Tag: sketches

Jun 03 2008

Sketch 22

I had a great weekend.

Friday night, I went out with my housemate and a few of her friends to The Mint to see Mama’s Cookin’.  The band is friends with one of Kathryn’s (the housemate) friends.  It was nice to get out and see some live music.  If only the second band would have been any good (they needed a bit of practice).  We got there a little before Mama’s Cookin’ was set to go on…so we also caught a bit of Janeane Garofalo’s stand up act.  She had some funny bits…but seemed to be phoning it in a bit.

Saturday was my friend Frank’s 30th Birthday.  The festivities started off with a BBQ at the park in front of their apartment.  After a few hours at the park, the party moved to an art gallery on La Brea.  This part was a surprise for Frank.  There we had wine, champagne and a little dance party.  We only had the art gallery space until 11pm, so once that rolled around we tried to figure out somewhere else to go.  We ended up at a place on Melrose, but they were booked with private parties…so we couldn’t get into the section where the dancing was going on.  Some of the folks were hungry, so I suggested we check out Kitchen 24, a new 24-hour diner on Caheunga in Hollywood.  It’s on the same block as quite a few of the trendy clubs in Hollywood.  Kitchen 24 had only been open for a few days at this point…so they are still working out some issues (about half of their menu was unavailable), but the food we did have was pretty cool.  The best part was the place has a DJ booth and when the DJ came on around 2am, our group started an impromptu dance party.  We eventially got about half of the folks in the diner dancing with us.  I think we may have been the first group to jump up and start dancing…cuz the staff was taking pictures with their iPhones, etc.

On Sunday, one of my friends and I headed over to Manhattan Beach.  We just hung out on the beach and talked for about four hours.  It was nice and relaxing, though I didn’t quite get enough coverage on the sunscreen, and am now paying for it with a quite red back.  Oh well.

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May 28 2008

Sketch 21

Things are going pretty well these days.  I’m really happy with my job at the coffee shop.  I’m really happy with my new apartment and roommate.  Mainly, I’m just pretty happy at the moment.

Last Friday I saw the new Indiana Jones movie.  I won’t say much about the movie, but its Indy and cheesy…but fun.  I met up with a bunch of people I didn’t know to see the movie.  My connection was the friend of one of my old middle/high school friends.  We met at a restaurant called the Hungry Cat, which is right around the corner from the Arclight.  I only had a cocktail, which was good, but also $12.  Welcome to Hollywood.

Saturday was a pretty lazy day.  I did some reading, watched a movie at home, and pretty much nothing else.  Sunday was more of the same, except for church and buying groceries.  I’ve been going to this new service at church.  It’s cool, its an alternative eucharist, that looks nothing like the service from the prayer book.  I like the service itself, and the people leading it, but…I think I realized whats been missing for me at Beverly Hills.  I just don’t feel connected to the church community.  I’m sure some of that is my own fault (and how busy I was during the school year), but still its just not working for me at the moment.  I’m thinking that I’m going to check out Pasadena sometime soon.  Since I already have some friends going there, maybe I’ll be able to connect easier.

Monday was a pretty full day.  I walked over to Sunset and Vine to have a late brunch with a friend.  It took about a half hour, a doable walk, but probably better as a bike ride.  We went to The Waffle, a newish upscale diner.  I wasn’t really that impressed.  The staff/management wasn’t prepared for a busy day (it was Memorial Day), so they were all a little frazzled.  The waffles weren’t that exciting and the portions were pretty small for being over $10.  If they had been in the $5-7 range, it would have been ok.  After, brunch I went to the beach for a little bit to read.  I didn’t end up staying terribly long, because it was pretty windy and the tempature started dropping after 5pm.  Later on, a friend came over to see the new apartment.  We hung out and watched movies and drank wine.  It was nice and relaxing.

Yesterday I was pretty excited to be able to work.  I know…crazy…I was excited to work.  While I was at work, my roommate texted and let me know she was having some folks over for dinner and asked if I wanted to join.  So our first dinner party happened pretty impromtu like.  It was great.  Good food, good conversations, good time (and yes more wine).  One of the guys who stopped by was a professional hula hooper.  Now that is a niche job.

Did I mention that I’m happy?

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May 21 2008

Sketch 20

It’s been a busy week.  Thursday was my last official day at Canterbury USC (Granted I pretty much hadn’t worked since the end of April other than a few days).  I also moved to my new apartment on Thursday.  I can’t say enough how excited I am about the new place.  I really like my new roommate.  The place is much quieter than my old place.  Anyway, I’ve mostly unpacked and organized the room.  The only thing really to do is unpack the books.  I’m considering painting the room, but I haven’t gotten around to going to look at colors.

