Warm November Weekend

Tom and I spent this warm weekend trying to relax before law school gets crazy. The next month is going to leave Tom little time to do anything other than cram and sleep. And probably not much time for sleep. We actually both got new cell phones on Friday (they're the same phone) because we switched to a family cell phone plan, and the phones take decent pictures so I'm going to try to add to the blog more often with pictures taken from my cell phone. Tom changed his phone number to a local number (310-880-5866) and my phone number will stay the same (310-691-9966).

Saturday we went to a nearby outdoor mall and wandered around for a while. I actually wanted to go to The Container Store (which recently opened), they also have an Apple store (which we both enjoy), and while we were there we were starving and decided to eat at the food court (which we didn't expect to be anything special). It was actually the fanciest food court either of us have ever been to. All of the food court places were like nice little restaurants. We ate at a delicious Korean BBQ restaurant. Yum. Anyway, here are a few pictures from my cell phone on Saturday:

Stranger Than Fiction

At times we forget that we aren't in Provo anymore, but then we wake up. Below is some proof that we have left the bubble.

A couple weeks ago Bill Clinton came to UCLA in support of Proposition 87 (some of this speech was made into a commercial which airs regularly) and Tom was able to attend. Bill was almost 90 minutes late, so Tom only got to see the the first 5 minutes of the speech before he had to leave. But at least he got that blurry shot.

Also, we made our way down to Westwood Village this evening to gawk at celebrities at the Stranger than Fiction premiere. There were less people there than we thought there would be, but it was still way cool. Below are several pictures (many of them a little blurry) from both events. It's hard to focus a camera when people are thronging all around you. See if you can guess who they all are.

the near death experience of tom and four strangers

Below are the pictures of Tom climbing all over his parent's roof (his near death experience).

The other near death experience was a car accident that happened right in front of our apartment at 2am a couple days ago. A car full of drunk people smashed into a pole and rolled three times. It was incredibly loud. And horrific. And it involved a lot of screaming by the people in the car. It was terrible.

It's been a little while

We haven't been doing anything exciting lately, so I have gotten lazy about updating the blog. But, I got an email from my friend Billie-Jo who I have known since I was 4 years old and whom I haven't heard from in a very long time, and I told her about the blog so she could see some pictures and I figured I better give some sort of update. Here's a little about what little we've been doing:

School has really picked up for Tom. We were in the habit of walking home together at the end of the day, but Tom is staying at school until 7 or so most nights. Unfortunately, he also appears to be coming down with a cold and has been unhappily congested all day. I think that I probably also caught the cold, but instead of causing congestion, I have a sore throat and I could probably sleep 16 hours a day.

I was "hired on" a couple weeks ago and am still enjoying my job. It is a little monotonous, but my boss has stressed to me several times that I should use this job as an opportunity to advance to other positions within UCLA so I doubt that I will stay in my position the entire time that Tom is in law school.

We made the trek to Costco today for the second time since we moved to LA. It's quite the event because the only day we have time or energy to go is on Saturday and the place is a zoo. When we got there this afternoon there wasn't a single parking spot and once we actually made it inside, we spent the majority of our time in little traffic jams with our cart.

We spent conference weekend in Bakersfield. Tom's dad needed help installing new windows and and I have a couple pictures of Tom climbing on his parents' roof, but blogger isn't letting me upload them right now, so I'll have to add them later.

we are very thirsty

Since we moved to LA we have been buying our drinking water because our tap water is very suspiciously brown/yellow. In fact, if you fill a glass with tap water and let it sit for a couple hours, a brown/yellow layer will form at the bottom of the cup. And it doesn't taste very good.

In honor of our thirst and our late night run to Chevron to buy a gallon of water, here are a few pictures:

wonderful labor day

Tom and I had a very enjoyable labor day weekend. We took it easy Saturday and Sunday (Tom has been sick), and I had to work this morning, but we spent the afternoon wandering around Hollywood. It has been VERY hot and our apartment seems to be at least 10 degrees warmer than it is outside at any given point, so we decided we had to get out of here.

In other news, we are battling a smoker who lives directly below us. He is Turkish and he chain smokes. The smoke goes directly out his window and into ours and, since it has been so warm and our apartment is unbearable if we shut the windows, our apartment is frequently filled with smoke. We have recently been blowing air out of the window instead of in which appears to be helping, but the smoke combined with the heat has been quite unpleasant.

Here are a few pictures from today:

Another Week

We are starting to get into the school/work routine. Tom is keeping up with his classes pretty well and I am enjoying my job. I found out this week that I will be "hired on" to the UCLA system sometime in September which means that I will get a $2/hour raise and medical, dental, and vision benefits. I am very excited because it takes between 1 and 6 months to get "hired on," depending on how much they like you, and it looks like it will only take me one month.

Bob, Judy, Sam, and Andrew came and visted last Thursday. We gave them the brief apartment tour, walked around Westwood for a little while, and enjoyed a wonderful meal.

