For the last few weeks, I’ve been at home in LA seeing family and friends and trying not to stress myself out too much (and failing and stressing anyway) about finding a job. It’s kind of funny to me that even though I haven’t lived here since I left for college 12 years ago, LA is still in some ways my home. At any rate, I’ve given up on having a simple answer when people ask where I’m from; I’ve had too many addresses in the last ten years that have all become homes to me in one way or another.
To keep from stressing out too much, I’ve been trying to keep busy. There are always things I like to do when I’m in LA – go out to breakfast with my dad, drink margaritas at los toros, mother-daughter shopping day(s), catching up with friends (I can be a terrible friend when it comes to staying in touch, and still manage to have wonderful and understanding friends anyway, which is the best). But this time, Kyle and I got to do a whole bunch of things that I either hadn’t done in a looooong time, or had never done at all!
One thing I’ve always wanted to do in LA is to go to the Magic Castle, which is the headquarters of the Academy of Magical Arts. You can’t just head over and walk in though – you have to be invited by a member. My mom’s friend Ellen has been a long time member of the club, and invited us for a private tour and to spend the evening watching magic shows. You basically walk through this incredible mansion filled with all kinds of hollywood/magician memorabilia, and in all of the different bars and nooks and crannies there are people doing crazy close-up magic. It blew my mind. You aren’t allowed to take any pictures inside, but pictures really wouldn’t do it justice anyway.
We went to Paint Nite with my parents and two of their friends. Drinking + painting = so much fun!
One day we decided we couldn’t take sitting inside and applying for jobs all day anymore, so we took a day trip up to Ventura and Santa Barbara. We drove way up into the mountains, and the view was incredible. We also found a piece of property for sale with a guest house and 300 avocado trees for the low, low price of $3.2 million. Just in case you were trying to figure out what to get us for Christmas this year.
Apparently, there are all kinds of cool things in Van Nuys that I had no idea about. We went to a restaurant with Kyle’s aunt Pam that sits right next to Van Nuys airport – you eat brunch while watching all kinds of charter planes take off and land. There’s also a new brewery called Macleod’s Ale House that has some really good beers.
We shipped our bikes back to LA so that we would be able to use them to get around while we were home. We took them over to Santa Monica and biked 30 miles along the coast to El Segundo and back. It was incredibly tiring, but also amazing. It helped that it was a gorgeous day to be at the beach!
One of the absolute highlights of our trip was getting to go to Disneyland with Kyle’s mom, who pulled some strings with a friend and got us in for free! We had a blast, and only waited in line for Star Tours (which now involves 3D glasses and made all of us nauseous). It was the first time I’ve ever been when it was decorated for Halloween, and I even got Kyle to go on Space Mountain with me!
Even though we did a lot of stuff, I was mostly just glad to get to spend lots of time hanging out at home with these two.
Now we’re on our road trip back to DC! After two looooooong days of driving and a one-day stop in Santa Fe, NM, we’re in Austin, TX. We’re planning on heading to New Orleans, Atlanta, Savannah, and Charleston on our way back. Our timeline and itinerary are still pretty fluid depending on if/when jobs are finalized, but it looks like it’s only a matter of time right now. At any rate, it’s good to be on the road again!
The Uprooted Path 