Not at all surprised, but my first challenge here is going to be acquiring a car. It's hard to say which I focus on: do I get a job to make money to buy a car? Or do I get a car in order to be able to drive myself to a job and make money? It's something of a chicken-and-egg situation, but nonetheless, I think I may be stepping into the market for a car. So if anyone has any suggestions/leads/advice, I welcome anything at this point. Wait, that's not true. NO V-8 SUV'S!
I took a walk around the neighborhood. At midnight. In a dress. In a 90 degree night. With iced coffee. And it was a delight.
Friday, August 30, 2013
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
From The Main Man, Bill Murray
The other day at my internship, I had to do a little research, and somehow this included ending up on Entertainment Weekly's website. (It's a long story.) Well, we all know how the Internet works. There I am on their Book Reviews page and the next thing I know I am reading this article about Bill Murray, and of course I have to read all seven pages of it because it's Bill Murray and who doesn't like Bill Murray? (I mean honestly, that's not a rhetorical question, tell me anyone you know of that doesn't like Bill Murray because I doubt they exist.) In the end is a small interview with him (and this is from 2010) and this response from him blew my mind:
Life interferes, you know. When you're young and all you have is your career, some of your life can be in second place. And then you want your life to take first place, and other people don't see it that way. They see it that your life has to take second place, and it's hard. Life is really hard, and it's the only one you have. I mean, I like doing what I do, and I know I'm supposed to do it, but I don't have anything to bring to it if I don't live my life.
Is your mind blown or was it just mine? I loved the way he said "...I don't have anything to bring to [my career] if I don't live my life." I thought it was a good reminder of perspective, but maybe that's just me.
On a related note, I found my new favorite running song, which is John Lennon's "Oh Yoko!" it is such a cheery upbeat song with a good pace and rhythm. I was reminded of it when I caught Wes Anderson's Rushmore on cable, starring none other than Jason Schwartzmann and Bill Murray.
Aaaaaand another Groundling's class down and I have to say that I just love it. Love love love love love. It is super fun, and there is a lot of laughing. But, it is HARD. And very mentally challenging at this stage. And, I love it. It's my favorite thing about my new life in California, which may or may not be due to the fact that it bites my toes less than Khaleesi.
Life interferes, you know. When you're young and all you have is your career, some of your life can be in second place. And then you want your life to take first place, and other people don't see it that way. They see it that your life has to take second place, and it's hard. Life is really hard, and it's the only one you have. I mean, I like doing what I do, and I know I'm supposed to do it, but I don't have anything to bring to it if I don't live my life.
Is your mind blown or was it just mine? I loved the way he said "...I don't have anything to bring to [my career] if I don't live my life." I thought it was a good reminder of perspective, but maybe that's just me.
On a related note, I found my new favorite running song, which is John Lennon's "Oh Yoko!" it is such a cheery upbeat song with a good pace and rhythm. I was reminded of it when I caught Wes Anderson's Rushmore on cable, starring none other than Jason Schwartzmann and Bill Murray.
Aaaaaand another Groundling's class down and I have to say that I just love it. Love love love love love. It is super fun, and there is a lot of laughing. But, it is HARD. And very mentally challenging at this stage. And, I love it. It's my favorite thing about my new life in California, which may or may not be due to the fact that it bites my toes less than Khaleesi.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Kickstart This and Take My Name
Today was shockingly productive considering it was a Monday after a busy weekend. Aside from running, tanning, taking care of the animals and lawns and house while my dad and Kat are in England, I've been out and about working (can I still call it that if I don't get paid?), bringing my work home with me, and seeing friends and family.
On Saturday I worked for the Santa Monica Kickstarter's book launch in the Silver Lake district of LA. The best part was that they said that they have really enjoyed all of my help and contributions thus far and hope to be able to put me on staff. (Here's hoping!) They have a good gig going though, they're called theNewerYork and you can check them out here.
After that I went to downtown and met up with cousin Adam, Sammy, and Marcos. I knew Marcos from the UCSB days, but we hadn't really hung out properly before. That was alleviated because Adam and Sammy decided to turn in, but Marcos and I were still wide awake, so we turned right back around and went into Seven Grand and got some amazing Old Fashioneds and stayed til closing.