Work at the coffee shop is going well.  It’s can be kind of slow, but its summer (at least temp wise), and the later hours are still new.  All in all, I like it a bunch.  I’m still looking for a second job.  At the moment still being a little picky, because I can at least through the end of May.  I think I’d prefer to get a job at a beer bar, or even a grocery store that sold good beer.

Sunday, partially in order to escape the heat for awhile, I went and saw Iron Man at the Cinerama Dome.  It was my first time seeing a movie in the Dome.  The screen is huge, but slightly curved, so text on the sides of the screen can look out of place.  But you adjust pretty quickly (at least I did).  I thought the movie was fun.  Definitely one of the top movies made from comic books.  It kind of amazed me that the guy who made Swingers could do such a good job on an action film.  Though maybe that shouldn’t have surprised me.

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May 13 2008

Sketch 19

I’ve been slowly packing up my room this week.  It’s always a little jarring to put all your stuff in boxes to prepare for a move.  I’ve been trying to go through stuff and get rid of some of the excess, however the past couple days have just been putting things in boxes.  I’ll try to cull more stuff as I’m unpacking.  This morning I took apart my bed.  I’ll just sleep on the mattress on the floor the next couple days.  Yes, the packing is wrapping up.

Last night was my first night on my own at the coffee shop.  It was pretty slow, but also the first day of the extended hours of the shop.  So I was able to do a bit of reading and get all the closing work done pretty quickly.  I’m looking forward to things getting busier though.

I cooked my last dinner for Canterbury on Sunday.  I made a burrito bar (because the Lutheran Pastor had requested Mexican food) and had purchased a chocolate cake from Costco.  I am going to miss cooking Sunday dinners as it was the one area of my job that I did well (at least as a whole).

Tis a short sketch this week, back to packing. 🙂

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May 08 2008

Sketch 18

Wow,  I am for the most part done with my time at Canterbury.  Officially, I’m on the payroll until May 15th, and I’ve got a couple of things to wrap up before then, but for all intents and purposes I am done.  It has been an interesting experience, these past nine months.  I am definitely not where I thought I’d be going into it.  However, I have no regrets about coming to LA for this opportunity.  I’ve learned a lot about who I am, and what is important to me right now.  I will miss hanging out with the students though.  They are amazing in what they do and manage.

I’m still a little scared about what the next few months are going to look like.  I have thankfully at least got a part-time job already.  It’s 20 hours a week, working at a coffee shop.  It may not be glamorous or anything, but I think I’m going to enjoy it.  Now, I just need to find another part time job for the mornings. (I’ll be working 3.30 – 7:30 at the coffee shop.)

I move into my new apartment next Thursday.  So the packing has begun.  My books are all in boxes.  I’ve got the other stuff in some sort of order.  I just need to get a few more boxes…and I should probably cull some of the stuff from the closet.  I’m really excited for the new apartment though.  Since we aren’t planning on having a TV, we are going to have a big table in the Living Room, in order to host soon to be legendary dinner parties.

Not much else going on though, trying to spend as little money as possible until I figure out that second job.  I did get to go over to a friends house last Friday and play Mario Kart on the Wii all afternoon.  That brought back lots of good memories of Mario Kart on the N64 at the ECM House at the UofO.  And thankfully, when my friends 11 yr old daughter got home from school, I had enough practice in that I didn’t get powned.

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Apr 29 2008

Sketch 17

I do love being so close to the beach.  I spent the afternoon on Saturday with a good friend at Newport Beach.  We hung out there for a couple of hours before we headed up to Huntington Beach to check out a show by William F Gibbs.  It was nice to just hang out and just be.Friday night I went to a hookah cafe and saw the movie Teeth with a different friend.  The movie was pretty ridiculous (billed itself as a horror comedy).

I’m in the home stretch at work.  My last big event is tomorrow night and things are pretty much all in order for it.  It’ll be nice not to have that lingering over me anymore.

I haven’t been to church (outside of work) for a month now.  I was planning on going last weekend…but then woke up Sunday morning not feeling well, so I stayed in bed all day.  I think I’ll go this Sunday.  Or go hiking.

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Apr 24 2008

Sketch 16

Ahh…a little late with the weekly post yet again.

Last weekend, I went on the spring retreat with the Faith Activism Collective.  It was really nice getting out of the city and going to this rustic camp setting.  The retreat involved an approx. 4.5 mile hike into Sturtevant Camp in the Big Santa Anita Canyon.  Sturtevant camp is a hold over from the glory days of the hiking resorts in the San Gabriel Mountains (which were popular in the 1900’s to about the first world war).  So basically most modern technology was left behind (though the camp did have such amenities as electricity and heated cabins).  There were just under 20 of us there for the weekend.  It was a great time for me to relax, and be in a place where I didn’t feel so weird about my doubts about the church.  Each night ended with some acoustic karaoke/sing alongs.  Popular where 80s hits like Hungry Like a Wolf, Here I Go Again, Livin On a Prayer, Like A Prayer…and a rendition of Young MC’s Bust a Move with yours truly rapping.  Oh dear.

