Tribute to Suburban Living
Vacation Summary 2009
I am deep into my two week (paid!) vacation, the first time since I started pharmacy school many years ago where I have had this much time off with no responsibility. Everything has been going amazing. Thought I'd write about my recent travels a little bit. In the last 10 days, I have been to Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas. I have been "living it up" in nice hotels, doing touristy things and burning through money. And while I'm very glad I did it, I think I have come to accept my personality and that city life may just not be for me. For now, I'm just going to recap my L.A experience:
Part 1
Impressions of Los Angeles (West Hollywood, CA):
6 hour drive felt longer than I expected, maybe I'm just not a road-trip person either. We stayed in West Hollywood, which was awesome location to see all the touristy sights and celebrity hangouts. I admit I get kind of star-struck by these type of things, even if most celebrities are pieces of shit. I can't help it! Didn't see any celebrities, however. Name a celebrity place in Hollywood and we did it for the most part. Even took an open-roof bus tour of all the famous sights and all through Beverly Hills. I would definitely recommend that, our driver was hilarious and very knowledgeable...a crazy Armenian driver who talks shit about Scientology, makes O.J jokes, and told us how to sneak into the Playboy mansion. It was like a Middle Eastern Biegelman.
No local people walk in L.A. It's crazy, they have the best weather and everything is pretty close together...well, compared to Arizona. Also, this city has no parking. None. You valet your shit for exorbitant amounts of money or try to figure out where to park on the street, after you read the 6 street signs which tell you when you can or cannot park and try to figure out if those signs even apply to your area...L.A has never heard of a parking garage. Build up, you fuckers. If you find a lot to park your shit at yourself (I don't really feel like valeting my car even though it's not nice) you will still pay a lot and you will be forced to park your car on the lines because the spaces are so small (and my car isn't even that big either) In general, the city is a transportation nightmare but that is part of why it is so visually appealing because everything is close together and built up on the hill. I guess I should clarify my statements because we didn't go to downtown L.A at all so maybe that's different...
The girls in L.A were pretty attractive. (Olivia, stop reading now.) I mean it's a good city for people watching in general. Just like the restaurants there, there are truly people of all kinds. Arizona has good girls in the college way...where L.A had better adult girls with more developed since of style. Arizona has more hot white girls, where L.A has more hot minority girls. So that's my take on that...I was just looking to inform my friends. It's definitely a place where you could become obsessed with your image, people say that about Scottsdale but I don't really see it, maybe because I just view this town as minor league so I can't really take any of these people seriously.
L.A has amazing cars to look at, if you like cars. I saw numerous Bentleys, couple Rolls Royce Phantoms, Ferraris (one driven by a real douchebag doctor in his scrubs in Santa Monica), Lamborghini Murcielago, BMW M6 (probably my favorite car you could realistically get under 100k), Escalades, not a ton of MBs but enough...just everything. It was ridiculous. The money you see paraded around you is almost just depressing...but what can you do? It's a city that rewards the top 1% and they show out.
That's another thing that just tripped me up about everything was how shitty the roads are, the homeless population and the lack of value they receive for the tax money. California in general is just a clusterfuck but for all the money the government should take in there you'd think they wouldn't have such problems. I don't know why they don't split that state up sometimes.
Finally, how does these people live? Everything is expensive (I'm sure you find cheaper spots when you live there to eat, drink, etc. but...), real estate is STILL overvalued, there are no grocery stores or anything nearby let alone a Wal-Mart or Target, plus I can see how you'd get claustrophobic since it's just a rambling mess of a city with no organization. If you were to live anywhere I think you'd live in Santa Monica...close enough to the activities but there it's more suburban (more space/parking) and it's closer to the beach, which is pretty much 80% of the reason to go through the hassle of living in California anyway. Olivia thinks I'm an old man because I talk about the taxes you'd have to pay to live there (maybe I'm getting more conservative...), but still it's about VALUE. Scottsdale has nicer roads and parks, stores, parking, accessibility, less claustrophobic etc. plus you get more money in your pocket to buy cheaper things. L.A just has the nice weather and the beach...and Arizona's weather is nice 8 months of the year plus I'm one of the weird ones who doesn't mind the summer heat. It's cool to live there if you are in the industry, I just don't know why you would if you weren't. The only job I'd like to have there would be at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to see all the crazy fucked-up celebrities you'd get.
If I went back, I'd probably check out Santa Monica more. Talk about expensive though...yuppie-central out there plus maybe some of the worst traffic in the state during touristy times.
B.I.G had it right...Cali, great place to VISIT.
