Memorial Day Weekend

Palm trees at Santa Monica beach

It's been a good Memorial Day weekend. Unlike many of my LA counterparts, I did not make a trip to Vegas this weekend. That seems to be the thing to do out here. I swear, a good chunk of my LA friends on facebook and twitter were talking about Vegas. I guess it makes sense, it is only a 4 hour drive away. Kind of unbelievable! I will definitely have to plan a trip there soon, since I've never been.

Spent a good chunk of my weekend hanging out poolside at my apartment complex. It's nice, because it's a small and quiet pool and there aren't many children around. Most of the people who live here are young adults, with the occasional older couple. I haven't heard any babies crying or screaming 4 year olds yet. Now that I've said that a couple with a newborn will move in next door, right?

On Saturday I took a nice long walk around my neighborhood in Toluca Lake. I first made my way towards Riverside, which is the main drag of downtown Toluca Lake. I was planning on finding a place to eat and side outside with a book. Ended up at Bob's Big Boy, which is incredibly unhealthy but I hadn't had a Big Boy burger in AGES. So it tasted muy delicioso.

After that, walked through the neighborhood, including passing by Miley's house (neither her nor Billy Ray were around, drat) and enjoying the nice weather and sunset.

Yesterday, after hanging out poolside for a couple of hours, I found myself antsy. I couldn't stay in the apartment, I had to get out. So, I decided to act tourist for a day and found myself driving into Hollywood, and checking out what was going on at Hollywood and Highland.

Answer? A lot. Of course it's a holiday weekend and Grauman's Chinese Theater, The Kodak Theater and the like were jam packed with people. Not only that, but several characters were hanging around Hollywood Blvd. I saw Captain Jack Sparrow, Spongebob (he hit on me actually, kind of disturbing), Spiderman, Chewbacca, Dumbledore, Shrek, Woody and Buzz Lightyear...they definitely had a ton of activity going on.

Dumbledore with some kids at Grauman's

I found that I didn't really mind though, I liked seeing a place with such activity. I strolled through Grauman's and looked at all of the signatures and hand and foot prints. I'd actually only been once before, when I was about 12 or 13. A lot had changed since then. The Harry Potter kids have their own little space at Grauman's, for instance. And Shrek - yes SHREK has a star on the Walk of Fame. A fictional character. That seems a bit much for me.

Emma, Daniel & Rupert at Grauman's

I walked through the Hollywood and Highland shopping center, got a look at the Hollywood sign, though the lighting was kind of bad at the time of day and the sign kind of blended in with the mountain but it was there nonetheless.

If you look REALLY closely, you can see the Hollywood Sign

After that, I decided to drive down Santa Monica Blvd through Beverly Hills and on to Santa Monica beach. Many LA peeps had told me that Santa Monica isn't really the best beach place to go to, but it was too late in the day for real beach time, and I just wanted to walk along the pier, get some grub and see the ocean. I figured Santa Monica would do since it was the closest.

Close, sure, but let me tell you something. Traffic? Goodness. It took me about an hour once I got into Santa Monica to park because traffic moved so slow. I should have known, oh well, lesson learned.

I had a lovely walk along the beach, and along the pier. Had a nice little dinner at a restaurant on the pier, sat outside and watched the sunset. Got a great pic of the sun setting behind the mountain along the water.

Santa Monica Pier at Sunset

Santa Monica definitely isn't the place I go to for a beach day. It does have a lot of beach area to hang out, but it's kind of...young? The pier has the rollar coaster, carousel, amusement park type games. Not a lot of shopping, though there is shopping close by. I like the beach towns where you can easily be walking along the beach and there's a ton of local shops and restaurants and so forth. Mission Beach/Pacific Beach in San Diego is like that.

I'm told that Manhattan Beach is the best LA beach so when I have an actual full beach day I'll check it out. Apparently that's where my dad used to go when he was young. I'm learning all sorts of things about my dad's California upbringing.

Today I spent most of the day poolside, reading and soaking up the rays. There is something super relaxing about just sitting out in the sun, catching a nice cool breeze and reading. It's becoming a weekend ritual now.

Not much else going on right now, everything is going well. Sang in my first mass with the choir on Sunday, and it was really nice. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about choir singing (my college choir got really annoying after awhile, but maybe it was just because I had too many other things going on) but it is actually really nice to be singing in a group again. I needed to get back to singing on a more regular basis, and this will help. One thing that's good to know - I haven't lost my choir skills. I can still sight read like a pro. So that's been super helpful in learning stuff fast!

