Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Transition

Captain's Log

First impression of Los Angeles was sun. Lots of sun. I'm reminded how four years in the shadow of skyscrapers has turned my skin its pearly pale, completely inadequate for the desert heat. The second impression was space. Highways and byways and crossways and longways, and of course, the car culture that comes with it... but everyone knows those two factors of Californay. What it did was put me in an immediate sense of vacation and I suddenly understood why the lackadaisical nature of working here is so attractive to some people. New York is my first love but it's much easier on the blood pressure to stress out on the beach than on the manhattan roofdeck.

I found my apartment by moving in with a friend who graduated from NYU two years ago. I didn't know what the apartment looked like really well or, frankly, cared where it was or its size, because I was just thankful I didn't have to bear the search for housing after coming over.


I live in this beautiful condo complex in Burbank, such a far cry in design from my apartment in a Financial District high rise. The apartment itself just stuns me because it has a living room, dining room, kitchen, second floor and separate bedrooms, four times as many rooms as my place in Manhattan, and only half the cost. We even have a balcony (although the only entrance is through someone's bedroom) with the best view of the community pool:


To think that I even have access to a pool is blasphemy to me. In addition to two flatmates there are two kitties as well, one of them an adorable kitten named Lyra that I'm having a blast messing with.

But these treats don't come without peril. I'm barely out of the concrete jungle and I've already had a brush with nature. The kitten ran out the front door one time and I had to stick my hand into a den of cobwebs to retrieve her from behind a flowerpot. Later on my roommate freaked out upon discovering the spider the nest belonged to was a Black Widow. She poured the entire contents of a spider spray bottle on it and it laid on its back with its thick, sticklike legs twitching and the red hourglass like a beacon on its abdomen. It appears I unknowingly had miraculously evaded being bit by the most venomous spider in North America.

Despite such brushes with death, I've accepted LA wholly in a matter of days. I actually very much like it here, and have no real qualms yet about driving short distances in traffic, as long as I have my iPod running which I listened to incessantly on the subway anyways. Many of the major Studios are located in Burbank (Disney, Warner Brothers, NBC), and it is often in a normal commute to have to drive alongside them. It's probably just me being a newbie to this whole thing, but there is a comfort (or maybe an excitement) in being in a place where film is so highly celebrated.

The sun sets in alignment with the street.

1 comment:

David Laszlo Birinyi said...

That place looks absolutely beautiful. Makin' me eager for the move! However, I still need to find an apartment.