We've had such an exciting week and it's only Tuesday!! Well to begin, Dan and Bose moved in upstairs on Friday. Dan and Bose are friends from Missouri who have moved out here to attend Musicians Institute as well (Dan for drums and Bose for guitar). We actually met them through Justin's Aunt Melissa. Melissa's hairstylist, Chris, is Bose's Mom. But Chris also knows some of my family, apparently she was in the same room with Jamie last summer when Cakes went through her crawdad nightmare. SMALL WORLD.
We are so excited to finally have new people to talk to! They are a blast to be around, we all mesh really well together. They were a little jealous of our apartment decor at first, but, after some work their apartment is shaping in to quite the bachelor pad. They moved in literally right above us, we are 306 and they are 406. There are Pros and Cons to the situation: Pros-we can party in their apartment and not worry about waking the people below; ideal situation for making a story-to-story-out-the-window beer bong; we can create some kind of pounding Morse code for "hey we're here, come hang out". Cons- Dan is a drummer and he's constantly keeping a beat with his feet; they have surround sound; I'm really afraid I'm going to come home and there's going to be a fireman's pole in the corner of the apartment---I've caught them seriously discussing putting one in a few times.
Justin had registration today and got his I.D. card. Looks like a mugshot of course! He also got put in his classes for the semester, he'll be taking Theory and Ear Training I and Blues Guitar and Slide Guitar. I think he has another class too, but the name is leaving me. I get so used to Justin rarely showing excitement or nervousness (he leaves all those emotions to me, haha) it was very weird this morning when he was noticeably nervous. I guess it was first day of school jitters. But when he got home he talked and talked and talked, I think he's going to love it there. He has an orientation on the 1st and classes begin on the 5th so keep him in your thoughts. Apparently it's no easy class schedule!
Well in other news, I'M FINALLY EMPLOYED! I was hired as a Marketing Coordinator for a very small custom design and print company (invitations and what not). The artist does all her own designs and does them all in house, so I will be working out of her home office in Studio City--about a 5 minute drive. Basically I will be booking meetings, following up on inquiries and updating all her online marketing leads. For now it's only about 30 hours a week, but she said it has room for growth which is great. I already have some fantastic ideas on how to expand her market! The best part of the whole job--she doesn't start work before 10a.m. This job is perfect for the fresh college graduate. She does amazing work, check out her website (www.celebrationcards.com). Having a job sure takes some pressure off, I am still going to work on getting a weekend ushering/customer service job at a theatre though. A few theatres have expressed interest in having me work as a volunteer for a while and I am considering it, it's a way to get my name out in the area. I'll keep you posted on that as it happens.
Well this weekend is the first Vasquez wedding we'll be missing :( Heidi, Renee's middle daughter is getting married on Saturday. Wish we could be there to see everyone, but Christmas will be here before we know it! Before I end it, I must say I am getting DARN good at cooking, last week's meals we're just fantastic. Also Justin is getting very close to finishing that huge book about the Beatles, which means I'm about to owe him $10 (I bet him $10 he'd never finish it...ah well.)
Miss you and talk to you soon! Much love!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
A constructive way to pass the time:
All my life I've been surrounded by fantastic cooks, I've never really needed to cook for myself. Even when I was living in Mascoutah I was still eating at Mike and Becky's or my parents most nights of the week and the nights I didn't eat there I was going out with friends for dinner. In hindsight with going to school and working I never really had time to "cook" meals.
So here I am in my first September in 16 years that I haven't had to go to school. Along with that I still haven't found that perfect job. I can't remember a time when I had this much time on my hands. I literally work on sending out resumes and calling potential employers all day/afternoon and then spend my evening diddling around. Justin plays guitar and reads in the morning, then plays guitar and reads in the afternoon, breaks for dinner and perhaps a movie, then plays guitar and reads before bed. As you can imagine, after a week, life can become increasingly boring. Neither of us really have the money to go out and ENJOY L.A. yet, that will come with time.
