One month in

It's now the last weekend of October and I've been in LA for a full month. Some things have gone as expected, others not, but I I'm extremely glad I moved. Best decision I've made in a long time. First good decision I've made in a long time, maybe. Considering the derth of horrible decisions I've made since graduating from high school, the good ones really stand out. Going to the Naval Academy was a bad decision, dropping out was a good one. Going to UC Berkeley was a terrible decision that marked the beginning of four years of almost impossibly bad decision-making, interrupted only by brief moments of lucidity when I joined Sigma Chi and decided to study abroad in Brazil. I finally feel like my life's getting on a tennable course. Probably the biggest surprise has been how much I like my job.

I've hated every other job I've had since college. In fact, the only other job I've ever enjoyed was when I was an intern at Merrill Lynch before I graduated. When I applied for my current job, I figured I was going to like it about as much as I liked working at the law firm I worked at in Palo Alto. I was coming to terms with the fact that every job I was going to have for the rest of my life was going to suck and that's just the way it had to be. Somehow though, I like my job. I look forward to going to work every day because every day is an opportunity to make money. My future is entirely my own to determine. I know that if I work my ass off, I can make a lot of money. I don't have to waste my time doing stupid procedural shit and I don't need to sit around and wait for work to come to me. I'm no man's bitch and I can respect my bosses because they got there not through office politics and meaningless degrees but hard work combined with ability. I'm an intense guy and I need a job that's high-energy and fast paced. Especially now that I don't drink much, I need something towards which I can devote my excess energy. This job is the perfect solution. I work ten hour days every day except Saturday when I work four or five hours and Sunday when I don't work at all. Whereas at my last job every second seemed to last an eternity, at my current job the hours and days fly by at the blink of an eye.

In other accomplishments, I haven't been drunk in over a month, I've been working out regularly, I've been getting lots of sleep, and I've found a church I like a lot and I haven't missed mass since I've been down here. It sucks that I was in a car accident, and it sucks even more that it looks like I'm not going to get any sort of compensation for it. More still is sucks that I don't have the money to get my car fixed so I'm stuck driving a wreck around town. Honestly though, it doesn't even bother me that much. I can still get to work and back, and I hated that car anyway. I'd hated it since the moment I bought it and I hated it every time I drove it. Sure, I hate it more now, but it's not like it was a prize posession or anything. More than anything it gives me great motivation to go and bust my ass at work to make enough to finish paying it off then go buy a different car.

Looks like the Big Game luncheon is once again a no-go for me. No way will I be able to get that weekend off. Maybe next year, though if I still have this job (and at this point I hope I do), I already know the answer.

The good and the bad.

Four days into it, my job and it's going well. Very well in fact. So far I actually like it a lot and I'm confident I made the right choice.

I got into a car accident the other day. The other guy T-boned me on my way to work. He got out of his car and tried to blame it all on me but it was his fault (he was crossing a busy intersection, driving in a right-turn only lane, and going way too fast) so hopefully his insurance will cover it.

My car's fucked. I took it by a shop my insurance company reccomended the other day and they said it's more than likely totaled. He hit me in the passenger side door and right front fender and the people at the body shop said there's a pillar right there and if it's bent, that's it. The car still drives okay so I can get to work, but there's a gap at the top of the passenger side door of about two and a half inches where the door doesn't close because it's been bent. Monday I'm taking it into one of the body shops reccomended by his insurance to get it checked out, and Monday or Tuesday the claims adjuster will contact me to get my side of the story. I'm hoping he's honest with his insurer, but my hopes aren't high. He seemed like a real asshole at the time. I wish I had a digital camera with me. If I did I would have taken pictures of the scene to show to the insurance people. Really I just hope I don't get screwed.

Employment.

I am pleased to announce that I now have a job. I sell mortgages. I am also pleased to announce that I found a mash-up of Nelly and Lynyrd Skynyrd. It's the rap of Country Grammar over the music of Sweet Home Alabama. I'm a big fan.

This news comes none too soon (the job, not Nelly). Wish me luck that my job may prove fruitful and provide me with many bones with which to engage in future pursuits.

