My Move To LA

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I'm just overwhelmed with my environment here. Speaking of environments, try and avoid the DMV here in California if you want to maintain your sanity. There are too many people and not enough facilities or staff to keep up with the demand. It's not really demand if you think about it. The government REQUIRES us to go register our cars and acquire California driver's licenses and then they don't want to pay for the staffing of the place. As if the DMV wasn't a headache enough (Nicole had to go back three times to register the car ans attain a CA license) Governor Schwarzenegger had made budget cuts that has resulted in thousands of DMV layoffs. I had an appointment to register my scooter on Saturday and made it all the way down there to find the place closed. I called Nicole who then checked the website and found that all DMVs will be closed on Saturdays due to budget cuts. I hate you Arnold. Way to make a bad problem worse. Don't you think all the lost revenue due to the extended wait times and closures at the DMV will eventually result in a greater cost than the initial savings by the budget cuts? I get paid hourly, that means when I'm stuck in line at the DMV you're not getting my tax revenue. Suck on that!

If you're required to go to the California DMV always plan on returning. That way, if you get in and accomplish all your goals in one visit (even if it takes three hours) you'll feel good about it.

I'm sad to report that shit has really hit the fan at work. The workhorse office manager of the company got tired of being overworked, underpaid and constantly yelled at by clients and the owner so he walked out yesterday. He's not coming back.

I do most of the phone answering, computer modeling and running around but haven't done much of the billing. I haven't been in the professional working world for long but I think getting paid is a necessary component of running any business.

I'm not worried about myself getting paid so much (in the short term) as I don't cost them a lot compared to the big expenses of the company but it's only a matter of time before everything falls apart. I just really hope the owner doesn't expect me to train the person meant to fill the large shoes left behind by the office manager. I don't have the knowledge base to do it.

Fortunately, the office manager and the lead designer here have really taken a liking to me and have said not to worry about my income as I will either get a good raise here for taking on more responsibility or I will go off with one of them.

Even still, if that doesn't pan out there seem to be lots of jobs on craigslist.

Let's hope for the best.

I will close with a fitting quote from a good friend:

"Long live the adventure!" - Drew Bixby

No one likes a trip to the DMV but you have no idea what kind of hell it can be until you've spent ten hours on three separate visits at the Los Angeles DMV. I know my situation was complicated by the fact that I was changing my name (finally, after being married nearly two years!) but the California DMV made it extra difficult.

On my first visit, after waiting in a line that extended out the doors and into the parking lot, I presented a certified copy of my Colorado marriage license which was laughed at by the demon behind the desk! He told me it looked like a souvenir and sent me away. I called the Adams County clerk and recorder thinking they had mistakenly given me the wrong type of document but they insisted that was the only document I should need for my name change.

I went back to the L.A. DMV armed with the reassurance from Adams County and my only original marriage license (which I was advised not to use since its THE ORIGINAL). This time I showed up early and the line had only reached the doors so at least I didn't have to wait in the sun. I should note that this is the preliminary line that you wait in to get your number, then wait some more, then get in another line, and wait some more...

So my number finally gets called and I go up to the counter with the false expectation that I'm actually going to get things taken care of. The guy tells me that even my original marriage certificate won't do. WTF?! By this time I'm nearing a meltdown and I probably looked like I might kill someone if he didn't accept my documents. Still, we went back and forth, I raised my voice, he hobbled around looking for a manager to approve my Colorado marriage certificate -- which apparently looks like a cheap attempt at forgery to Californians -- and finally someone accepted it! But my stint in purgatory didn't end there, oh no.

I spent the next FOUR HOURS waiting in line after line to get my driver's license. Every step of the way I went through distinct phases of calm that turned to rage and calm again, always trying to remind myself that my patience would pay off only to be shuffled into another line.

The worst of it was after taking the written test (something you have to do if you're relocating from out of state) we weren't allowed to sit, talk, read, or use our cell phones while we waited in line to have our tests graded. During that time I saw the help behind the desk go from three slowly moving, chatty old ladies to one slowly moving grumpy old lady. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I actually had to bite down HARD on my lip to keep from acting out! Other people muttered curse words in various languages, some brave souls snuck some text messaging in to pass the time, and one old man mastered the art of falling asleep while standing up. Thank God I passed the test because I don't think I could handle going through that again! But that was only my second visit, I said there were three...

I had also planned on getting our car's registration taken care of which I had done all on my own when we first registered it in Colorado but of course it couldn't be that easy in California. I had been so diligent in making sure I had every piece of documentation (and then some) to complete the registration but I was still sent away! Apparently because the car is in both mine and Dominic's names we both needed to be there to have it registered!

