Do you know that feeling you get when you see Christmas tree
cakes in the store for the first time?
They bring with them a sense of childlike excitement that happy times
are here again, and it is in that moment that I know I have arrived to a state of
pure bliss. My first Christmas
tree cake moment in California was seeing the beach for the first time, and
knowing I live two blocks away from it.
It was seeing a pier filled with families, fishermen, and two very
talented fiddlers playing bluegrass.
It was seeing a gigantic dog with white hair that was actually formed
into dreadlocks.
This area is incredible. People ride their bikes everywhere, and never look like they
are in a hurry. They always wear
bright colors, and I have yet to find someone in a suit. No black clothes, no Longchamp bags, no
pale skin…I could get used to this.
There are WAY too many popped collars though. Our apartment is in a perfect location, and we can see the
Marina from the back section of the property. The pool, hot tubs, work out facility, convenience store,
and business center are all top notch.
They even have a laundry room for each section, complete with ten
washers and dryers that ALL work.
I did laundry on a Sunday night and no one else was in there. Now that is a change I will take! My only complaints so far are traffic
and parking related. Twenty
minutes to go one mile on the weekend.
Not cool.
This evening I went on a bike ride along a bike path from
Venice Beach to Santa Monica and beyond, which has been, by far, my favorite
activity this week. You could
spend an entire day in the Venice Beach area alone, just looking at all the
freaks. And I do mean freaks. But for the most part, the crowd is
very chill and unique. They have
an area for skateboarding, which seems to always be packed. There are multiple boutique shops,
tattoo parlors, musicians, hippies, drug addicts, and people working out. And by working out, I mean they have
punching bags for public use. My
favorite of the freaks was a woman dressed like superman (or woman), swinging
from this jungle gym contraption, doing some pretty impressive acrobatic work,
as her cape flapped behind her.
Not once did she get tangled.
Last night I actually attended my first (of many, hopefully)
concert here. I made some friends
on Sunday who invited me to go see the Granddaddys at the Henry Ford Theatre. They had an extra ticket, so I couldn’t
pass up an opportunity to see a show for free, even if I had never heard of
them. Apparently they haven’t
played together since 2006, and are from California, so you can imagine how
crazy the crowd went for them. I
liked a few of their songs a lot, and enjoyed getting to hang out with some
really cool folks. Abby and I also
made some friends from Wisconsin before the show, at this restaurant called
Cabo near our apartment. Everyone
likes to make their judgments about the people here, but so far they have been
awesome. I expected to see a lot
of dogs in purses though, which I haven’t seen yet. I have, however, seen a woman in a Starbucks set up a bed,
food station, and pee pad for her dog right by her table, as she slaved away on
her computer.
I can’t wait to see what the coming weeks bring…job, friend,
and activity wise. I am developing
a bucket list of things to see and do while I’m here, which is rapidly
growing. I miss New York, my
friends and my level of comfort so much, and I still feel like I’m on
vacation. I’m not sure when it is
going to hit me that I actually live in a place where it rarely rains, tends to
be in the 70s and 80s year round, and has zero humidity. Even if this is for a short period of
time, I can already tell that it was a great decision.
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