I Still Exist

Sorry to anyone who reads this regularly for the absence. I've been pretty sick with a really bad cold (and quite possibly a sinus infection). I haven't been sick in a while and this had been a rough one. I have never had such bad sinus pressure and pain. I can't sleep at night and I have to take like 4 hot showers a day to clear my sinuses out. It's 2AM and I took some Sudafed so I'm as high as a kite and figured I'd update my blog. I apologize for any lack of humor here but I am literally barely lucid.

We finally got a new laptop so I can actually use the space bar.  It's not a MacBook because I am sadly not hip enough (or rich enough) to purchase one. Besides, it doesn't run League of Legends correctly so it wasn't an option for Mat. We went to Fry's Electronics to get our computer, printer, and etc. It was an experience. Mat was really excited to bring me there because he grew up buying all of his computer gear there. We rented a Zipcar for a few hours on Saturday to go since it's 2 hours each way if we go by bus. It was enormous and had every sort of electronic product. It was like Best Buy but more customer service friendly. We found a laptop and printer within 15 minutes and we were ready to go. We ended up going to Best Buy and buying Bridesmaids and Despicable Me on DVD, which is awesome, and we bought table coasters at Homegoods. They have chickens on them.

Afterwards, we went for authentic Mexican food, which was my first experience with LA Mexican food. I must admit that it was delicious and way better than anything I'd ever had in New York. There were a lot of people there but it was totally worth the wait. I don't remember the name of the restaurant. If anyone is interested, I will let you know.

Some great news: A good friend of mine is pregnant and I am really excited. I know that I often talk about how I hate babies and think that children are terrible but I think it's because I don't really know many babies or children personally. This is the first time someone that I am close to is having a baby and I am really stoked to have a reason to crochet/knit baby things. I completely geeked out when she called me to tell me and I am nothing but ecstatic for her and her husband. However, I have absolutely no plans to have children of my own for a long time and the thought of it makes me violently ill so don't get any ideas. Besides, no wedding band equals no babies. The Jewish guilt that my dad would throw on me might actually kill me. Telling him that I was moving in with my boyfriend alone almost gave me an ulcer.

Anyway, here are pictures of a chicken coaster and 5 organic avocados that people were selling on their lawn for $1 each. I'm hoping that they ripen by the end of the week so I can make guacamole for the neighbors.

So...Much...TV

Our TV got here this week. It is incredible. It's 47" and it has both Netflix and Amazon Instant built in, which is good because I can't find the power source for the XBOX. I have literally been watching Pawn Stars for like 3 days straight. I just can't turn it off. I'm actually relieved that I'm almost done watching all of the episodes on Netflix. When they start adding newer seasons, I won't be leaving my apartment for like 2 weeks.

I took Rocky to the vet on Monday and got him microchipped. I always worry that if he got out, he would follow someone home and they would try to keep him. It was only $30 so it's not so bad. The vet wants me to start giving him Claritin for his allergies, which is hilarious. My cat will be on more expensive allergy medicine than I am. Good thing I clipped those Claritin coupons from the Sunday paper. Wow. That was probably the most elderly woman-like thing I've ever written.

I don't have much else to say. Here's a pic of Rocky and our new TV.

Shut Up & Drive

Our friend left his car in our parking spot while he is out of town so we have a car for the week. Yesterday marked the first time I drove in California. I kept freaking out and at first I didn't know why (since I've been driving for 10 years) but I realized that the windows and side mirrors were really dirty and my vision was really limited.

Mat and I decided to drive to IKEA today but first we stopped at a car wash. The car next to our was this immaculately clean black Mercedes, of course. Love Los Angeles! Even the store at the car wash was trendy. The ones in NY just sell car fresheners and expired Twix bars. This one had Papyrus greeting cards and soy candles. It's like they put a Paper Source in the middle of a 7-11.

I never really realized how big LA was until I drove on the freeways. I had to keep driving from one freeway to another to get to the IKEA in the Valley. It was just such a vast landscape with so many highways. It felt good driving here, though. After doing so, it is obvious that we need a car ASAP. I'll be really sad when we have to give this car up. By the way, driving here is not as scary as people make it sound. If you can drive in New Jersey, you can drive in LA.

We picked up some $7 Lack tables and a TV stand. Mat's mom was wonderful enough to buy us a TV, which will be here next week. I am really excited to set everything up. We are almost done with furniture. I still want to get a small dining set and some chairs for the patio but they can wait.

Yesterday I bought some of those Sally Hanson "wax" strips. I tried to wax my legs myself. It was just a hot mess. Hardly any hair came out and it left behind a sticky residue that made me look really dirty. Even after scrubbing, there's still some of it on me. Don't buy this product. Buy a bottle of wine instead. After a couple of glasses, you won't care how hairy your legs are.

