Tag: los angeles

Sep 18 2008

Sketch 37

Oh my…its been a busy week.  Which explains why I’m a couple days behind this weeks sketch.

Most of the business comes from having to find a new apartment.  In the end, I saw nine different places.  I liked four of them (well I actually liked a fifth place, but the other people wouldn’t have been a great fit).  I’m moving into a place that is Mid-City, so pretty much right between the current location of my office…and the future location of the office.  I’m not sure exactly what there is within walking distance to it…but its pretty centrally located otherwise.

Saturday, my friend had a birthday celebration at her house in Whittier.  We were celebrating a bunch of us who had birthday’s at the beginning of the month (including me).  There was scuba lessons, football watching (Oregon pulled out a squeaker), lots of conversations, and millions of bubbles.  It was a great time (and totally worth the drive to Whittier).

After church on Sunday, I had lunch at Papa Cristo’s, an LA institution that has been open since 1948.  Another LA landmark crossed off the list.

Tuesday, I went to a screening of Rachel Getting Married.  By the time I got there, the line was pretty long and I ended up sitting pretty close to the screen.  That ended up not being a good thing.  The movie featured lots of hand held camera work, which made for some jittery shots.  By the end of the movie I was feeling pretty nauseous.  This coupled with the fact that it could have used to be about a half hour shorter (at least) meant that I bolted as soon as the film was done (again skipping the Q&A session).

I took my car into the shop on Wednesday morning.  My car is interesting, because it has a vacuum system that controls the “power” locks as well as the engine cut of switch.  Well somewhere in the system there was a leak, which was causing the engine not to shut off when I turned off the car and removed the key.  This wasn’t a huge deal for awhile, as there is a cutoff switch on the engine itself, so I only needed to pop the hood and press the switch.  At least until the little tab that helped un-latch the hood broke over the weekend.  Suddenly opening the trunk involved a little more work (and needle nose pliers).  Anyway, I took it in to see what it would take to fix it and get an oil change.  Well it turns out, that I also needed new brake pads and rotors.  So that was almost $450 I wasn’t expecting to be spending.  But again, I can’t really complain, my friend did give me the car.  Picked up the car this morning and the car shuts off as its supposed to do.  Right now the “power” locks don’t work on the right side of the car, but I can get that fixed later.

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Sep 08 2008

Sketch 36

Well of course the big news of the week is that I have to find a new place to live.  Now that I’ve got a working computer at home, I’ve been scouring the listings on craigslist for new apartments.  So far the pickings are slim, at least in the range I’d like to stay in.  All in all, its kind of a pain in the ass to have to find a new place right now.  Even if it was just another month past, I’d be in better shape for a move.

Friday night, I met a few friends at the Blue Palms Brewhouse to celebrate both mine and a friends recent birthdays.  I had Craftsman Brewing’s Black Sour beer and Victory’s FestBier.  Both were pretty good.

Saturday, I drove up to Santa Barbara to pick up a computer from a friend (Thanks Jen!).  Took the long way home on Highway 1 between Oxnard and Malibu.  Very nice drive, but can see why the 101 route works better.  It’s great to have such good friends (and to be back online at home).

Sunday, I went to the LA Greek Festival with a friend and had some Greek Food, which was pretty much the entire point of the festival as far as I could tell.

I’m thinking of checking out the LA County Fair this weekend…if I decide the drive to Pomona is worth it.

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Sep 05 2008

The Joys of Renting

I opened up my email this morning to a note from my roommate.  She is apparently getting married and her new husband-to-be will be moving into the apartment.  Which means, that I need to move out.

So now, its time to scour craigslist for a new place to live.  I’m going to try to find a place in the Hollywood, Los Feliz, Silverlake, or Downtown areas.  Mainly because that will keep my commute at a decent minimum.

Good times.

Looks like the laptop purchase is to be postponed for the moment.

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Aug 11 2008

Only in LA…

Dov Charney of American Apparel puts up a billboard looking for his lost dog.

The Silver Lake and Echo Park area was slammed with flyers this weekend showing this dog, pictured above. And if flyers were not enough, two billboards, back-to-back, at Sunset and Alvarado featured the cute dog asking anyone who has seen it or has found it to contact the owner.

From LAist.

* Update: According to the folks at LA Taco, the dog has been found. 

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Jul 23 2008

Sketch 29

It was a pretty crappy week in the job search department.  I applied to a bunch of positions, but didn’t hear a peep from anyone.  Most disappointing was the wine store position that I applied for.  Oh well.