It seems I’ve got a part-time gig as a barista to fall back upon when my job is essentially over next week.  I’ll need something else to survive financially…but its a start right?

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Apr 15 2008

Sketch 15

I have of late been in a pretty crappy mood.  I’ve been depressed and snappy and generally not too fun to be around.  Thankfully, I think last night helped me take a step away from this lame moodiness.  Last night was the monthly gathering of the “cuddle call” group.  I was in charge of planning the festivities and thought it would be nice to have a bonfire on the beach.  It was great just to be with such a great group of friends that are just so loving and accepting.  I’m so lucky to have found (or been found by) this group of people.

On the job search front…I’m leaning more towards staying in Los Angeles.  Which means probably getting some sort of a temp job at least initially.  I’ll also be looking for a new place to live, preferably for a little less rent than I’m paying now (so under $800/month).  I think I’m going to take the morning off on Thursday and spend some time researching and applying to local temp agencies.

I’m going on a retreat this weekend, we have to hike into the campsite.  I’m pretty stoked to get out of the city and be in nature for the weekend. 

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Apr 08 2008

Sketch 14

One of my friends asked me to ponder the question: “What do you really really really really want?”  To think about this absent of financial concerns, absent of the expectations of others.  Its a tough question I think, at least it is for me.  My first reaction is, “I don’t know what I want anymore.”  Which in some ways is also an answer to the question.  I want to know what I want.

In my current line of thinking, I want to learn how to make wine.  At least try it out.  I already know how to make beer, and I could pursue that, but something in me wants to keep that a hobby.  My thought was that I could find a job in Santa Rosa, and take some classes at the community college there.  However, so far my job search there hasn’t met with much success.  So I’ve been expanding the focus of my search.  Looking in Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland and Eugene.  I’ve found a few things, but I’m still greatly worried about what my life is going to look like in a month.  Right now its looking like I’m going to have to figure out something here in Los Angeles, maybe a temp job or something.  Of course that means figuring out someplace else here to live.

But my working/living situation isn’t the only area of life that I need to answer the “what do I want” question.  My spiritual life has suffered of late.  I don’t really feel that connected to it, to God.  It’s a struggle some days to remain hopeful in faith.  I want to reconnect with that again.  I want to hear God’s voice again.  Or at least feel God’s presence.

The past week has been spent mainly recuperating from the busyness of the prior week.  I’ve been kind of down and disheartened most of the time.  I pretty much avoided people all weekend, not really leaving my room much.  I skipped church Sunday morning, not because I slept in, but because I knew I had to be at work church that night.

Last night, I watched a movie, The Feast of Love, that was filmed in Portland.  Some scenes were filmed just a few blocks from my old apt in Portland.  One of my friends apt building was in the movie.  It made me miss Portland.  To think about my friends.  To wish I could visit, even just for one day, so I could be in some place that is so comfortable to me.

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Apr 01 2008

Sketch 13

For work I traveled to Salt Lake City over the weekend for the annual gathering of college students in Province VIII (basically the west coast states + one state in).  I was traveling with 5 students and my boss.  While waiting for our flight to begin boarding, I noticed what would be my second celebrity (albeit B/C-list) siting since moving to Los Angeles.

Ron Jeremy talks to the gate agent

Yes, Ron Jeremy was on our flight to Salt Lake City of all places. (Yeah, I know it may be hard to tell in this picture, but the short guy with long greasy hair is Ron Jeremy.) Later, I found out from one of the weeklys, that he was there to debate porn critic Michael Leahy at the local community college.

The rest of the weekend was pretty good, though a little bittersweet as well.  The conference went pretty well, no major glitches.  It was good to see my friends from throughout the province.  But it was a little bittersweet, because it may have been my last gathering as well.  After being involved with the gatherings for eleven years now, it may be time to take a break from this.  I’ve been going back and forth on this, at one point in the weekend I was totally ready to continue on.  But an interaction Saturday night pushed me back on the side of retiring from this ministry.

Nothing new to report on the job search.  There hasn’t been much interesting on Craigslist in Santa Rosa.  I’m starting to consider looking a little harder in Los Angeles as there are a few compelling reasons to stick around as well.  I’m trying to have hope that things will work out, but the end the month is coming quickly and its really freaking me out.

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