I'm Not A Racist But...

Day 2: I woke up early and drove out to Santa Monica. I wanted to see what it's like before commiting to the loft in Hollywood. It's a very nice area that's probably lots of fun if you don't work for a living. I would have been glad to live around there but for the commute. I timed my visit there so that I could do a test run of my commute to burbank from there.

I ended up "leaving" at 8:45 and got to burbank by 9:15ish. Traffic was really light so I was a bit suspicious of my results. I think easter had something to do with it. The rain might also be a factor since it seems people here are not used to driving in any kind of weather so they freak out at the sight of rain and avoid the roads.

After I got to burbank and drove past my workplace, I got a call back from a lady I had called yesterday about seeing her place in santa monica. Once I told her where I am working she basically said I am welcome to see the place if I want, but the commute would kill me. Probably the 5th person discouraging me from doing that to myself. So I decided that it makes more sense to live close to work since I'll be going there way more than the beach (unfortunately).

Eventually I made my way around the big hill and ended up in Hollywood. I went to the famous Mel's Diner for breakfast. It was pretty tasty and what you'd expect from diner food. The only expensive bit was a shot glass full of freshly squeezed OJ. $2.50 for that sucker but I need the vit-C in the morning. After that I went to the bank to open an account. The girl who was helping me was pretty cool in spite of her braces with elastics on. We got to talking quite a bit about what there is to do in the city and how crazy I am for paying through the nose for a loft in Hollywood when she is paying peanuts for a nice place in Glendale, which, from everything I've heard is where people go to die. Her only complaint was that everyone in Glendale is Armenian and nosy. After that we got to talking about the immigration conflict that's going on here. Although it's a national issue I guess since we're so near the mexican border people here are very affected by it. She said "I'm not a racist but..." which if you don't know is what people say just before they say something racist. She said the workers have no right to be here because they just came illegally when they could have done it the right way. She also mentioned something about building a big anti-mexican wall. Anyway, I tried to explain the immigrant's point of view, especially since they're so close to the border, it's like working on one side of the street for shit-all and if you cross it you get paid well, of course you'd cross the damned street. And who cares, anyway? Aren't they doing the work that no American wants to do? I like the variety of taco restaurants here, damn it.

After that I came back to the hotel for a bit and got a call from the loft to come over to finalize things, so I jetted back there and spent a couple of hours doing the various boring things that in the end resulted in the not-so-boring getting of the keys to my place! I'm very happy with the choice and even though it's expensive, I don't care, it'll be worth it if my commute is short and my drunken stumble home from bars is too. I will, however, be living in what has been described to me by Shoebox as the hooker capital of Los Angeles (and maybe the world). I will do my best to resist the temptation. Actually it'll be easy.

Tomorrow I will move my stuff into the place and go shopping for necessities like cookware and groceries. Also need to start hitting the car dealerships in search of el camino.

Random notes:

I passed by a restaurant called Ghenghis Cohen. I thought it was funny.

After picking up my dinner sub, I turned into a turn lane and had to cut into the next lane in order to go straight. I happened to be cautiously cutting off a black man. I was looking in the side mirror to make sure he was letting me in and I saw him stick his whole head out the window and yell "MOVE MOTHERFUCKER!!". It was amazing. Part of me was hoping he'd pull a gun at the next light so that this would be a Real L.A. Story, but alas he didn't even look at me.