A Tale of Two Coasts

I was born and raised in Everett, Massachusetts.  A rough and tumble city that borders Boston to the north.  It's cold in the winter, warm in the spring, hot in the summer and chilly in the fall.  From there, I can drive to the beach, the mountains, the whateverIwant within an hour or two and Boston is literally a ten minute drive away.  I can also get any drug I want at any hour!  It's the little things.

I didn't realize how different the rest of the country could be.  I had zero perspective when I lived on the east coast.  But now that I'm over here in the OLD WEST, I realize that things are incredibly different and weird.

I'm a fast-paced broad living in a casual town.  (I'll never say that again.)

Here's an East Coast Perspective On California: 

Sunshine.  The east coast is going nuts right now and Boston is covered in snow, so I'm going to get some shit for saying this.  But, sometimes, I hate the sun with a passion.  When I wake up hungover… or sick... or just in the mood to be lazy all day, there's the sun constantly shining its bright rays on my lazy face.  I swear to God if I looked out the window, I'd see a cartoon sun wearing sunglasses calling everyone who chooses to stay inside that day a FAT ASSHOLE.

Commuting.  Bostonians are bad, aggressive drivers.  Whatever, I get it.  What else do you expect from us when our streets are the way that they are?  California driving is incredibly streamlined and regulated due to the amount of cars on the road.  Rush "hour" is four hours long and during those hours, you are unable to turn left on some streets so you won't hold up traffic.  Driving on the freeways is basically impossible and surface roads are your (traffic light and stop sign ridden) friend.  I commute six to eight miles to and from work… and it takes just under an hour.  People honk their horns and are quick to scream at you for things that would be considered "good driving" in Boston.  It's a god damn nightmare.

There's also very little public transportation and the bus system is pretty insane.  My boyfriend lives 3 miles from his work.  It takes 8 minutes to drive there, 20 minutes to bike there, 45 minutes to walk there and about two hours to get there by bus.

Local Pride. Doesn't exist.  Everyone is from everywhere.  When the Patriots were in the Superbowl, the whole city was quiet and normal and you could barely tell there was a big game on.  You walk through Boston during a sports game (I love sports) and everyone is tense.  Everyone is decked out in their team's colors.  Everyone is excited and happy and they if they win, the city has the energy of Disney World the next day even when you don't care about sports.  If they lose, the city is somber and sad and nobody speaks.  Los Angeles is laid back, low key and California pride is shown very differently.  It's shown less through sports and more through graphic muscle tees and floppy sun hats.

Work.  I worked at a marketing agency in Boston that was pretty casual.  We considered the dress code "creative casual."  You certainly didn't need to wear suits or blazers, but it was a little controlled.  I thought I had hit the jackpot of casual work environments.  I got an hour lunch break!  I got to drink a beer in the afternoon sometimes when we had parties!  When we wanted to build our teams, there was usually a bar and some french fries involved.

My new agency in California has no dress code (I have seen girls in crop tops and loose tanks that show their bras… their BRAS!)  There are beer taps, wine taps and if we drink too much at work, the company will pay for us to Uber home.  People choose sitting on couches - or the hammocks outside - over working inside at their desks.  And just this morning, one team went to a SoulCycle class together for a bonding experience.  In the morning.  And strolled into the office at 10:30am.

Happy Hours.  They're the best thing about L.A.  Cheap drinks and cheap food everywhere!  Happy hours are against the law in Boston, so it's nice to be able to still be able to go out and drink for cheap.  Also BYOB is great and bottomless mimosas are too.  Los Angeles is full of amazing restaurants and fun bars.

Just don't be surprised when they're located in a random strip mall.

And there's only valet parking available (where the guy will take your car just to park it in the space directly in front of you.)  

And it takes 45 minutes to get there because even at 9pm, the 101 and the 10 and the 405 are packed.

L.A. is the city that I love to hate.  So basically, it's the healthiest relationship I've ever been in.

Last Week In California

Last week, I had the most California week.

It started last Sunday evening when my friend from Boston - we shall call her Danger... because that is her nickname -  was in town for work and was staying in Beverly Hills.  I met her on the rooftop of her hotel and we drank $16 margaritas by the pool (and in the pool) with her fabulously straight co-worker.  There were two pools, one for your feets and one for your swimmings.  It was the type of Los Angeles you see on reality shows, a pool with a DJ and young girls paired up in cabanas with really old men.  I loved it (for people watching.)  (I could never live like that.)