That's it for now. I'm going to go lie down. Here is a pic of my cats (Rocky on the left, Sophie on the right) in their brand new collars, looking out the screen door. They're not as miserable in them as I thought they'd be. Sophie isn't happy with me but she never is. She'll get used to it.

The Dangers of LA

I'm sure you all heard about the two earthquakes that occurred this week. I did not feel either of them but quite a few people did. They weren't very big quakes but Mathew did tell me that when he was a kid, they had an insanely intense earthquake. It ended up killing his friend's parakeet or something. Okay, I guess I'm not doing a good job at making it sound that bad. It's a little scary to know that we are in such an unpredictable area. We can't have pictures over the bed or shelves without doors because everything can fall during a quake and break and/or injure us. Fun!

There are also coyotes in my neighborhood. One of them ate 2 house cats last week. I feel very badly for the elderly woman to whom the cats belonged. HOWEVER, I am very against letting your pets go outside unsupervised in an urban or even suburban area. They can easily get lost, stolen, hit by a car, or apparently eaten by a coyote. I have never seen a coyote (other than a baby coyote on Conan O'Brien's show) so I have no idea how big they are. We keep our cats indoors but if God forbid they ever got out and a coyote came after them, I would literally strangle it to death with my bare hands. I don't even give a fuck. I am that hardcore and that much of a cat lady.

Speaking of which, since we are no longer in an apartment building where the cats would have to get through an apartment door, down stairs, and through a building door to get out, I ordered them breakaway reflector collars with their names and my phone number on them. I got embroidered ones so we don't have to worry about their tags getting stuck on anything. Plus, they've never worn collars other than the calming collars on the plane so I'm sure the tags would make the collars even more obnoxious than they're already going to be.

I had a lot to get done yesterday but I did absolutely none of it because I was feeling very under the weather. I think I had a fever and was just really sweaty and worn out. I could barely get out of bed. I broke out in a fever sweat just trying to get dressed, and not just because I'm lazy and out of shape. I'm hoping today is better because I need to pick up an enormously heavy palate of prescription cat food from the vet (Try not to be too impressed with my exciting itinerary).

If you are my Facebook friend, you might have heard the news that I am going to be taking an Intro to Improv class at a very well-renowned improv studio. I am super excited and if I like the class, I will be signing up for the 7-week course as a birthday gift to myself. We shall see.

I also started running again but that's not too exciting. I'm out of practice and I have bad asthma and my boobs are probably too big to run with so I look like a hot mess whenever I do it. I literally cringe whenever another runner passes me. I miss running in Fort Greene park. That was the best place to run ever. My gym membership through Mat's job should be coming through soon so I'll also get to do yoga again which is nice.

It's 2:30AM and I still feel like shit so I'm going to try to lie down. Here is a pic of the coyote warning sign I saw on Wilshire this evening.

Hello Again

Happy day after Labor Day! It's been a little while since I've written so get ready for a long and stupid entry. Nothing exciting has been going on. I've been crocheting and writing a lot of handwritten letters like some sort of Amish person. If you email me or even leave a voicemail, it's a miracle if I remember to respond but I will write the shit out of some letter responses.

Part of the reason I didn't update is that I wanted to address the fact that Mathew was on a business trip Thursday morning through Monday afternoon and I don't like to advertise the fact that I'm a small girl alone in an apartment for 4 days. Call me crazy but it's just a thing I have.

He was in Seattle and I had to fend for myself. Being that I have almost no friends yet, it was not easy. What's even harder is that I don't really sleep anymore. I don't know what it is but I just don't feel tired anymore. The only thing that makes me sleepy is spending the day at a beach but I don't have the patience to do that every single day.

The good thing about being alone was that I didn't want to go out to eat on my own so I cooked and by "cooked", I mean I made salads because I'm afraid of the oven. I ate healthily but had no one to brag about it to so it had its ups and downs. Come on, middle-class white girls. Don't even act like you eat salads for any reason other than to brag to your friends that you eat salads.

It's weird spending so many nights alone. In Brooklyn, when Mat was gone for that month and a half, I had a large circle of friends that I got to hang out with whenever we wanted on top of working 2 jobs during the day. I was busy all the time and the nights that I stayed in we're actually a relief because I needed rest. Now if there's even a chance of me going out, I practically break out a bottle of champagne.

Mat and I went to a hip sausage restaurant tonight (don't worry, they make vegan sausages, too) with Sara and her boyfriend, Sam. It was nice to be in a conversation with other humans. I'm hoping that I can find a job soon because that means I can take improv classes and that means I might meet people and that means I won't feel like Quasimodo in the church tower every day.

