June Gloom and Drive-In Theaters

Before we moved out here, I had visions of the beach life. I thought Malibu, affectionately referred to as "the 'bu" by locals, was going to be this quaint little beach town with boutiques all along the shore. I imagined parking with ease, walking on a wooden boardwalk, and spending days lounging on the sand, maybe stopping at a cute concession stand for a lemonade on occasion.

I don't know where I got this picture of a beach town. Maybe books painted it really well in my mind. Previously, I'd been to Martha's Vineyard, but I don't remember what that looks like, Virginia Beach, St. Thomas, and San Diego. Though all of these are fun places, none of them fit my expectations of Malibu (or Santa Monica or Venice)...

The drive to Malibu is amazing. The kind of beauty that a photograph can't capture, though I've tried.

The Pacific Ocean is, of course, gorgeous. It's an ocean. How do you describe the mystic beauty of an ocean without getting all cheesey and poetic?

But Malibu... The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH, if you're cool) runs all along the shore, so my visions of a quiet shore lined with boutiques were shattered. Cars park all along the highway to avoid paying the parking fees of the parking lots, so parking with ease and taking a leisurely stroll to the beach doesn't happen until winter. Neither does finding a nice little space to call your own. Although Santa Monica is more touristy and Venice is known for its zany antics, Malibu is packed. As soon as we think we've found the perfect, quiet spot to settle down, I'll roll out my towel, lay back, close my eyes for a while and when I open them, a family of five will be blinking back expectantly at me.

And this during June Gloom. 

Apparently, this time of year, clouds hover over the beaches all day and the sun doesn't peek out until early afternoon. I don't really mind this, because, this is weird to admit, but I miss rain. I miss weather. Eighty to one hundred-and-something and sunny everyday with no chance of rain or thunderstorms or wind or pixie dust or something gets old. After spending the entire school year locked up in my apartment or the library studying, I spent two weekends outside and people couldn't believe how dark my skin is.

It turns out I'm part Indian.

Anyway, this "June Gloom" in the beach towns, opposed to all sun, all the time in the valley is allegedly keeping beach-goers away until July, when we will all go to the beach– Malibu, Hermosa, Redondo, all of them– and spoon. Allegedly keeping them away.

Spoon with strangers is basically what we did last weekend. We headed to Malibu, I got settled in with my book and Kevin fell asleep. When he woke up, there was a huge, 5 feet deep hole at his feet. Teenagers were taking turns burying themselves in it while their mom sang, "Smiiiile!! Smiiiile!" at them as she took their pictures when they were neck-deep in the sand. 

I was in the mood for some old-timey fun after spending my day listening in on the details of these kids' lives, so we looked up a drive-in movie theater and found one that has not one, but four movie screens an hour and a half away. If you want, you can watch three different movies at three different screens. 

It's pretty cool. 

We packed up the puppy, loaded up on snacks from the 99 Cents store and headed out. Seriously, we loaded up on snacks. I had meant for us to buy maybe three different healthy items. Instead, we bought the three bags of dried fruits, then added boxes of candy, a bag of chips, and some chocolate. It was pretty ridiculous. Movies do that to us. It's like we were afraid we'd starve while we waited for the sun to set for the movie to begin.

We saw The Internship, which I thought was very hilarrrrious, and Now You See Me, which I thought was very dumb. But The Internship and the fact that two movies only cost $9 made up for one bad movie.

So THAT was one summer weekend in Southern California.

California Livin'

Once upon a time, I packed up and moved from the midwest to Los Angeles.

Like, from a town with a population of 20,000 (maybe 60,000 during the school year) to a metropolis with a population of something like 10-18 million.

And I mean packed. 

A year ago, I was going through our two bedroom apartment- already downsized from our three-bedroom, two-story house- and getting rid of every single thing that we had collected over the years. If it was truly something we absolutely never used, it was donated. If it was something important that we'll need at some point, like a dining table or dresser, it was sent to my mom's basement for storage. If it was something we absolutely had to have (iron, dishes, wardrobes), it was packed in the most compact manner possible. 

We fit every necessary belonging for two adults (and a puppy) into two cars. Not SUVs, not minivans. Two sedans. I am the master at packing.

A year later, I have absolutely no clue what is waiting for me at my mom's house.

Anyway, we made this move because I was accepted to grad school, which is both an incredibly exciting experience, and one of the most intimidating, intense experiences I've ever had. 

I should have been documenting my entire experience since last year. In fact, I tried to, but I'd get so scared while I started to write that I started to cry, so I stopped. Scared of the unknown. Scared of whether I could handle it. 

I wanted this adventure and I'm really excited to experience this journey. I wanted to see what was outside of the walls of the midwest and I'm finally here, seeing things I never knew was out there to see.

And now I'm ready to start documenting my adventures because I don't want to forget everything and, truth is, I have a terrible memory. I don't even know what I ate today. So I better write this stuff down before I forget it. 

So, a few highlights of my life out here so far before I move forward and write about The Present Day:

August 2012

We moved here and two days later, I had a job interview. That was just good luck. I got the job and am an editor for a marketing department. It's basically awesome.

