February 21, 2007

• It's been a while since I've had a somewhat meaningful entry so here you go...

  I made the move out to LA a few months ago as some of you may know, and it's definitely a nice change of pace from what I've been doing the past few years.  I was traveling non-stop for the past 2-3 years, living out of suitcases, hotels, and having to fly back and forth every weekend from home and work.  I eventually gave up my apartment in NYC because I was hardly ever there, and I figure if there were any time to travel in your life, it would be in your 20s.  You don't ever get to live these years again, and I feel as if these are some of the prime years of your life.  You don't want to hit the 30s and regret not having lived it up, so that was my main reason for traveling so much.  Company paid travel whenever/wherever.  Who could beat that?

  LA is a different animal from any other place that I've been to.  It's got a different vibe from it.  Not NYC, DC, SF or any of the other cities but somewhat a mix of everything.  The weather here has been awesome.  Can't complain about that although I had no idea how warm it would get in the winter time.  People tell me it's 50/60, and I think it's great.   Other people think it's freezing cold.  It's weird seeing people busting out in parkas just for 60 degree weather.  I miss the seasons, the leaves changing colors, snow blanketing the city.  I don't miss having to trek my ass through airports in the middle of the winter only to have my flight canceled and me spending the night at the airport.  LA doesn't quite have the culinary variety that I would like but there are a few gems that I've found. 

  I'm in the midst of a move, my 2nd move in my only 3 months here.  I think I've moved in the past 8 years, 10 different times at least.  It gets tiring moving, but at least you can clean out all the shit that you've built up.  I'll finally have a place of my own, a car of my own after not having either one for the past few years.  It'll be nice to feel some sense of normalcy again, being able to cook dinner, have a routine, not have to pack my suitcase to go home and just being able to settle into my own place.

  I haven't really had much of a chance to wander around my neighborhood in Hollywood although it is nice to be able to walk around a bunch of people again.  I'm a city guy, and I like the busyness.  But I'm far enough from the tourists that go up and down Hollywood Blvd checking out the Chinese theater.  There's even an In N Out around the corner from me!  I still have to furnish my place because when I moved out here, I didn't buy any furniture and just relied on a craigslist roomie to bum off of his.  That'll be a pain in itself having to get a couch, bed, and I don't even have a fridge in my new place.  How strange is it that a bunch of rentals in LA don't have fridges with them??

  It's really different seeing the huge class gap in LA.  LA is home to one of the largest homeless populations in the country, yet there's also some of the wealthiest people here as well.  You go a few blocks from my apartment and there are mansions and a few blocks in the other direction is the slum.  The metro is an entirely different system from anything I've seen too.  The NYC subway system I feel as if everyone takes it even a lot of wealthy business people, but the LA metro seems to be only the bums take it.  I take it because my company pays for it, and I'm used to public transportation having lived in DC and NYC for the past 4 years.  I can't imagine how the other half lives, the other half being the ones so impoverished that they can't even pay for the metro fare.  The metro is on the honor system here, so there are no turnstiles.  They'll have random checks to see whether people have a ticket or not, but in the past 3 months here, I've been checked 4 times.  Hearing how people have to nickle and dime their way through even with food makes me see how lucky I am.  I just couldn't imagine to understand what it would be like to be living from paycheck to paycheck.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't like the uncertainty of not knowing if I'll be able to have a place to live the next month or whether I'll have enough money to eat the next day.  I always felt that even if I fell into a rut with money, I'd have a crutch somehow or another.  I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have that support.

  A bit about my work for those that make it this far.  I switched from doing IT consulting for one of the largest IT consulting firms over to doing some more of the typical management/strategy consulting with one of the Big 4s.  It was a good change of pace.  I had it great over at my former company.  Good people, nice hours, great travel perks, but I wasn't learning at all and I would just spend countless hours each day surfing the internet.  I made the change because I wanted to learn and in the past 3 months at my new job, I've learned more than I have in the past year at my old one.  A lot to learn, and I'm constantly working even when I'm at home (right now I'm having some work run while I type this) and always checking my work emails via my pocket PC phone.  I work with the pharmaceutical industry and also work a lot with the lawyers that represent them.  My work entails helping support litigation against the pharmaceutical industry and supporting investigations into any fraud that might be going on at the company.  Those that are in the healthcare/pharma field know how confusing pharma can be.  So many players involved, but man do these people have some huge pockets.  As for the lawyers, the ones that I work with really have no lives because I'm getting emails from them at crazy hours like 3am and on weekends.  Hardcore people but some great people to work with nonetheless.  It's always a great motivation to work with bright people.  So for any of those lawyers out there, if you guys have anything going onn with the Pharmaceutical industry, let me know

  As for now, it's back to work, back to reality.  Hopefully, I'll have something more interesting later on.  Till next time..

  • 3:47 am
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