When we went back together the fiasco we encountered was just too ridiculous to even recount. Just be forewarned if you're relocating to Cali from out of state: the DMV here is the worst in the Universe! Best of luck.

With Kid Rock and David Furnish.

Funny.

http://www.perezhilton.com/

Holy moley was my first earthquake awesome!

The rumbling, the shaking, the pictures falling! Wow! What an experience.

5.8 Magnitude centered 43 miles away in Chino, CA.

I was driving back to the office on La Brea from the south side of town last week when I came upon this BMW dealership in the middle of a rough area. It was bizarre but what was more bizarre was that right next door was this auto shop that was so disgusting and run down it looked as if it were right out of a crime drama. Then, sitting in the middle of the decrepit lot was a police car that someone had opened fire on with an automatic weapon. It wasn't a sprinkling of gunfire either. Someone must have pumped at least 3000 rounds into this car. It was so covered with bullet holes that if you were to see it from just the front (where most of the damage occurred) you wouldn't be able to tell it was a police vehicle. Crazy!

I stared in amazement wondering if it really was from a movie or if it was some crazy act of violence. I'll probably never know.

Los Angeles has no shortage of crazy or shameless people. Yesterday while stuck in traffic on Wilshire Blvd because of a crazy police shooting that shut down two main arteries in West Hollywood Nicole and I witnessed an amazing act of shamelessness...

There was a large black woman (decently dressed mind you) walking down the sidewalk on our passenger side not 5 feet away from the gridlocked traffic when she stopped, stuck her hand down the back of her plus sized jeans and began just scratching (or searching?) away. Now, this would seem like enough of a shameless act in front of a few hundred stranded motorists but this woman took it one step further; she removed her hand from between her butt cheeks, put her fingers to her nose and took a nice big whiff. Then, as if to prove she actually removed something from between those big cheeks she wiped her hand on her pant leg.

It truly was a sight to be seen.

I love this city.

Today while driving to work I saw a few things one could go their whole lives without ever seeing in Denver...

On the corner of Crescent Heights and 3rd I saw a wrecked yellow Ferrari sitting on the sidewalk. I was a little worried but everyone walking around on the sidewalk didn't seem to even notice the totaled $175,000 car so I carried on with my morning. Then, not a mile later, I saw this old landscaping work truck with two clean cut white guys (who looked just like agents from the Matrix, minus the suits) sitting in it. Now, I'm not a racist or anything and I grew up with immigrants but I thought it was highly unusual that two such guys would be sitting in a truck like that in a nice neighborhood. The two guys then got out, revealing their Kevlar vests and Tomb Raider style gun belts and proceeded to the back of the truck where they opened the tailgate and began to load their gun belts with guns and ammunition. It was crazy!

At first I thought it must be my lucky day because I was about to be an extra in "The Rock II" but when a bleeding Nicholas Cage failed to jump out from behind any bushes I figured it must just be another day in Los Angeles.

We are really loving life in our new ethnic enclave! Fortunately, here in Koreatown most of our neighbors are Spanish speaking so I get to practice my Spanish while befriending our building mates but as the name suggests Koreatown actually does have a lot of Koreans. Go figure!

The neighborhood is rich with culture as nearly every shop and restaurant has Korean signage, most are also accompanied by a rough English translation like the Salon down the street that reads "magic hair straight sale" or the store around the corner that says "cosmetic underwear". There are also many signs with no English on them at all but as beautiful as all the Korean signs are this can be a little intimidating for non-Koreans. We decided to quell our fears by jumping right in! Given our choice of going into a restaurant that read "Chinese Food" under the Korean sign or going into the small place next door with no English at all we decided what the hell...

the menu was no more English friendly than the sign outside:

Our server was very forgiving and though she didn't know more than a few words of English herself she got us through dinner nicely. The menu was quite extensive from what we could tell but she only gave us two options: barbecue or soup -- either because she thought that was the only thing two Americans would like, or those were the only English words she knew. We went with barbecue, Dominic had pork and I had beef. Our meal came with a variety of exotic sides and some very sticky and delicious rice. The ice cold beverage, I assumed was water, was actually some kind of tea, not bad but a little surprising at first. Overall our experience was very pleasant and though I'm not sold on Korean barbecue just yet I am totally in love with our new hood.

So, if you ever find yourself in Koreatown, Los Angeles be sure to pack a pocket translator...with multilingual capabilities!

Los Angeles has some of the best weather in the world. A few days before we got here it got up to almost 120 degrees but since our arrival it hasn't topped 88 and it hasn't dropped below 65. I took the scooter to work this morning at 9:30 and it was perfect 75 degree scooter weather.