“The Twelve Months of 2006”
A Retrospective on the Year After the Worst Year of My Life
Part One - January
I decided to visit my brother for a couple of days before I came back to finish packing up my apartment. As much as I hated car ownership, I must admit that being able to get to San Francisco with little advance planning and a tank of gas was a treat. I simply put some clothes in a bag, filled up the tank, bought snacks and left.
There are two groups of hills one has to pass through on Interstate 5 before entering the Central Valley. After the first set you enter the valley everyone knows about. Then you drive another 45 minutes or so and through some other hills and then you go down a long mountain. At this point you have a pretty straight flat drive to San Francisco. None of this is remarkable accept that as I drove down the second set of mountains I immediately felt lighter. Despite my year in LA, I’m not generally prone to depression and therefore don’t really think about the physical toll it takes on one’s body. I knew my hair was falling out and my stomach hurt almost daily. But I didn’t know that just driving away from the source would quite literally lift my spirits. I still remember vividly taking a deep breath for what seemed like the first time in a very long time.
Once I got there my brother asked how long I was staying. I replied that I would stay a couple of days. I’d go back Monday.
“Why?”
It then dawned on me that I could stay as long as I wanted. As long as I was back to finish packing I could hang out with my brother indefinitely. And so I did.
There were many aspects of my old life that I took for granted. Things I missed terribly when I lived in LA. One such thing was walking. I am a devout pedestrian. And like any profoundly pious follower of that life I hated driving. The beauty of San Francisco is that it’s one of the few places west of the Mississippi where you don’t have to. So I walked and I walked and I walked. I went to the beach (yes, it was cold), to the museum, to bars, to Neiman Marcus (I’m still me), all on foot. I think I really missed being connected to people in the way you can be without the armor of a car and wide roads.
I missed urbanity.
During that time I really reconnected with my brother. We foolishly had spent most of my time in LA being angry with each other over nothing so we didn’t visit hang out with each other until the fall. So it was in January that we began making up for some serious lost time.
It never ceases to amaze me or anyone who hangs out with both of us just how similar we are. It’s so nice to not have to explain why you want to have brunch at the Neiman Marcus Rotunda, or the importance of architecture and city planning, or what’s so great about looking at things you can’t afford. For two people who thought we were incredibly different, we’ve turned out to be eerily alike. So basically we spent the entire month going from fancy bar to fancy store to fancy museum. It was the way life was meant to be.
I also spent a bit of time reflecting. Since my leaving Los Angeles was soon to be for good, I used up an afternoon at a Union Square café making a top 10 list of things I would miss about LA:
10. The Los Angeles Times
I may have been one of the few LA residents who actually read the newspaper, so I may be the only person qualified to discuss its attributes. I’ve actually read the Los Angeles Times for some time now. One of my assignments at my first job out of college was to comb various newspapers all over the country for articles about civil rights issues, so basically I was paid to read the newspaper for a couple of hours each day (not a bad gig). In doing so I became familiar with the reporting at different newspapers throughout the US and abroad. I was always pleasantly surprised with the quality of the articles I read in the Los Angeles Times. As an East Coaster, you can easily come to think there are really only two or three papers and while the quality of reporting at the New York Times, the Washington Post and occasionally the Chicago Tribune is unmatched anywhere else in the US, I wasn’t disappointed by the coverage in the Los Angeles Times. I even had a friend who felt that the Los Angeles Times was the only paper poised to challenge to the venerable New York Times on the national newspaper stage. The main problem is readership. Too bad people in LA would rather read US Weekly. They’re missing out…
9. The Getty Museum’s Friday Nights
The first Friday night of every month (not sure about winter months) The Getty Museum stays open late, sets up a bar and hosts live music. If you’re not familiar with The Getty Museum, it is an architecturally beautiful building with amazing views, what some call a mediocre art collection, and an overly enthusiastic acquisitions department. To get to it one must sit in traffic (this is the first step to getting anywhere in LA), park your car in the cavernous garage (this is the second step to getting anywhere in LA), and ride a tram to the top of a mountain in Brentwood. The views are stunning and on Friday nights you can watch the sun set while listening to live jazz and drinking a glass of wine with friends. I took my mom when she came to visit and it went over well.
