but every time I get an audition there is this surge of excitement.  I know that for at least 5 minutes I get to act.  For 5 minutes I get to do what I love and, if in the mean time I have to work some grudgingly boring job, I'll be fine because... every now and again I get 5 minutes that will eventually get me in the door.  That is great.

What could go wrong?