Every year I get older, but it gets clearer

With my birthday just last week I started to reflect on the past year. And what a hellish year it has been! On August 19, 2009, I went through the hardest and most painful (physically and emotionally) experience of my life. It was a challenge that I thought I'd easily be able to overcome with the vast support system I had...or so I thought I had. What should have been a private struggle was all of a sudden made public by "acquaintances" and on top of it I lost part of the support system I thought I had.

But looking back it seems to have been a blessing. Because my family is still by side just as much today as they were August 19th. My best friends home in San Francisco, they're still there the same way they were a year ago. And the people who do matter are still by my side, just holding up that support system with a few less pairs of hands.

It's getting clearer every year why when we're 20 we have so many great/best friends. So many that you have a different group of friends to do something with for every night of the week or more. But when you get closer to 30 you look at the people you've surrounded yourself with and it's a much smaller number. The people who you'd throw a punch for in a bar even if you've never raised a fist your entire life. The people who you don't have to say anything to for them to understand. The people you can sit in a room with in complete silence and conversation isn't necessary because you already get each other.

I'm so grateful for the people I have in my life on August 19, 2010 because they, in essence, complete me.

Love to that "family"...you know who you are.

A not-so-hidden gem

I've lived in Los Angeles for more than six years now, but I'm still finding a lot of cool new things to do in LA that I never knew about. For instance my new Thursday night ritual for the summer is to head down to the Santa Monica Pier with friends, sit on the beach and listen to the Summer Twilight Concerts.

This nine-week concert series has a new theme each week - everything from Australian artists, Bollywood, Beatlesfest and Mardi Gras.

If you're going to actually watch the bands and really hear the music, you want to be right up on the pier. But for the rest of us, myself included, you walk down to the beach on the south side of the pier, lay out a blanket and pop a bottle of wine. It's amazing how many random friends you run into, or better yet, how many great new people you can meet.

This is a veteran gem of Santa Monica and the Westside, but for this girl it was an awesome find six years later and a fantastic way to spend a Thursday night!

Crossing the 405

If you live in LA you more than likely live within your own bubble. If you live over the hill you're from the Valley, east of La Brea you live in Hollywood, then in West Hollywood there is a good mix of people and gives a "safe" feeling being in Boystown, but most people who live there never go past Beverly Hills area. If you have friends from the South Bay (i.e. Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach) there's a good chance you never see them unless you live or work down there. And then there's the Westsiders, one of which I used to be, and they never go east of the 405.

I completely understand that LA is ridiculously spread out, but as my mother would say "don't cut off your nose to spite your face!" I love the Westside, but love living in West Hollywood. If I never crossed the 405, either west or east, I think my life would be pretty dull. My friends on the Westside are completely different from my friends who live in West Hollywood...everything from attitude, to the way they dress, to the places they hang out. This is what makes me want to drive 30 minutes to see them because in the end it's SO worth it!

Last week at the first Summer Pier Concert someone said that "no one from Hollywood ever comes to the Westside." My friend Tony immediately corrected them, pointed at me and said, "She does!"

I love that...and that's what keeps me crossing the 405!

SLS = No Thank You

Last night I had the pleasure of having drinks with some of my girls who I haven't seen in ages...@theoneinpink, @christiem & @erikasays. Miss Townsend got on my case for not keeping up with my blog so here I am. The girls were attending a female blogger shindig hosted at the new SLS Hotel on La Cienega in Beverly Hills. I've been wanting to check this place out for awhile so it was the perfect opportunity.

I showed up at about 8pm and walked in to what I assumed would be the lobby of the hotel. Normally when you walk in to a hotel you see a check-in desk, right? The entire night I still never found it. You pretty much enter directly into the bar area, which they call The Bazaar, and then the dining room is to your left. I'm still wondering where the hell the check-in desk is and where are the elevators? Don't get me wrong this place has beautiful decor, but it's the other elements that make your experience.

We tried to put our name in for a table for dinner...oh they don't take names. We just had to stick around and keep checking back in. WTF?! So we opted for a little couch, small talk and drinks. One glass of wine is $16!! After 2 drinks my tab came to $34 after tax.

If you're looking for men in suits with money, super skinny girls who love the scene, and friendly bartenders (a plus) but bad waitor service, then SLS is the place for you. I still would like to see what recession we seem to be in when people shell out that kind of cash all the time.

For this girl I would say "no thank you" to another night at SLS. But in the words of Miss California, "no offense to anyone out there."

Don't blame the author

I've been a little stagnant on keeping up on this blogging, but besides using work as an excuse I had a yield sign thrown in my face about a month ago when a supposed good friend called me out for telling the world too much about my life, especially through my blog.

Thinking about it I wondered if there was another way to approach this blog. Now that I work with cancer charities I thought about doing a non-profit angle, but I haven't been in it long enough to be an expert.

Well then what about politics? I was almost a poly sci major and it is still something that I believe strongly in. But first of all why in God's name do we need another political blog out there? And I also wanted to avoid too many rebuttals from d00d. :)

I'm not a fashion queen - fashion blog out.

I'm a tomboy but guys do know more about sports than me - sports blog out.

I definitely care about the environment but I don't make it my life - environment blog out.

Perez is a blog god - celebrity blog out.

The only thing I know that I can speak of intelligently and "all knowing" is my own life and my own experiences. I'm an average girl living in Hollywood who hates the club scene and prefers the dive bars. I was unemployed for 5 months and had the Insufficient Funds situation more than once. The Drunk Text has been an occurrence I've lately managed to avoid, but it does still happen. And the Dating in LA...I had a bad run of luck for awhile and have dated a variety of guys. By why should this offend any of you? Well, it shouldn't! And if it does then you're taking it too seriously. It's your choice to read this...don't blame the author for the content.

More average girl stuck in the bubble gossip coming to a computer screen near you soon ;)