Now, it's back to work , but at least it's a short week!

2 Months

The Queen Mary - Long Beach

At this point, I've almost hit the 2 month mark in LA. Time sure is flying fast! And yet, at the same time it sort of feels like I've been here for a long time. My life back in St. Louis seems so far away now, it's hard to believe that just 2 months ago I was living in St. Louis, working fast to try and move everything out of my old apartment to make the move out to LA.

Things have been going very well. I feel very content. I had a conversation with a co-worker the other day where she was mentioning how he doesn't understand how some people can live in the same place all of their life. That is, you live and grow up where you were born and never leave. I see what she means.

I've always been a free spirit, with a love of travel. I want to get out and see the world. And I do see that having the opportunity to move somewhere else, get a new change of pace, see a different lifestyle...it's refreshing. Scary, yes it can be that. But there is something really awesome about moving to a new place.

I joined my church's choir. I decided the best thing to do was to talk to the music director about how to get involved, and joining the choir was the best option. Went to my first rehearsal tonight and it was a lot of fun. I've missed singing, and this will help me refresh a lot of my singing skills. And eventually I hope to become a cantor as well, but we'll start with one thing at a time.

Power 106 had a Sex & The City 2 screening event on Tuesday and I was able to go. It was held in this great theater, very high class place. All the theaters are small, and the seats recline. They serve you drinks and food during the viewing. It was very very cool. Plus, I got to see the movie before it came out which is awesome. Won't spoil anything for anyone but if you are a SATC fan, go see it. You'll like it. :)

At the Sex & The City Screening in Pasadena

Last Saturday I made a trip to Long Beach. My grandma's sister's husband died, so there was a memorial service for him. I had the chance to meet up with a lot of my grandma's side of the family, many of them people I've maybe seen once or twice in my entire life. It was very nice to connect with this side of the family. That is another really nice perk about being out in Southern California. I am really enjoying getting closer to my family out here.

While I was in Long Beach I decided it was time for me to see the ocean, since I hadn't seen it yet! Long Beach isn't exactly the best beach area, it's more industrial but the ocean is there and the Queen Mary is there, which is a tourist attraction. I enjoyed walking along the water and just breathing in the sea air.

I've decided that perhaps this weekend I need to hit Manhattan Beach in LA if it's warm enough. I want to get the cute sea side shops/hit the beach/walk the beach experience and that's a better beach for it. We'll see.

In other news, I got tickets to see Paul McCartney in July in San Francisco! My cousin and her husband are going to, so it's going to be super fun!

Lots of good things going on! :)

Cooking and Celebs

Christina, Jason and I = Power 106 Buddies

I've been keeping really busy in LA. With Mother's Day last week I was putting in a lot of hours at Victoria's Secret, this week not so much but that left time for some socializing events!
On Wednesday, I attended a cooking class with some fellow Emmis co-workers. The cooking class was at Homegirl Cafe in downtown LA. They served us some awesome appetizers - jalepeno pesto sauce, mini quesadillas and some fabulous pineapple-mango salsa - yum! We also had a really cool drink, it was lemonade with mint, sugar and spinach. It tasted so good! I actually tasted a lot like a mojito, very refreshing!

After that, we got to go into the kitchen and learn how to make mole. There's like 40 different ingredients that go into making this, it's crazy! We had a lot of fun preparing recipes and the final outcome was delish. Very fun!

Thursday I went to a friend's Bingo/Fundraiser party, where I met my first celeb, so to speak. Patrika Darbo is a good friend of Jason's, and she was there. She's most well-known for playing Nancy Wesley on Days of Our Lives but she's been in a lot of things (check out her profile here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004858/). Super nice lady, with a great sense of humor. We had a lot of fun playing bingo. Also, I told her how much I enjoyed her on DAYS and she was so sweet. When I mentioned I was from St. Louis, she said "So you know Kevin?" Kevin Spirtas, who played Craig Wesley, her on-screen husband, is from St. Louis. I had no idea. Found this out from Patrika. Too funny.

On the far right at the top of the photo you can see that Patrika and I playing Bingo.

It was super fun to play bingo. I probably hadn't played since...well a LONG time! All of the funds went to support Jason's participation in an AIDS Lifecycle Bike Ride, which is awesome.

My irish dance skills are starting to finally get back into shape. I'm still behind in my class but I feel very confident in getting caught up with the rest of the class soon. I'm excited about the prospect of actually competing in a feis. That would be really cool.

