An Enthralling New Way of Life

Readers, I have many excuses but the short version of yesterday's story is that I had to be at work early and then we went out last night and by the time we got home I was just not gonna get a post up before midnight. So CT has assigned me the word "enthrall" as a punishment. I've used it in the title, because I am feeling the need to cheat a little with this one.

I've been spending a lot of time in Santa Monica in the last three weeks. I transferred to a new theater that is two blocks from the beach and three from the SM pier and I love it. Its so easy in this city to stay in a very small part of it. When I first got to LA I was so enthralled with living in Hollywood that I rarely left that corner of town. When I moved to my next apartment I stopped going to Hollywood entirely. It wasn't that the neighborhood lost its charm. It wasn't my unwillingness to cross the hills. I had a new world to explore and experience. It was that enthralling state of adventure that usually accompanies moving to a new state. In LA you can get that thrill just by moving across town.

I very briefly worked at a music Studio in Santa Monica about 7 years ago, so I know the area a little bit. It's a weird place where the very affluent and they very disadvantaged all co-mingle (and often look exactly alike). Every stereotypical west cost behavior from the surfers to the yoga addicts is on full blast, and I walk past two separate cold pressed juice bars every day. But maybe they're on to something because I also see a much higher percentage of peope smiling and happy. It's easy to see why Los Angeles as a whole is so enthralled with the lifestyle that is on display here in Santa Monica. There's an ease to everything, like the whole city remembers to stop and take a deep breath once they catch sight of the shoreline.

The new job has kicked off a lot of new things for me. I have to park about half a mile away from the theater (which would suck but it's such a nice walk that I've really enjoyed it). I've been getting up earlier to beat the traffic (and consequently going to bed at a decent hour), and since we have this awesome salad place right across the street, I've been eating salads for a lot of meals. In short I've become enthralled with the art acting like an adult. It's weird/wonderful/disgusting. My mom was not a huge fan of the idea of me driving farther and walking so much just to manage a movie theater, but I'm hoping that the changes its made to my life will help win her over. I know I'm pretty happy with them.

Taking it easy,
Little C