Woah! Can you believe we have been away for 6 months!! while it seems like just yesterday that we were struggling to fit everything into our bulging suitcases, we have done so much in the last 6 months that it seems like so so long ago since we were in NZ!
Just in case you were wondering, we are still alive. Just. I
say this with $1.26 in my bank account, minimal food in the cupboard, a few
stray beers in the fridge and a box of instant pancakes on the shelf.
Here in America, the land of the free, and supposedly the
greatest nation on earth (highly debatable) you get paid by check. CAN YOU
BELIEVE IT!? Coming from the country who first implemented EFTPOS systems, this
is a big deal - and something that we are finding one of the strangest customs
to adjust to. At home, things would sometimes get a little grim coming close to
payday, but over here, payday isn’t actually payday – for a number of reasons.
1) it’s a Christmas miracle if the necessary information gets to paychex by
deadline in order for us to receive our checks in reasonable time. 2) Once the
checks arrive, the get passed around the office like a special edition of pass
the parcel a la you’re 7th birthday party. And this is before I even
get to see one. It’s more like a 5 year olds birthday where the first few
rounds are random and the music stops on a few lucky ones, then as the game
continues the music ‘randomly’ stops on everyone in the circle. And if it’s you’re
party, it stops on you last because you have already eaten your fair share of
sugar and opened a plethora of gifts. 3) Once you finally get that exciting
envelope in your hand (and like pass the parcel you unwrap it and it’s really a
lot less exciting than what you were expecting – every. Time.) You have to
deposit it! Now, depending on which bank you are with, the amount of time
before you actually see the available funds is variable. Bank of America have
this nifty little function on their app (which I find ironic seen as they can’t
seem to fathom the practice of automatic payments) where you can photograph the
front and back of your check and it will deposit it for you instantly. Aka Overnight.
So yea, theres that.
This update comes after a long time forgetting about the blog
– to you all at home (or wherever) we are on this amazing travel adventure, but
to us the travel has ceased, and we are fully immersed in the life of somewhat
fabulous LA.
You’ve heard about the abode – briefly. Not a lot more to expand
on here, its starting to look a bit more ‘us’ with photos from home and our
travels making their way to the walls of the living room. A few issues with
bathrooms and the kitchen sinks; and a forgotten key on a rather hungover Sunday,
and it’s just like flatting in Wellington really. Maintenance fixed the
plumbing issues (sort of) and an overly nosey neighbor helped us break in when with
a ladder and an open window – thankfully we are on the first floor. The bills
are crazy different however, our gas bill for a month totaling at a whopping
$7! And water and power for 50 days coming to a total of $15 ish each. Bargain!
Still no car, but have managed to decrease the amount of time
we spend on public transport by making friends with people who have vehicles.
Jobs. Success! Kind of. I found happiness at a part time job
doing audience work for studio shows, but like a promo company with a huge
book, they couldn’t guarantee me the hours that I needed. Andi managed to land
an interview with a company in Santa Monica (who we shall call 280 for the
purpose of this blog). She scored the position of Receptionist/ HR assistant at
280 within five minutes of the interview, coz the CEO is a bit of a nutter. He loved
the kiwi accent and when he learnt that she was here with a friend on their OE
together, he told her to bring her friend in for an interview the very next day
– if she had the same accent.
WINNING!
I rocked up for the interview with no idea what to expect,
other than a little bit of craziness. The CEO joined in the interview (for the
second time in his career) and started asking me what I was doing there because
my resume advertised my interest in Media, not the industry that 280 is
involved in. I looked at him point blank and told him I was there because I was
asked to come in, and that I really just needed a job to pay rent.
And that it does.
I walked out with a job in a position that was going to be
created for me – an office floater – Administrative Assistant, technically.
So we now have this job that pays us the bare minimal – CEO is
very clever; but in the same verse, we do very little. Aka nothing. Andi
answers the phones when they ring
occasionally, and has documents open to appear busy when anyone walks
passed, while I have been put out of sight, out of mind, in a cubicle on the
other side of the office with the HR team and tech support where I spend my
hours googling, reading and listening to music, with the odd document minimized
to pop up when someone of importance walks by.
So that’s good. Boring, but pays rent.
We have made a few friends, which is also good! Last weekend
we partied at LeAnn Rimes’ old house in the Hidden Hills. How Hollywood of us.
We went to a Dodgers game over Memorial Weekend which was fun times!
And we finally made it to the LACMA museum and the La Brea Tar Pits.
June Gloom is in full effect, with temperatures being a lot
cooler than what we experienced in May, and clouds not dissipating until around
2pm.Suits us fine however as we’re dreading the desert heat that will attack us
come proper summertime.
With the multitude of concerts and events coming up and our
already low income, we try to not live incredibly lavish LA lives so that
hopefully one day we could possibly afford to go out somewhere cool!!
Apologies for the lack of blogginess, we will try to be more
proactive now that we spend 8 hours of the day in front of computers doing very
little!
Peace.
