Settling In

I haven't had the chance to write an update lately. It's been a crazy couple of days. Chef and I left Vegas at noon on Sunday thinking it would be a four and half hour trip. It was not. We knew it was going to be rough within the first couple of miles when traffic on I-15 was already backed up only about 5 miles outside of town.

The movers were scheduled to come in at 6 p.m. that night, so surely a 90 minute buffer would be plenty. But clearly it was not or I wouldn't be writing about it. At 6:30 that night, we were still almost two hours away from our new apartment AND Chef isn't supposed to drive at night. He has night blindness, so the prospect of driving into LA at night was not a good one. I had to stop to get gas and there happened to be a Best Western at the exit, so Chef and I decided that was a sign to stop.

The movers were nice enough to come the next morning. There was also a fatal traffic accident on the I-10 right before our exit, so there was a 90 minute delay the next morning getting to the apartment. Luckily, I had a Garmin to help steer us around it so we didn't get delayed the full 90 minutes. In the back of my mind, I heard every single person who told me that LA wasn't all that great because of the traffic (and it's expensive was the second most popular reason to stay away).

Anyway, the movers had it done in about an hour and we were unloading soon enough. Next, we went to Target to get some essentials and then back to the new place. I feel asleep pretty easily that night. One thing that Chef said he was going to have to get used to is the traffic noise. Our apartment is next to a busy street and there is never a time that it isn't busy. It was one of the trade-offs of the great place. The bitch of it was someone honking at 4 a.m. Who honks at 4 a.m.?

Aside from the honking, I have learned a few things: 1) this place would be much better if there were more left turn signals. 2) If you do get stuck turning left at a place with no turn signal, be sure to stick your car in the middle of the intersection and know that at least two cars must be able to turn left after the red light appears. I have a feeling that I will be a more aggressive driver the longer that I'm here.

This morning we woke up and wanted a long, hot shower. No dice. When we called maintenance, we found out that the entire complex had no hot water. Ugh. So, Chef and I unpacked more and made lists of things we needed. We also waited for the cable people to come. It wasn't until a little while ago when Chef configured it, that we had some other form of entertainment than our sparkling personalities. Now we have cable and internet. We have everything.