On a side note, two weekends ago in LA, I visited my high school friends the twins, and we went to a mashup club at the Echoplex, and I have to say that this Mashup event was killer! It was a club that played mashed-up music, like 80s, 90s and today, but all at the same time... I'm talking Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines over TLC and David Bowie over Kid Cudi. It was awesome! The next day we went to a rooftop bar in Venice Beach and downed guacamole and Michelada's. Not too shabby!
Today I began copyediting my first book for publication, and then had dinner with two great lady friends from college... Adara, my lil sis in the sorority, and her pledge sister Keid in the sorority, both of whom live in Pasadena now and are both equally awesome! They have vowed to take me out and about around Old Town Pasadena so looking forward to more adventures! Now if you'll excuse me, Khaleesi is attacking my bare feet and it hurts!
On Saturday I worked for the Santa Monica Kickstarter's book launch in the Silver Lake district of LA. The best part was that they said that they have really enjoyed all of my help and contributions thus far and hope to be able to put me on staff. (Here's hoping!) They have a good gig going though, they're called theNewerYork and you can check them out here.
After that I went to downtown and met up with cousin Adam, Sammy, and Marcos. I knew Marcos from the UCSB days, but we hadn't really hung out properly before. That was alleviated because Adam and Sammy decided to turn in, but Marcos and I were still wide awake, so we turned right back around and went into Seven Grand and got some amazing Old Fashioneds and stayed til closing.
On a side note, two weekends ago in LA, I visited my high school friends the twins, and we went to a mashup club at the Echoplex, and I have to say that this Mashup event was killer! It was a club that played mashed-up music, like 80s, 90s and today, but all at the same time... I'm talking Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines over TLC and David Bowie over Kid Cudi. It was awesome! The next day we went to a rooftop bar in Venice Beach and downed guacamole and Michelada's. Not too shabby!
Today I began copyediting my first book for publication, and then had dinner with two great lady friends from college... Adara, my lil sis in the sorority, and her pledge sister Keid in the sorority, both of whom live in Pasadena now and are both equally awesome! They have vowed to take me out and about around Old Town Pasadena so looking forward to more adventures! Now if you'll excuse me, Khaleesi is attacking my bare feet and it hurts!
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
La La Land
I have to say that I've been finding myself very satisfied with being back in California. I mean, I really feel like I'm back where I belong. Maybe I'm just tired, or burnt out, I don't know, but there's really nothing appealing to me about the idea of living anywhere else right now: not Europe, not the East Coast, not even San Francisco. And it's not just because I'm familiar with this place, but I really feel like I'm back with my people. I know how to do it here. How to be in traffic and take the triple degree heat, how to go out jogging in hot nights, how to get to where I need to go, deal with all the peoples. I don't know, but I like it for now. I was out in LA this past weekend with friends from high school. I haven't even really explored the LA nightscene as much as other cities (especially NYC) but still I felt way more comfortable and at home.
Also, with all the driving and having to get gas, I go inside the stations a lot and have to wonder what it's going to take in this society for us to start selling vanilla Coke again. I still can't find it around here and it makes me very sad!
In other news, Khaleesi Del Taco is still pretty skiddish and scared, but she's doing much better! I don't know if she's just all frisky and growing up, but she's very much a biter and a scratcher, but she cuddles with me every night without fail.
My dad and Kathleen left today for England to visit Shannon, so I'll have eight days to myself. I wish I could have went but you know how it goes: when you have the money, you don't have the time, and when you have the time, you don't have the money!
Onward.
Also, with all the driving and having to get gas, I go inside the stations a lot and have to wonder what it's going to take in this society for us to start selling vanilla Coke again. I still can't find it around here and it makes me very sad!
In other news, Khaleesi Del Taco is still pretty skiddish and scared, but she's doing much better! I don't know if she's just all frisky and growing up, but she's very much a biter and a scratcher, but she cuddles with me every night without fail.
