eric's work & an update on the move

i'm about to head out to a little rooftop party at the hotel where eric works, but first i thought i would write a little update on our moving situation.

well...we saw the 2 bedroom in los feliz today & it was a "no go", too small, too much traffic noise, etc. so that one is out of the running. we will need to sit down with the owners of the silverlake house on monday to discuss how much they'll lower the rent now that we know they will not be able to provide any off-street parking. i'm also a little apprehensive about how small the house is, it will definitely require a lot of purging, so we'll see. right now we're leaning slightly towards staying on our current block, a little disappointing, but maybe all for the best.

encounters w/the rich & famous...

saw britney yesterday. i'm posting this picture because this is just the outfit she was wearing yesterday: white tube dress with snake purse. she looks MUCH prettier in person than she does in the paparazzi photos. she's still dating her former agent, who works just upstairs from where i work. before she comes in her boyfriend (& sometimes also her bodyguard) come to scope the place out & make sure it isn't too crowded & that there aren't any photog's lurking outside. after she arrives they order quickly & eat REALLY quickly & then rush out the backdoor together, he seems really protective of her, she seems shy.

saw ryan phillippe today, also as he was meeting with his agent. he was wearing an RVCA hat & t-shirt that showed his arm tattoos & carrying a big black motorcycle helmet. they ordered coffees & talked about an upcoming movie he may be working on. he seemed really energetic & was talking about his kids a little & joking around. very nice guy, very polite, i liked him a lot. i guess he works out at my gym too :)

getting ready to move!

after SO much searching on craigslist, emailing, calling & driving all over the city, it seems we will indeed be moving at the end of june, as planned. the question remains: where to? there are still 3 possibilities:

-an adorable little 20's house in the silverlake neighborhood of LA that has hardwood floors, washer/dryer hook-ups inside & a little plot outside the back bedroom window for me to plant a vegetable garden. there's also a mystery fruit tree out back that has huge unripe somethings growing on it...i'm intrigued! we met the owners & get along great with them. the downside of this house is that there is no off-street parking & is on the small side (the kitchen has only 4 cabinets, we would have to seriously downsize on dishes.)

-a 2 bedroom apartment near griffith park (a MASSIVE cluster of mountains, grassy areas, caves, & general natural beauty for hiking, walking, climbing, picnic'ing, etc.) this apartment also has hardwood floors & 2 bedrooms, so one could be used as an office. the view from the front is of the hills of los feliz. it also has at least one off-street parking spot, so that's another plus. best of all, this apartment is offering a rent july & get august for free special. i'm going to check this one out tomorrow afternoon.

-our fall-back option is to move into the building exactly next door to where we live now. it seems silly, but i think it would be worth it. we would be moving from our tiny, dark, 1st floor apartment into a huge loft on the top floor that gets a lot of direct sun. it has a sliding glass door that opens up to the rooftop of the building, where there are tables & a spa. the other plus's of doing this mean we would transfer the deposit we have down now right over there, we would know our manager & several of our neighbors already, we would have 2 secure underground parking spaces & we would have zero additional commitment, in terms of a lease (it would be a month to month agreement). the issue with this one is that it's not vacant yet, much less cleaned/repainted & it's not even available for me to pop over to check it out until sometime next week.

SO...that's the update! we will know a lot more by tomorrow & probably have reached a final decision by monday. it's tough finding a safe, quality, homey place to live in LA, but i think we're about to find one. 5th times a charm, right? i've bounced from brentwood to west LA to north hollywood to hollywood & now will be either staying in hollywood, moving to silverlake or moving to los feliz! wish us luck as we make the final decision!!

can't wait to get this move done & start looking forward to one week in the midwest later this summer-yay!!!

tree

a photo i took of a tree that looked like it was being held up by its branches. the red balls were lanterns, im not sure why the focus was so strange.

tibby

art show

our friend christina makes these amazing pieces of art where she paints, uses cut-outs and overlays them with pattern paper (for sewing) and then brushes them with polyurethane. we went to a gallery event where her pieces were on display. i took a photo of the one i hope to buy someday :)

it's STILL burning

the 'station fire' i blogged about previously is STILL going, even though it was projected to have been contained by september 15. as of today it's 94% contained, but it's SO hot again and the winds are picking up, so it will be harder to stomp out the last of it this week. i found this post & was amazed. apparently people in orange county were able to see it when the fire was at its peak, 3 weeks ago. the flames were visible more than 30 miles away.