On my birthday, we went to the Walk of Fame for the first time. I learned that you can't actually get a close view of the Hollywood sign, the way they show it in the movies... but you can see it from Hollywood Blvd, and I saw it for the first time this day.

A day or so before my birthday, we went to a taping of the Conan O'Brien show... in a way, it sort of ruined the magic of the show... but in a way, it's super surreal to think I was there. He and some of his band members were just an arms-length away from me at some points, because I had an aisle seat... it's hard to believe it.

September 2012

For The Mister's birthday, I took him mini-golfing in Sherman Oaks, mostly because I was excited that the Olsen twins were born in Sherman Oaks. 

October 2012

To get myself away from homework and into the Halloween spirit, we found a pumpkin patch. It turns out, this pumpkin patch is where celebrities who want to be seen go. It had a specific "zoo" for paparazzi to stand in and wait for celebrities to arrive, and they had to stay there to take photos of the celebrities during their visit. Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde) grabbed her toddler and pranced right up next to me to pose for the photographers. Then a man who had been photographed as her "mystery man" in the tabloids snuck in later and watched her toddler while she ran around the pumpkin patch. Actually, her toddler bumped into us and *I* apologized to her friend, but he ignored us and called the child over.

On our way out, The Mister spotted a white porsche and saw Hilary Duff step out. That was a weird day and the first time I realized that the paparazzi don't always go to the celebrities... sometimes the celebrities go to them.

November 2012

We went to a taping of The Talk. I really like hosts and had fun... maybe mostly because they gave out a lot of prizes during the breaks...

My dad visited for Thanksgiving, so I had an excuse not to study and go check out the area. We had lunch by the beach in Malibu. We checked out the pretty Christmas tree on the Walk of Fame. My favorite part was after Thanksgiving dinner, we went to Rodeo Drive and all of the stores were closed, so hardly anyone was there. Christmas music seemed to magically float down to us from the skies and the street was all lit up with Christmas lights. Best of all, the window displays were amazing AND they had the prettiest Christmas tree in the area. That was one of my favorite evenings here.

December 2012

One of the neighborhoods in the valley has a 50 year old tradition where every single house goes all out with Christmas decorations. Some have real Santas in their sleighs, some have a crazy amount of lights, like on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation... it's a real sight to see, and The Locals all know about it and slowly cruise up and down the street with their families, so The Mister and I checked that out to get in the holiday spirit.

We also found a lesser known house decorated by a television producer. I have never seen anything like it, but he used robotics to have singing snowmen, spraying snow, a disco ball and a projected music video. When you drive past his house, you can turn your radio to a certain station to hear the songs that the snowmen are singing, or you can get out of the car and hear the songs from the speakers in his yard. It was spectacular.

January 2013

Honestly, all I remember about this month is returning to school, but I think we may have visited beaches just because we could.

Oh, we did go to the Grammy Museum... the highlight of that was all the instruments and equipment you get to play with. Since we went on a weekday, I didn't feel too bad for spending time on this stuff that I'm sure was intended for teens and children...

February 2013

Hmm... I can't remember right now what we did for Valentine's Day. It could have been hiking in Malibu, which is too pretty for words...

March 2013

My best friend since middle school came for a visit and I used that as an excuse to go to a taping of Jay Leno and a TMZ tour- I got T-shirts from both and wear them proudly. Jay Leno was pretty neat. While I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan of his TV show, he was a gracious host and spoke to the audience before the show and seem to have fun with it. I also danced a lot during the breaks until the audience-warm-up guy called me over and handed me a shirt. ::highlight::

We stumbled upon the premiere for Game of Thrones on Hollywood Blvd, which was pretty awesome. I don't know any of the actors, but I still could have stared at their arrivals for hours.

April 2013

This month was really all about school, but one day each weekend was spent either going to the beach or hiking. In one weekend, we came across two or three video shoots. *that* was random

May 2013

My sister-in-law came to visit and we made another trip to Hollywood Blvd to check out the attractions. One of the staples of the Walk of Fame is all of the people dressed as characters. I saw a documentary that followed the men dressed as Superman, Batman, the Incredible Hulk, and the woman dressed as Wonder Woman and it was a really interesting glimpse into their lives. On this day, we actually saw the Superman who was in this documentary. I was nerdily starstruck.

At the last minute, we got tickets to Wango Tango, which features all of my favorite artists from the Top 40s stations, like Maroon 5, Bruno Mars, Demi Lovato, Jason Derulo... seven hours of amazing pop music madness. I was in heaven.

(that's Adam Levin... ow!)

On my campus, there was a film shoot for a movie called Transcendence starring Morgan Freeman and Johnny Depp that is set to release next year. I never know about these things until they are on campus... In January, American Idol filmed their Hollywood auditions, then I guess they were back for more filming in February. 

And now it is June... I'm actually going back home in a week, so this is a silly time to try to write about my life as a California Girl, but I'll do what I can.