The Austin/ Hollywood Connection

Went to a small music venue called Hotel Cafe in Hollywood last night. It felt like being back in Austin, crowded around a small stage in the back of a club. Minnie Driver, who is allegedly dating the son of my mother's good friend (it's a small soup we all swim in), was performing songs from her latest album "Seastories." She opened the set by mentioning a songwriting club she is in with "musician Bob Schneider from Austin, Texas," and my sense of familiarity was complete.

Workin' Out in Hollywood

I went to a pilates class at my gym in Hollywood tonight. It was taught by a flamboyant Asian man who played lovely pieces of classical music and opera while leading us through the most difficult class I have ever attended in my life! And I used to think pilates was easy.

TGIF, Part IV

I didn't have a chance this week to update the blog until now. The new job has consumed all my time and energy, and since I don't want to go into details about my workplace on here, I'm in a conundrum about what to write.

In general terms, the job is (probably) a great opportunity but also very challenging. The company is growing like gangbusters, and the majority of the employees have been there less than six months. A lot of the administrative employees arrived through placement agencies as the company is still building an HR department. The place has the atmosphere of a mid-nineties dot com startup-- lots of young people and lots of chaos.

Since I'm new to L.A. it seems like a good place for me to have landed. I will meet scores of people and learn quite a bit about the city, since the company is investing in and developing properties in key areas all over town, involving everyone from investors to tenants to community leaders to the Mayor and city council. As the front desk person I'm on the bottom rung of the ladder, and yet I need to know who everyone is in the company and what they do, so I'm on a very steep learning curve. I'm learning all about leasing, investment development and analysis, construction, property management, and so on, while at the same time learning how to run the office.

On the other hand, I feel like my life here is going to get smaller, as I won't have much energy left over for other adventures around the city. I have extremely mixed feelings about that but know it was time to plant myself somewhere to give my life in L.A. focus. My blog might get awfully boring though.

Although I'm interested in urban development, I'm also unsure if this is a good match careerwise for me and whether I have the motivation to work my way up into a better position.

I had several bouts of insomnia this week and a third round of a stomach virus I contracted in December, which I'm beginning to think is stress related after all. It's been disorienting to start over in an entirely new city and an entirely new industry as "the girl who answers the phone." I'm being trained by someone right out of college. I feel as if all my former work and life experience never happened. To heighten matters, by the time I get home from working and the gym, it's too late to call friends in Austin, so I haven't been able to talk over any of this with old friends.

Instead, I drive past posters for Entourage on my way to and from the office in Hollywood, and then I come home and watch Entourage on HBO. Or E! News.

The Price Is Right

My interview today was in the TV Guide Building at Hollywood and Orange, next door to the Roosevelt Hotel and across the street from Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame. Anyone familiar with L.A. knows that block is crazy touristland!

It appears I may get the job and, if so, I will be working for a company that is developing that stretch of Hollywood Boulevard as well as building lofts downtown and participating in several other urban renewal projects. In what may have been a case of foreshadowing, my former co-workers in Austin photoshopped an image of my face on the Grauman's marquee for my goodbye party invitation. Also, a couple of years ago I was engrossed in a Style Network TV show about the remodelling of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

There's a little sunray of hope peeking through the dark clouds that had been hanging over my head (figuratively and literally) earlier this week.

While walking around Hollywood Boulevard I was handed a free ticket to a practice taping at CBS Studios of Bill Maher's HBO TV show. I hadn't been to a studio taping yet, so I decided to head over there after my interview. I had to wait in a long line with, shall we say, an "assortment of characters." Picture your typical afternoon crowd at a downtown public library. Once seated we watched a crew dismantle the "Price Is Right" soundstage in preparation for Maher's show to begin. I didn't know what to expect, but the head writer came out and explained that this was a practice show and the jokes that got laughs from the audience would make the cut for the live taping on Friday night. The writer and several other staff from the show pretended to be the Friday guest stars, and they ran through the entire show from opening monologue through closing segment. It was hilarious. I think it was even better than the real thing, as it was "no holds barred."

Afterwards, I walked over to the Grove for a snack. The weather was beautiful and the place was packed with people dining out on patios as a band was setting up for an outdoor concert. Spring has begun...