Dan started work at his internship at the label on Monday so we basically only had Sunday to get settled. He looked very cute on his first day and I made him a sandwich and forced him to take a couple of pictures. Proud poopfancée.
He really likes it so far. He has mornings off so we've been able to have breakfast and coffee together every day, and that's our favorite so that's great. When he was off doing that, I was either organizing unpacked boxes in a way that we could navigate around them, unpacking, or shopping for stuff we needed once I got my car. That was a whole other thing.
On Sunday Dan and I went to the VW dealership to get me a car. My first and only car was a used GTI, Dan's old GTI. And by old I mean it was purchased brand new in 2010 and I bought from him in 2012. I loved that car. It was perfectly sized for me, super good ride, in excellent condition and always keeping me safe. I was very sad to see it go, but we had a nice life together. She, Baby Car, went to a good owner who will love her as much as I did.
I wanted to get a car that I felt comfortable and safe in because of how nuts it is to drive in LA and how little I know about where everything is. Dan agreed that it'd be best to get me something new just to know I'd always be good. I have never gone to a dealership for myself before and let me just say - slime slime slime slime slime. Our guy was great at first. Took us out in a GTI and a Golf for test drives, great conversations, and then back to the office to talk $$. We had in our heads what we wanted and were willing to do. Instead of just breaking it down and being like hey, we won't make money from that, we need this from you and this from you, he just haggled with us and made me think that my offer wasn't too low. I mean he let me know it was low without just f*cking saying it, which was so dumb and a big waste of all of our time. He'd lower the monthly and add a year on to the lease, he'd lower the monthly and write "+ tax" after it, so he didn't REALLY lower it. We made the decision to walk out and his manager met us on the way and then told us to sit tight - that he could find the color I wanted and the interior I wanted for the price I wanted. He dangled THE car in front of my face and said he had to track it down at another dealership. Twenty minutes later, turns out that car was already sold BUT we can sell you this souped up, top of the line car and basically "give it away" to me for the low monthly price of MORE THAN MY BUDGET ONCE AGAIN. It was a nightmare. We left feeling exhausted and deflated after like 3.5 hours. Dan had to start work and I was going to be stuck in the apartment without a car. Luckily my friend Courtney, who has lived in LA for years and is the toughest non-lawyer negotiator I've ever known, offered to come with me during the week. Long story short, she did, I got the car I wanted at a different dealership, the guy gave it to me straight and I stretched a little bit to make it work. Having her there as a sounding board and a strong person to keep everything moving the way it should was so valuable. I drove out of there a few hours later with a fancy new carbon steel metallic VW GTI and we met up with Dan and her husband Matt after work for dinner and drinks. A big sigh of relief and one more thing checked off the list.
Those of you on social media know that one of the big things we dealt with during the week has been a pretty horrifying one - cockroaches. We have never lived in a place, together or apart, where we've had to deal with anything other than ants. And yes, we realize that we have been pretty lucky. So apparently in LA it's more common that they're coming out because of the drought. They're just hanging out by water sources and watered plants, etc. Mostly we were seeing a few on the front porch because that's where plants are. We were horrified but got some traps and spray after talking to our fellow building mates. One night I was putting a paper grocery bag under the kitchen sink to add to the collection I had and I saw a big black something run along the back of the cabinet. I knew what it was and closed the cabinet and jumped back. Dan threw a trap in there and sprayed a little bit, and also sprayed outside the house around doors and windows. We went to sit in the living room and kind of forgot about it, and then I saw that big black something come out of the cabinet and on to the rug in front of the sink. Olive did, too. She chased it around against the wall and I did NOT want to see that face off. I grabbed the cats and locked them in rooms and Dan began spraying the ever loving sh*t out of it. That thing would not die, which I knew because of a cockroach face off my sister and I had at her apartment in NYC a while back. It climbed up our WALL where Dan sprayed it more. It climbed on a stack of stools we had sitting there. It went back down to the ground and ran toward the gigantic pile of Dan's music gear and that's when Dan took a dust pan to it and ended it's disgusting life. He took it outside and I began washing everything down with hot soapy water - the floor, the stools, the dustpan, etc.. We threw everything involved in cleaning out (face cloth, tupperware I used to put the water in, paper towels) just to avoid any potential cockroach eggs or the spray to kill them remaining in the apartment, and then I did one last wash of the floor once everything was taken care of. It was about a two hour ordeal and we did not relax until we woke up the next morning after a TERRIBLE night of sleep. We were truly freaked out.