I've been thinking, and contrary to what I stated in my last post, I'm going to do everything in my power to come to Big Game Luncheon. I can't miss it. Big Game Luncheon and the Bago Trip have been the two high points of my life for the past six years. Unfortunately, my time on bago trips has passed. At least Steve, Saper, and I got together to do a last Bago trip in style last year. All the other guys on the Bago were great too. Seriously: one of the best Bago's ever, beat only by the first one we took to Vegas. That one will live in fame. Even now that the young guys have long since forgotten where the idea of taking a bago to Vegas came from, we remember when the idea had never been broached. Then we did it anyway. But now that the Bago trips have given way to maturity (at least until one of us gets married and we bago to the wedding), I really can't miss Big Game Luncheon. That's one of those things you never get too old for. On the contrary, your presence is appreciated more and more the older you get. I can't make any certain promises yet because I don't know enough about my new job and taking days off, but like I said I will do everything in my power to be there.

This one's for you, T-Bone

I've had a lot of job interviews recently, since I'm without a job and philisophically disagree with taking government handouts. I've been either early or late to each one, mostly since I don't know LA that well yet and I have no idea what traffic is going to be like in certain places at different times of the day. Because of this I often find myself explaining to the person I'm interviewing with that I moved here only recently. People are always sympathetic when they hear this and they ask me where I moved from. Three seperate times now, when I've told people that I moved from San Francisco they've been surprised. They've each said the same thing: "Really? But doesn't everyone up there hate it down here?" I know you love to hear that, Johnny D. Of course they all say the same thing about San Francisco: "San Francisco's a nice place to spend a weekend, but I'd never want to live there." Now that's something I can agree with.

Monday Update

It's raining like no other in LA right now. The forecast said showers but this is much more of a downpour than a shower. For once Johnny D's claims of the weather in SF being better than the weather down here are true. Enjoy it while it lasts.

I got a job offer today so even if nothing else comes through I won't be unemployed for much longer. It's in Tarzana which is in the Valley so it's not optimal. My interview there reminded me of the movie Boiler Room. In fact it wasn't just that it reminded me of it, it was exactly like Boiler Room. I even got hit with a version of the "If you come to work at this company, you will make your first million within three years" speach by a guy wearing a Rolex that cost probably as much as my parents house and italian leather shoes worth more than my car. I won't lie: it was tempting. The bullshit meter was going off pretty hard. If something seems too good to be true, it usually is. The idea that I, with my current qualifications and skills, could make as much money as that guy was saying without breaking major US drug trafficing laws is a hard one for me to swallow. But hey, even if I didn't make nearly that much money, that office, along with the entire community of Tarzana, is full of girls who are hot and ethnic. My other main lead is looking solid as well. I talked to the recruiter this morning and she said that as soon as hiring me is officially approved by the Area Manager (with whom I interviewed two weeks ago) they will be able to extend me a formal offer. Will I be employed by the middle of this week? I know not, but I am hopeful. The downer is that with either one of these jobs I probably won't be able to go to Big Game Luncheon. Both of them would require me to work most weekends, and they're sales jobs so taking a lot of time off would not be a good idea. If I do miss is, it will be the first Big Game Luncheon I've missed after going to six in a row starting in 1999. Especially after last year and what was possibly the best Big Game Luncheon ever, that would be a damn shame. We'll see what I can do, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Weekend Summary

Looks like I was a little overly optimistic in hoping I'd have a job to go to tomorrow. I'm still unemployed, but things are looking good. Hopefully I'll have good news to report soon.

My weekend was pretty boring since no money equals no going out. Not a bad kind of boring though. I watched the football games yesterday, both Cal v. OSU and Notre Dame vs. USC. The Notre Dame game was the best college football game I've seen since Cal's triple-overtime victory over USC two years ago and the second-best college football game I've ever seen. The Cal game this weekend was a debacle. We all saw it. Now it's become clear: Cal was grossly over-rated. We're the number four team in the Pac 10, maybe the number 5 or 6. We're a middling team in an average conference. If Cal played in the SEC we'd be viewed as a bad team. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. Now we're back to being Cal. I guess you can only hide from reality for so long.

Today Gary and I went out to lunch with my aunt in West Holywood. I guess it should go without saying that there were lots of hot girls there. Saying "there were lots of hot girls there" about places I go to in LA is kind of like saying that I went to the sea and "it was salty". Yeah, no shit.

I also got a chance to walk around the UCLA campus a little bit this weekend. Nice place. If I ever go back to school I'd love for it to be there. LA's the best city on earth and UCLA's a reknown university with a stunning campus, right in the middle of LA's best neighborhoods.