My dad and Kathleen left today for England to visit Shannon, so I'll have eight days to myself. I wish I could have went but you know how it goes: when you have the money, you don't have the time, and when you have the time, you don't have the money!
Onward.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
I Like Riverside
I just wanted to say, that I really like Riverside. I had to go downtown yesterday to get fingerprinted for the County of Education, and had some time to spare before I needed to go to LA, and walked around the downtown. What with the Fox Theatre, Mission Inn, and arts museums it's doing well, and now there are so many restaurants, coffee shops, dance studios, barber shops, fountains, etc, it's really picking up steam! And all the raincrosses and mission dome architecture and palm trees and desert hills are such a nice background. I don't know what took me so long to see it.
I will say though, that it could use some sprucing up. Like, a lot of these businesses welcome walk-ins, but there's really not a lot of walking traffic. Put some apartments above the businesses and stop pretending like that many people go there and get rid of all that metered parking, and put in more bars. What does it take to be a city planner? I'm going to save this city yet.
Oh and after I was done in LA yesterday I went to Adam's in Beverly Hills and had dinner with him and Sammy and their friends and hung out, it was funnnn! It's nice to be back in the land of family.
I will say though, that it could use some sprucing up. Like, a lot of these businesses welcome walk-ins, but there's really not a lot of walking traffic. Put some apartments above the businesses and stop pretending like that many people go there and get rid of all that metered parking, and put in more bars. What does it take to be a city planner? I'm going to save this city yet.
Oh and after I was done in LA yesterday I went to Adam's in Beverly Hills and had dinner with him and Sammy and their friends and hung out, it was funnnn! It's nice to be back in the land of family.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
August and Everything After
Okay so that's a Counting Crows' album title, but it is August so technically it's all still correct. Wow wow wee wee wow, what an exhausting past few weeks it's been! I have been so busy, some days I fall on the couch as soon as I get home and end up sleeping there because I'm too tired to go upstairs to bed.
It started with just the typical being back in town stuff: visiting friends, going to the DMV, applying for jobs, interviewing, etc. Then everything sort up picked up steam. I got hired to substitute teach for two school districts and (still) have my hands full with all the paperwork, fingerprinting and drug testing, and waiting for schools to start (the end of this month) before I get any sort of paycheck.
Next, this week I started an internship in Pasadena for a dream job opportunity: I'm an editorial assistant for a fiction and poetry publishing press and their imprints! It's unpaid (ugh) but it is exactly what I've always thought that I'd want to do and figured now was the only chance I had to take this risk. The fact that I'm getting this opportunity with fiction and poetry is amazing too, and not that I have to pay my dues with a cookbook press or finance journal. I have already learned SO MUCH about the entire process: from production (order of all the galley pages, typesetting and sizes, ISBN numbers, etc) to page assembling, editing and proofreading, etc etc! I already feel super cool by asking if we've verified that the left and right pages track, checked to see if the illustrations should be recto or verso and eliminated all the orphans and widows from the laid-out galley text. Today I signed off on my first manuscript for production and began going through the slosh pile, meaning that I get to read all the submissions and queries that people mail in and decide what should be rejected or passed along to the managing editor. AND, next week I'll begin copyediting a book of poetry. Scary! Here's how cute even the lobby is:
The traffic coming home from Pasadena three days a week is cumbersome, but the experience is worth it for a few months.
Additionally, I am also working with a Santa Monica-based literary magazine that is Kickstarter-funded, so while I'm currently just volunteering, after August 25th I'll be able to be on staff for stipend. So I've been really excited about these opportunities in my field of choice.
Lastly, I've started taking improv classes with the Groundlings in LA. I was doing improv in NYC, and doing really well, and it was one of the best things I'd ever done with my life (SO MUCH FUN and also, therapeutic!) so every Wednesday I schlep myself to Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles for 3 hours of fun.
And inbetween all that, there's been sooo much going on: taking Dexter to the dog park with Heather, Disneyland with my cousin Brianna, watching Kathleen compete (and win in the women's division!) of Disneyland employee canoe races, seeing friends in Riverside, wine tasting in Temecula and having fun in San Diego (including lunch with grandma, Aunt Judee, Uncle Carl and Aunt Frances!) enjoying Los Angeles neighborhoods when I'm around, and playing with Khaleesi Del Taco!
