Employed in L.A. (at least until tomorrow)

A quick update from the bustling city of Los Angeles. I'm on my lunch break at "work". These last two days I've been helping my college roommate, Stacey, work for her father's company. He is liquidating a large Japanese animation company and Stacey and I have been working on organizing and cleaning cubicles as well as animation artwork, etc. It has been an interesting job indeed. Anyhow, it will be nice to put some fresh cash in my pocket for our return trip back across the country.

This short stint in L.A. is thankfully that - short. While I love Stacey and am grateful to her family for showing me such hospitality, I will be that much more thankful to escape the chaotic, mentally noisy nature of this city. There is so much to look at and so much more to understand. L.A. folk certainly are different from New England folk. The people have been very friendly but I find myself lost in their conversations sometimes. I think truly that my mind is just geared to view life through a lens so different from theirs its as if I need translation.

The weather has been sunny mostly with patches of rainy weather but it feels balmy and friendly to me. As such, its been comical to watch L.A. residents bustle by with scarves and pea coats.

The city itself is quite impressive to me. Each district offers something new to look at - interesting billboards, the rolling waves of the Pacific, amazing and various cuisine (we enjoyed a new Sushi restaurant last night) and the scarily fast and twisty roads of the canyons. It is somewhat scary to me that they literally build houses on stilts into the sides of the steepest canyon walls. It is lucky that I am viewing the city after the practically two straight weeks of rain because the street sides, lawns and hill sides seem to be exploding with green, neon green, pink blossoms, mammoth ferns and flowering trees. It's like driving, disturbingly fast, through some jungle on an alien planet. It is not surprising to me that James Cameron thought up the splendor in Avatar given that he has lived in and experienced the exploding green beauty of L.A.

I'm having a blast in this oddly real video game life but am thrilled to be headed back to the desert for some rock crawling entertainment!