Okay, let’s see. Factual update first then on to all the emotional stuff. I GOT A JOB!!!! AT WHOLE FOODS!!! Isn’t that great? Yes, it is. I really love it so far except that my entire body is usually screaming at me at the end of a shift. Right now I’m a bagger, but I will learn the register soon! Why am I so excited about this? Because unlike the life of an actor, there is a set of steps to follow that make sense and that lead to success. Additionally, when I go home, I’m not thinking about all the Bagging Networking I should be doing. Hooray! Yesterday I bought some very expensive work shoes that I’m hoping will make my feet happier when I’m lifting bags full of wine bottles and organic flour. I’m so relieved to have a job. And so once again, my focus shifts in the brief 5 months I have lived here. First it was The Holidays, then it was The Dying Cat, then The Car Accident, then The Job and now? The Emotions.

These are things I have not found here yet: a good car wash, a convenient branch of my bank and a dry cleaner. I would add hairdresser to that list, but I went to a girl a couple of weeks ago that I like so that seems good. So much of my life is about replacing things I had become accustomed to in Los Angeles. I find that I am trying to replace them faster than I think is possible or healthy. This is a segue into the emotional stuff now.

These are things that I miss about my life in Los Angeles in no particular order: Heaven Foot Massage on Ventura, my dentist, Shannon, Menchie’s, Karen, Brooke, Book Club, smog, Gillian, seeing the Hollywood sign, Marypat, You’re Killing Me Larry, Hollywood Boulevard circa 2000, Yoga Blend, the cute stretch of Magnolia in Burbank, Matt Rose, The Canon, Marie et Cie, Studio City Committee, Fresno times, Marilyn, iO West, Dave Holmes’ parties, Aroma or Priscilla’s (if not too busy). But mostly I miss My People. I haven’t found My People here yet, probably because I don’t have history with anyone here. Thank God for Martin (who was one of my best friends in college and who I have stayed in touch with the past 20 years.) I have met some wonderful folks here who probably WILL become My People, but right now we don’t have that shorthand that People have with Their People. To paraphrase/misquote “When Harry Met Sally,” I can’t say to anyone, “let’s meet at that place where we ate that thing that one time.” And I don’t do Nothing with anyone yet. That’s not a double negative. I’m saying that I like having people in my life with whom I can do Nothing. It’s one of my greatest joys. Meaning, I go over (or he/she comes over) and somebody reads to himself/herself while someone else folds his/her laundry and talks to his/her cats while watching a CSI Miami marathon.

Things take time. Goddamn you, “Things.” I know I sound down in the dumps. That must be because I am. I talked to Douglas on the phone today and he said that maybe I should just let myself be down in the dumpers. Good advice. I just wish the conversation had happened while we were at that place where we ate that thing that one time.