3 MONTHS

I can’t believe it. It’s been 3 whole months since I’ve written. What have I been doing with my time? Work has been so busy and when I’m home, I’m watching shows that I recorded on the DVR (which is slowly taking over my life). So much has happened most notably the Reverend Jerry Falwell’s passing. Good Riddance!!! Finally we are rid of another hypocritical, racist, slimy bastard. The future will be so much better without him corrupting our airwaves. Excuse me for that little tirade, I think it’s out of my system, now back to what I’ve been doing. I’ve traveled a little. NYC for pleasure and Vegas for business (we were shooting a new season of High Stakes Poker). I’ve always loved New York and really wanted to move there instead of LA but after living here for 2 1/2 years and going there to visit, I am so happy that I chose here instead. That city as awesome as it is, is also dirty and smelly and there are too many people. We have a shit ton of people here also but the weather is fantastic and that makes up for it. I had a couple of friends visiting from TN this week so I took them to a lot of places around LA. We went to the most amazing beach in Malibu called El Matador State Beach. It reminded me of the coast of Oregon with it’s rock formations, cliffs, and seclusion. It is my new favorite place here and I shall spend many weekends there from now on and the best part is it’s only about a 30 minute drive from my house as long as I leave around 10 am. Having my friends visit has rejuvenated my excitement about living here. We also went to the biggest Star Wars convention of all time. What a freakshow!!! I am not a fan but my friend was in heaven. She could have stayed all day mingling with the Storm Troopers and droids not to mention all the people dressed up in full-on Star Wars gear, some costumes homemade and some store bought. For someone who fell asleep during Return of the Jedi, I thought it was still entertaining. Well, I guess that’s all for now. I’ll try and write again tomorrow.

Santa Monica parents

Unlike most people that live in LA, I rarely drive.  I am fortunate enough to live 1.2 miles from where I work so I generally walk.  Lately, I have noticed a strange phenomenon.  At 8:30 in the morning, the sidewalks of Santa Monica are flooded with people jogging, walking their dogs, cleaning the sidewalks, watering the grass, and hispanic nannies pushing strollers around sometimes with multiple children sitting in them.  The past few weeks I have noticed a few less hispanic nannies and a few more men pushing strollers.  It makes me wonder whether these are stay at home dads or the people in Santa Monica have jumped on the Britney Spears bandwagon and hired men for nannies.  Either way, it’s a step in a new direction and I think it’s a good one. 

Speaking of parents in Santa Monica, my long term boyfriend is a godfather twice.  One of his god daughters lives here in Santa Monica and we were recently invited to her second birthday party in a really nice park.  She was sharing her party with another 2-year-old so needless to say the place was swarming with them.  We arrived and said hello to her parent’s and sat back to observe.  We remained at the party for less than an hour due to the fact that not one person aside from our two friends spoke to us the entire time we were there.  No one introduced themselves or even wondered who we were or why we were there.  The fact was, we didn’t have children so we didn’t belong there.  It was as if we were outcasts and couldn’t be in the “club” because we had not reproduced.  At first, I was totally insulted but then I realized that these are all stay at home moms that spend their time criticizing the other mother’s child rearing at the park.  Who wants to be in their club anyway children, or no children? 

The people who know me know that I don’t want kids.  I don’t believe it’s for everyone and I know that it’s not for me.  I have  little patience with children and I just don’t have the energy and sacrifice that it takes to be a mom.  Plus, it’s way too much money and work.  So back to the party, after being snubbed for about 30 minutes, we were ready to go, and then the birthday girl herself came over to us and wanted to hang out with us for as long as a 2-year-old can be expected to want to hang out with 12 other children with toys running around.  Then 10 minutes later we left, happily!!!

Experience

The best thing about living in a huge city like LA is that entertainment opportunities are endless.  No matter how much or little money you want to spend there’s always something to do.  Sometimes the possibilities are overwhelming!!  There are at least 300 restaurants within 3 miles of my house yet it is so difficult for us to make a decision on where to go  that we end up eating at the same 5 places over and over again.  We know they’re gonna be good, we know where they are and we know where to park. 

Experiencing something new can often be soured by traffic, parking, and other people.  Where I live, it can take me anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours to get to my destination depending on what time I need to be there.  Parking can take up to a half hour and can cost up to $15.  Before I go anywhere, I find out about the parking situation.  Once I figure out that it’s either valet or street parking because it always is (very few places have parking garages/lots and if they do be prepared to shell out some cash); it is then time to plan a route.  The question is usually not what is the quickest way to get there but rather which street would I rather sit in my car for an hour on because any way you go in gridlock traffic takes a very long time.  Anyway, my point is that despite all of these obstacles, I have been experiencing the city.  I have been getting out, trying new things, exploring LA.  There is soooo much to see and do and I am just getting started.  That’s one of the reasons I haven’t been posting much.  All this experience really makes a person tired!!