On Thursday, my company had its big ten year anniversary party.  I was pretty anxious about it all week because we were told to "pack a bathing suit, athletic shorts and come prepared for anything" and it was also starting at 9am and lasting until 9pm plus more hours of drinking afterwards.  I was freaking out about it, naturally, because I'm afraid of the unknown... specifically when it comes to socializing.  I'm an introvert, forever and always.

I carpooled with a friend and co-worker, SUPER CALIFORNIA, RIGHT?  I even got to use the carpool lane for the first time in my life!  When we showed up to work, there were party buses, limos, tour buses, etc. parked all over the lot.  I'm talking like 40+ different buses.  We were separated into groups of 10 (there's more than 400 of us.)  We basically were taken on a huge, real-live choose your own adventure.  We were texted clues, had to make a choice, and when we made the choice we were sent an address.  Our first adventure was surf lessons (with wetsuits and a board and everything!) and our next one was skateboarding (which was AWESOME.)  We then did a relay race back at our parking lot and ate food and socialized and did, you know, party things.  It actually felt a whole lot like the first day of a Real World / Road Rules challenge.

After a full day of company sponsored day drinking and hanging out in the sun (did I mention the bus I was in didn't have a roof?) - I left the party pretty early.  I was exhausted and couldn't even try to muster up the energy for more drinking or dancing or making out with strangers, whatever happens at those types of things.  I went home and spent the evening in the pool and hot tub to ease the pain of my sunburn.  Oh, side note, hot tubs do nothing but bad stuff for sun burns.  So, just know that.

On Saturday, I hopped on the 10 (super California) and went to Santa Monica for brunch with some of my co-workers (also super California.)  I walked around the mall afterwards and even stopped in Tiffany's with some of the girls I work with and let me tell you, I felt like I was in the movie Clueless.  Which, let's face it, is my dream.  I wanted to continue the Clueless feeling and stopped in Beverly Hills to do a little bit of shopping on my way home.  You're probably thinking Rodeo Drive and you'd be wrong.  I went to a strip mall of discount stores - Target, Marshall's, Ross Dress for Less.  I do everything right.  

Saturday night, Beau and I went to Umami Burger - which has the best burgers ever - and went record shopping at Amoeba Records.  I bought a Creedence Clearwater Revival record for $8 which we listened to while day drinking the next day.  I made a ghetto sangria, which is a mason jar full of Pinot Grigio with some nectarines and a little bit of Triple Sec thrown into it.  I drank that while lounging by the pool with a magazine.  BECAUSE I'M Super California! 

I'm really starting to like it here.  It has certainly taken me a few months to adjust to the totally different lifestyle and being 3,000 miles away from my family.  But, I'm slowly starting to build a life here and it's feeling pretty awesome.  There were days, oh boy were there days, and I'm sure there will be more days in the future - but right now, and especially after last week, California isn't treating me so bad.  Plus, I started drinking healthy green smoothies every morning.  So, I've changed.

The Apartment Search, From Beginning to End.

I have now officially been in Los Angeles for a little over a week... and luckily, I found a place to live!  It's amazing.  That's the view right there from our balcony!  We looked at two places (called seemingly a thousand others) that were just wonderful and we FOUGHT LIKE HELL to lock one of them down.  Finally, on the last day of hope, we got the one we wanted most.  Here's the story.

On Tuesday, my Los Angeles friend/mentor/savior, Matt, took us around his neighborhood and the surrounding streets to look for rent signs.  There were just a sea of "For Rent - 1bedroom" signs, so we felt really good about our quest!  We called (and by we, I mean Matt, because he is a savior) and within an hour we were in a beautiful building adjacent to my buddy Casey's house.  And by that I mean, there was a roof deck and if Casey was on his roof deck, we could talk to each other.  With string cans, but still, we could talk to each other.  The view on the deck was gorgeous and we immediately asked for an application.

We ran down to the grocery store for a money order for the application fee, the machine was down, so we ran to Bank of America where the guy was like, "This is crazy, it's a $10 charge!" and I was like, "Dude, I need it, I'll eat the cost, just give me the god damn money order!" and then we filled out the application and ran back to the building and handed it in.  

