Pros, Cons, and Reviews

I'm going to start this off with an unpaid advertisement. If you are ever in the West LA area on Wilshire and S. Barrington, be sure to stop by Lady Chocolatt for the best designer chocolate you've ever had in your life. The owners are our lovely next door neighbors and upon stopping in just to be neighborly, I fell in love. They are wonderful people and the chocolate is pure ecstasy. I think I died and went to heaven.

Anyway, I guess I'll talk about my favorite things about LA and my not so favorite things.

First off, the weather is glorious. It's always warm and sunny and the heat is dry so you don't feel like you have fever sweats. HOWEVER, my skin doesn't like it and I'm caking on more makeup than Jenna Jameson. Also, I have to be more mindful of wearing sunblock. You should really be wearing it all year long in NY as well but since the warm weather makes you want to stay outside more, it's advisable to wear it at all times.

I also like the colorful clothing here. In NY, everything is black and gray. Here, everyone wears orange and pink and all those other bright colors I was too afraid to wear on the East Coast. I'm also wearing shorts now but the downside to that is having to shave my legs more than twice a year. I like wearing sandals all year long as well, but that requires frequent pedicures. With nicer weather comes a more involved beauty regimen.

The supermarkets are nicer here, food is cheaper, fruit is fresher, and eating organic is more feasible. I am now learning to cook and it's not so bad. At least, I don't think it is. I guess you should ask my boyfriend, who has to eat it and pretend he likes it in front of me.

The beaches, of course, are cleaner and don't smell like dead fish but that's a given. And it's super liberal here which is wonderful. If you get caught smoking marijuana on the street, you just get a ticket. That is, unless it's in a school zone. Then you're screwed.

Now the cons. My biggest issue here is the tap water. It tastes like someone left cardboard soaking in it for 3 days in the sun. It's horrible and I have to buy bottled water because even a Britta faucet and a filtered water bottle don't help. Because of this, I refuse to even try California pizza or bagels because I can imagine they taste flat and similar to a fleece blanket.

The public transportation is awful, as I have said before. There is no cohesive bus schedule. It literally says "every 15-20 minutes" on the bus stop where the schedule should be. I don't know about you, but for me, there's a big difference between 9:01 and 9:21. That is the difference between getting to an appointment on time or not. I need to know when it's coming. There's also no real bus map. There are only maps for each particular route so have fun figuring out where to transfer.

I also don't like how you're pretty much forced to get a car. Maybe I don't want a fucking car. They're expensive and the upkeep is a pain in the ass. However, if you plan on having any sort of job or social life, you need a car to get there.

A lot of things here are also a little too clean cut for me. I liked the grittiness of some of the dive bars in Brooklyn and the weird hipster cafes. It seems like everything here is a bit white washed, which is definitely better for grocery shopping but not as fun for taking shots of whiskey with a grizzled Vietnam vet at an old man bar.

Well, I am going back to my coffee at Lady Chocolatt. Here is a pic of the Santa Monica pier from the pedestrian walkway.