8. Zen Nail Spa
This was my favorite nail salon when I was in LA. Once a month I traveled to Robertson between Wilshire and Olympic to treat myself. For $26 you get a spa mani/pedi with hot oil treatment while sitting in a leather electric massage chair. It’s certainly not the cheapest mani/pedi in LA, but it’s the cheapest mani/pedi in a massage chair in Beverly Hills with a hot oil treatment, and therefore was my favorite.
7. The beach
I will say that the terrain and the weather in LA are truly to be missed. Although I’ve reconnected with my love of Fall and seasons generally and so far this has been a pleasant and mild winter, I must say I miss going to the beach all year round. I spent several Saturday afternoons with a bottle of wine, Boursin, a baguette, a good book, and the Pacific. It was nice.
6. Doughboys
Doughboys on Third between Fairfax and La Cienega was my favorite brunch spot. The meals were hardy, the service was friendly, and the atmosphere was unpretentious. I loved it. I took all who came to visit to brunch there and everyone had a good time. I went at least once a month. My friends in New York (and DC for that matter) would call me a bit of a brunch aficionado. I am obsessed with finding the newest, coolest brunch place. Thanks to Time Out New York Magazine and my adventurous friends I’ve found some amazing brunch places here in the city. But I’ll always remember Doughboys…
5. Café Tartine
This became my favorite restaurant during my time in Los Angeles. It was a French bistro on the corner of Martel and Beverly. Café Tartine was quiet, small, simple and sophisticated, read: not very LA. They had a delicious Crème Brulee. And the Coq-Au-Vin was divine AND reasonably priced. My friend Sally’s birthday party was held there at my suggestion and all invited had a good time.
It was so good that it was sad but not unexpected when I was told that it went out of business a couple months after I left.
There goes the neighborhood.
4. Griffith Park
I didn’t start visiting Griffith Park until the fall, but once I started I visited quite often. For those of you not in the know Griffith Park is one of the largest municipal parks in the nation. There are endless trails, horseback riding, tennis, swimming, golf, a concert hall, and the park is host to the Observatory as well as the Hollywood sign. The free days when I wasn’t at the beach with wine I was here with friends. P.S. Thanks Sally for being a great hiking buddy!
3. Los Angeles Central Library
My hometown, Columbus, Ohio has one of the best public library systems in the country. More residents of Columbus use the library than do residents in any other city, per capita. I mention this because I grew up going to the library. So I feel justified in saying that the downtown branch of the Los Angeles public library system is a terrific place to visit. Its eight floors (four of which are subterranean) are lit by a building length skylight; the book collection is of good quality, and the entire building is wireless. I don't know how many hours of my year were spent there, but they were all well worth it.
2. New Friends
As I’ve mentioned, my time in LA was pretty lonely for me. Up until last year I had spent all of my adult life in areas densely populated with people similar to me. That made it very easy to make friends. It was quite a surprise to find myself in a place so completely foreign and full of values so different from mine, which up until then I thought were universal. This made the friends I did come to know even more important. Thanks Antonne, Clark, Kim-Monique (though I live near you now, if I wasn’t in LA we wouldn’t have met), Kyle, Marcie, Sally, et all for making last year bearable.
1. My Brother
Okay, so he doesn’t live in LA, but when I lived in LA (after we stopped being mad at each other for no reason) I got to see him every couple of weeks. Now I live 3000 miles away again and therefore don’t get to see him whenever I want. That sucks. And so the great “Get My Brother to Move to New York” campaign began…
A Retrospective on the Year After the Worst Year of My Life
Part One - January
I decided to visit my brother for a couple of days before I came back to finish packing up my apartment. As much as I hated car ownership, I must admit that being able to get to San Francisco with little advance planning and a tank of gas was a treat. I simply put some clothes in a bag, filled up the tank, bought snacks and left.
