Voyager

A photo post.  A lot happened in the last week but it would be exhausting to type it all out.  I kept starting this entry and then deleting it out of frustration.

Went here for Dean's "welcome to LA" first official meal as an LA resident...at 11:30 PM.  We left at 2:30 am right as they were closing.  It was pricier than I am used to, but the quality of meat was top notch.  Great place and only a few blocks away.

The next morning, we walked to Paris Baguette, which I was freaking thrilled to find is just as cheap stateside as it is in Korea.  Holla.

After, we went to Little Tokyo for lunch and in the parking lot, Dean snapped this winning photograph.  Also, I got that shirt at Jet Rag last week--it has a picture of a unicorn and the words "Books are Magic".  It has a few small holes in the back but I could care less.

Just a shot of some stuffed animals we have hanging around the office.  For some reason, maintenance built a shelf there last week and we promptly loaded these on top.

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Office Halloween party from today!  It was just an hour in the middle of the day, but it was a surprisingly good time.  Our HR chick put together some amusing games and everyone had some laughs.  Things have been insanely busy as of late, so everyone needed an excuse to just let loose.

I was super lame and just recycled one of my costumes from last year.  But Red Riding Hood without the basket...silliness.  

Finally, a closing shot of Dean and Blue hanging out.  I love it when cat's toes curl like that.  I just want to eat them.

Overall, these past few days:  Driving around in a U-Haul, moving in furniture, helping friend move furniture, haggling in Spanish, Supernatural marathon, meat, costumes, computers, soju.

Red

Pardon my absence, but I did not have internet for two weeks.  I was only supposed to go a few days without it, but there was a mishap with the UPS delivery, and then when I did get the necessary junk, it didn't even work so I had to wait for an AT&T dude to come fix it today.  Le sigh.  

The last few weeks have been a blur of late nights with my former college roommate, Lizzy (fried chicken and donuts while watching Sherlock Holmes 2; drinks at Gaam; bumming around Ikea trying to pronounce Swedish furniture and cookies), solitary evenings with a single beer and leftovers from lunch, and then, those nights where I wanted to crawl out of my skin out of boredom.  In those cases, I grabbed my iPod, pulled on my Dr. Marten's, and just started walking.  One night, I walked three miles up and down Wilshire and 6th Street, no destination in mind, playing the same Metric song over and over before I reluctantly allow it to roll into the next song.  I smoked too much.  I lingered outside restaurants and read the menus before guiltily walking away when I realized someone inside was just waiting for me to come in.  

For two nights, I worked on a drawing using my tablet and the Artrage program.  I had bought a beautiful book on Art Nouveau jewelry at a flea market last winter and used it as inspiration.  I used to really dislike Art Nouveau since it just seemed cheesy, but in the last year, I started to really appreciate it.  It didn't try to be anything "cool"--it was shamelessly dreamy, feminine, and mythic.  It was all women with windswept hair, butterflies with jeweled wings, goddesses with crowns of stars.  Natural and whimsical, asymmetrical and unapologetic.  

It was hard to start a new project again and several times, I just wondered if I was being punished for my lack of interest in art in the last handful of years--like everything I had studied and felt "passionate" about until I was twenty-three had deserted me.  But it wasn't a punishment--it was a reminder.  You want to be good at something?  Fucking do it, then.  I had forgotten how pleasurable it is to create something that is so visual, so immediate in its progress.  With work, it's so hard to be judged, and it's not about talent, it's about the left brain.  

Dean comes back tomorrow, though.  Single life just doesn't suit me well.  But then again, this hasn't really been a "single" life--I've been alone but still in a relationship.  I've started my "new life", but not really.  Part of me kept holding back, giving only 50% because it just felt wrong to go about doing all these things as if I were on my own.  

But overall, even though this last month and a half have sucked, I'm still surviving.  The chorus of  "Dreams So Real" by Metric has become my mantra--"I'll shut up and carry on; a scream becomes a yawn."  Fitting words.  I can bitch and moan, but at the end of the day, none of it seems to matter.  Keep your head up, stay alert at work, don't get run over by a bus on your way home (the buses here are CRAZY, by the way--nearly got sandwiched TWICE driving home today), feed the cat, make the coffee, take out the trash, try to eat something.  Probably the most difficult thing about living by myself in a new place is that I don't have very much food and I can't justify buying a lot.  At least three times in the last month, I've just had some crackers or yogurt for dinner.  It's been the "accidental "single" girl diet" AKA "too lazy to cook, too cheap to buy food diet", which has resulted in me going down a pants size.  It sounds stupid, but I'm kind of pissed off about that.  I have furniture to buy--the last thing I want to do is spend money on more jeans.  All of my expensive designer pairs--7s, Joe's, Paper Denim Cloth, Alice + Oliva--are too big at this point, so I can't even wear damn jeans to work.  

