Tuesday Mornings

When you work in retail, you pretty much have to give up on the concept of weekends. By and large this doesn't bother me, because it means that the days I do have off are days when everyone else is at work, and there's something to be said for a day off with minimal crowds anywhere you want to go.

This morning I woke up before 6 am to meet my friends for a 7 am SoulCycle class. Afterwards, we wandered over to a cafe and hung out for a bit before we all started our days. While we were waiting for our drinks my friend Taline said something that's been stuck in my head, she said she was going to miss mornings like this when she starts law school in the fall. It made me mentally fast forward, and I thought about how different all our lives will probably be in a year, two years, five years.  I just want to remember this moment in time when we all had no where else to be on a Tuesday morning.

<3

On not being a student anymore

Lola, looking how I felt this summer

This is the first September since I was 5 years old that I did not start a new school year. For the past four years the start of August signaled the start of my last few weeks at home. I start packing right around the second week of August, going room by room and wrangling everything that I'll be taking to school with me into one corner of the house. By the third week of August I've started having nightmares about missing the first day of class (yes, I really did have nightmares about strange circumstances that would keep me away from class on the first day. I really am that big of a nerd). Then it's time to cram everything into my car and start a new semester.

This year is different. Instead of starting something new, I'm pleasantly settled into a routine already, and while it's nice it's also completely unchartered territory for me.

I was so exhausted at the end of last semester I remember thinking, "I just want to be out of school for a while. I just want to have a job, and not have to constantly worry about papers and homework and finals."

In reality the transition from student to regular person was a bit more tumultuous than that. But thankfully friends, this terrible summer is nearly over and I find myself really enjoying things like: being able to read for fun, having days off in the middle of the week, having a job I adore, just having time.

I lost sight of things at the beginning of the summer but now I fully appreciate that this year I'll be able to make all those time consuming recipes I've collected on Pinterest, I'll be able to let my inner Martha Stewart shine, take up new hobbies and do all the things I couldn't do when (almost) every moment of my spare time was spent working on school.

So while I greatly regret the loss of my student discount, I'm going to do my best to savor this new season.

How did you deal with the transition out of being a student?

<3

Book Club: You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried

A couple weeks ago I was logging into my library account and I saw that County of Los Angeles Public Library has an app now! I downloaded it immediately and I'm completely in love with it. Basically it's a glorified shortcut to the COLA website, but the thing that makes it amazing is that it has a barcode scanner so you can scan the back of any book and put a hold on it. You can also manually search, and I could really get used to typing in a title as soon as I hear it and immediately putting a hold on it.

I tested it out when I was house sitting recently and The Breakfast Club was on. The movie was running with little facts at the bottom of the screen. When Bender tells Claire, "You couldn't ignore me if you tried" the fact that popped up said that the line was the title of a book about the brat pack and John Hughes. Using my handy dandy new library app I looked the book up and put a hold on You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and their Impact on a Generation.

I was expecting something more like film theory, but Susannah Gora's book reads a bit like an in depth version of an audio commentary that would run over the collected works of John Hughes. Gora tends to focus more on the drama; which actors bumped heads with Hughes, which films almost went unmade because of the tension on set, who dated who during filming. It was all really interesting, but there were times where Gora's own feelings definitely shone through. At several moments she implies that the actors she interviewed felt one way, even if they said something else to her.

Despite that, I still enjoyed it. Like a lot of American teenagers, John Hughes movies have a special place in my heart, so I liked hearing all the backstage gossip as well as hearing the actors comment on their iconic roles. But now I want to re-watch all the movies Gora mentions. Anyone up for a Hughes film festival?

<3

Fun in LA: Disneyland!

Disneyland is a weird concept, if you think about it. You pay a huge amount of money to get into the park (not counting what you have to pay just to park your car), and once you get inside you're pretty much forced to spend more money if you want to eat or drink anything. This is not to mention the cost of any souvenirs you might pick up. You basically pay for the privilege of spending more money and standing in lines longer than the rides themselves. And yet, on any given day Disneyland is packed!

Maybe this is a symptom of becoming an adult who's more conscious about money (hello student loans), but lately I've been more skeptical of Disneyland even though I love it. Up until this week the last time I had been was almost 3 years ago. Even though we talked about going every time I was home for a break I couldn't justify spending so much money in one place, which is why I was so excited when a co-worker of my mom's offered us free tickets. It may be a strange money-making machine, but you can't deny it's fun. 

We got to go on almost all of our favorite rides, Pirates was closed and I didn't want to lose my hat on Space Mountain so we missed out on those. The guide we had on the Jungle Cruise was hilarious! As it is I'm a fan of cheesy humor and I love puns so the Jungle Cruise is right up my alley, and this guide had the best one-liners I've ever heard on the ride. I realized that I had never been on Peter Pan so we braved the line and it was totally worth the wait. It was a fitting day for my first ride because I finally caved and bought the Peter Pan hat that I had been wanting forever. I also got to have my favorite Disneyland treat, a Pineapple Float, so I was a happy camper.

One of my favorite things to do at Disneyland is peek into the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and see the little ones getting their hair done like princesses. Honestly I don't know what it is because when I was that little I don't think I would have liked being in the princess dress or having a bunch of glitter in my hair (I had a very strong anti-tulle stance), but seeing the looks on those little kids faces as they get their hair done is too much for me. I just see them there looking like they've never been happier, and how it really is a magical experience for them and it gets me right in the tear ducts. 

As always my mom is not pictured, but rest assured, she had fun as well. 

Outside Club 33

Jungle Cruise

Pineapple Float

Waiting for Captain EO


End of the day, photo credit: mom

Fireworks! Photo credit: mom

All in all it was a magical day, so mission accomplished Disneyland. 

<3

Los Angeles

I was born and raised in LA, so it might come as a bit of a surprise when I say that I really don't like it here.

I remember being little and thinking I was so lucky to have been born in LA where I was close to the beach, the mountains, and Disneyland; I thought it was amazing that I was from a place that some people dream about going, when I could have been born somewhere boring in the middle of nowhere.

By the time I was in high school I was starting to feel differently, so when I was applying for college I set my sights on the Bay area and narrowed the search down from there. As most of you know, I ended up at Mills and fell head over heels in love with Oakland and the Bay, which cemented the thought that had been growing in my mind that LA was not for me.

When I was studying abroad in London, I would have a moment at some point almost everyday where something would make me pause and think "I can't believe this is my life. I live here." Whether I was doing something completely routine like swiping my Oyster card to get in and out of the tube or something life-altering like seeing a play at the Globe, this thought was never far from my mind while I lived in London. I had recaptured the feeling I used to have as a kid. Oakland made me happy but London made me feel lucky.

Currently, while I gear up for my next big adventure, I am living in LA. And I don't want to be here hating it, so in an effort to appreciate my hometown more I'm going to start a new series of posts called Fun in LA. (I'm not sure if I'm really feeling that name, so it may change.) I'll be seeking out cool things in LA and posting about them here.

How do you feel about your hometowns??

<3