Burn, baby, burn

A half-finished blog entry has been sitting in my account for over a month now. When I first started it back in July, it was optimistic and upbeat, and since then it has slowly become more subdued. Summertime in LA has been fun and exciting, but tiring as well. At first the nightlife and drinking and beach and boys were more than I could have hoped for, but now reality is setting in and I think it's time for me to retreat from the scene for a bit to collect myself and my thoughts.

We're leaving tomorrow for Burning Man, which is going to be *awesome*. I've been wanting to go for the past 5 years, but in the past school has always conflicted. Our group is growing, and I'm a little worried about how prepared some of them will be, especially those who are deciding to come along at the last minute. I haven't had as much time to prepare as I would have liked, but I do have the essentials- water, food, tent, fuzzy clothes, and fuzzy bike. Off to the desert we go...

Oh, Craigslist

Last week I realized my roommate had stolen the spare credit card I keep in my room, and charged $540 worth of groceries, beer, and takeout to it. How do I know it was him? I never carry the card on me, so it's impossible I lost it randomly. I haven't charged anything to it in over 3 years, so it's impossible that anyone stole the info while I was purchasing something. With that logic, it is still possible that one of his friends or my friends could have stolen it from my room, but my smooth criminal roommate went so far as to order pizza and thai food delivery to the condo- the two restaurants were very nice about giving me the order info when I explained the situation.

I immediately went back to the condo to remove anything valuable from my room. I looked at apartments the next day, and signed a lease on a studio in Hermosa on Friday. At that point I still hadn't said anything to my roommate, figuring that it would be best to confront him once I had all of my things packed and ready to move out immediately.

I waited until Saturday to move and had a couple of the big, tattooed guys from work come over while I confronted my roommate and moved all my stuff out. Matt wrote me a post-dated check to reimburse me for the deposit and the rest of this month's rent; I expect that the account will be closed or the check will bounce by the time I can cash it, though. At this point, I don't really care- I'm just glad to be out of there.

In retrospect, I should have spotted his drug addiction a lot sooner- asking for part of my rent in cash, always blowing his nose and complaining about his "sinus problems", his erratic sleep schedule, the way he frequently looked really sweaty and disheveled- but before this whole episode the possibility never crossed my mind.

Although the whole situation was really stressful and upsetting, everything worked out really well in the end. My new place couldn't be better situated, and I'm much happier there than I was sharing the condo with Matt.

The first day of the rest of your life

A lot has happened in the past month. I've started some meaningful posts, but never got around to finishing any of them. Here's the cliffnotes version, which will be quicker for you to read and quicker for me to write (everyone wins!):

Graduation: Being back in Pittsburgh was fun, but strange. It was great to see everyone again (hopefully not for the last time!) but all the little things that had changed since I left back in December left me feeling a little out of the loop. Staying at Bloodshaw wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be, but I can only speak for myself. The weekend gave me a wicked hangover that lasted through Monday evening (seriously, I’m not exaggerating), most likely due to the combined effects of alcohol, sleep deprivation, and, um, other things.

Las Vegas: Spent a weekend in Vegas to celebrate Bulent's birthday, which was fun and depressing and expensive and exhausting. Spent the entire weekend either drinking, tanning, or sleeping. The group of about 16 people was made up of coworkers and colleages from work and the kickball team that a bunch of SpaceX people play on. It was my first time “doing” Vegas, my only previous stay was mid-week while driving from Pittsburgh to the Bay Area. I guess I did it right, considering that the first night ended in a shady strip club, the first morning was spent sick and sleeping until 1:30, and the second night ended in a suite at MGM with a canadian bacholor party. I definitely have a weakness for foreign accents ;)

FSAE West: Last weekend was FSAE west, which was held about an hour away from here. I went out to "recruit" for SpaceX and to see the CMU SAE boys. The weekend was alright; it was good to see the guys, and although I wasn’t exciting about recruiting in the beginning it was a good excuse for me to be more outgoing than normal and strike up conversations with people I would otherwise not talk to. Saturday night the guys wanted to go go-karting, which lead us to a small outdoor track that obviously wasn’t expecting a large group of 20-something year old car nuts who think they’re pro racecar drivers. They almost got kicked out; their first race was stopped short since they were all trying to run each other off the track and one guy crashed head first into a fencepost. I didn’t participate, but I did meet a local guy who seemed cool- he gave me his condolences for having to put with the sae guys, and his business card.

Work has been busy. I can’t believe I started over two months ago- the weeks have been passing so much faster than when I was a student or intern. Now summer’s in full swing, which means it’s time to get out and enjoy the sunny days and warm nights.

Lightning in a Bottle

The festival was unreal. It was great to see Melanie, and the atmosphere at the site was extra cool and really positive. I ran into Brad, which was a nice surprise, and also ended up talking with this guy who I later realized out was the realtor I met on New Year's in SF who claimed you could see aliens from his street. Our campsite was right infront of the workshop stage, which was an endless source of entertainment since we could watch all the classes ranging from yoga to belly dancing to monkey chanting. I had a great time, and now I'm motivated to seek out similar events and concerts to go to.

More photos are on picasaweb!

Don't blink

Life has been busy! Working long hours, taking advantage of the gym membership, trying to get some sun and sand inbetween.

This weekend: dirty hippies

Next weekend: yinzers

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at CMU next week!

Relocating is hard

Flew LAX to SFO last night. Picked up Uhaul at 7AM. Packed Uhaul, had lunch with grandma, hit the road at 1:30PM for my second Palo Alto/Los Angeles drive in the past two weeks. Arrived in LA at 8:00, housemate was not home and my key broke off in the lock. Luckily, I was able to get the key fragment out of the doorknob, and I hadn't checked out of the hotel yet, so now I'm at the hotel waiting for my housemate to call me back so I can make plans to get into the condo tomorrow to unload the truck.

Boo to poor quality key material.

California, here we come

I drove down to LA last Thursday, to search for housing before starting work. So far I've visited 6 places, of which only 2 were places I would consider. I was hoping to live with girls, but there seems to be a gender imbalance on craigslist and most of the posts are made by guys. Luckily, work will pay for up to a month in a hotel while I search, so I'm in no huge rush to find a place right away but I do worry that the condo I'm currently considering will be taken by someone else if I wait too long.

The past few days have been relaxed, most of my time has been spent looking at housing and shopping and stocking up on groceries (my hotel room has a kitchen). I saw Helen and Flo on Thursday night, they're sharing a condo a block off the sand in Manhattan Beach. I'd like to find a place in that area, but rent prices are outrageous and parking is scarce.

My family's cat is 15 and we recently found he is blind- one detached retina, and one torn retina. My mom was planning on selling the townhouse this summer, but now she claims she can't move the cat anywhere since he's blind and won't know his way around the new house. She's already put down money for having carpets put in and storage space rented, which she's going to lose. A couple of days ago, she tried to convince her health care provider that the cat is her dependent and thus his blood thinner meds (cats are given the same meds as people) should be covered by her health care. My mom means well, even though she's crazy.

First day of work tomorrow. I'm nervous, excited, and anxious.