Happy Anniversary, Los Angeles!

A year ago today, I woke up tired and confused. I looked around R's apartment and smiled, because it was my favorite place to be. And then I looked at my bed frame leaning against the mock fireplace. As my brain realized there was no way I could have flown a bed frame out to LA for a weekend visit, I whispered to myself "well crap, I really went ahead and moved to LA, didn't I?"

I'm very glad I did. Here's my year by the numbers:

2,100: miles driven to get to the city.



3: number of job interviews before procuring the best job ever.

5: number of apartments looked at before settling on this one.

6: hours my poor parents were stuck in Chicago flying my cats out to live with us.

17: approximate number of times R had to explain to me the difference between the 101, the 110 and the 10.



248: approximate number of times I had to hear the word "soda" before it sounded all right.

5: number of earthquakes felt

1: number of gang fights witnessed

10: number of celebrities spotted and/or interacted with

9,431: approximate number of times a snide teacher said "welcome to the district" with a sarcastic nasal quality

9,431: approximate number of times I almost slapped a snide teacher

4: number of visits to the DMV to register 1 car

2: Number of times hiked to the Hollywood sign



All in all, a pretty good year.