TWO YEARS IN LALA LAND

Well, I can't believe it but I've been here 2 years now.  For some reason, it seems like it has been longer.  I would have never thought it, but I adjusted to the west coast lifestyle quite quickly.  I of course now and again think of New Jersey/New York, but not like I used to.  It is kind of sad.  I'm not sure if I don't allow my mind to think of it or it has become part of my past.  However, I do miss my friends, especially my BFF.  We try and keep in touch, but the ones I really do keep in touch with are my BFF, my writing partner and other close friends.  I even started a "virtual happy hour."  Yup!  You heard right.  A "virtual happy hour."  Man that is so 21st century.  My BFF and I try and do a cocktail hour on Fridays via FaceTime.  Unfortunately, with work, kids, home, and family, it's been hard to have too many virtual happy hours:( 

I have been lucky in making some very nice friends here.  I think I can now officially call them friends.  No.  They are not my close friends or BFFs.  Mainly because I have only known them for a short while and it takes me a very long time to trust someone and have them come into my life.  However, I am quite content with the situation as is.  It is kind of refreshing not being too close to others.  I know that sounds odd, but it leaves less room for drama.  And boy, I have had my fair share of drama!  Let's just keep it at that.  At the same time, I'm still lucky to have lifelong friends from back east.

Totally off the subject, but do you guys watch Family Guy?  It's genius.  It's hysterical.  Seth MacFarlane I bow to you.  I know it has been around for a while and my writing partner kept telling me to watch it.  Well, once I moved to LA, I started watching it.  Again, I did live in Providence, RI, for a year, and that year was one of the best years of my life.  If you watch Family Guy you know it takes place in Rhode Island.  I guess that made me sentimental, but honestly, I got addicted to the show.  Okay.  I'm not sure how everything turned to Family Guy, but what a nice note to end on.  We need a good laugh these days, considering Trump is an actual Presidential nominee.  That's my therapy advice for you during these tough times.  Have a good laugh like Peter on Family Guy.

Soaked In By The Sun?

I've been pondering to myself what it is that makes the West so different than the East?  It's very hard to put into words.  It's a feeling.  I've noticed while I have been here that whenever I run into an East Coaster, they know right away I am from the East Coast and they immediately gravitate towards me and I to them.  It is a magnetic pull.  It cannot be helped.  

I will give you some examples.  Every morning when I drop my daughter off at her elementary school, I am eagerly greeted by a fellow New Jerseyian.  My New Jersey neighbor back from home with the baseball cap who I never knew.  I am so happy that I still have my Jersey license plates on my car because of this friendliest greeting I am so privileged to get from the man in the baseball cap on the days he sees my car and greets me:  "hey, Jersey!"  It's as if we are in a foreign country and don't speak the language and we have found another American who speaks English!  And to top it off, he's really from my region.  He's from Bergen County, NJ.  Northern NJ.  The Gold Coast of NJ.  You can't get closer than that!  It's like kind of being from the same village.

Next example also comes from my daughter's elementary school.  This one is from the loveliest woman who runs the Homework Club at her school.  Yes.  They actually have a "Homework Club" at the elementary school here.  You have to love it.  Of course, "it costs money because it saves money."  Sorry.  I had to give an Ode to one of my favorite movies, Moonstruck, to which many people out here have not seen!  Either because it takes place in Brooklyn and NYC or because I'm getting old:(  It's getting sad when these movies are getting to be called "classics."  Classics to me are Casablanca and Rebecca.  Anyway, going off topic.  So back on the Homework Club ("HC").  I sign up my daughter for one session a week of HC to leave that one day during the week which we don't scream at each other.  As I am signing her up, HC woman (we will call her), notices my accent, (which I don't really think I have that much of a Jersey accent, but whatevah!) and she asks where I am from and she bursts out telling me she's from Brooklyn and next thing you know we are hugging it out!  I'm serious!  I ask her when she left Brooklyn and she tells me when she was 12!  Again, I'm serious!  Yet, she still considers herself from the East Coast.  She tells me that it's just in her and she would go visit her father back home whenever she could and Brooklyn always felt like home to her, even though she's been living in LA for over four decades at least.  We kept trying to discuss what it is about the people back home and it was so hard to put into words and that was exactly what it was.  One could not put it into words.  It was just a feeling.  A feeling.  That's what it is:  a feeling.