Oh, and here's the saddest story you will hear all day: This week, I was heading down to Santa Monica for an interview on Tuesday. I find a block of parking. READ ALL THE SIGNS I tell myself. There are two signs. 2-Hour Parking Mon-Fri. (Fine). MONDAY: No Parking 2-4. I must have read them seven times, telling myself, "Today is Tuesday, so no problem with 2-4, and just park for 2 hours. Today is Tuesday." I go in to the interview, come back out after an hour, check on the car, read the signs again. "Today is Tuesday, so only two hour parking, you have another hour." I go walking along the Santa Monica boardwalk, come back in 45 minutes to see a ticket. I was furious! I READ ALL THOSE SIGNS A THOUSAND TIMES!!! I am staring at the ticket perplexed when a guy my age walks by. "They got you, huh?" he asked. "Yes!" I shouted. "And why? What did I do wrong??" he looked up at the signs. "It's the Monday thing," he said. OHHHH MYYYYY GODDDD. It was Monday the whole time!!! I was CONVINCED it was Tuesday. That's what unemployment does to you!!
It started with just the typical being back in town stuff: visiting friends, going to the DMV, applying for jobs, interviewing, etc. Then everything sort up picked up steam. I got hired to substitute teach for two school districts and (still) have my hands full with all the paperwork, fingerprinting and drug testing, and waiting for schools to start (the end of this month) before I get any sort of paycheck.
Next, this week I started an internship in Pasadena for a dream job opportunity: I'm an editorial assistant for a fiction and poetry publishing press and their imprints! It's unpaid (ugh) but it is exactly what I've always thought that I'd want to do and figured now was the only chance I had to take this risk. The fact that I'm getting this opportunity with fiction and poetry is amazing too, and not that I have to pay my dues with a cookbook press or finance journal. I have already learned SO MUCH about the entire process: from production (order of all the galley pages, typesetting and sizes, ISBN numbers, etc) to page assembling, editing and proofreading, etc etc! I already feel super cool by asking if we've verified that the left and right pages track, checked to see if the illustrations should be recto or verso and eliminated all the orphans and widows from the laid-out galley text. Today I signed off on my first manuscript for production and began going through the slosh pile, meaning that I get to read all the submissions and queries that people mail in and decide what should be rejected or passed along to the managing editor. AND, next week I'll begin copyediting a book of poetry. Scary! Here's how cute even the lobby is:
The traffic coming home from Pasadena three days a week is cumbersome, but the experience is worth it for a few months.
Additionally, I am also working with a Santa Monica-based literary magazine that is Kickstarter-funded, so while I'm currently just volunteering, after August 25th I'll be able to be on staff for stipend. So I've been really excited about these opportunities in my field of choice.
Lastly, I've started taking improv classes with the Groundlings in LA. I was doing improv in NYC, and doing really well, and it was one of the best things I'd ever done with my life (SO MUCH FUN and also, therapeutic!) so every Wednesday I schlep myself to Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles for 3 hours of fun.
And inbetween all that, there's been sooo much going on: taking Dexter to the dog park with Heather, Disneyland with my cousin Brianna, watching Kathleen compete (and win in the women's division!) of Disneyland employee canoe races, seeing friends in Riverside, wine tasting in Temecula and having fun in San Diego (including lunch with grandma, Aunt Judee, Uncle Carl and Aunt Frances!) enjoying Los Angeles neighborhoods when I'm around, and playing with Khaleesi Del Taco!
