I remember the first time Kim came to visit me in LA. I wrote ‘Welcome to Sunny SoCal Kim!’ on the white board I had in my apt. He hesitated to ask at first what that meant even though he knew the message was for him. Little did I know I would be learning to all kinds of words and phrases that were written in English but had no meaning to me, at all, in England. This happened about 5 months after that white board message. Do you know what ‘full on’ means? I was trying to explain this to a friend yesterday. Wasn’t easy!

Married in June, moved to the UK in July, started a new career in Nov., traveled all over the world and now, now, I’m back in LA. Hard to believe, cliche I know, but it is really hard to believe that I am back. Los Angeles, City of Angels, Southern California, SoCal, same place different names. It is different here. No, maybe I’m different but it just feels different here.

The city feels less manic. It looks like it’s had a paint job. Small business that looked run down years ago have  new signage, a new coat of paint on the walls inside and out, and people seem even more laid back than usual. I think these types of changes do need time, generally, to happen but 3 years – that seems a really small window of time for such drastic change. There is a new president here. There has been and continues to be a recession. There are alot of people out of work and companies out of business. Yet there are loads of new business, new restaurants and people doing new types of work. A very interesting time in world history. Simply, a transition time in the Magin history.

It doesn’t feel so simple some days but it really is. Since arriving I have ticked off 50% of my list of things to do. An accomplishment, right? Phone, check, car, check, new job (almost), apartment (that comes after the job). Getting a phone proved to be easier than getting a job. Maybe I should weight the percentages differently but they are just things to do and once they’re done, like anything, you start again. New list.

Kim and I continue our adventures tomorrow when he arrives from the UK for two weeks. Silver Lake, Sherman Oaks, The Marina, Santa Barbara, and Vegas are all a part of our itinerary. After looking for jobs for almost three weeks now, the break is welcomed.

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