Needing a change of pace, since today is Saturday, I planned out our menu for the next two weeks and then we went shopping. I've found it's cheaper and more efficient to plan what you are going to eat in advance. It keeps us from impulse buying and wasting produce. So after a day of shopping I began on supper. Tonight I made Chicken Cordon Blue (sp?), homemade mashed potatoes, broccoli and spring salad. The chicken turned out great, next time I think I'll use a different cheese though. The potatoes turned out AWESOME! It was only after I washed the potatoes and put them in water to boil that I realized (a) I'd never actually made mashed potatoes and (b) I don't have a mixer to "mash". Turns out if you cook the potatoes long enough you can mash by hand. :) Thank goodness. So while conversing over our delicious dinner and our wonderful bottle of Chenin Blanc wine, Justin decided to grade the meal. He gave it a 99%, only because the broccoli was a little over done and the chicken could have been a bit cheesier. I asked him how he rated the home-made spaghetti and meatballs I made last Friday, he said an 80% because they were a bit too garliky and the chunks of onion should have been smaller (plus he hates whole wheat spaghetti noodles). This lead me to a great idea!
I am going to make 2 meals a week from absolute scratch. Something totally different that I've never made before and Justin gets to grade me on it. We are going to take pictures and keep a journal of the dishes. It may sound dorky, but believe me, it's about the most interesting thing we've done all weekend! Finally a constructive way to pass the time.
In other news, we are getting used to the L.A. life. I almost hit my first pedestrian yesterday while driving which really isn't a great thing but happens a lot here. Okay, maybe hitting is a bad word, we'll say fiercely tapping. I mean I was rolling out of a parking garage, and he had time to step back, how fast could I really have been going?! He also cursed at me, which is pretty typical as well, actually, the cursing thing is probably typical of any "car vs. man" incident anywhere on the globe.
I am going to sign off for the night, polish off this bottle of wine and work on writing some songs with Justin. But on a final note, we both talked to Justin's Aunt Tammy for a long time today (we had a lot to catch up on!) and she asked a lot of questions she'd been wondering about for a while about our life out here. If you think of something you want to know, drop me an email and I will definitely make sure to put it in the next blog! Email is victoriagalle@gmail.com
Talk to you all soon, miss you!
So here I am in my first September in 16 years that I haven't had to go to school. Along with that I still haven't found that perfect job. I can't remember a time when I had this much time on my hands. I literally work on sending out resumes and calling potential employers all day/afternoon and then spend my evening diddling around. Justin plays guitar and reads in the morning, then plays guitar and reads in the afternoon, breaks for dinner and perhaps a movie, then plays guitar and reads before bed. As you can imagine, after a week, life can become increasingly boring. Neither of us really have the money to go out and ENJOY L.A. yet, that will come with time.
Needing a change of pace, since today is Saturday, I planned out our menu for the next two weeks and then we went shopping. I've found it's cheaper and more efficient to plan what you are going to eat in advance. It keeps us from impulse buying and wasting produce. So after a day of shopping I began on supper. Tonight I made Chicken Cordon Blue (sp?), homemade mashed potatoes, broccoli and spring salad. The chicken turned out great, next time I think I'll use a different cheese though. The potatoes turned out AWESOME! It was only after I washed the potatoes and put them in water to boil that I realized (a) I'd never actually made mashed potatoes and (b) I don't have a mixer to "mash". Turns out if you cook the potatoes long enough you can mash by hand. :) Thank goodness. So while conversing over our delicious dinner and our wonderful bottle of Chenin Blanc wine, Justin decided to grade the meal. He gave it a 99%, only because the broccoli was a little over done and the chicken could have been a bit cheesier. I asked him how he rated the home-made spaghetti and meatballs I made last Friday, he said an 80% because they were a bit too garliky and the chunks of onion should have been smaller (plus he hates whole wheat spaghetti noodles). This lead me to a great idea!
I am going to make 2 meals a week from absolute scratch. Something totally different that I've never made before and Justin gets to grade me on it. We are going to take pictures and keep a journal of the dishes. It may sound dorky, but believe me, it's about the most interesting thing we've done all weekend! Finally a constructive way to pass the time.
In other news, we are getting used to the L.A. life. I almost hit my first pedestrian yesterday while driving which really isn't a great thing but happens a lot here. Okay, maybe hitting is a bad word, we'll say fiercely tapping. I mean I was rolling out of a parking garage, and he had time to step back, how fast could I really have been going?! He also cursed at me, which is pretty typical as well, actually, the cursing thing is probably typical of any "car vs. man" incident anywhere on the globe.