Oh, and here's the saddest story you will hear all day: This week, I was heading down to Santa Monica for an interview on Tuesday. I find a block of parking. READ ALL THE SIGNS I tell myself. There are two signs. 2-Hour Parking Mon-Fri. (Fine). MONDAY: No Parking 2-4. I must have read them seven times, telling myself, "Today is Tuesday, so no problem with 2-4, and just park for 2 hours. Today is Tuesday." I go in to the interview, come back out after an hour, check on the car, read the signs again. "Today is Tuesday, so only two hour parking, you have another hour." I go walking along the Santa Monica boardwalk, come back in 45 minutes to see a ticket. I was furious! I READ ALL THOSE SIGNS A THOUSAND TIMES!!! I am staring at the ticket perplexed when a guy my age walks by. "They got you, huh?" he asked. "Yes!" I shouted. "And why? What did I do wrong??" he looked up at the signs. "It's the Monday thing," he said. OHHHH MYYYYY GODDDD. It was Monday the whole time!!! I was CONVINCED it was Tuesday. That's what unemployment does to you!!
Monday, August 5, 2013
Khaleesi Del Taco
There's a new addition to the family here, and I'm happy to present my new kitty cat, Khaleesi Del Taco!
With Shannon taking Gryffindor to England, Kathleen's cat Zug Zug has been really lonely. Plus, for our family that is usually an orphanage of strays and never less than something like 4-5 animals at a time, it's felt very quiet in the house. So when my friend Marisa posted kittens she was looking for homes for, the timing felt right. Originally she told us there was a male and two females, so I said we would take the male (again our family has problems with ending up with litters and way too many animals), but after she took them to the vet, it turned out they were all females! So I had to scrap the list of boy names I had come up with (Lord Tyrion, Bruno, Aaron Samuels, Waldo and Quincy Jones topped the list) and had to think about girl names.
When I say that Kathleen and I came up with Khaleesi Del Taco, I mainly mean that Kathleen acquiesced that it was a good name. I had just won the Game of Roads from NYC to LA, so Khaleesi (ka-LEE-see) from Game of Thrones was just too perfect, but I still had a dream of naming a pet Blahna Del Taco, which is a nickname a blogger I read uses to refer to Lana Del Rey, whom I love. But I knew that would turn into just calling the cat "Blahna" or "Blah" or "Lana", and human names for animals is one of my biggest pet peeves! So Kathleen and I decided Khaleesi Del Taco was fitting. And here she is!
She got comfortable really quickly! I brought her into my room and she hid in the closet. I left her there for awhile before bringing her out and shutting the closet behind her. She stayed in a corner but would let me pet her. I stepped out for awhile and when I came back, she was on the bed. She let me sit on the bed with her and then even started cuddling up next to me and we fell asleep on the bed together.
This morning she's hiding under the dresser, probably because she's plotting her exit strategy and building her army, so I'm working on the same on my end. You've met your match, Khaleesi!
With Shannon taking Gryffindor to England, Kathleen's cat Zug Zug has been really lonely. Plus, for our family that is usually an orphanage of strays and never less than something like 4-5 animals at a time, it's felt very quiet in the house. So when my friend Marisa posted kittens she was looking for homes for, the timing felt right. Originally she told us there was a male and two females, so I said we would take the male (again our family has problems with ending up with litters and way too many animals), but after she took them to the vet, it turned out they were all females! So I had to scrap the list of boy names I had come up with (Lord Tyrion, Bruno, Aaron Samuels, Waldo and Quincy Jones topped the list) and had to think about girl names.
When I say that Kathleen and I came up with Khaleesi Del Taco, I mainly mean that Kathleen acquiesced that it was a good name. I had just won the Game of Roads from NYC to LA, so Khaleesi (ka-LEE-see) from Game of Thrones was just too perfect, but I still had a dream of naming a pet Blahna Del Taco, which is a nickname a blogger I read uses to refer to Lana Del Rey, whom I love. But I knew that would turn into just calling the cat "Blahna" or "Blah" or "Lana", and human names for animals is one of my biggest pet peeves! So Kathleen and I decided Khaleesi Del Taco was fitting. And here she is!
She got comfortable really quickly! I brought her into my room and she hid in the closet. I left her there for awhile before bringing her out and shutting the closet behind her. She stayed in a corner but would let me pet her. I stepped out for awhile and when I came back, she was on the bed. She let me sit on the bed with her and then even started cuddling up next to me and we fell asleep on the bed together.
This morning she's hiding under the dresser, probably because she's plotting her exit strategy and building her army, so I'm working on the same on my end. You've met your match, Khaleesi!