This weekend...not sure. Working at Vicki's for a few hours tomorrow, maybe going to a party tomorrow night, and perhaps meeting up with friend Sarah on Sunday.

Having a ball living the Cali life! :)

One Month

Me & Grandma Bennie

Well, I've been a California girl for about a month now. In some ways it's like "wow, a month!" and in other ways it's like "that's it?"

That's because I've settled in here quite nicely. In the past month I have accomplished the following:

-moved into my new apartment and made it feel like home

-started my new job at Power 106 and have gotten fully acclimated

-found a part time job at Victoria's Secret and have started such job

-found an Irish dancing class to join
-have a church to go to on a regular basis, possibly getting involved musically

-met some new friends at work, visited my friends out here, and visited family

Not bad for a month, huh?

I do miss my St. Louis friends and family, of course. And I miss being able to watch Cardinals games! Though, if I wanted to, I could pay for MLB's online video package which would allow me to watch any Cardinals game. It's just a bit pricey, so I may have to stick to just following the games online.

I will however, get the chance to see the Cardinals play the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium when they come to town! I have tickets to the game, I can't wait to go. Dodger Stadium is one of the only old school stadiums left. Only Fenway, Wrigley and Dodger Stadium are left now that the Yanks and the Mets have new stadiums. So it's pretty cool for that aspect. And the game is in June, so the weather should be pretty good and not too hot yet.

I received an e-mail the other day that I have received a ticket to show see a Jay Leno show taping! I had signed up to try and get tickets when I thought my mom might be in town. Turns out, I got them! I don't know if my mom is still going to be able to come (it's the Friday before Memorial Day weekend) but if not, I'll go. I've never gone to a live taping before, so I'm pretty excited about this. It should be fun!

Getting ready to go visit my relatives in Hemet. My cousin Laura is having an early Mother's Day celebration at her house, so I'm going to spend time with them. I am really loving that I am so much closer to my California family. Being able to see them on a more regular basis is fantastic.

That said, gotta go get ready to head out east. More updates to follow, and perhaps some pics from today later!

Irish Dancing in LA...

One of my goals (of the many many goals I have) when I got out here was to try and find a way to still be able to irish dance. When I moved back to St. Louis in 2006, I was fortunate to find a place where I could re-introduce irish dancing to my life as an adult. I loved it.

I performed in two recitals performing irish dance routines at St. Louis Academy of Dance and then in the past year I was able to take adult classes at Clark Academy, which was super fun. I highly recommend Clark for any St. Louis peeps who might want to irish dance.

I saw that there was an adult class in North Hollywood, which is fab because NoHo is super close to me. It's about a 5 minute max drive to the NoHo class. The name is Cleary Irish Dance and Margaret Cleary, the instructor, is great. Adult class is split into solo and ceili (group dancing), and adults have the option of competing! That means I could perform in a feis if I wanted to. Last time I did that I was about 9 years old. That was...well, a long time ago. *cough*

Anyway, I'm trying out the classes but I think it's a great thing for me. The other classmates seem cool, it's a great way to meet other people, and I'll get to keep up my dancing skills!

That's the big news for this week. I didn't make it to the beach on Sunday. Wanted to go, but was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday so instead of driving out to the beach, I grabbed a book and got some sun on my porch instead. :) I have plenty of time for the beach, plus Huntington is a 50 mile drive so it's not like it's super close. Another time.

Now that things are settling, I need to work on meeting people. I know this will happen, slowly but surely. It's a good thing I have my kitty Ringo. He's the best thing ever. It's nice to know that someone is excited to see you when you come home (yes, my cat greets me).

Will post more later!

The Gloom Rolled In...

A bit of a gloomy day in LA today...yes, LA does have non-sunny days. I've always known that I don't do well without the sun but days like these confirm this. I just don't function well without lots of vitamin D sunny goodness!

Although when it is rainy and cloudy in LA it doesn't seem to last for long. It tends to roll through pretty quickly. So now it's pretty clear outside but alas, it's about 7:30pm and there's no sun to enjoy today. Bummer.

The weekend has a better outlook. I'm hoping to have my first beach experience. A co-worker of mine is involved in this charity event that allows people with spinal cord injuries to experience riding the waves...yep, surfing! They have special surf boards and of course they go out with a professional but it seems like a really cool event. It's at Huntington Beach which I'm told is one of the best beaches to go to. The event is on Sunday so I may make a day of it and just check out what there is to see.

