Friday, January 14, 2011

Walking in LA

I was up at 5:00 am yesterday, Central time, and fell asleep early last night.

I was up early this morning and decided to walk. LA is famous for the observation that nobody walks, but of course, that's not true. Lots of people are walking at 8:00am. Many of them, dressed in scrubs, or jeans and casual clothes, or uniforms, are walking to or from bus stops. Most of them are brown or black. The one white woman I saw was older, wearing a long denim skirt and a dirty sweatshirt and either had no access to or didn't much use shower and laundry. But that's not what we mean or what we see when we talk about people walking.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Moving to LA

It's warm here. Of course it's warm here. I'm in Los Angeles, it's supposed to be warm.

Tomorrow I'll embark on an apartment hunt. In preparation for this, I've been watching a lot of real estate shows on HGTV. On HGTV I've learned a lot about looking for a place to live. I've learned you have to compromise. Which is good because I've been living in house. With bedrooms and a husband and dogs. Now I'll be living in an apartment, and talking to said husband and dogs by Skype.

HGTV also says that I can reasonably expect to spend a third of my income on rent.

They are joking. But it doesn't matter, because a third of my income doesn't get me a place that is qualitatively better than what I actually think I can afford to pay. To get a place that is qualitatively better--significantly more square feet, say, and nicely made, rather than the basic box, would cost me about my average income.

However, I have finally tried In-and-Out Burger. I see what everyone was talking about.