Roses are red, and pink, and yellow, and....

Exposition Park Rose Garden 

Yesterday was a beautiful day for some urban adventuring. My first trip on the metro was a success! Fairly clean and easy to navigate, if I ever need to go multiple places in the city or don't want to park somewhere I think I've found the best way to get around! Also, apparently each metro stop has it's own "theme" so to speak. The one at Hollywood and Western is multi-colored tiles that remind me of the Dairy Queen off of the boardwalk in Virginia Beach.  Yesterday's train lead me to the Rose Garden in Exposition Park, right next to USC's campus.

The Rose Garden was lovely both in sight and smell. There were several families there for the afternoon and many children swimming in the fountain in the middle of the park.  According to wikipedia the garden has more than 20,000 rose bushes and more than 200 varieties of roses (after the mid-1980s). It was interesting seeing so many different colors of the same flower outside of your local Ralphs (Safeway, Giant, Kroger, Wegmans, Trader Joe's, Harris Teeter, Rouses, etc.)

After walking around the garden for a bit and soaking up some sun I was able to walk around the buzzing USC campus. I even snuck into the film school (shhh!) where there is a seven foot (or so) giant model of Kung Fu Panda. The band was getting ready for some kind of event. What with the pep music and students of about the same age milling about I couldn't help but think how amazing it is that all college campuses can feel similar no matter where they are. Thinking of all of you starting classes this week at UVA. Wahoowa!

Recycling Memories

Out of all of the college English courses I took the most personal thing that I discovered was my love for memoirs. I love reading about people's lives from their own perspective.  Blogs have made reading memoirs more accessible. Of all of the social media that is cropping up in this world, blogging is my favorite. Reading my friends' blogs (and others like Today's Letters and Une Gamine Dans La Cuisine) has become something that I do nearly every day now that I sit in front of my laptop for about six hours 4 days a week. They remind me that life doesn't have to be the way I've always lived it and inspire me to try new things creating my own memory after hearing some one else's.

I think that this discovery about memoirs and the ability to live life differently than you have in the past has changed the way that I have moved to a new city. For example, when I was living in Charlottesville I decided that I wanted to try and explore that area of Virginia as though I was visiting (because, really, that's all any of us are ever doing on this earth anyway, right?). I drove to the surrounding towns and made sure that I went wine tasting, fruit picking, and hiking, to concerts, plays, films, and festivals. I have to say that I remember these excursions more than I remember my routine. I read (in Today's Letters actually) that one woman's goal was "to make a memory every day".  I've also heard it said that you should "do one thing every day that scares you". I wonder how my life would change if I approached each day with those two things in mind. I think I've found a new challenge.

I found a Japanese Garden.

So far I have crossed off a few things that I originally wanted to go visit in LA: the Venice Canals, Santa Monica Pier, a Soda Shop, Griffith Observatory, Venice Beach Boardwalk, The Hollywood Sign, the Walk of Fame, Rodeo Drive, Malibu.  

I found the Great Wall of LA

Now on my list of things to do and see I have: Drink coffee at the Bourgeois Pig, sit and read outside of Figaro, hike the 7mile loop at Runyon Canyon, attend a taping of Ellen (and various other shows), visit the Angel's Knoll (500 Days of Summer anyone?), go to the Downtown Art Walk (First Fridays of LA for all my Cville peeps), visit the NoHo Arts District, visit Little Ethiopia and Little Japan, hike the Topanga State Park Trek (can't help but think of Boy Meets World), find and walk the Secret Stairs of LA...as you can see, I still have a lot of exploring to do. In a city this big I'm sure that I can keep coming up with more and more new things to try and do and the best part about almost all of the things above...its F R E E.

