The Beginning...

Let us begin by recapping our first three weeks in LaLa Land...

Day 1 July 6th:
We left Portland with our lives packed into one car, recent graduates of the University of Washington and University of Oregon - which is a conflict in itself. After an 8 hour drive we called it a day and decided to pass through Sacramento in hopes of finding a cheap hotel on the outskirts. Stockton called our names for $69 a night at La Quinta Inn. To set the scene: CSI was playing in our minds as we pulled up to the barely lit "Inn" paid for our room and drove passed what seemed to be Lil Weezy, Eminem and Fat Joe gathering on the second floor of the "Inn." In an effort to avoid them, after making our second loop to find the room, we locked the car three times with their eyes locked on us. We snuck up to the first floor with a great vision to the La Quinta Inn "Gang" and rested up with a sleepless night's sleep.


Day 2 July 7th:
At 6:30am we joined the thousands of people entering LA for the Michael Jackson Memorial at Staples Center. After being caught going over 25 mph above the speed limit and riding along the cop we thought might pull us over, we found ourselves parallel to creepy stares and "road flirting" from Mista Offica. Traffic was decent but the real problem came when we needed to find a place to live...silly us for thinking we could find an apartment in Santa Monica day one of our search. Keep in mind we chose the city with the highest real estate rates and tax in California...oops. We thought we'd save a few dimes when we rolled past the milky turquoise Days Inn on Santa Monica Blvd. The beautiful ceramic owls outlining the building became our new guardians for the next three nights.


It is only fair to give the Days Inn it's own paragraph. Warning to readers who plan on staying here in the future:


When they say "fitness center" they mean a stretch machine and 60's work out bike that looks more like a sex toy than a leg workout in the "center" of the walkway on the third floor. The room, dimly lit by flickering lights and nicely lined with puke stained carpet, covered with water spotted/unknown marked ceiling (again we flash back to CSI viewings) is far from the elegant hotels on the pier.


Day 3 July 8th:
We post up at The Coffee Bean on Wilshire after a few hopeless hours of apartment hunting. It is near impossible to find month to month rentals, however we met our first friend - Willow who gave us some great advice to kick start our search. As she strummed through her i phone and generously helped us plug in our computer cord she told us about the great housing available down the street. Taking down directions of this unknown place we get excited to change our scenery from the Days Inn to a new location at least for the night. It's only moments into our friendship with Willow (her given name) that she begins a phone call with what appears to be her ex and baby's daddy. The call ranges from calm anger to erratic profanities. This same conversation is repeated verbatim about 4 times before the manager of the Coffee Bean asks her to please be quiet and leave. At this point the light bulb turns on and we recognize that Willow is one of the many homeless in Santa Monica savvy enough to have i phones. We also realize shortly after that the housing location she has shared with us, is the homeless shelter down the road. In all honestly, the Days Inn isn't much of a step up from the Shelter.


Day 4 July 9th:
With the wind out of our sails on the apartment search, we awake again at the Days Inn, skip the complementary stale bagels and once again and drive towards the beach. After calling about 20 more apartments who decline to offer month to month rentals ending in a quick no, we stop, defeated, at a red light on Ocean and Broadway. Glancing up for a signal from God we see the shining sign for Fernando at apartment at 107 Broadway. After a brisk walk through with Fernando, a fellow leaser...we think? We view two apartments and although the one bedroom and studio are the same price, we settle for the much smaller studio to take advantage of an ocean view. On our way out of the apartment, happy that we have finally found something, we meet Joe, the owner of Famous Joe's NY Pizza place that is directly below our apartment. He seems a little more reassuring than Fernando and greets us, warning of the noise that the unit we chose comes with and reassuring us that although Fernando swears there is no paper work required and if we sign a check for the month's rent we can move in right away, it is a legit operation. We decide to trust Joe and hours later we are signing checks for a 400 sq ft box at Fernando's "Art Gallery" (something like a pawn shop) still wondering if he needed a credit check, copy of our licence or paperwork. Nope, just $75 for showing the place to us. Cash. Hmmm. One may think this is a little sketchy, and believe us it definitely was a gamble but we were desperate and it's not bad when the ocean is out your front...back...and side window...it's all the same. After the apartment manager moves out of our room after a night's drinking on the beach at the Santa Monica pier concert, we move in...at around 10:30pm. While we sat in the parking garage waiting for 2 hours as Bobby partied away on the beach, we found that our newly purchased Method Grapefruit All Natural Cleaner had broken and spilled 30 fluid oz into the seat of Nicole's car. That took about an hour to soak and clean up. And during that time we became what some may describe as goofy or completely delirious...therefore you cannot even begin to understand how funny this hat trick was to us when we accidently discovered it:





Day 5 July 10th:
Let us describe our new home. It is no joke, a 400 square foot box of a room. The only other walls other than the four around us are the ones around the bathroom. Our kitchenette is about 3 feet long, but we have a 4 burner stove, a mini fridge and what some may call a sink. The place is furnished with IKEA's finest...and Fernando's art. We sleep like babies knowing we can call it home and no longer have to step foot into the Days Inn.