Other than that we're not up to much. We're both pretty tired and ready for a three day weekend (although I'm working for four hours on Monday . . . ). Here are a couple pictures. The first is of Tom's flip-flop tan. He walks to class every day (it's about 20 minutes each way) and has developed quite an impressive tan. The second is of me holding my first paycheck which I received last Saturday.

Our day in Santa Monica

Tom and I spent the morning/early afternoon in Santa Monica at the beach and the farmer's market. We took the Big Blue Bus (which is very cheap and takes you straight to Santa Monica) and then walked around and partook of some wonderful fruit and vegetables. We made it home with raspberries, blueberries, and white raspberries. Here are a few pictures from our day:

sorry, no pictures

A lot has gone on since I posted anything last, so we'll see if I can remember everything.

I attempted to make our little blog a little better. The only problem is that I don't know how to make the new background wide enough. So . . . if you have a small window, it might look okay, but if you maximize your window, it doesn't quite work. Just bear with me until I have enough time to fix it.

I started my job on Tuesday this week. It is a little exhausting (I do a couple of trips around campus everyday collecting) and then I do a lot of sorting and scanning and data entry. I know that it sounds boring, but the people I work with are really nice and funny and everyone chats while they work. Also, it's interesting to glance through the charts while I'm working on them. I like the office because there are only about ten employees (I am the ONLY white employee in the whole office, ha ha) and so the place is pretty quiet and I already know everybody. The biggest adjustment has been that I now have to wear shoes all of the time. As a long time flip-flop-lover, things are not going very well. I have a blister on my pinky toe. I visited Tom on campus today (today was the first day of his orientation) and had to walk back to work barefoot because they hurt so much. I just want to wear flip flops.

Well, Tom had orientation today. He said that they mostly just reassured everyone that they really belonged. He did a lot of walking, his legs are sore, his peers are very diverse, and they spent half of the day talking about diversity. He is taking Civil Procedure, Torts, Contracts, and Lawyering Skills. Everyone has to take the same classes so they just split everyone into sections. Tom is in section 2 so he will only have other people who are in section 2 in his classes. Today he made friends with a Hasidic Jew and a University of Texas graduate.

The other news is that I changed my cell phone number. We needed a local number so that we can buzz people in through our gate, so I went ahead and changed mine. The new number is:

310-691-9966

I guess that's it. I have been praticing my cooking skills and have recently made lasagna, meatloaf, and scalloped potatoes. That's a bigger accomplishment than it probably sounds . . .

pictures and good news

The good news is that I got a job. I am very excited. I got the job at UCLA; I'm not really sure about the details yet, but I am going in to meet with the human resources to fill out paperwork and then I start on Monday.

And here are some pictures of the apartment. I don't know if the pictures quite do the place justice, but basically our furniture fit perfectly so there is barely an inch between any two pieces of furniture.

I'll post more details about the job as I find them out.

California Report

Well, Tom and I have just about settled into our tiny little apartment. We got to LA on Tuesday and our stuff got here on Wednesday so we have everything IN the apartment, but not everything has a home yet.

So far we are really liking Westwood. Just about everything is within walking distance (various shops, reataurants, grocery stores, and Best Buy). The traffic (so far) hasn't been too bad and we have yet to meet any of our neighbors. Our windows overlook the intersection of two streets so there is frequent honking, lots of loud music, and plenty of interesting conversations that drift in through the window. Though our main room is quite small, our kitchen and bathroom are infinitely better than our last place so I guess we can't complain too much. We did have to give up our small couch and hopes of getting a bookshelf, but other than that our furniture fits perfectly within the room. Right now we have about 90% of our things unloaded and hope to get the rest finished up this weekend. Once we have found a place for everything, I promise to post some pictures.

So far I have had three job interviews. Two of them were for one job (the first was just a screening interview and the lady who screened me has actually hired me to tutor her son in math on Saturdays). That job is literally across the street from the ocean and involves setting up long term health plans for large businesses. The pay is ok, but it is a little further than I was hoping to commute. The second job is working for UCLA scanning medical records into a database. While it sounds less interesting, it does pay (quite a bit) more and it is only three blocks from our apartment. I won't find out about either of those until sometime next week and have been applying other places in the meantime.

Other than that we have been filling our time setting up our utilities, internet, and applying for student loans. We attended our UCLA ward last Sunday and REALLY liked it. Our chapel is behind the temple and is old and beautiful. Most of the students who are currently in the ward are in law or dental school, so Tom has already made some friends with his classmates. He starts school two weeks from today so we have a little while to recover from the move before his classes begin . . .

new apartment

Ok, I just have a minute to post some pictures because we are borrowing the starbucks internet while we attept to set up all of the utilities/internet for our apartment. So, here are a few pictures. We will give more detail once we get our own internet set up.