So, signing off today in hopes that if you've been discouraged or bored where you are living, find an adventure, think like a tourist. Dare to live life differently, do something that scares you, 

El Segundo time I've been to Venice and the Santa Monica Pier

Mural complete with angry Italian woman

This weekend was chock full of good timin' adventures. Saturday I packed my bag for the day and went to Venice where some friends and I checked "see the Venice canals" off my to-do in LA list. It is (kind of) sad to say that a lot of the places and things I want to do in LA come from seeing the movie Valentine's Day (the only movie I went to see in a theater where the fire alarm rang in the middle of it. Got two free movie tickets out of it though!). The canals are beautiful though and I have decided to move there as soon as I can afford it (which is probably never).  

 Took a few pictures of some of the cool houses there. The great thing about LA neighborhoods (especially in Venice) is that you can have one house that looks like its Victorian next to your typical adobe next to something hyper-modern that you might never see again.

After visiting the canals we went to El Segundo Beach further south and hung out by the (weirdly) warm Pacific!

 This was one of my favorites. A smaller house with a corner deck on the top of the roof and a white fence with a beautiful back garden. Lovely.

"There's a place off Ocean Avenue, where I used to sit and talk with you...."

Sunday I was able to spend time with my friend from UVA Kelsey as she was waiting in LA to catch a flight back to VA having been in Irvine, CA for a few days. We fulfilled my self-made quest to visit an old fashioned soda shop (inspired by the Pharmacy in Nashville) in LA. Soda Jerks is located right on the Santa Monica Pier making it a pretty big tourist location but the "freeze" I had, rocky road ice cream blended with fresh made Coke into a milkshake concoction, was so good it would be worth stopping in if I was ever in the area again. Next I have to try the one in Pasadeena! We tried to go to the Camera Obscura but it didn't appear to be open (though times online said it should be...this is my second failed attempt)? If anyone knows how to get in that place please let me know or, better yet, show me! From Santa Monica we went back to my place in Los Feliz and then walked into Hollywood to see the Chinese Theater, the Walk of Fame, and the Hollywood sign before grabbing some thai food in Thai town and catching Ethiopia win the women's marathon (yay for my friend Caroline)! After taking Kelsey back to the airport I ended the night with a cookie and Breaking Bad. A very good weekend all in all. 

Soda Jerks on the Santa Monica Pier

Sweater Weather: song of the moment and fashion

The irony of "Sweater Weather" being one my current favorite songs (as of today, nearly this very moment) is not lost on me as the average temperatures begin to rise here in LA. I've been taking a break from The Civil War of 1812, the book I am using for research for an upcoming project at Kerner Entertainment, watching "Bill Cunningham New York," a documentary of the New York Times photographer who specializes in capturing styles being worn by men and women on the streets of New York. I have to find out if there is a column like his for LA, though I doubt it would be anything as interesting. I suppose I might start watching his weekly video compilations online.

Although fashion is often thought of as superficial and shallow, I must admit a genuine interest in it. There is a lot of possibility in clothing to affect others. Whether or not we notice it, what we wear each day gives people a feel for who we are. This is something I thought about often in my brief time volunteering at Live Arts theater in Charlottesville where I had the pleasure of designing costumes for a few characters in a small play.  Looking at a person on a page and thinking about what they would wear in my head, it was amazing how clearly the images formed themselves. Whether you like it or not, when you say someone is an eccentric teacher or a female lawyer who works in Washington, D.C. you get an idea of what they would wear almost instantly (or, I should say, I do).

Even though it is true I hate saying that fashion is a form of self-expression. I think that clothing, accessories, hair and make-up allow for more opportunities than simple "self-expression". As we see in theater, television, and movies, it is perfectly possible to dress as someone who is not you. Dressing as you wish to be seen is a tip often given in the form of "dress for success".  I wonder what would happen if we all decided to "dress as you are" trying to dress not by what trends are "in" or "out" but as you are currently in age or life stage or, who you would like to become in the future. I have known a few people who always dress in what they like and feel comfortable in and they are always the ones complimented on their style. When will we realize that fashion is not about what the majority of people  wear but how you choose to say something about yourself visually.

(Note: Fashion is, by definition, a materialistic industry. There are many other conversations we could have about starving children in Africa who could use the money I currently spend at Anthropologie...this must be saved for a later date.)