Day 6 July 11th:
The IKEA bed is broken. Yes we share a Full sized bed. Not a queen. A full. We make it through our first day of work, excited, refreshed and have a great day...other than our difficulty with thenew can opener from IKEA! The most frusterating thing we ever bought...$2 was not worth it. Jenny decided to look on YouTube for a demo of how to use the darn thing. The following is a video documenting this adventure...what you don't see is at the end of this 3 minute YouTube video, that is in Dutch, they tell us that they also cannot figure the darn thing out!


That night, we experience our first Hollywood club - Les Deux. Nicole works the door to
help out a friend as Jenn becomes acquainted with the men of Hollywood and the drinks that accompany them. After several comments about our dimples (we have dimples?!) we both realize that it is a result of smiling ... something many "LA" girls don't do much of ... apparently. While Nicole made money, Jenn began creating a social network for our new LA life...in all honesty she met some great guys!


Day 7 Sunday July 12th:
Day 2 of work is entertaining at best. We meet many interesting people, have a great time and start to feel very settled into our new home. A few interesting things happened this day. Jenn got hit on by a 60 year old man who continued for the next hour to smile and wave at her from across the store. Nicole got asked to be in a rap/hip hop mix music video. HAVE THEY SEEN HER DANCE? We also heard about a great all natural fruit juice spot in Venice Beach...unfortunately the gentleman who shared knowledge of it with us could not remember it's name ... or his own.


Day 8 Monday July 13th:
Our first social outing - the Santa Monica beach with the *Oliver, *Oscar and *O'Ryan. All three are also non natives to LA and after a few hours of chit chat and seagull pigeon racism talk between the three boys, we headed to Bubba Gumps for drinks on the pier! The day continued to night and we all got dolled up and headed to Geisha House for the most amazing sushi we have ever had! Honestly, whatever you order - you will love. Following, we found ourselves at 90's Rock night at Les Deux with a different crowd from Saturday night. The bands playing were awesome!


Day 9 Tuesday July 14th:
Goal for the day: Job and fitness. We thought we'd start with the fantasy of Equinox fitness first. We walked in and met Jason, who quickly enticed us with a tour of the four floor state of the art fitness facility. Breathtaking for us fitness gurus. He encouraged us to check out the 24 hour fitness down the street as a less expensive alternative... we departed for an hour to think over the unreasonable splurge that we were itching to give into and shopped around at the other local gyms in Santa Monica.... Oh and to find the candy store. Contradictory...one may think so but there is a reason we needed a gym. After a quick walk and run out of the 24 Hour fitness we found ourselves once again in Jason's office signing paperwork, writing checks and LOVING our new gym membership! And free Equinox T shirts! (Free is hard to come by in this town).


Day 10 Wednesday July 15th:
Spent the day in the Hollywood Hills at Kendall's (Nicole's sorority sister from school) lounging by the pool and enjoying a break from the constant job search aka Craigslist search. That night we went to the Playhouse for an ESPY afterparty that we measled our way onto the VIP guest list for. Let's just say it wasn't exactly our crowd as our goal in life is not to shake our booties for tables of athletes... but was definitely a cool scene!





Day 11 Thursday July 16th:
Groceries - check. Trader Joes may be a little more expensive than up in Portland but it seemed the best option and apparently, just to give you a little fun fact, the TJ's we went to does the most business out of any TJs. Located on Pico boulevard in Santa Monica in case you're wondering.


Day 12 Friday July 17th:
As Jenny is making dinner and Nicole is waiting for the shower to warm up (takes about 5 minutes of running water) a scream straight from a horror film escapes Jenny's mouth as a mouse sized Cockroach runs across the apartment floor. It takes us about 2 hours to capture it under a cooking bowl while we, near tears, explain to Bobby our apartment manager that he needs to come kill it for us.

In the mean time we decide it is time to experience a little Santa Monica night life...and after the roach incident, a drink is definitely in order. Here's a list of great Happy Hour and fun drink locations:
- Ma'Kai - The Yard - Chloe - Cafe Crepe - The Viceroy

Yes we hit them all before 9pm. At this point we touch base back at the apartment so we can regroup and munch. In the midst of freshening up, Nicole changes into a warmer outfit with a tank and jacket. Jenn is in the mean time making out with the porcelain bowl of the bathroom. Sweet drinks in mass amounts are not really her friend. You catch my drift. We head back down to Ma'Kai to meet Bobby and his friends for some more drinks and sushi. By the end of the night Nicole was attempting to DJ which resulted in being calmly approached to leave if she could not contain her mad desire to DJ. We end the night at Joe's Pizza Place...the most amazing pizza we have ever had. Ever.