We were mostly okay the next day until we saw a BUNCH on our porch that night when our neighbor was watering her plants. We talked to her about it for a bit. Everyone seems great, and she's been in the building for 10 years. We're trying to keep that in mind when we get freaked out about the roaches. If it was that big of a problem for the person who is on the same level as us who shares the porch with us, why would she have stayed here for 10 years? But yeah, they were milling all around when she was watering so we all kind of scurried in after a few minutes of that. We also have bars in front of all of our windows and doors, and one of them was sitting on top of the bar in front of the window next to our front door, its gigantic antennas moving around under our porch light. Dan went out there and murdered him as well, haha, and sprayed a whole lot more around our door. It's been relatively cockroach-free since then and we've been sleeping better. That's great and all, but from what we hear, they just find other ways to get in. We're dealing with that when we have to. Generally we're trying to clean dishes and store food in a secure way and making sure that the cat's food dishes aren't left on the ground, etc. Pray for us.
We live in Larchmont Village. We're about a 7 minute walk from Larchmont Boulevard which has a ton of shops and restaurants. We've eaten at half of the restaurants there so far and we have loved trying them. The thing we missed when we lived in the suburbs in MA was having access to a downtown city area like that, so it's been really great having that and enjoying it. We are actually going to a farmers market that they have down there in a little bit to get some fruit and veggies. We also are a few blocks away from Paramount Studios, which is totally bananas. We walked by it on our way home from dinner on the boulevard last night. Cra-zy.
We also were eating dinner a few tables down from a guy who has been on Broad City and You're the Worst, as well as his cute daughter and his actress wife, so that was crazy. Apparently we're supposed to get used to seeing famous people. That should be interesting/impossible for me. <- total dork.
We're pretty centrally located to a lot of neighborhoods that we like, like Los Feliz, Atwater Village, Hollywood, downtown LA, so we haven't had to go too far for anything yet aside from the IKEA we went to yesterday. That was in Burbank, and even that was pretty close, but it felt like a hike because it's much hotter over there and IKEA on a Saturday? Woof. Also, we drove by Warner Bros. Studios on our way there and I geeked out because that's where Grease Live! was filmed, as well as Pretty Little Liars and other exciting things. Back to IKEA - we got in there and got cube storage for our clothes, a coffee table and a new lampshade for the one that was a casualty during the move. Last night we put everything together and had alcohol delivered to us. I know how lazy that sounds, but we have street parking and you basically can't get a spot after like 7pm. We've been uber'ing and getting delivery whenever we can. The girls really like the way we're storing our clothes now.
We're likely tipping one of these shelves on their side and making a little bureau out of it. We'll see.
We went to Santa Monica for a little beach day on Friday. It was a little traffic heavy but not too bad, and I got to show off my wheels a bit more. It was a gorgeous day to be at the beach. I got a little burnt on my back despite sunblock efforts, but I'm surviving. The water was so refreshing. I'm hoping to enjoy the beach as much as possible while we're here. I have been close to beaches my whole life and never capitalized on it.
I start PT work at Paper Source tomorrow and I'll also work on Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoon/night. It will be nice to have a mission. I can't sit around for too long without getting bored. It literally has been three weeks since my last day at the firm which is insane. It's been good to have a break though. I really needed it after the last few months of that job. I am continuing to e-mail and network and apply as much as possible for jobs that I am excited about. Crossing fingers that my diligence during this transitional period will pay off.
Overall, we are both doing well. We're slowly but surely getting the apartment unpacked and situated. We are mostly done buying stuff aside from the bed frame that we still need. We will both be working as of tomorrow. We both have vehicles. We have made all of the necessary address changes. I applied for health and dental insurance (Dan still needs to). The cats are doing super well and actually getting along very well, which is totally strange. Olive is getting comfortable everywhere.
My favorite part is that we are both happy and feeling a bit free and like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders. Sure, we miss our family and our friends, and I don't see that ever changing. We both were feeling weighed down by priorities and by the routines we had gotten ourselves into and it made everything harder for us. This adventure tested our strength and our confidence, and navigating a new place together has been so good for us in so many ways. We haven't felt this close or happy being together this consistently for a while, and that's after being stuck in a truck with two whining cats for 9 days! We always feel close and happy being together, but when you're unhappy about the rest of your life it's different. We were relying on each other for happiness rather than just being happy, and there is a big difference there. I'm hoping it continues to build us up and make us a stronger team.
I've gotten questions from a few people who are maybe thinking of making the same move about how we did this move and about what decisions we made. I'm thinking my next post will break that down. If anyone has specific questions, write in the comments and I'll include it in the next post!
Thanks for reading, and happy Sunday!
-A
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