**Effing Los Angeles.......

Ahhh Los Angeles! What can I say, except for $4.57 a gallon? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Christ, it cost me $40 to fill my "economy" car today. I can't tell you how thrilled I was to fill up my tank this morning. These gas prices really agree with my unemployment!

Let me bring up another thing unique to LA. I never realized this until I was home all day. People actually go through the garbage seeking recycleables, and these are not homeless people. They are people with "nice" clothes (by comparison, meaning that there are no holes in them, new tennis shoes!). There are maybe three or four people a day looking for plastic bottles, beer cans, and bottles. Thank god I have a problem with alcohol so I can keep these people in the standard to which they have become accustom. I wonder if I should offer them the bags in my kitchen, just so I don't have to walk all the way out to the dumpster. No, maybe not too cool to open my door to a dumpster diver!

And then, I went on a job interview. This is a good thing. I am unemployed and miss earning a paycheck. I have grown accustomed to things like electricity, plumbing, toilet paper. So, I was excited to go on the job interview (though I don't know how it went yet), but it was in Santa Monica. After four years of living in Los Angeles, I will never get used to the traffic patterns. For those of you who are geographically retarded, Santa Monica is about 8 miles from my house. Now, given the fact that the interview was about 8 miles away, you would think that 30 minutes would suffice. But, to make it safe, I allowed 50 minutes, and arrived by the skin of my teeth. No where else does it take that long to go 8 miles ON SIDE STREETS. I'm pretty sure that I will be a road rager soon. Can ANYONE use a fucking turn signal? And why do people always find it necessary to invent a turn lane? Oh, and one last complaint, and then I will stop, for now. At every single light in LA, the light turns yellow, then red, and then four more cars go through thus negating use of the left turn signal for the opposing traffic. Seriously people, green means go, red means STOP- not four more cars turn left and then stop!!! UGH!!!

Wipeout

Here I am, a little over one week into unemployment. I had the joy of watching "Wipeout" last night. Before anyone says anything, yes, I understand I have a problem. It's not my fault, I don't have a life right now! Someone has to do it, so let it be me!

So I am watching this new show. Again, not my fault because the new season of Biggest Loser isn't on yet, so I am relegated to watching Wipeout. But I gotta tell you, watching people try to make it through a ridiculous obstacle course for $50,000, priceless! OMG, I haven't laughed that hard in YEARS. IT was awesome. I don't know why watching people take a bite out of a wooden plank or be spun until they nearly ralph is so great, but it is!!! This was like Double Dare, but for old people. WOW- and the male jazz dancer won it all! That was good!

I Love the 80's

So, I was all about being productive this weekend. I started to do homework, and to work on my resume, and then, there it was. I Love the 80's, on TV, ALL DAY. OMG. So, it started, logically, with 1980. For those of you who have not seen it, it is an hour long show that re-lives each year. So, there I was, in 100+ degree heat, hovering closer and closer to my little A/C, completely addicted to 10 hours of tv. HOLY COW! That show really should have a warning label on it- I was sucked in, I couldn't help myself. But it was oh, so good.

Things I reminisced about- let's see who else remembers these things. Fashion plates. WOW- I so remember coloring with my fashion plates for hours on end. Yes, this may have been for children without a creative bone in their bodies, and granted the "models" were a bit on the racy side for schoolaged children, but it was so much fun! Spiralgraph was another fun one, though I don't think that I had one of my own. It really didn't matter, I would just use my neighbors! She not a lot of stuff that I didn't, hence my diabolical plan to be friends with her (don't worry, we are still friends today!!!). Oh, and remember "My Buddy"-- the doll for boys? Not like any boys I knew of actually played with it, but still- we were trying to be progressive way back in the day~!

And let us not forget about the quality movies that were made in the early 80's. First Blood-- I remember seeing that in the theatre. I was convinced that it was just me who couldn't understand a damn word that Sly said in that film, but come to find out that NO ONE understood what he was saying. And Sly didn't stop there- the Rocky films- very big in those days. I would still sit and watch Rocky films, even today. They are one of those movies that when on TNT or something like that, I can't help but watch it. (Except for Rocky 5; that was bad, so very very bad, Sly should write an apology to me for sitting through that).

And then they talk about the music. 10 hours of 80's music, and of course the matching fashions. Tiffany, anyone? Did anyone ever actually see her in a mall? NKOTB- Holy crap they are terrible. But no one can deny New Edition- this is pre-crack addict wife beating bad boy Bobby Brown- this is when we all still liked Bobby Brown! And last but not least- remember stone washed jeans that we would roll up and then wear like 3 pairs of HUGE socks with our LA Gear Tennis Shoes? Oh, those are the days.

Well, I could go on for hours with the 80's, and no doubt I will return to this topic- perhaps the next time I spend 10 HOURS watching it on VH1. But, I must say, it was THE BEST SHOW EVER!!!!

Slackers Log Unemployment Date 6.18.2008

Wow-there is a lot of CRAP on television, and yet I find myself addicted. Let me give you an example, Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210 reruns. Wow! Now, you would think that because I now LIVE in California, a mere couple of blocks from Melrose, that I might not want to watch these trashy 10 year old dramas. But, you would be wrong, because I have become re-addicted. This is not good. It's a disease- for which I may not be cured.

Then there is the women's channel- Lifetime and WE and all of that- from Snapped to re-runs of Will and Grace, I need not get off of the couch!! And all of the Discovery channels, OMG! Deadliest Catch (now I want to be a crab fisherman), Jon and Kate Plus 8; Medical Mysteries (by the end of my unemployment I am pretty sure I could be a surgeon and remove most tumors!!) Let us not forget about the plastic surgery shows either-- holy crap they can do a lot of stuff. If only I were rich and could afford the double chin-ectomy that I am dreaming of-- hey, this is Hollywood, right?

Unemployed in LA

So, with nothing but time on my hands as a consequence of being laid off I find myself blogging. A dream come true; not really. So, I was told about this blogger world, and here I am. Hopefully my misadventures as I search for a job will entertain the masses and land me an awesome book deal! :) This way I can buy that sail boat I have been after (mind you I don't know how to sail) but think I would make a damn good skipper.

Nothing much to report as of yet. But alas, there will be! Don't you worry- there are many, many stories of Los Angeles that I can tell! :)