Sigh.  Okay, I should try to get some sleep.  I'm just really, really excited about Dean coming to LA tomorrow...I just want to speed up time.  He will land in 24 hours, but I shouldn't expect him until 11 PM just to be safe.  

Have a great night, whoever is out there.

Coughing Colors

I'm not the kind of person who believes in bad luck, but today was just...off.

It should have been an easy day. I woke up early and called Verizon concerning a $200 overage charge on my joint cell phone bill with my husband, and they--very nicely and professionally--agreed to strike $100 off since it was so out of character for us.  This put me in a great mood, so I happily strolled out of my apartment at ten till eight, ready to get into work an hour or so early.

I got in the car and hooked up my iPod, found a song I liked, and turned the volume way up.  I had only driven a few yards before a parking enforcement officer passed by, stared at my car, then motioned for me to stop.  There was a moment of freak out where I thought he was going to comment on my out-of-state license plate, but after I rolled down my window, he sauntered over, pointed at the back of my car, and said, "You know you have a flat, right?"

An hour and one AAA visit later, I was back on the road with my spare tire (to be honest, I didn't even know I had one until the officer opened up my trunk and fished it out), ready to do some hardcore excel shit.   I got in on time to make my lunch order for the day (we order out from 2 different locations every day and can place the orders on our corporate site)--a rainbow roll and miso soup from a popular Japanese place nearby.  By the time noon rolled around, I was starving but hadn't received the email to pick up my food a reception.  Two hours went by, and all of us in our department were feeling flat out mutinous.  Finally, the girl next to me got a call from the front desk saying, "Uh...did you guys like, want to get your food or what?"  Apparently, the lunch emails "hadn't gone through" and eight of us just hadn't received them.  We all stalked off toward the front only to find that it had been sitting there for hours and the restaurant had forgotten our miso soups.

What happened next?  I spilled soy sauce all over my pants.  I ran to the bathroom to try to clean it off, and in the stall, noticed two things:  1) the seam at the top of my new pants had unraveled completely and 2) my underwear was...inside out.  :(

Ok, so for the good parts of the day: I got to leave work early to...sign the lease on my new apartment!!!!!  Also, I walked to the nearby bookstore and picked up "Salt: A World History" and "The Marriage Plot"--the former I had been wanting for several years and the latter has been on my "want" list since Christmas.  So even though I won't have internet for a few days at my new place, at least I'll have some books to keep me company.

On a random note, here are some pics of my nails.  For the last few months, I've really been into glittery, ridiculously girly polishes.  The reason?  Regular polish chips within a day on me, but a few layers of glitter and I'm good for a week at the least.  

My new place!  There are just these units (each building has one unit on top, one on the bottom).  I have a bottom one and the tree is right outside our window.  And the crazy thing?  It's the same number as my previous apartment.

All the rooms have these gorgeous windows which means LIGHT. FCKING BEAUTIFUL NATURAL LIGHT.

Ok, now I'm going to go shower, pick up a little, and read one of my awesome new books.  Have a great weekend!!

Imagine this: you are at your computer working on a large spreadsheet, earbuds in place, ipod playing some leaked Taylor Swift tracks (because you are a huge dork).  You are innocently bobbing your head along to the music while tapping out some numbers in excel.  And then a neon-colored elephant stuffed animal sails across the room and whacks you right in the back of the head. 

Welcome to Company X.

It's hard to believe it's almost been a month already.  I don't remember if I wrote it here or not, but during my first week, I wished for nothing more than to wake up the next day and realize that a month has gone by--that I'm not the hugest idiot in the room anymore.  And even though the day to day activities have been a slow, uphill battle, when you scale back, everything has moved in hyper-speed.

It's not like I'm doing much during the weeks, though.  I come home from work and head back to my company apartment, then spend the next few hours watching TV on my computer, listening to music, or writing.  It's not a real life--it's like hotel life or something.  But I *did* get an apartment and can move in on Friday!!  It's absolutely fantastic.  It's in a busy part of Ktown but it's down a quiet side street.  There is a courtyard in the center of the complex (just a handful of units).  The unit itself has all hardward floors, 2 bedrooms, and gorgeous, large windows that stretch to the floor.  There is even parking in the back!  And the price?  Well...utilities included, it will be about $500 cheaper than my Maryland place.  Life in the DC suburbs ain't cheap.

My company will drop off all my boxes (they've been sitting in a loading dock for 3 weeks now...I really, really hope no one stole anything) on Saturday morning, and I'll spend the rest of the weekend un-packing.  Hopefully, a friend or two can come over to assist.  Then, I just have to wait another week for Dean to come back from DC (he's been there working).

Suddenly, I'm not in the mood to write anymore.  In fact, I want to go eat a cup of noodles.  Away I go.