I am writing this post from the lounge area of our apartment building, because our apartment's internet is not set up yet. As you can imagine, Simon is losing his mind. :P Hopefully, it will be up and running sometime today, but in the meantime, this lounge area seems very suitable for our needs.
Saturday morning, we were up at 3:30 am to get ready to go, and we were at the airport by 5:45 am.
It took a little while to get through security with the cats, but we all made it in one piece. Simon got his usual airport fix...
and then we were off. We left right on time, and flew across the US while reading, coding and looking out the window. Although I had anticipated problems, the flight went smoothly and the cats were scared, but calm and quiet.
The flight landed an hour ahead of schedule, and I waited for the luggage while Simon got the rental car. Teamwork! We were out of LAX and at our new apartment building before noon PST . This is the new place from the outside.
This building is a half-mile west of our last apartment on the same street, so we are very familiar with the area. We knew we would love living here as long as the unit was suitable, and so far, so good. I will provide a full housing update once we finish getting our furniture.
After we got the cats settled in at the apartment, we walked to The Counter, a create-your-own burger place, to grab Simon a birthday burger. Of course, I am so out of practice with blogging that I forgot to take any pictures at all, but we were hungry & it was a very good lunch.
After lunch, we stopped back at the apartment to check on the cats. I was alarmed because I didn't see them anywhere, and then I spotted them.
They were still pretty freaked out, but they kept each other company while we made productive trips to Ikea & Target, and headed to Village Pizzeria for dinner. Here is the birthday boy with a birthday beer.
After some delicious salad
and my favorite pizza in the world
we drove back to the apartment to put away what we could, get a shower, and sleep. We were passed out on the air mattress by 11pm, both deliriously tired and achy from all of the moving and carrying.
And by 2:30am, we woke up practically on the floor. The air mattress had sprung a leak, and though we pumped it up again, it was deflated again by 3:30. We were both awake at the point, so we did some unpacking and bemoaned the state of our affairs. Eventually we got a few fitful hours of sleep on the deflated air mattress and floor.
Sunday morning was pretty rough, as we were both exhausted. Simon went to get us breakfast at Black Dog Coffee, which is less than a block away, and I waited for the IKEA deliverymen to show up.
They came pretty early, so we spent the day assembling our new furniture.
Or at least some of us did...
We put together a couch, a TV stand and some end tables, and then we went to get lunch at Mendocino Farms, my favorite sandwich place in Los Angeles.
It was a beautiful day, and 76 degrees, so we ate on the patio.
I could eat here every day; honestly, it is that good.
After lunch, we assembled our bed, which took some time, and then we prepared ourselves for our first event. We were tired, and sleep was tempting after we finally had a bed, but we were excited for Paleyfest.
Paleyfest is an annual event organized by the Paley Center for Media, and it involves the cast and creative team behind popular television shows getting together to do question and answer panels about the show. Last year, we went to Paleyfest panels for Bones and Parks and Recreation.
Sunday night, we went to a panel for the HBO drama The Newsroom.
The show is between its first and second season right now. Simon and I fell in love with the show during the first season, and we were really excited to see the show on the Paleyfest schedule.
We had balcony seats, and the theater was very full, so no seating upgrades for us this year. They started the panel by introducing the moderator, Piers Morgan; the show's creator, Aaron Sorkin; and showing a ten minute clip from the first episode of the second season, which is premiering this summer.
I don't generally like Piers Morgan, but he was a great panel moderator and asked a lot of good questions of every cast member.
He put Olivia Munn on the spot a few times, which was rude, but otherwise I was really glad he chose to moderate the panel.
Last year, one of the moderators was terrible, and it really makes for a different experience.
My favorite part of this panel was seeing one of my favorite actors, Sam Waterston. You may know him as ADA Jack McCoy from Law & Order.
Two hours later, the panel was over and we made the short drive home. Though we missed dinner, we were too tired to think about it and ended up going straight to bed.
This time, the bed did not deflate in the middle of the night, and we woke up this morning still jet-lagged but less tired. Simon took today off to get caught up on schoolwork and finish running errands to get us set up here at the apartment. We started our day with breakfast at one of our favorite spots, Blu Jam Cafe.
On weekends we typically wait 45 minutes for a table here. Not so much on a Monday morning.
The food here is always amazing. Risotto with bacon, peas, pesto and poached eggs for me...
Turkey pesto panini for Simon...
And crunchy french toast to share.
Delicious as always, with leftovers to boot. After our breakfast, we ran errands, and then we came back to the apartment so Simon could work on schoolwork and I could write this post. It's taken me so long to write this up that now we do have internet, and we have moved from the lounge to the apartment. So Simon is in a considerably better mood now. We don't have much planned for today other than catching up on homework/sleep/shopping, thankfully.
So sorry, so lengthy, but that was several eventful days all smooshed into one post. In the future, they will be more frequent & less long. Talk to you soon!
You forgot to label Black Dog Coffee... 5 out to eats in one post - that has to be a record! Glad you are all settled in and back in the LA swing. Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteFixed, thanks to your keen eye for detail. :) We only had so many out to eats because we had no time to shop for food! However, I am getting that done today. Thank you for the well wishes... love you!
DeleteGlad to see the cats have made themselves at home... looked like Miso wanted a bath after his imprisonment in the cat carrier!! You've already had a month's worth of adventures, if you ask me. You better ease up and pace yourselves. Hugs.
ReplyDeleteHaha, we are taking it easy this week, for the most part, but this weekend is filled with things to do. Life is too short to pace! :D <3 ya!
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