Another thing LA has that San Francisco noticably lacks is good radio. Both classic rock stations in the SF Bay Area lick ass. They have terrible morning shows and they play the same music over and over again. I know there are more than 150 classic rock songs worthy of radio play. Why play the same one's day in and day out? KLOS here is good about that. They play a great variety of music. Same with KZLA, the country station down here. SF didn't even have a country station. Proof positive that all those hipster faggots and left wing dandies have shitty taste in music. KZLA is one hell of a station. You'll hear everything from the new Lonestar song to classic Travis Tritt. At nights they even play the real classics: Waylon, Willie, Johnny, etc. I love country music. I don't understand how people can say they like all kind of music "except country". Actually, I do understand. It's ignorance and closemindedness. That's unfortunate. They're missing out.

Ralph's, Von's, and jobs

In San Francisco there is a Safeway at Bay and Laguna known by most as the Marina Safeway. It's a somewhat famous establishment as it has the best looking women of any supermarket in SF. It's really the one destination-supermarket in the city and as a result it's always crowded. Other than that, people pretty much go to whatever supermarket's closest to their house. I used to go to the Albertsons out on Fulton (probably the best supermarket in the city) when I lived on Fulton St., then I later switched to the Marina Safeway when I moved to Vallejo St. In general I hated shopping up there. I didn't have a parking spot and parking in my neighborhood was a motherfucker. What this meant was anytime I wanted to go shopping, I'd have to give up whatever spot I'd found, drive to the store, come back and park in the driveway while unloading my groceries, then leave my groceries sitting on the kitchen floor while I drove around for the next half hour looking for a parking spot. Because going shopping was such an ordeal, I put it off for as long as I possibly could. This meant that everytime I went shopping I had to buy tons of shit, thus making shopping an even greater ordeal. Worst of all is that the Marina Safeway is way overhyped. There aren't many hot girls there, despite the rumors. More than most other supermarkets around there, sure, but that's not saying much.

Here I have a parking spot so I go to the store all the time. I pick up a few things then come back, park in my spot, and come inside with no delay. There are three supermarkets close enough to go to on a regular basis: a Von's, an Albertson's, and a Ralph's. I'll start with the Ralph's. This place is everything the Marina Safeway was purported to be but wasn't. Every time I go into this place I encounter hot girls. Really hot. Sometimes I think the place hires models to come in and pretend to shop. On average I'd say I spend about 10 minutes longer there than necessary because the scenery so distracts me. I'll forget why I went down an aisle, pass by the aisle I'm supposed to go down while staring at something else, and so forth. Ralph's is an upscale market and it's very new and modern. The problem with Ralph's is that everything costs about 20% above the standard reasonable price. I'm not kidding about that either. Things in there range from a moderate ripoff to absolute highway robbery.

Von's is the opposite, at least in terms of the newness. It's old and dilapidated, just like every other Von's in LA, but everything is cheap. Oddly enough, after two trips to different Von's I have noticed that the stuff they sell is of decidedly higher quality than Ralph's. Certainly not what I had expected. It's not really too much of a shock as Von's is owned by Safeway and half the things there even say "Safeway" on them, and Safeway is good, as far as grocery stores go. Gary assures me that there are hot girls at Von's too, but I haven't seen it so far. I'm sure it can be decent, but the demographic pulled to Von's is not the same as the one at Ralph's. And Albertson's, it falls somewhere in the middle of these two in both cost and niceness.

The result of all this is a quandry everytime I go out to get groceries. Do I go to Ralph's where I know there are going to be lots of beautiful women to distract me from the fact that I'm getting fucked in the ass by the prices I'm paying? Or do I go to Von's and pay a reasonable amount for my groceries but miss out on all the women? The choice is a pretty tough one because I don't go out much because I'm unemployed and don't have much money. As a result I want to see as many hot girls as I can as part of my daily routine. However, since I don't have a job or a lot of money, I should go to Von's. Talk about a catch 22. Today I went to Von's.

Speaking of jobs, I'm getting close and I'm pretty sure I'll be employed by the beginning of next week. I had an interview this morning, I've got a 4th interview with another company this evening, and I've got two more with different companies tomorrow. I'm just that good.

