Day 74: Walking the dog

Beckett and I were enjoying an omelette at Zabie's last week, when this couple walked up, started petting the dog at the next table and stayed for a stop and chat with the couple sitting there.  This would have all hardly been noteworthy, had it not been for the fact that the woman pictured was wearing a collar, and a leash.  The leash was held by her partner.  They started out as friends, and then developed into a romance.  From there, somehow the organic evolution of the relationship was for him to take her out on walks with her leash on.   In the words of Randy Newman, "I love L.A." 

Day 73: OK

OK is one of my favorite shops in Los Angeles is on West Third Street, East of La Cienega, in that great pocket of shops and restaurants.  Right next to Flight OO1 (another cool shop), OK has modern tchotchkes - everything from jewelry, coffee table books, Japanese paper lamps, vintage rotary-dial phones, and silverware, to funky glassware and art.  They sell gorgeous mounted butterflies in lovely frames.  I've been coming here once every year or so to add to the silverware set that I bought from the owner, Larry Schaffer.  Larry is a groovy guy, and once you get him started he will chat for hours.  I really liked the simple vintage 50's looking inspired stainless steel silverware that I bought here.  Every time I hear the sound of one of my spoons being mangled in the garbage disposal (by me) I cringe.  I know I will be making another trip back to replenish my silverware, and have a look around. I covet the jewelry, artwork, and especially the glass vases that are so gorgeous.  I once bought Mark a Robert Indiana "Love" paperweight that he does love.  Hit this place for Valentine's Day and put a big smile on your valentine's face.  http://www.okthestore.com

Day 72: end of the apartment hunt

Well after 48 hours of postage stamp kitchenettes, "like-new" five-year-old carpet, and cottage cheese ceilings, Alex and I walked into the Dream Apartment II.  The first one was in Santa Monica and way way out of the budget.  But this dream apartment was on a canal, facing the beach, light, bright sunny, good size, terrace, two (TWO) tandem parking spots, laundry, and....the owner said YES to the cat!  Alex slept on it and decided to take the apartment in Playa del Rey.  It's a 20 minute commute to our house, a 20 minute commute to work.  There is a cute Italian restaurant on the corner.  According to the property manager it is a real "bedroom community" and I believe it.  Her street is really quiet, safe, and charming.  Her application was approved.  I can't wait to hang with Al on her new terrace drinking a glass of pinot at sunset.

Day 71: Cat Drama

Day 2 of the apartment hunt for my sis-in law, Alex!  And man, did we cover a lot of terrain.  We saw charming and out of the budget in Santa Monica, hideous in Culver City, and my favorite, the Barton Fink apartment on a walk street in Venice Beach.  The manager at the Barton Fink apartment ushered us into a tiny, old-school elevator, just about big enough to fit the three of us.  When he showed us the apartment I almost bumped into myself turning around.  I asked him where the rest of the apartment was.  It was a tiny postage stamp of a room, a strange cubby that was billed as a "loft bedroom nook" and a little kitchenette, and a little bathroom.  I would say the whole place was around 150 square feet.  For 1,500 a month.  He replied, yeah, it's actually not even a studio, it's a bit smaller than that.  So it's a half apartment? Yeah, he answered back.  It's almost more like a dorm room.  OK, awesome.  Oh, and did I mention it was facing a brick wall?  That was part of the cell-like charm.  It included one parking spot, which was, "off-site."  On to the next.

Well, we took a break for a great lunch at Cafe Brasil, and I got to turn Al on to Brazillian food.  She had a steak sandwich that she loved.  Nnogo suggested we check out Playa del Rey, so we drove on down to the beach.  We saw a few potential apartments, one quite noisy, the other facing a stucco wall (there is a theme here...)  Al spotted a rental/real estate office, and we stopped in. At 2:00 there was a place they could show us - it hadn't come on the market yet, but the tenant was willing to let us check it out.  It would not be available until March (perfect for Al's timing.)  We waited in front of a quite decent building, on an amazingly quiet, charming street.  We were praying it was a rear-facing unit, because if it was, it would have a gorgeous view of the beach.  And if it was an upper unit...bonus...Well the rental gentleman came along, showed us in, took us upstairs, to the rear of the building.  We were pinching each other.  We walked into a sun-filled apartment overlooking the canal and the beach, good size, great terrace, perfect kitchen, cute little bathroom, and quite decent bedroom.  Excellent closet space, laundry and parking spot - make that spots, plural. Two tandem spots!!  The rent was 1,600, a slight stretch of the budget, but not far off from the mark.  The only thing remaining a mystery...would the owner allow a cat?...to be continued...