I have also started looking into purchasing a car, which is a task in itself because I know nothing about cars. I had to call my dad and ask how to buy a used car so that's a pretty bad sign. I've been asking advice from people who know about cars and plenty of people who don't know about cars respond instead. My friend Sarah's boyfriend was the most helpful, being that he is one of the few people who does actually know about buying cars. I should also mention that I asked my dad how many miles is too many on a car so, you know, I'm working with some top notch knowledge of my own.

It's almost 1AM so I'll end this here and go crochet while watching reruns of trashy reality TV. I am enclosing a picture of my new neon fanny pack that I use to run with. I guess this means I'll be exercising again. I refused to run through my neighborhood without some clothing item that could give someone a migraine so now I can finally start again. Are you excited for me? Don't be; I'm bad at it. I might be funny to watch though.

Goodnight.

Still Up

My sleeping schedule has been getting worse and worse. Since most of my friends are in New York and 3 hours ahead of me, I really have no one to talk to for hours and hours. Mathew sleeps at a normal hour and he is usually waking up when I'm going to sleep.

Anyway, today I went to Venice Beach with Mat's (and now my) friend Sara. She needed some cheap sunglasses so she swung by and picked me up on her way. There are a lot of interesting sunglasses in Venice. I wish I had thought to take pics of them. Some of them had boobs and penises, some had bows and whiskers, some had gold chains, and some just had stuff on the lenses so you couldn't even see out of them properly. They have deals like 3 pairs for $9.99. I saw a sweet pair of goggles that I am definitely considering. I want to stop tearing from the wind while riding my bike and I also want to look like Seth Green in "Can't Hardly Wait."

We got sushi, walked around, and just hung out. Venice is definitely my favorite place in LA so far. It's like Santa Monica's weird hippie uncle.

Since the traffic in LA is deplorable, she dropped me off at about 3:30 or so and I took a nap. I've been pretty good about not napping all the time but the beach always takes it out of me.

I suppose I should get some sleep. Here is a picture of the awesome synagogue we saw on the Venice boardwalk. So many great jokes, so little time.

Malibu to Venice

It was so exciting to see Shirley and Azmat yesterday. They picked me up around 12:45PM and we headed along PCH 1 to Malibu. Malibu is absolutely gorgeous. The water is really pretty and the beaches are empty and pristine.

We stopped along the highway to eat at a restaurant overlooking the water. It was really pretty. Sitting a few feet from us was Bethany Joy Lenz from the show "One Tree Hill." To be honest, Shirl and Azmat had to tell me who she was because I've never seen that show but it was cool to know someone semi famous was there. I also liked her outfit a lot and I might buy the pants she was wearing the next time I'm in Venice.

We parked along the highway and made our way down a steep hill of rocks and dirt to get to the beach. In retrospect, if we had walked 50 feet back, we would have found a less treacherous way to get down there. Despite the dangerous climb down, no one was seriously injured and it was gorgeous. The beach was virtually empty. There were only a few others near us and it was very quiet. The water was cold so there wasn't anyone swimming in it but there were some sunbathers.

On our way back south along the highway, there was a very serious car accident so the traffic was backed up really far. We decided to take a detour so we turned left at whatever street was next to try to bypass it. We ended up going to the very top of the Malibu hills along a very curvy and long road. We were so high up at some point that our ears were popping. It took forever and we were going up and down and through mountainous terrain. I'm posting a picture of the view but no picture really captured how far up we were or how amazing the view was. The detour was really long but definitely worth the time because I got to see a lot of California that I wouldn't have gotten a view of otherwise.

When we got back down, we drove to Venice so I could show them the boardwalk area. We tried to go to the freak show but unfortunately it was closed. Luckily, 70% of Venice Beach is a freak show anyway. There was a guy driving around on a motorized bike pulling around a cart with dog wearing sunglasses in it. There was also a guy in one of the bathroom stalls that was either suffering from tuberculosis or he just wasn't good at smoking because he was coughing up a lung in there. There are a few bathrooms that I absolutely refuse to go in and that was one of them.

We sat along the shore in Venice and the people next to us were wearing their socks in the sand. It looked really weird but it sort of made sense in Venice.

I was sad to see my friends leave but I was exhausted by the time I got home and I practically passed out for an hour. I think it'll be a while before someone else comes to visit but if anyone can squeeze a trip in, they are more than welcome to stop by.

Here are some pics of Malibu. One is the view from the shore, one is of the view from the Malibu hills, and one is the view of the water from the restaurant.