Oh snap.

I follow Weird Al's Twitter... naturally... and he sometimes posts videos of random things he does. One happens to be of him in a grocery store.

Long story short? I shop at the same Ralph's as Weird Al Yankovic. Do I feel that my life now has new meaning?

I think I do.

It has been... approximately 3 months and 26 days since I first arrived in Los Angeles. Battered and torn from my university days, I was welcomed into the uncomfortably hot arms of this mostly unforgiving city. Given that I have been to L.A. many many times since my youth, I had an idea of what to expect from living here. And truth be told, I wasn't expecting much.

You see, I come from a city of culture. Los Angeles has it's own, strange culture... but it doesn't really embrace other cultures. Not the way San Francisco does. And I MISS that. I thought, "why is there never anything to do here? What did I USED to do?" And I realized that L.A. is missing two big parts of San Francisco culture/nightlife: cafes with amazing live music ANY night of the week, and pubs. I mean REAL pubs. Not an "Irish pub" which is really just a sports bar covered in green lights. And it's a damn shame!

Michael and I were driving around the other day, marveling at how ugly Los Angeles is... and we had to think about why it's so ugly. I mean really. Why is it so ugly? And we came up with three big reasons. One is the architecture... there is a lot of cheap, decaying apartment or strip mall buildings that are just fugly. Seriously. The second is all the ads. There are signs and billboards and ads all over the place. They even have these ads on wheels that they put on the side of the road everywhere. The third and final reason we came up with was the lack of trees and green stuff in general. Los Angeles is like that nasty girl you see in public without any regard for what she looks like. Lipstick smeared, mascara running, hair tangled, and her thong hanging out of her sweat pants with the word "princess" stamped across her big, misshapen ass.

But people visit, and they think L.A. is nice. So why is that? It's because people go to the nice parts of L.A... Beverly Hills, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, maybe Orange County. Universal City. They don't realize that a good 80% of the city is not a pleasant place to live or even briefly visit.

Lucky for us, Michael and I live in a nicer neighborhood. We pay more for this privilege, and unfortunately it still means that we're surrounded by shitty neighborhoods (Van Nuys and North Hollywood, namely).

It hasn't rained since we moved in mid-June. Most days, it was well above 85 degrees F. The past week, finally, it has been considerably cooler. Maybe in the high 60s to low 70s. Thank Christ. We're all hoping it stays this way. Occasionally, the temperature would cool, and we would mistakenly assume that the weather was changing... only to wake up to another 80 degree morning. But I have a good feeling about this one. So, since the weather has improved, it means Darwin gets longer, more frequent walks. Yesterday, I decided to take my camera with me when I walked Darwin, just to see if I'd find anything photo-worthy on the way.

Dog is photo-worthy.


Dog is still photo-worthy.

Aside from the weather turning, this is really
the only evidence of autumn that I have seen down here.


I love magnolia trees. Mostly because they're beautiful,
but partly because I live off Magnolia Street.

And after such beauty, I came across this little
strange display. I think Darwin found it just as
peculiar as I did. Why is it broken? More importantly,
why is it outside on the front lawn?

As if that wasn't weird enough, I soon found
this. As amused as I was... really, though.
It's not nice to steal someone's scarecrow.

So this is my street, which isn't usually that
exciting. However...

The sky was really vibrant that day.

Santa Monica

Welcome to Santa Monica! Famous for its shopping, dining, and of course, homeless people! According to my friend, a local transplant and fellow Bay Area native, people in Santa Monica think they're better than the city of Los Angeles. She says they don't consider themselves a part of L.A. and she has been corrected more than once that in fact, this isn't Los Angeles.... this is Santa Monica. Little do they know that everyone else thinks they're still in L.A., albeit a slightly nicer part.

Yes, Santa Monica is nicer than downtown L.A., this is true. The weather is also more comfortable, and I myself was very surprised at the fact that I was actually cold as night fell. It was a pleasant change from the sweltering heat of The Valley. Here is how the city compares: Santa Monica: better than North Hollywood, worse than Beverly Hills.

We'll consider it somewhere in the middle. I did enjoy their famous promenade, which was pretty much an outdoor mall. But who doesn't appreciate a good outdoor mall?

There's only one thing that really made this place more superior than your standard outdoor mall, and that is fantastic street musicians. The gentleman pictured here was a phenomenal guitarist, and I actually regret not purchasing his CD.

And while Larissa kept busy shopping for a massage pillow thing...








I kept busy with a foot squeeze machine. I guess if you wanted to have a little respect for the inventors, you might call it a mechanical massager... or something... but really, it was a foot squeeze machine.

After two hours, and $35.00 well spent, we decided to take advantage of the many sushi restaurants Santa Monica has to offer with half-off happy hour. The boyfriend met us at a popular sushi joint, which was so popular we opted for take-out instead. The sushi was great, and you can't beat 32 pieces for $15.00... plus free miso soup and edamame, for two. If you're not going to go to Santa Monica for the shopping and the cold, I recommend you at least go for the sushi. Totally worth it.

Laurel Canyon Dog Park

This is the closest dog park to our house, so we decided to take Darwin here last Friday. I have heard it is a pretty big dog park, but I must have overestimated its size in my head because it was smaller than I thought it would be. Really though, it was a pretty big dog park, with a lot of dogs. There were entire brigades of dog walkers there, herding packs of 30+ dogs! Who does that?? Do dogs ever get left behind? How can you possibly keep track of that many dogs when they aren't really yours? These people are serious professionals, and I was a little intimidated by their dog wrangling skills.

One thing I appreciated about this park that was noticeably different from my experience with San Francisco dog parks, was the lack of idiots and their aggressive mutts. I think during the hour and a half we were there, I may have seen one wussy dog fight. And not one crazy homeless drug addict with a ratty mongrel anywhere in sight! Maybe if we were closer to Santa Monica.


My worthless opinion aside, Darwin seemed to enjoy himself, despite the fact that he refused to stray too far from Michael's side. I do resent the fact that MY dog has taken more to my boyfriend in recent weeks. I maintain that it's because Michael lets Darwin jump up on him.

It was freakin' hot, but some dogs learned to cope.

Not Darwin though, who at this point in time is not a big fan of the water. He was perfectly content sitting next to Michael or occasionally running after a ball.



It all seemed pretty normal until Michael pointed out that one of the gentlemen across the park was a pretty big-name actor, although I haven't personally seen any of his movies. Shortly after, a woman approached the area we were sitting in. Her dog came up to me, and as I quickly fell in love with his sweetness, I hear the woman tell her friend that the dog I was petting was owned by an actress. Her friend says, "a known actress?" Her response was a chuckle before she says "oh yeah." As I sat there, petting some famous person's dog, looking at another famous actor with his dog and tall, tanned, blond girlfriend, I was reminded that I am indeed in Los Angeles now.