We left so cocky.  Oh how cocky!  We stopped looking at other places, we went sight-seeing, we saw a movie in North Hollywood and ate pizza and went to bed on top of the world.  This was so easy, idiots!  We've been here one full day and we've got a place! 

Cut to 9:30 am Wednesday morning (I had already been up for two and a half hours... jet lag is.... awesome.)  We got declined.  My credit score was on the low side (student loans are... awesome), but I also didn't have a local work history.  A LOCAL WORK HISTORY?!  No!  Of course I don't!  I just moved here!  I called back and tried to talk my way back into the woman's heart, and she liked me so she agreed to help.  I offered to pay a month's rent in advance to buy time while I looked for a job.  She said she'd talk to the owner and get back to me.  

I was feeling loooooow.  But it was time to hit the streets!  We walked across the city from the place we were staying (found on airbnb) and roamed up and down another area of L.A. that was still very close to my friends.  We called a bunch of places until we finally hit this huge pink building.  I was wearing a pink dress that day so I said, "This one will work.  I'm dressed the part!"  

We called, a woman answered and let us in right away.  She said she literally just hit "send" on the Craigslist ad, so she was shocked we were already calling and that it wasn't even through the ad.  Right place right time!  We saw the place and fell in love again.  It was similarly priced and had a balcony that overlooked the pool/jacuzzi area.  Two huge closets.  A TUB in the bathroom (no more stand up showers!) and lots of light and storage and space.  We asked for an application immediately.  And again began the race for the money order, application filling out and running to a FedEx Office to print out two recent pay stubs.

If you're thinking, "Hopefully this time you at least knew it might not work out and kept looking" you'd be wrong.  We were even more cocky than the first time!  We stopped looking and went to a coffee shop to wait for the manager to call us back.  Eventually, we went back to our place and re-grouped slash went to bed early because fuck, this stuff is exhausting.  

Cut to 9:30am Thursday.  Both places turned us down.  I felt the lowest of the lows.  There was even a moment where I started just freaking out about how stupid I was for letting my credit score get so bad (GOD DAMN YOU STUDENT LOANS) and I swear Beau slapped me across the face.  He didn't.  But he should have.  He did yell at me.  It worked.  I shut up.  We decided we'd do what we could to get into those two places we liked so much since the managers liked us and wanted to help us.  

We ran back to that area of town, brought pay stubs and proof of employment to one building.   I called the Pink Building back and asked if we could have a parent co-sign the lease (which I'm crazy for not thinking of sooner!) and she excitedly said yes!  So, I ran around the city printing out faxed information from my mother, calling my sister for help, calling my mom to get the info for the application, getting another money order for the credit check, etc. etc. etc.   

After turning everything in, all we could do was wait.  Wait for an answer, wait to be turned down, wait to be told we're young idiots.  That night was a little less encouraging than other nights.  I felt pretty depressed and exhausted.  I thought it was only three days in and L.A. was chewing me up and spitting me back out.  

Cut to 11:00am Friday morning.  We got an apartment.  We got the apartment!  (For the record, we did not get the other one.  But F that place in the A!)  The apartment is a dream!  And the manager is amazing.  We're already going to be best friends - and we've even met her dogs and offered to watch and walk them.  

So, four days and we got a place.  That's not too bad!  At this rate, I'll be a Muppet in no time.  Oh, I should have mentioned, that's the reason I moved to L.A.

The date is set!

It's official!!

Monday, January 27th, I will be moving to Los Angeles! 

I'm flying in (instead of my original plan of driving cross country) and buying a car there.  It's all going to be hectic and crazy but I'm so, so excited.  

If I fail, I fail trying - right?! 

The past few weeks have been so sad here in Boston.  My last night was sad, overwhelming and all-in-all, happy.  But, last weekend, my friend Matt had his last night and I cried like a god damn baby.  I drank a lot, got very sad and eventually just went home and went to sleep.  I can't believe my time here is over and that it's time to move on to the next thing. 

BUT!  I'm excited to take on the next part of my life.  

So if anyone knows anybody in L.A. that's looking for a hard worker (with an office managing, copywriting and HR background) let me know!  I could use all the help I could get in nailing down a job.

2014 is turning out to be pretty damn good so far!  (And sad.  But also good!)