The L.A. Report – Part 16
07-05-2010
Hey Everybody,
This report is a bona fide “LA Report” because I’m
finally fully back there!
In August last year, after a year and a half in
Madison, Wisconsin, I found a programming contract at an insurance company in
Irvine, California. It was still pretty
far from my condo in Sherman Oaks (60 miles) so to avoid a 2-hour commute each
way, I rented a bedroom during the week from a retired guy and went home every
weekend. The guy I rented from was super
nice. He had a cute little white
Cockapoo dog and I would play tug-of-war with him and take him for a walk if
David was late getting home, etc.
Irvine is in Orange County, just south of L.A.
County, but it some ways, it seems worlds away.
Orange County is even more expensive than L.A. County. The median price for a home – before the
market collapsed a few years ago – was something like $650,000, while L.A. was
something like $550,000. These days
they’re down to merely exorbitant figures of $445,000 and $350,000, respectively. I’m way under water in my condo; the value is
down to around $280,000 but I owe $345,000.
Eventually the value should get back up there but it’ll probably take
several years. For now, I guess it’s not
a problem unless I want to sell or refinance.
Everything in Orange County is immaculate and new
or new-looking. All of the lawns are
meticulously groomed and the buildings, streets and parking lots are
spotless. Most of the major local
streets are divided and the speed limit is 50 or 45. The population is even more ethnically
diverse than L.A.; the majority of the minority is Asian, mostly Chinese. At least it seemed that way to me.
My Sunday night drives down there at about 8:30
were not congested so I was able to make it down there in about an hour. I would get to Disneyland about 9:25, which
is when the fireworks start, so I got to see them almost every Sunday night for
2 or 3 minutes. Coming home on Friday
night was a different story, however.
Even though I was going the opposite direction of most of the traffic,
it still took between 90 minutes and two hours to get back.
In May, I got lucky again and found a programming
contract with Union Bank in L.A. It’s 27
miles from Sherman Oaks but it’s mostly a reverse commute so it takes less than
an hour to get there (not bad by L.A. standards). There are some stop-and-go sections but it’s
not like that all the way - in fact, I can get up to 80 m.p.h. on two
stretches.
Now I can sleep in my own bed every night, not just weekends. I’m back in the swing of things with contra
dancing, hiking, friends, the Getty museum, golf, the beach. I filled my hummingbird feeder a couple weeks
ago and got hummingbirds in just a few days.
But I won’t be getting any cats until my employment situation
stabilizes. I’ve gotten involved with
Meetup.com – a Web-based organization that has a myriad of special interest
groups you can join for free, from Astrology to Zoos, and everything in between
- like walking, poker, hiking, yoga, dancing, photography, singles, etc. – you
name it. I’ve been to two word games
(Scrabble, Boggle, Bananagrams, etc.) events and one Charades one.
Do I miss anything about Wisconsin? Yes, I miss seeing my sister and brother and
their families, my aunt and cousins, a few friends I made, going to Minneapolis
to see old friends, fall colors and fireflies.
I played golf on Christmas Day. The course was in Griffith Park, where they
have the annual Holiday Light Show. So
here I am playing golf in 70–degree weather with Christmas music playing and
Christmas lights just coming on, with three Asian guys who hardly spoke English. Very surreal.
I haven’t
gotten back into acting yet – I felt like I should continue to concentrate on
my “real” job for awhile. But I intend
to soon. In fact, I just reactivated one
of my casting notice Web subscriptions.
My MS is still (knock on wood) about the same - pretty
mild. I lost my health insurance in
April 2009 so I haven’t been taking that expensive drug since then but so far
(knock on wood again) it doesn’t seem to have hurt me much. I do have insurance now but it’s one of those
crappy policies that hardly pays for anything.
I’m still running 18 miles a week so I’m incredibly fortunate. I ran a 10K in December and plan to do some more
this year.
My last L.A. Report was almost 2 ½ years ago but
then, I didn’t have much to report.
Hopefully, my next one will be sooner.
Jay