May 2008 Archives

Things are going pretty well these days.  I'm really happy with my job at the coffee shop.  I'm really happy with my new apartment and roommate.  Mainly, I'm just pretty happy at the moment.

Last Friday I saw the new Indiana Jones movie.  I won't say much about the movie, but its Indy and cheesy...but fun.  I met up with a bunch of people I didn't know to see the movie.  My connection was the friend of one of my old middle/high school friends.  We met at a restaurant called the Hungry Cat, which is right around the corner from the Arclight.  I only had a cocktail, which was good, but also $12.  Welcome to Hollywood.

Saturday was a pretty lazy day.  I did some reading, watched a movie at home, and pretty much nothing else.  Sunday was more of the same, except for church and buying groceries.  I've been going to this new service at church.  It's cool, its an alternative eucharist, that looks nothing like the service from the prayer book.  I like the service itself, and the people leading it, but...I think I realized whats been missing for me at Beverly Hills.  I just don't feel connected to the church community.  I'm sure some of that is my own fault (and how busy I was during the school year), but still its just not working for me at the moment.  I'm thinking that I'm going to check out Pasadena sometime soon.  Since I already have some friends going there, maybe I'll be able to connect easier.

Monday was a pretty full day.  I walked over to Sunset and Vine to have a late brunch with a friend.  It took about a half hour, a doable walk, but probably better as a bike ride.  We went to The Waffle, a newish upscale diner.  I wasn't really that impressed.  The staff/management wasn't prepared for a busy day (it was Memorial Day), so they were all a little frazzled.  The waffles weren't that exciting and the portions were pretty small for being over $10.  If they had been in the $5-7 range, it would have been ok.  After, brunch I went to the beach for a little bit to read.  I didn't end up staying terribly long, because it was pretty windy and the tempature started dropping after 5pm.  Later on, a friend came over to see the new apartment.  We hung out and watched movies and drank wine.  It was nice and relaxing.

Yesterday I was pretty excited to be able to work.  I know...crazy...I was excited to work.  While I was at work, my roommate texted and let me know she was having some folks over for dinner and asked if I wanted to join.  So our first dinner party happened pretty impromtu like.  It was great.  Good food, good conversations, good time (and yes more wine).  One of the guys who stopped by was a professional hula hooper.  Now that is a niche job.

Did I mention that I'm happy?

It's been a busy week.  Thursday was my last official day at Canterbury USC (Granted I pretty much hadn't worked since the end of April other than a few days).  I also moved to my new apartment on Thursday.  I can't say enough how excited I am about the new place.  I really like my new roommate.  The place is much quieter than my old place.  Anyway, I've mostly unpacked and organized the room.  The only thing really to do is unpack the books.  I'm considering painting the room, but I haven't gotten around to going to look at colors.

Work at the coffee shop is going well.  It's can be kind of slow, but its summer (at least temp wise), and the later hours are still new.  All in all, I like it a bunch.  I'm still looking for a second job.  At the moment still being a little picky, because I can at least through the end of May.  I think I'd prefer to get a job at a beer bar, or even a grocery store that sold good beer.

Sunday, partially in order to escape the heat for awhile, I went and saw Iron Man at the Cinerama Dome.  It was my first time seeing a movie in the Dome.  The screen is huge, but slightly curved, so text on the sides of the screen can look out of place.  But you adjust pretty quickly (at least I did).  I thought the movie was fun.  Definitely one of the top movies made from comic books.  It kind of amazed me that the guy who made Swingers could do such a good job on an action film.  Though maybe that shouldn't have surprised me.

I've been slowly packing up my room this week.  It's always a little jarring to put all your stuff in boxes to prepare for a move.  I've been trying to go through stuff and get rid of some of the excess, however the past couple days have just been putting things in boxes.  I'll try to cull more stuff as I'm unpacking.  This morning I took apart my bed.  I'll just sleep on the mattress on the floor the next couple days.  Yes, the packing is wrapping up.

Last night was my first night on my own at the coffee shop.  It was pretty slow, but also the first day of the extended hours of the shop.  So I was able to do a bit of reading and get all the closing work done pretty quickly.  I'm looking forward to things getting busier though.

I cooked my last dinner for Canterbury on Sunday.  I made a burrito bar (because the Lutheran Pastor had requested Mexican food) and had purchased a chocolate cake from Costco.  I am going to miss cooking Sunday dinners as it was the one area of my job that I did well (at least as a whole).

Tis a short sketch this week, back to packing. :)

Wow,  I am for the most part done with my time at Canterbury.  Officially, I'm on the payroll until May 15th, and I've got a couple of things to wrap up before then, but for all intents and purposes I am done.  It has been an interesting experience, these past nine months.  I am definitely not where I thought I'd be going into it.  However, I have no regrets about coming to LA for this opportunity.  I've learned a lot about who I am, and what is important to me right now.  I will miss hanging out with the students though.  They are amazing in what they do and manage.

I'm still a little scared about what the next few months are going to look like.  I have thankfully at least got a part-time job already.  It's 20 hours a week, working at a coffee shop.  It may not be glamorous or anything, but I think I'm going to enjoy it.  Now, I just need to find another part time job for the mornings. (I'll be working 3.30 - 7:30 at the coffee shop.)

I move into my new apartment next Thursday.  So the packing has begun.  My books are all in boxes.  I've got the other stuff in some sort of order.  I just need to get a few more boxes...and I should probably cull some of the stuff from the closet.  I'm really excited for the new apartment though.  Since we aren't planning on having a TV, we are going to have a big table in the Living Room, in order to host soon to be legendary dinner parties.

Not much else going on though, trying to spend as little money as possible until I figure out that second job.  I did get to go over to a friends house last Friday and play Mario Kart on the Wii all afternoon.  That brought back lots of good memories of Mario Kart on the N64 at the ECM House at the UofO.  And thankfully, when my friends 11 yr old daughter got home from school, I had enough practice in that I didn't get powned.

Things are beginning to fall into place for my time after Canterbury.  I've found a new apt.  I'll be living with a cool girl who is my age and teaches yoga.  I'm excited (and the main reason I went to see the place) because we won't have a tv.  The majority of ads I saw on craigslist all featured their tv's and semi-large cable bills.  I'll be paying double rent for the second half of May, but it'll totally be worth it.  She seems really cool (at least from the one time we talked when I saw the place).  So I'll be moving in on May 15th.  Time to start packing.

I also started training at Cafe Corsa as a barista last Friday.  Its only part time, and I definitely need a second job quickly, but it is something.  So far I'm enjoying it, I'll be training through the end of next week and then I'm on my own.  I'll be working in the afternoon/evenings a few nights a week and Saturdays initially.