The Megan Mullally show will never make it

One of the things about living in LA that is occasionally fun to do (and I emphasize the word occasionally here) is going to a live taping of a talk show or TV show. If you have never done it, it is fun the first time for about the first half of the taping during which you can’t chew gum or go to the bathroom among other things. I generally only go when I have friends or family in town or when it is something extremely different (like Jenna Jameson’s new show- Jenna’s American Sex Star that airs on the Playboy channel-now that was an interesting taping to say the least). Being a big Will and Grace fan, I was so excited when my friend supprised me with tickets to attend the second taping of Megan Mullally’s new talk show which debuts in September. Now, the flyer for the show said that we had to dress up like we were going to a club which is pretty typical for tapings and it also said that the format for this show is different than other talk shows because it is audience interactive. We had very high expectations because there has been a lot of hype about this show and everyone knows what makes a good talk show………..the prizes given to the audience of course. We left work early, drove to the studio where we were ushered into a big tent and asked to fill out a card. The card asked questions like- have you ever met Megan or any other celebrity? tell us about it. What was you most embarrasing moment? What is a dream or goal that you have? Do you have a hidden talent? Naturally, we are thinking that someone or several people from the audience will be on camera. Now I am not big on being on TV, however if my “dream” of getting out of debt and going on a vacation comes true because of it then I’m game. When we entered the studio the first thing both my friend and I did was feel underneath our chairs because everyone knows that that is where the prizes generally are. When there was nothing there I said, maybe they will give us our present before we leave. The audience warmer (a person who talks and tells jokes to the audience and really pumps them up before the show and during the breaks and makes sure they applaud when they are supposed to, etc.) told us that if we were enthusiastic enough, we would get prizes so we clapped and mime clapped and yelled and mime yelled (clapping and yelling for real is only fun for the first 15 minutes and then it is just plain exhausting) for an hour and a half and guess what we got at the end of the show? Nada, zip, not one thing. Now Ellen would never do that to her audience. And do you think there was any form of audience participation besides clapping and yelling? Absolutely not. As for the format of the show, there was nothing about it to make it stand out from the rest. Megan is super cute and all but she was not very funny and then David Spade was one of the guests and he’s not very funny either. All in all, it was a big disappointment. I don’t see how this show will compete with the Ellen’s show. There is nothing original about it. I still love Megan and would love to see her on Broadway, I’m sure she’s excellent when she’s in her element but I am still pissed about the presents!

I miss Eddie

When I first moved to LA or Santa Monica rather, I felt like it was just a place like any other. I didn’t feel like I stood out as I expected I would coming from east TN and then I realized that I was surrounded by tourists not people from Santa Monica or LA. No wonder I blended in with the crowd. Then I started a job in the trendy neighborhood of Silverlake. It is a really cool area of town and is the back drop for many movies and television shows. I was very excited by all the shops and restaurants but also by the many eccentric people. There was a man who walked around wearing only shorts and sneakers reading the paper, all the time. He never looked up he just read the paper and walked very fast. We liked to call him Walker Reads but later I watched a 5 minute documentary about him and learned that he has been walking Silverlake for 15 years and is known around there as the “Walking Man” and is suspected to be an MD that walks an average of 25 miles per day. Then there was Dancer (may he rest in peace). He was a homeless man that always had a ring of red lipstick smeared around his mouth and sometimes dressed like a matador or PeeWee Herman. He carried a boom box with him everywhere and would turn it on and dance in front of the outdoor cafes or just on the street corner. He died a few months back. Eddie says he was killed by someone which is probably true because homeless deaths are not investigated like others. Eddie was my favorite homeless man and I got to know him pretty well. He made his home on top of the building in which I worked and I talked to him a lot. Eddie is not a panhandler, he picks up junk and then sells it. He also sells cigarettes and who knows what else. He eats all his meals at McDonalds, Subway, and all the fast food places. We often offered him food that he would turn down because he just had lunch. He is known as Silverlake’s $5 man even though most of his stuff cost more than that. He mostly wears cutoffs and a pink straw hat and is very handsome for a homeless man or for any man at all. During my first conversation with him, he explained how has been homeless for 15 years and in fact has been “living” on top of the roof for 9. He was once jumped and robbed but for the most part people know him and know that it is his area so they stay clear of it. He was protection for us even though he is not big or scary. He knows the neighborhood and knows who is harmless and who we should be scared of. There were a few times that we saved him from being ejected by the police and we even called the police once to get rid of a homeless guy that stole Eddie’s ipod and cell phone (we were confused, where does the bill go?) The cop could not understand why we called the police on one homeless guy but let another homeless guy live there. We said “we like Eddie, he keeps the scary people away” . He used to be in sales and said that when he lost his job and became homeless, he thought his life was ending but soon discovered that his life had just begun. He loves the fact that he doesn’t have to get up early, punch a clock, or even wear a watch if he doesn’t want to. Once he realized that we liked him, he started bringing more and more stuff around. It took days but he set up the most amazing display of urban art that I have ever seen, I wish I had pictures of that. Then he started his mural. It was exciting watching him create this wonderful self-portrait little by little on the side of a huge building. He had even pasted a pair of cutoffs on himself in the mural. When he finally finished, he would bow down to the “shrine of himself”. It was quite fun to watch. Then the day came when the landlord threatened to paint over the graffitti mural unless Eddie got rid of all his stuff. Eventually, the stuff went away, the mural got painted over, and Eddie got a van to live in and apparantly he has all of his stuff on top of it. I am very excited for Eddie, he was saving for a van. I now work in Santa Monica and I haven’t found a homeless person to befriend yet. I miss Eddie and will say hi to him the next time I am in Silverlake.       

                                         click on the photos to enlarge.