Thursday, August 1, 2013
The Town of the Queen of Angels
Day 12 of my post-New York City captivity, and I'm sure all anyone can think is, what the hell is with that title?
I'll guesstimate that 98% of you that read this are all southern Californians and we can all call a spade a spade: Los Angeles is farrrrrrrr from paradise. Well, that's not a fair. It's a paradise of traffic and smog that somehow hails Kobe Bryant as king, but I suppose that's neither here nor there. The nature of the new blog is threefold:
1. For all intents and purposes, (and especially for the other 2% of my audience that come from around the rest of the United States and world) I basically am in LA. And currently, I'm thinking that maybe, I might be trying to make that my next step (remains to be seen) buuuut in case I do, that'll save a title change later.
2. "What you call it, it will become." My good friend Chrishon taught me this mantra about the power of positive thinking and mental evolution of how we perceive things around us. So, the more I consider LA a paradise, the more I expect it will become one to me. In short, desperate times call for desperate measures!
3. I fell in love with Lana del Rey after Palak sent me three of her songs (I think I had lost a bet or something and was forced to listen to them) and one of those was a song called "Radio". After making the decision to leave New York City, there were a few lines in that song that resonated with me, that I wanted to make my own:
I don't even notice how hard life was
I don't even think about it now because...
Now my life is sweet like cinnamon
Like a -- dream I'm living in
I don't even notice what life was like
Now I'm in LA and it's paradise
So that accounts for both the title and the blog address (sterlingsuite)... as in Sterling's suite but also sweet like cinnamon...!
In the meantime, I can't promise that there will be lots of updates right now, as my life isn't terribly update-able, buuuuut, feel free to check in and see what's going on with me, my job hunt, and life in the middle of the hard left turn I've made.
Which reminds me, I actually googled "what should I do with my life" and this website came up that told me what I should do and gave me links to help me get started! (Apologies for the profanity on their homepage) but, it told me that I should open a bakery, which I am not at all opposed to! So, if anyone wants to go in on that with me, let me know! We can even name it Sterling's Sweets, so that takes care of half the battle right there. Ciao bellas!
I'll guesstimate that 98% of you that read this are all southern Californians and we can all call a spade a spade: Los Angeles is farrrrrrrr from paradise. Well, that's not a fair. It's a paradise of traffic and smog that somehow hails Kobe Bryant as king, but I suppose that's neither here nor there. The nature of the new blog is threefold:
1. For all intents and purposes, (and especially for the other 2% of my audience that come from around the rest of the United States and world) I basically am in LA. And currently, I'm thinking that maybe, I might be trying to make that my next step (remains to be seen) buuuut in case I do, that'll save a title change later.
2. "What you call it, it will become." My good friend Chrishon taught me this mantra about the power of positive thinking and mental evolution of how we perceive things around us. So, the more I consider LA a paradise, the more I expect it will become one to me. In short, desperate times call for desperate measures!
3. I fell in love with Lana del Rey after Palak sent me three of her songs (I think I had lost a bet or something and was forced to listen to them) and one of those was a song called "Radio". After making the decision to leave New York City, there were a few lines in that song that resonated with me, that I wanted to make my own:
I don't even notice how hard life was
I don't even think about it now because...
Now my life is sweet like cinnamon
Like a -- dream I'm living in
I don't even notice what life was like
Now I'm in LA and it's paradise
So that accounts for both the title and the blog address (sterlingsuite)... as in Sterling's suite but also sweet like cinnamon...!
In the meantime, I can't promise that there will be lots of updates right now, as my life isn't terribly update-able, buuuuut, feel free to check in and see what's going on with me, my job hunt, and life in the middle of the hard left turn I've made.
Which reminds me, I actually googled "what should I do with my life" and this website came up that told me what I should do and gave me links to help me get started! (Apologies for the profanity on their homepage) but, it told me that I should open a bakery, which I am not at all opposed to! So, if anyone wants to go in on that with me, let me know! We can even name it Sterling's Sweets, so that takes care of half the battle right there. Ciao bellas!
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