I am going to sign off for the night, polish off this bottle of wine and work on writing some songs with Justin. But on a final note, we both talked to Justin's Aunt Tammy for a long time today (we had a lot to catch up on!) and she asked a lot of questions she'd been wondering about for a while about our life out here. If you think of something you want to know, drop me an email and I will definitely make sure to put it in the next blog! Email is victoriagalle@gmail.com
Talk to you all soon, miss you!
Friday, September 4, 2009
It's still really hot.
Almost not tolerable. I've spent the majority of the week tweaking and sending out my resume, so on Wednesday when Justin suggested that we spend a day at the beach I jumped on that idea. We went to Zuma beach which is about a hour drive from our apartment (in case you're wondering it's only like 20 miles but yes it really takes that long to drive there) in Malibu, California. Glamorous Malibu is not all that glamorous and no we didn't see anyone famous. You know how people always say that things look better in the movies? Well, they do. Malibu the town is not that great but the beach is BEAUTIFUL. We of course forgot to take pictures, we'll just have to go back again next week and be sure to get some.
We saw a movie Tuesday night and it was probably by far the greatest moving going experience of our lives. The theatre was practically the size of an airport. Seats were uber-comfortable, concessions were cheaper than in Fairview Heights IL and the sound was amazing! Tickets were $12 though so we decided that we are only going to go see a movie when we REALLY want to because for the price of two tickets we could probably own it when it comes out on DVD. We saw "It Might Get Loud" which is a rockumentary featuring three guitarists Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) Jack White (White Stripes) and The Edge (U2). The film basically chronicles their journey through their careers and how they developed their own unique sound. Justin and I agreed we could have used more Jimmy and Jack and less of the Edge, but neither of us are U2 fans. It was really great to get to see that type of film, that kind of film will probably only play in large cities.
Today we went to Target and Borders for some heat relief. Since our apartment doesn't have A/C we've been finding cheap ways to pass some time. Both Target and Borders have free one hour parking so it's really a cheap trip...well minus the fact we both decided to purchase a book at Borders. Justin is now reading a Beatles book that is literally the size of my butt.
I almost forgot! Justin had his first embarrassing apartment living moment on Monday. We were trying to do our laundry all day and during one particular load I asked him to go down and check to see if they were dry. He walked the stairs to the basement and then decided the take the elevator back up except he hit level 2 instead of level 3 and walked right into room 206. He said the tenant was on the couch and turned around the said "Um, Hello?" he turned bright red, said "whoops wrong room" and ducked out of the room. Unfortunately another tenant was in the hall so she saw the whole thing too. I felt bad for him, in his defense the halls all do look the same. :) Plus that girl shouldn't leave her door unlocked, that's just not safe!
Other than that, all is going well. Hope you all have a safe, and happy Labor Day weekend!!
We saw a movie Tuesday night and it was probably by far the greatest moving going experience of our lives. The theatre was practically the size of an airport. Seats were uber-comfortable, concessions were cheaper than in Fairview Heights IL and the sound was amazing! Tickets were $12 though so we decided that we are only going to go see a movie when we REALLY want to because for the price of two tickets we could probably own it when it comes out on DVD. We saw "It Might Get Loud" which is a rockumentary featuring three guitarists Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) Jack White (White Stripes) and The Edge (U2). The film basically chronicles their journey through their careers and how they developed their own unique sound. Justin and I agreed we could have used more Jimmy and Jack and less of the Edge, but neither of us are U2 fans. It was really great to get to see that type of film, that kind of film will probably only play in large cities.
Today we went to Target and Borders for some heat relief. Since our apartment doesn't have A/C we've been finding cheap ways to pass some time. Both Target and Borders have free one hour parking so it's really a cheap trip...well minus the fact we both decided to purchase a book at Borders. Justin is now reading a Beatles book that is literally the size of my butt.
I almost forgot! Justin had his first embarrassing apartment living moment on Monday. We were trying to do our laundry all day and during one particular load I asked him to go down and check to see if they were dry. He walked the stairs to the basement and then decided the take the elevator back up except he hit level 2 instead of level 3 and walked right into room 206. He said the tenant was on the couch and turned around the said "Um, Hello?" he turned bright red, said "whoops wrong room" and ducked out of the room. Unfortunately another tenant was in the hall so she saw the whole thing too. I felt bad for him, in his defense the halls all do look the same. :) Plus that girl shouldn't leave her door unlocked, that's just not safe!
Other than that, all is going well. Hope you all have a safe, and happy Labor Day weekend!!
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