Viva Los Angeles

Well, this is where I begin my travels. My goodbye party went amazingly well and I got to say goodbye to many wonderful people who were kind enough to hang out or DJ or plan the thing. I'm ever grateful and flattered. Said goodbye to most family the night before at dinner, where my mom thought it would be a great idea to give me a box of condoms. Wrapped in a black plastic bag like a surprise, mind you, but I had figured it out by the end of the night anyway. Precious.

So I finally packed up my shit after spending the entire last week editing photos for work and hanging out with everyone. I'm pretty impressed with how much shit I was able to cram into not very much luggage:

1 big roll-y bag
1 big backpack
1 small backpack that attaches to big backpack
1 guitar case
1 camera bag

Somehow I got all of this on the plane this morning after being so stressed out I thought my head was going to explode. My mom and brother dropped me off with not much time to spare and the bag checker man was about 80 years old and kept insisting that my big suitcase was overweight, which it absolutely was. 75 pounds to be exact. So he, my brother, and I took everything upstairs to the counter, where the woman there was practically stoned. I admit, I was pretty anxious as it was, so the combination of me not having very much time, and her not being very... efficient, resulted in smoke coming out of my ears. And that doesn't happen very often. Not to mention, this was the last time I'd be home in almost 6 months. But luckily, VERY luckily, we got our shit together after an emotional goodbye with my bro and I boarded the plane to LA, via Austin.

So, after arriving at LAX and meeting Colin, we grabbed our rental CONVERTIBLE (!!!) and drove to his friend's house in Bellaire where we are staying. It's a beautiful neighborhood in the hills and his friend Tony is very nice. We just drove around a bit and walked to eat, then walked down the Promenade and down to the beach. That was pretty cool. The weather here is gorgeous.

Now we're back at Tony's and we took a dip in the hot tub. I feel much more at ease than I did this morning, but it's still very unreal. I think each day, I'll encounter new challenges and apprehensions coupled with excitement that I'm doing something new and exotic and fun. And each day, I'll cope with those feelings so that I can make this experience meaningful and significant for my life. As my Gammy's boyfriend Ira says, "If you don't adjust, you don't exist". Plus, he gave me these sweet binoculars that have been around the world.

I'm gonna go take a quick nap before we go out tonight. I'll write more later.

Love,

Sally