Day 13 Juy 18th:
It is a lazy, slow start to the day, and needless to say we were feeling a little foggy. After a few hours of stirring, Nicole, still wearing her tank from the night before, realizes that it is inside out. When I say inside out, I mean inside out, dry cleaning tags, tags, poorly made stitching up and down the shirt and on all lining. To check that it is not just a pajama malfunction, Nicole browses through the photos from the night and Jenn is now deemed a bad friend as it is clearly obvious that my shirt is inside out in each picture.


Below you can see what everyone else saw all night and neglected to tell me:

She goes into the bathroom to get ready for work. Accompanying her to grab my toothbrush I open the cabinet above the toilet to grab out toothpaste, I am shocked as my bright pink OPI nail polish crashes down onto the toilet shattering and splattering pink nail polish all over the toilet, granite floor, wall, and bathtub/shower resulting in a permanently pink toilet. Just another thorn of the day.

Day 14 July 19th:
Just another day of work and preparation for our mom's to arrive that night! They generously drove from Portland to deliver Jenn's car and spend a few days with us in our new home! Bobby, being the nice guy that he is, offered the apartment unit above us as their hotel. We quickly learned that paradise was just the room above us. Newly redone, remodeled and clean. Wow. Bobby was holding out.


Day 15 July 20th:
COSTCO! We are now proud owners of our own Costco Cards and many new snack foods! We take our mom's out for a night on the town for dinner and drinks (both Ma'Kai and Cafe Crepe have fabulous Sangria). We love our mommas.

Day 16 July 21st:

A day full of shopping Montana Blvd., exploring the Promenade and biking the Santa Monica and Venice beach boardwalk makes for a great last day with our moms! Hours later we are once again alone in this big LA world...

...In the mean time we manage to get the table we are meant to return for work the next day stolen out of the hotel parking garage we park in. AWESOME. First lesson on trust in the big city...


Day 17 July 22nd:
On our way to a Jazz concert in West Hollywood, we are stopped, 11 deep, at a red light on Santa Monica Blvd. To our shock we are rear-ended by a Mazda going 40 mph who did not notice the red light and fails to break. Fortunately the police heard the crash and helped us through the paperwork. Repairs are still in process. So nice of the young gentleman to ruin my new car and try and get out of it by offering $200 up front to close the deal. The quote I found out a day later was for $1400...he's a clever kid. Thank you mom and dad for buying me a safe car - honestly, we could still be in the hospital if that car wasn't so darn well made! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.


Day 18 July 23rd:
Dinner at Kendall's with friends, BBQ style!


Day 19 July 24th: Went to Jane's house in West Hollywood - a very unique Victorian
mansion hidden back on Hollywood blvd alive with music, great drinks and a fun crowd.


Day 20 July 25th: Recovery.


Day 21 July 26th: JOB SEARCH and Equinox and runs along the beautiful beach!


Day 22 July 27th:
I (Nicole) spent the day with my dad and drove down to Laguna beach to visit the Hurley/6.0/Converse store that was recently opened in Laguna Beach. The store is decked out with crazy design and the best of the best in surf wear and style created by Nike, Hurley and Converse. This is the coolest store I have ever been into or seen. GO TO IT - you will not leave empty handed.



Later Jenn met up with us after a successful interview with LA Health Magazine and we had a great happy hour at Il Fornaio in Manhattan Beach before Coop's (my little bro) basketball game. They won!


On our way home we were really thirsty and stopped off at Whole Foods right as they were closing. After asking if we could come in real quick to buy some water, they let us run to the beverages and in the process I managed to swing my purse into the newly stacked wine bottles and shatter one across the newly cleaned floor. Oh dear...clumsy as always.


Day 23 July 28th:
As I (Nicole) am heading out to meet my dad in Manhattan beach
I drop my water bottle by the exit door and quickly reach down to pick it up. As I come up I ram my head into the open PO box corner on the side of the door. Used to my clumsiness I assume it hurts but nothing more until I see the shock on the face of the valet man across the street. I turn to readjust and place my water bottle into my purse and notice blood running

down my arms, neck and dripping off my face. Hmmm this is a new one for me. I walk/run back up to the apartment and as Jenn opens the door run into the bathroom in hopes of covering my head so she does not see the blood (she doesn't do well). I quickly learn that I alone cannot manage the mass amounts of blood loss streaming out of my head and Jenn becomes my nurse and helps to soak up blood, and stop the bleeding. She drives me to the ER and an hour later have staples in my head a tetanus shot and a splitting headache. AWESOME. Jenn has officially redeemed herself from the inside out shirt night as is once again an AMAZING friend.

Okay okay okay -
From this point on we will keep it short and sweet - thorns and roses of our days.


Much love,
Jenn and Nicole