There are two groups of hills one has to pass through on Interstate 5 before entering the Central Valley. After the first set you enter the valley everyone knows about. Then you drive another 45 minutes or so and through some other hills and then you go down a long mountain. At this point you have a pretty straight flat drive to San Francisco. None of this is remarkable accept that as I drove down the second set of mountains I immediately felt lighter. Despite my year in LA, I’m not generally prone to depression and therefore don’t really think about the physical toll it takes on one’s body. I knew my hair was falling out and my stomach hurt almost daily. But I didn’t know that just driving away from the source would quite literally lift my spirits. I still remember vividly taking a deep breath for what seemed like the first time in a very long time.
Once I got there my brother asked how long I was staying. I replied that I would stay a couple of days. I’d go back Monday.
“Why?”
It then dawned on me that I could stay as long as I wanted. As long as I was back to finish packing I could hang out with my brother indefinitely. And so I did.
There were many aspects of my old life that I took for granted. Things I missed terribly when I lived in LA. One such thing was walking. I am a devout pedestrian. And like any profoundly pious follower of that life I hated driving. The beauty of San Francisco is that it’s one of the few places west of the Mississippi where you don’t have to. So I walked and I walked and I walked. I went to the beach (yes, it was cold), to the museum, to bars, to Neiman Marcus (I’m still me), all on foot. I think I really missed being connected to people in the way you can be without the armor of a car and wide roads.
I missed urbanity.
During that time I really reconnected with my brother. We foolishly had spent most of my time in LA being angry with each other over nothing so we didn’t visit hang out with each other until the fall. So it was in January that we began making up for some serious lost time.
It never ceases to amaze me or anyone who hangs out with both of us just how similar we are. It’s so nice to not have to explain why you want to have brunch at the Neiman Marcus Rotunda, or the importance of architecture and city planning, or what’s so great about looking at things you can’t afford. For two people who thought we were incredibly different, we’ve turned out to be eerily alike. So basically we spent the entire month going from fancy bar to fancy store to fancy museum. It was the way life was meant to be.
I also spent a bit of time reflecting. Since my leaving Los Angeles was soon to be for good, I used up an afternoon at a Union Square café making a top 10 list of things I would miss about LA:
10. The Los Angeles Times
I may have been one of the few LA residents who actually read the newspaper, so I may be the only person qualified to discuss its attributes. I’ve actually read the Los Angeles Times for some time now. One of my assignments at my first job out of college was to comb various newspapers all over the country for articles about civil rights issues, so basically I was paid to read the newspaper for a couple of hours each day (not a bad gig). In doing so I became familiar with the reporting at different newspapers throughout the US and abroad. I was always pleasantly surprised with the quality of the articles I read in the Los Angeles Times. As an East Coaster, you can easily come to think there are really only two or three papers and while the quality of reporting at the New York Times, the Washington Post and occasionally the Chicago Tribune is unmatched anywhere else in the US, I wasn’t disappointed by the coverage in the Los Angeles Times. I even had a friend who felt that the Los Angeles Times was the only paper poised to challenge to the venerable New York Times on the national newspaper stage. The main problem is readership. Too bad people in LA would rather read US Weekly. They’re missing out…
9. The Getty Museum’s Friday Nights
The first Friday night of every month (not sure about winter months) The Getty Museum stays open late, sets up a bar and hosts live music. If you’re not familiar with The Getty Museum, it is an architecturally beautiful building with amazing views, what some call a mediocre art collection, and an overly enthusiastic acquisitions department. To get to it one must sit in traffic (this is the first step to getting anywhere in LA), park your car in the cavernous garage (this is the second step to getting anywhere in LA), and ride a tram to the top of a mountain in Brentwood. The views are stunning and on Friday nights you can watch the sun set while listening to live jazz and drinking a glass of wine with friends. I took my mom when she came to visit and it went over well.