I tried to get into a free screening of The Dark Knight at USC on Thursday, however not much of the wait list made it in for that one.  So I ended up riding my bike over to the Arclight Hollywood and to see a show Friday afternoon.  The build-up to the movie was completely over the top, and therefore expectations were quite high.  The movie didn’t disappoint.  I think pretty much every one of the main actors did a fabulous job in their roles.  Sure, Heath Ledger is getting the bulk of the press in light of his passing, but he also did a pretty fabulous job reinventing a character played brilliantly by Jack Nicholson in the first Batman movie.  Both Christian Bale and Aaron Eckhardt were great as Batman and Harvey Dent as well.  One of my friends thought it might have been a little long, and I can see that position, but I didn’t mind the length either.

Sunday I went and saw the Independent Shakespeare Companies performance of Twelfth Night at the Barnsdall Arts Park in Hollywood.  Basically, its free Shakespeare in the park, Th-Su, during the months of July and August.  It was fun, and I think I’ll go again, though with a picnic dinner this time.

After spending the morning job searching on Monday, I decided to take a little diversion and do some more exploring of LA.  So I got a Metro Day Pass and hit the rails.  This time I took the train to Universal City and went up to Universal City Walk.  Basically its just a collection of stores and restaurants just outside of Universal Studios.  Touristy for sure.  After walking around the City Walk, I decided to head back into Hollywood to catch a movie.  I was initially thinking about seeing Wall-E at the El Capitan Theater (owned by Disney), however the movie had already started by the time I got there.  Luckily, Hell Boy II was playing across the street at the Chinese Theater.  Check one more touristy thing off the list…See a movie at the Chinese Theater.  Like the first Hell Boy, it was directed by Guillermo del Toro.  A great movie as well, and not as dark and sinister as The Dark Knight.

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May 08 2008

Sketch 18

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.

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May 04 2008

Falling into place

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.

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Apr 15 2008

Sketch 15

I have of late been in a pretty crappy mood.  I’ve been depressed and snappy and generally not too fun to be around.  Thankfully, I think last night helped me take a step away from this lame moodiness.  Last night was the monthly gathering of the “cuddle call” group.  I was in charge of planning the festivities and thought it would be nice to have a bonfire on the beach.  It was great just to be with such a great group of friends that are just so loving and accepting.  I’m so lucky to have found (or been found by) this group of people.

On the job search front…I’m leaning more towards staying in Los Angeles.  Which means probably getting some sort of a temp job at least initially.  I’ll also be looking for a new place to live, preferably for a little less rent than I’m paying now (so under $800/month).  I think I’m going to take the morning off on Thursday and spend some time researching and applying to local temp agencies.

I’m going on a retreat this weekend, we have to hike into the campsite.  I’m pretty stoked to get out of the city and be in nature for the weekend. 

Continue reading

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Apr 05 2008

dwelling in my disasters


Ray Lamontagne – Empty (from BBC Four Session)

I’m not having much luck in my first choice of “things to do after I’m done at Canterbury.”    The craigslist job board for Santa Rosa isn’t providing many opportunities to apply for jobs.  So I’m left with also figuring out what Plan B really is.  Do I stay in Los Angeles, which often sucks away my will, and is so expensive, just because its the easiest option.  Do I look to move back to Oregon, even though I have no idea on how I’d pay to move my stuff back up there?  Is there some other place I should think about going?

Really, like Ray sings above, the whole process has left me feeling kind of empty.  Change is coming and I need to work on making sure its good.  As one of my friends pointed out last weekend in Salt Lake…I sure thought I’d have more things figured out by the time I was this age than I do.

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Apr 01 2008

Sketch 13

For work I traveled to Salt Lake City over the weekend for the annual gathering of college students in Province VIII (basically the west coast states + one state in).  I was traveling with 5 students and my boss.  While waiting for our flight to begin boarding, I noticed what would be my second celebrity (albeit B/C-list) siting since moving to Los Angeles.

Ron Jeremy talks to the gate agent

Yes, Ron Jeremy was on our flight to Salt Lake City of all places. (Yeah, I know it may be hard to tell in this picture, but the short guy with long greasy hair is Ron Jeremy.) Later, I found out from one of the weeklys, that he was there to debate porn critic Michael Leahy at the local community college.

The rest of the weekend was pretty good, though a little bittersweet as well.  The conference went pretty well, no major glitches.  It was good to see my friends from throughout the province.  But it was a little bittersweet, because it may have been my last gathering as well.  After being involved with the gatherings for eleven years now, it may be time to take a break from this.  I’ve been going back and forth on this, at one point in the weekend I was totally ready to continue on.  But an interaction Saturday night pushed me back on the side of retiring from this ministry.

Nothing new to report on the job search.  There hasn’t been much interesting on Craigslist in Santa Rosa.  I’m starting to consider looking a little harder in Los Angeles as there are a few compelling reasons to stick around as well.  I’m trying to have hope that things will work out, but the end the month is coming quickly and its really freaking me out.

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