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!

Wow...where the hell have I been?

I have not written a post in over a year. Not really sure why I decided to come back to this now, but I think a lot of it has to do with what I've personally gone through in the past month, the current culture and economy, and the fact that I've kept my mouth shut long enough.

Megoon rants coming to a blog near you...

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 ;)

Dating in LA...oh how it sucks

LA and the dating scene. Dear Lord where do I even begin with this post?

In my 5 years in LA I’ve had only one relationship that I will count as a “serious” relationship and that was my college boyfriend that I moved out to Los Angeles with. Besides that I’ve dated a commercial real estate broker, a Marine, a bartender, a restaurant owner, another bartender and someone who was just too old for me (Mr. Daly still yells at me for it to this day). And none of these “relationships,” if that’s what you want to call them, seem to have had any significance. So to sum it up I’m going to say I’ve had ONE real relationship in LA and dated a lot of frogs.


Here are my issues though:

- I don’t think I’m hideous. I’m no model but I definitely think I can pull my weight against half the created plastic figures out there. And besides, I’m a size 4 but a white girl with a booty. I don’t want to date a guy who needs them a size 0.

- I know there are good guys out there. Four of my best guy friends are dating four of my best girlfriends. These men have careers, are successful, attractive and are normal. Only thing – they all started dating BEFORE they moved to LA!

- I’ve sworn off dating actors and bartenders – I’ve therefore reduced myself to probably less than 50% of Los Angeles. Actors are too good at lying and bartenders are too good at flirting. When you date the combination it’s even worse.

- I will NEVER date a guy for his money!! Take out another 25% of the population.

So as an average girl living in the Hollywood Bubble and wanting to find a good looking, tall (6 foot please), successful, non-actor, non-bartender, normal guy, where do you find them? Most of the guys I see out at bars are cheese balls. I then travel to SF, New York or Washington, DC and there are normal guys in every bar I walk into.

What is it with LA? Why are the dating rules so different? Or better question, what am I doing wrong?

Am I being too picky? Well, sorry, my standards aren’t going to change and I don’t think I should sell myself short.

Do I move to a different city with REAL men? Sounds like a great idea except I just started a new job and the weather is just getting good.

Do I join an online dating site where you can be extremely picky and weed them out? Hmm…

Way overdue

So I know I'm way overdue for a blog entry and here's my formal apology and promise that they'll be coming back soon. I just started a new job where I'll be writing 3 other blogs besides this one, so things have been a bit hectic.

But look again soon and hopefully my witty banter has not completely disappeared.

Inaugural Address

I was there. Standing on the mall in the cold. Listening to Barack Obama give his Inaugural address. Watching people cry tears of joy. Feeling the love and hope surrounding the crowd. It was, in all honesty, the most amazing experience of my life.

But today I went back reread the address, word for word. This time I let it completely sink in. While you were listening, did you really hear it word for word? Or were you like most of us - a bit distracted because we were so excited to see him up there?

Do yourself a favor...reread his speech. Take in everything again. It's even better the second time around.

President Obama's Inaugural Address Text