Another team lets me down

After spending the day in the OC yesterday taking care of some business, I drove up to the Rose Bowl to watch Cal play UCLA. I left Irvine at 4:30pm, about the same time as the kickoff, and arrived for halftime. I bought a ticket off a scalper and went in to meet Gary, Miklos, and Dyer. The stadium was packed and Cal had a solid lead so things were looking good but Cal just couldn't make it happen. It was aweful. If you want to know the play-by-play go to espn.com because thinking about it still pisses me off.

After the game, Miklos and Josh were headed to some party in Hermosa Beach but Gary and I declined to go. We instead went home and did nothing, which I am actually pretty glad about. I have now gone two weekends in a row without having so much as one beer. It's been over a year since I've done that, and it feels great. It's been partly out of necessity: since I don't have a job it would be foolish of me to drop tons of jack at the bars. Mainly though it's been by choice. Other than attractive women and good weather, another factor motivating my move was a desire to make some significant life changes. Living in the Bay Area I felt like my life was stuck in first gear. I'd spend the week working at a job I didn't like, and spend the weekends drinking so I could get my mind off it. I wasn't getting anything done, I wasn't working towards any goals in particular, and I felt like my life was going nowhere. I'd wake up every morning and realize that I was just a day older with nothing to show for it.

Now that I am somewhat distanced from my life up there I see that I was 100% correct. My life's taking a dramatic turn now and it's for the better. I don't have a job and pretty soon I'm going to have lots of bills to pay, but I'm not scared. I'll find something. More importantly I'm starting to chisel out a path for myself, a future with concrete goals to pursue. If this comes at the cost of a financial uncertainty, so be it.

Another Day

For all those I haven't spoken to or e-mailed, LA is great. It got up into the low 90's today. The first thing I need to buy when I get a job is a barbecue. Every evening I can smell the scent of charcoal and lighter fluid in the air. We've got a patio perfect for grilling and just begging for a couple of chairs and a grill.

I love barbecuing. Back in college I was up on the roof of the fraternity at every opportunity, drinking cold beers and grilling sausages and burgers. Since college I've barbecued maybe twice. Some of the guys at my old place barbecued a lot more than me, but to me it's just not the same grilling when it's uncomfortably cold outside. Of course that's SF pretty much all the time. Some people get used to it, some people hate it more and more every day until they move away because they can't stand it anymore.

There are all kinds of grills out there these days: gas, charcoal, charcoal with gas-assist. I'm a charcoal guy myself. I like the taste and it's a lot more convenient to go out and buy charcoal than to get a gas container refilled. I've got my eyes on one of those weber charcoal grills with the one-touch cleaning system. Even more convenient. The first thing I'm going to grill is blue cheese burgers. Next on the list after a grill is a vaccuum. That I'm not so particular about. As long as it keeps the living room clean, it's alright with me.

UPDATE: I just checked and while it's currently 61 in San Francisco, it's 84 here. 23 degrees is a big difference...just glad I'm on the right side of it.

Down They Go

What to say about the Giants. I believed in them, believed that they could beat the Padres, and believed that they could make it to the playoffs, even in this year of mediocrity. I was wrong. Wrong about the Giants and wrong about the A's. Not a good year in Bay Area baseball. At least the A's have a bright future. They've got a lot of young talent with a lot of promise for next year. The Giants on the other hand...unless Brian Sabean makes some major changes in the off-season, the Giants are going to be bad for some time to come. I love the Giants so I hate to say it, but it's painfully true. With their fifth-in-a-row loss today, this one coming at the hands of the Diamondbacks, the Giants have assured themselves a third place finish in the miserable NL West. Congratulations.

LA's great so far. The weather's awesome (of course) and I bought a lamp so my room isn't dark anymore. I went for a run this morning after a two-week forced layoff (I accidentally left my running shoes down here before I went back up to SF) and it was great. Every time I run down here it affirms why I moved. The fact that I can run even at 7am and do so comfortably in a t-shirt, rather than the sweatshirt I wore up there, is in and of itself reason to move. Seeing hot girls while I'm out running is nice too.

I need a job badly. I've been down here for a day and already I'm bored. I've got a lot of cleaning and unpacking to do around here so that will keep me busy for the first part of next week, but I need to find something to fill up my weekdays. I've said before that down here I'm going to have time for two things: working out and making money. Anything that is not directly related to either of those two things and doesn't involve keeping my apartment clean is an unacceptable waste of time. I'm looking pretty strongly at going back into sales, at least for the time being. I'm good at sales and there's lots of money there so it's a big draw. It can be very time consuming, but that's not an issue for me.