Too lazy to write up SD and L.V right now...maybe later...
I am deep into my two week (paid!) vacation, the first time since I started pharmacy school many years ago where I have had this much time off with no responsibility. Everything has been going amazing. Thought I'd write about my recent travels a little bit. In the last 10 days, I have been to Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas. I have been "living it up" in nice hotels, doing touristy things and burning through money. And while I'm very glad I did it, I think I have come to accept my personality and that city life may just not be for me. For now, I'm just going to recap my L.A experience:
Part 1
Impressions of Los Angeles (West Hollywood, CA):
6 hour drive felt longer than I expected, maybe I'm just not a road-trip person either. We stayed in West Hollywood, which was awesome location to see all the touristy sights and celebrity hangouts. I admit I get kind of star-struck by these type of things, even if most celebrities are pieces of shit. I can't help it! Didn't see any celebrities, however. Name a celebrity place in Hollywood and we did it for the most part. Even took an open-roof bus tour of all the famous sights and all through Beverly Hills. I would definitely recommend that, our driver was hilarious and very knowledgeable...a crazy Armenian driver who talks shit about Scientology, makes O.J jokes, and told us how to sneak into the Playboy mansion. It was like a Middle Eastern Biegelman.
No local people walk in L.A. It's crazy, they have the best weather and everything is pretty close together...well, compared to Arizona. Also, this city has no parking. None. You valet your shit for exorbitant amounts of money or try to figure out where to park on the street, after you read the 6 street signs which tell you when you can or cannot park and try to figure out if those signs even apply to your area...L.A has never heard of a parking garage. Build up, you fuckers. If you find a lot to park your shit at yourself (I don't really feel like valeting my car even though it's not nice) you will still pay a lot and you will be forced to park your car on the lines because the spaces are so small (and my car isn't even that big either) In general, the city is a transportation nightmare but that is part of why it is so visually appealing because everything is close together and built up on the hill. I guess I should clarify my statements because we didn't go to downtown L.A at all so maybe that's different...
The girls in L.A were pretty attractive. (Olivia, stop reading now.) I mean it's a good city for people watching in general. Just like the restaurants there, there are truly people of all kinds. Arizona has good girls in the college way...where L.A had better adult girls with more developed since of style. Arizona has more hot white girls, where L.A has more hot minority girls. So that's my take on that...I was just looking to inform my friends. It's definitely a place where you could become obsessed with your image, people say that about Scottsdale but I don't really see it, maybe because I just view this town as minor league so I can't really take any of these people seriously.
L.A has amazing cars to look at, if you like cars. I saw numerous Bentleys, couple Rolls Royce Phantoms, Ferraris (one driven by a real douchebag doctor in his scrubs in Santa Monica), Lamborghini Murcielago, BMW M6 (probably my favorite car you could realistically get under 100k), Escalades, not a ton of MBs but enough...just everything. It was ridiculous. The money you see paraded around you is almost just depressing...but what can you do? It's a city that rewards the top 1% and they show out.
That's another thing that just tripped me up about everything was how shitty the roads are, the homeless population and the lack of value they receive for the tax money. California in general is just a clusterfuck but for all the money the government should take in there you'd think they wouldn't have such problems. I don't know why they don't split that state up sometimes.
Finally, how does these people live? Everything is expensive (I'm sure you find cheaper spots when you live there to eat, drink, etc. but...), real estate is STILL overvalued, there are no grocery stores or anything nearby let alone a Wal-Mart or Target, plus I can see how you'd get claustrophobic since it's just a rambling mess of a city with no organization. If you were to live anywhere I think you'd live in Santa Monica...close enough to the activities but there it's more suburban (more space/parking) and it's closer to the beach, which is pretty much 80% of the reason to go through the hassle of living in California anyway. Olivia thinks I'm an old man because I talk about the taxes you'd have to pay to live there (maybe I'm getting more conservative...), but still it's about VALUE. Scottsdale has nicer roads and parks, stores, parking, accessibility, less claustrophobic etc. plus you get more money in your pocket to buy cheaper things. L.A just has the nice weather and the beach...and Arizona's weather is nice 8 months of the year plus I'm one of the weird ones who doesn't mind the summer heat. It's cool to live there if you are in the industry, I just don't know why you would if you weren't. The only job I'd like to have there would be at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to see all the crazy fucked-up celebrities you'd get.
If I went back, I'd probably check out Santa Monica more. Talk about expensive though...yuppie-central out there plus maybe some of the worst traffic in the state during touristy times.
B.I.G had it right...Cali, great place to VISIT.
Too lazy to write up SD and L.V right now...maybe later...