Amazing

I Really Couldn't Have Said it Better

When I tell people I'm moving to LA or that I love LA, more often than not (from people that have been there), I will get a response like, "Really??" These people–especially my mom–then ask me to tell them what I like about LA. You have all seen my list (which I would link if that option were functioning) already; responding with said list always ends up being a bit banal. It's like there's this essence that I'm incapable of putting into words. I just read this quote from David Lynch and I think he gets at part of it:

"I love Los Angeles. I know a lot of people go there and they see just a huge sprawl of sameness. But when you're there for awhile, you realize that each section has its own mood. The golden age of cinema is still alive there, in the smell of jasmine at night and the beautiful weather. And the light is inspiring and energizing. Even with smog, there's something about that light that's not harsh, but bright and smooth. It fills me with the feeling that all possibilities are available. I don't know why. It's different from the light in other places. It was the light that brought everybody to L.A. to make films in the early days. It's still a beautiful place.”

I particularly agree with the first two sentences. And there is something about the light, or maybe it's the sunsets. I just remember that I frequently found myself admiring the sky and very rarely did the thought ever come up that it looked that way because of the smog. I'm getting a little giddy about thinking of doing it again.

It's Just Funny To Hear Someone Say Orgasm So Much

Yay! LA!

Lest you think I sit around sobbing about my impending move all the time, here's a list of all the good LA stuff I've been thinking about (in no particular order):
1. The weather
2. The beach. Matador, specifically
3. In N Out Burger (protein style!)
4. Palm trees
5. My brother
6. Jack in the Box commercials
7. Being able to buy liquor (not just beer and wine) in the grocery store
8. Being able to buy any alcohol on Sunday
9. The preponderance of dive bars
10. My friends
11. The sausage platter at the Red Lion
12. Every movie I ever want to see is actually available for viewing in a theater somewhere
13. AMAZING MEXICAN FOOD
14. Much less segregation
15. Latin people
16. The possibility that I may be able to make some furniture at my friend Mel's carpentry studio
17. Downtown
18. A real job
19. LA Times Sunday crossword
20. The occasional celebrity sighting (not the ones you read about in the blogs)
21. Real news and good music on NPR
22. The sunsets

There are a lot more that I've thought about that aren't coming to me at the moment. I'll keep adding on.

How to Unpuff Your Eyes

Last night I cried (well, sobbed, to be honest) for a while about leaving. About leaving my boyfriend, specifically. I don't like how that sounds, but I can't think of another way of putting it. Anyway, my point is that I woke up today looking more terrible than I ever have in my life. And having most, if not all, of my crazy years behind me, I've woken up looking pretty rough before. This was much, much worse. I was going to take a picture, but it was too awful. Both of my upper eyelids were incredibly swollen, and my left lower lid was doing something crazy too. Honest to God, it looked like I had been punched.

I'd been planning on going to yoga, but that was now not an option, so I set about figuring out how to bring down the swelling. I started with cold spoons. This was a technique that my ex taught me; apparently he was a big cryer, though I rarely saw him cry. I've never been that jazzed about the cold spoon thing though, I guess because I grew up in Michigan and am well acquainted with the wet skin frozen to metal phenomenon. And eye skin is so delicate!

But, I started with that because that's all I knew.

The spoons don't stay cold for very long, so I googled away and learned a few more tricks.

Next step: wrap ice cubes in paper towels, hold them your eyes. That one seemed like it worked pretty well, but got a little too cold and I felt like I was freezing my eyeballs.

My final treatment was getting a bowl of ice water and dipping a washcloth in it and resting that on my eyes. That was the most comfortable and I felt it was the most effective, but it was also the last thing I did, so who knows.

Now you know.

By the way, the whole time I was doing this, I was watching the Today show which ran segments about Graceland and the PCH. I'm going to Graceland on my way out west and I've always wanted to do a PCH trip, so I kept cheating and taking the ice cubes off of my eyes to see the tv. I walked the dog and then went shopping and no one asked me what was wrong, so I think all the eye treatments did a passable job.