First Impressions

As I near the end of my first full week here in the city of Angels (I have yet to see an angel, by the way...with the exception of the LA nine who play down in Anaheim and frankly, they're more devils than angels with the beating they put on the Sox recently), I want to reflect on some of the things that have impacted things for me so far.

For starters, work is sort of a combination of things for me lately. I wake up at 4:45am in order to get to my client base when they get to work on the east coast. This doesn't bode well for my incredibly strong penchant for sleep lately, but who doesn't want to stay in bed when the alarm goes off prior to 6am? 7am? 3pm? Taylor, I'm talking to you. By the time 8:00 rolls around, I've already put in 3 hours of work. But instead of taking a lunch break, I make coffee and a nice, big breakfast for me and mine. So lunch is technically a breakfast break now. By the time lunch rolls around, it's the end of the work day. It's totally bizarre but fucking fantastic at the same time. I'm lucky enough to have a place to work that offers free Wifi and it also happens to be outside, in the midst of several water fountains and plenty of palm trees. All in all, it's not bad. In fact it's totally and completely awesome. I have lunch with Lauren every day in this public garden and then I go to the gym.

The gym is otherwordly from what I am used to. I run on a treadmill that sits outside and overlooks the expanse of the Pacific Ocean from its third story perch. For some reason, no one else runs on these treadmills; they opt for the indoor and far more typical variety. I guess there's no novelty of perfect weather for the average Los Angelan but for me, I suspect this won't wear off for a long, long time. Lauren mentioned to me today that the biggest part of the novelty will come in October/November when the weather doesn't take a fucking drastic turn towards shit town. My morning conversations in December will go from "Should I wear long underwear under my slacks today?" to "Should I wear my board shorts under my shorts today?" The word booyeah comes to mind.

The last thing I want to discuss briefly before I shut down and enjoy the rest of this perfect afternoon is Manny. Somehow he's a Dodger now, and the LA lineup loosely resembles a patchwotk Sox team from years back. On a given night, you could be looking at Manny, D Lowe and Nomar all in Dodger blue, and the topper would be them being managed by Torre which is more of an ironic twist of fate. If this were a year back, I'd be talking about how weird it is that Manny will be playing for Grady again but I would have to surmise that Torre is just tickled that Manny will be in HIS lineup for once and not the opposing team's lineup. I won't go too much into detail about this whole trade because frankly, I don't care that much. Manny's expiration date in Boston probably shouldn't have been as late as it ended up being and he had certainly worn out his welcome there. LA on the other hand is a dream situation for him. They need a pwer hitter and they need a personality in a town that thrives on characters. The fans here are going to love him and I would only imagine that he'll love being a Dodger for the time being. I can see him finishing his career here if all works out, and that's just fine with me.

Part II, Chicago is still a work in progress. Stay tuned.

Salut mes amis.