That is, if I'm not schedule to work. Yes, I have found some part-time work - doing the retail thing at Victoria's Secret at the Burbank Mall. I wanted to have some extra cash, just to have more fun money and so forth. The cost of living IS quite a dramatic difference from Missouri. Would rather have some extra income for awhile. Plus, I'll meet some other people in the area this way. It'll be fun, it's not going to be crazy extra hours (except during the semi-annual sale times) plus I get a discount. :)

I'm still trying to find a gym, I think I'm going to look into LA Fitness. It has the most group classes that I'm interested in and several of their locations have Zumba, which I love. Need to find out the details on membership though, I'm not in a position to spend tons of money on this so it needs to be reasonable. Plus, there is an adult irish dance class I'd like to take as well. I haven't gone to it yet because I wanted to get the part-time job secure first. Now, I think I can make the class work within my schedule since it's on Wednesday nights...Vicki's will want me on weekends.

I haven't gotten involved with the church choir yet for the same reason. I tend to have a history of jumping into things too soon so I'm thinking I should take some time to get to know my church before jumping into any commitments. I'm sort of thinking I'd rather be a cantor instead of in a choir. Main reason is for scheduling. Choirs are required to sing every weekend, cantors are scheduled. So I'll have to talk to the music director and find out the scoop on that.

Obviously, I have lots of things on my plate and I'm not having problems keeping busy! I've only been in LA for about 4 weeks, can't expect a lot to happen fast.

One thing I've learned is that yes, I CAN live without cable. I decided it wasn't worth the cost, internet won the battle over cable. I find it's good for me. It keeps me from sitting in front of the TV too much and forces me to get out and do stuff. And I actually get a lot of local channels, granted a majority of them are in Spanish, Korean or some other foreign language. I'll get an education! I get all of the networks so I can keep up with all of the main shows. Plus, thanks to hulu and the internet, I can watch shows online. In fact, I just watch my soap opera on the CBS.com website instead of taping it.

So, yeah things are good. I am loving LA, I really am. Not digging the rain though. However, the clouds are cool when they roll over the mountains. Below is a pic I took from the office.

More updates to follow! Hopefully a full out beach experience soon!

Living the Cali Life...

I've been a California resident for almost two weeks now! Things are going very very well. I've started work, which is fabulous. It's only been a week, but I'm getting acclimated and I like the people I work with and I think it's going to be great. I can't wait to get fully engaged into my work.

Plus, everyone at Power was very welcoming. I even had a welcoming sign!

My apartment is great and starting to feel more like home every day. Does it still need more stuff? Yeah, I haven't bought a bed yet (using an air mattress or my futon) and it could use things here and there but honestly? I'm okay with just a few things. I remember just how much stuff I gave away, threw away, sold, etc. in my old apartment in StL so I'm okay with going the minimalist route.

One thing I'm excited about it my balcony. I want to get some plants and flowers to set outside. I'd especially like to get some little palms. I can get one at IKEA for $15, but I'm waiting on the plants for a bit. I figured that would be a fun project for my mom and I went she comes out to visit.

View From My Balcony

My commute is AWESOME. It's even better than my commute in St. Louis! It takes me 7 minutes to get to work. I don't have to get on the freeway, it's really easy. Also, the area I chose to live is really fantastic. I'm in Toluca Lake, which is where a lot of stars live (mainly because the TV and movie studios are close by). Apparently Miley Cyrus lives just down the street from me, probably about a mile away.

I don't really care so much for the stars, I just like that I'm close to so much stuff. Close to Burbank, NoHo Arts District, Hollywood...the only thing I'm not super close to is the beach, but my apartment complex has a pool. And, the beach is about 30 minutes away (unless it's a super fabulous sunny day and everyone is going to the beach. Then the 405 will be even more of a parking lot than it normally is).

We've had 2 earthquakes since I've moved here and I've felt neither. To my credit, the second one was really minor and didn't even make headline news. I'm sure I'll have my fill of them though, unfortunately.

I met with my friend Sarah for dinner on Saturday, and that was very cool. Then yesterday I was able to meet up with my Aunt Martha and cousin Jenny. Jenny was in town from Alaksa so I was really glad to see her since I don't get many opportunities to do so. I'm now only 2 hours away from my aunt I'm also really happy to have the opportunity to get to know my California relatives better as all of my life until now I saw them about once a year, sometimes once every two years.

So, all in all things are going well. The cat is adjusting, he seems to be embracing his California Cool Kitty lifestyle. :)

Here's a view of Burbank and the mountains that I took from the office. Nice, eh? Every day I get to see this! The sun, the mountains and the palm trees make me happy.

Burbank, CA