"Everything is Different"

Matt said to me yesterday "everything is different about our new life – and even we are different." What's weird about moving to L.A. is that everything is different and everything is the same. In a way it feels totally foreign – yet everyone speaks English and uses American money and drives on the "correct" side of the road. There stores are the same – StarBucks, Gap, Banana, Crate and Barrel. Still, everything feels different – the weather, the quality of light, the people I see every day, the scents in the air, the way I transport myself from place to place. In a way it seems like people should be speaking a foreign language or we should be converting dollars into another currency because then we'd have a real excuse for being so out of sorts.

Random Notes: Tonight we have plans to go to the Chateau Marmont with our friend Victor and his friend, Jason. It's super Hollywood – where lots of celebs hang out. We are sooo, L.A. I can't even believe it. And, last week Matt went to the second to last night of American Idol, which is also so L.A. it cracks me up. And, we saw Sheryl Crow shopping for furniture.


New subject: When I was still in NYC, I found a stash of money I had been saving. It was a huge wad of $1 bills that I'd put away for 2 reasons: First, I had read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," which suggests putting away $3 a day (I never did this, but sometime put in $2 and for a while was really into putting away $1 a day.) The second reason was Sept. 11. In a disaster, the ATMs might not work and I might need some cash on hand. Thus the wad of $$$. Matt saw it and laughingly suggested that if I brought all those $1 bills to the bank, the teller would think I was a stripper. Later, at the bank the man looked at the pile of money and raised an eyebrow – he totally thought I was a stripper! So I said to him, "It's my terrorism money," which made him look alarmed. "I mean, I had it in case there was another attack," I said. He looked at me like I was crazy, gave me nine $20 bills and was probably so relieved to see me go. (I have no good reason to tell this story, but it's been rattling around in my head, so I figured I'd write it down.)