8. Zen Nail Spa
This was my favorite nail salon when I was in LA. Once a month I traveled to Robertson between Wilshire and Olympic to treat myself. For $26 you get a spa mani/pedi with hot oil treatment while sitting in a leather electric massage chair. It’s certainly not the cheapest mani/pedi in LA, but it’s the cheapest mani/pedi in a massage chair in Beverly Hills with a hot oil treatment, and therefore was my favorite.
7. The beach
I will say that the terrain and the weather in LA are truly to be missed. Although I’ve reconnected with my love of Fall and seasons generally and so far this has been a pleasant and mild winter, I must say I miss going to the beach all year round. I spent several Saturday afternoons with a bottle of wine, Boursin, a baguette, a good book, and the Pacific. It was nice.
6. Doughboys
Doughboys on Third between Fairfax and La Cienega was my favorite brunch spot. The meals were hardy, the service was friendly, and the atmosphere was unpretentious. I loved it. I took all who came to visit to brunch there and everyone had a good time. I went at least once a month. My friends in New York (and DC for that matter) would call me a bit of a brunch aficionado. I am obsessed with finding the newest, coolest brunch place. Thanks to Time Out New York Magazine and my adventurous friends I’ve found some amazing brunch places here in the city. But I’ll always remember Doughboys…
5. Café Tartine
This became my favorite restaurant during my time in Los Angeles. It was a French bistro on the corner of Martel and Beverly. Café Tartine was quiet, small, simple and sophisticated, read: not very LA. They had a delicious Crème Brulee. And the Coq-Au-Vin was divine AND reasonably priced. My friend Sally’s birthday party was held there at my suggestion and all invited had a good time.
It was so good that it was sad but not unexpected when I was told that it went out of business a couple months after I left.
There goes the neighborhood.
4. Griffith Park
I didn’t start visiting Griffith Park until the fall, but once I started I visited quite often. For those of you not in the know Griffith Park is one of the largest municipal parks in the nation. There are endless trails, horseback riding, tennis, swimming, golf, a concert hall, and the park is host to the Observatory as well as the Hollywood sign. The free days when I wasn’t at the beach with wine I was here with friends. P.S. Thanks Sally for being a great hiking buddy!
3. Los Angeles Central Library
My hometown, Columbus, Ohio has one of the best public library systems in the country. More residents of Columbus use the library than do residents in any other city, per capita. I mention this because I grew up going to the library. So I feel justified in saying that the downtown branch of the Los Angeles public library system is a terrific place to visit. Its eight floors (four of which are subterranean) are lit by a building length skylight; the book collection is of good quality, and the entire building is wireless. I don't know how many hours of my year were spent there, but they were all well worth it.
2. New Friends
As I’ve mentioned, my time in LA was pretty lonely for me. Up until last year I had spent all of my adult life in areas densely populated with people similar to me. That made it very easy to make friends. It was quite a surprise to find myself in a place so completely foreign and full of values so different from mine, which up until then I thought were universal. This made the friends I did come to know even more important. Thanks Antonne, Clark, Kim-Monique (though I live near you now, if I wasn’t in LA we wouldn’t have met), Kyle, Marcie, Sally, et all for making last year bearable.
1. My Brother
Okay, so he doesn’t live in LA, but when I lived in LA (after we stopped being mad at each other for no reason) I got to see him every couple of weeks. Now I live 3000 miles away again and therefore don’t get to see him whenever I want. That sucks. And so the great “Get My Brother to Move to New York” campaign began…
posted by Anika at 9:52 PM
1 Comments:
Welcome back to the blog world and welcome,once again, to NYC (where you and I rang in '06 sorta).
Even if I move to Brooklyn and you're still in Manhattan remember...it's not as far as LA nor is it anything like LA so you better come visit! ~Kim-Monique.
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