Day 70: Apartment Hunt

My lovely sister-in-law Alex, 31, decided she wanted to move to Santa Monica.  Her company likes her (and Santa Monica) enough that they are relocating their entire San Francisco office here, to 2nd Street and Broadway!  So today began our apartment hunt.  What a roller coaster of a day it was.  The first stop was Westside Rental, where Sheila, tats and a nose ring confessed she loves the weirdness of Venice and prefers it over Santa Monica.  I sort of know what she means - being from New York there is a love I too feel for the artists and the eccentrics of Venice.  That being said, I thought the best thing for Al would be to check out all of it, and consider a place in Santa Monica within walking distance to her new killer-location office.  She has lived most of her life in London, and spent the last 3 years in San Francisco, and she loves the idea of a walking city.  (OK stop laughing, I know, this is the city that gets endlessly ridiculed for being NOT a walking city, but we are trying here.)  So Sheila was cool - she helped us line up one or two things, and looked up a few others on her google map so I could rule out the uncool/unsafe/obscure neighborhoods.  She kept Al's credit card and license in exchange for a set of apartment keys which we were to return within two hours otherwise two fifty would be charged on her credit card.  Al thought she meant two dollars and fifty cents.  I laughed at her expense for about five minutes.

The first place we looked at was in the right price zone, and in a great location - a block from Main street; four blocks up from the beach.  Unfortunately, it looked like a hellhole inside and out.  I stopped a young woman and asked her how she liked living there, and she said in a thick European accent that she had just moved in two weeks ago.  Next!  After we returned the key I suggested we drive around all the streets north of Wilshire.  I am a bit of a veteran at this game, having lived in 2 apartments in West L.A. and 8 apartments in Santa Monica.  I have a lot of stories from the trenches...Newly single and needing a place, I once stopped in at a cute building with a typical So Cal style courtyard and pool.  The manager said, "honey,  the only way you're going to get an apartment here is if someone dies." So, I waited...meanwhile, I inherited my cousin's rent-controlled apartment along with her dog when she fled Hollywood for good.  I had one landlord who asked if it was OK if he lowered my rent.  That was the apartment that Mark said was so small you had to go outside to change your mind.  Mark and I had two apartments with rats, two apartments with horrendous slumlords, two amazing landlords, and a new landlord who ran away and hid when I waved hello to him and his wife. (He soon after kicked us out, baby and toddler and all, and took our unit, so I guess he didn't want to get too cozy with us.)

Anyway, the point was (was there a point?) ...The best way to find an apartment in Santa Monica is still driving around, because people who don't want to cut Westside Rentals in on their dealings choose to stick a "for rent" sign up in front of their property, and field the calls themselves.  Which led Alex and me to The Perfect Apartment.  After looking at one or two more duds, Al and I drove by the most charming apartment in the world - cute manicured lawn, upper, bright unit with gorgeous, fancy leaded windows with a neat pattern.  We saw the for rent sign, no price, and could tell from driving by that the upper unit was vacant.  I made a U-turn and said, "do you want to poke around??"  We went upstairs, gently tried the door, and it was unlocked!  The dream apartment just kept getting better and better.  It had hardwood floors, plenty of storage, fairly new bathroom and kitchen.  And a lovely view!  We had no idea what the price was, if they allow a cat, if there was parking or laundry, but we were hoping since the unit was fairly tiny that it would be within her range ($1,500 or less.)  An hour later Al got the phone call about the apartment on 12th street...yes on laundry, yes on cat, no on parking...and 1,500 a month!  The woman agreed to show it to her first thing Wednesday morning.  We did not want to let on that we had let ourselves in because breaking and entering could be considered starting out on the wrong foot with the landlord.  We spent the next hour or so envisioning Al in her perfect Santa Monica place - walking distance to Father's Office, her new work location...the Promenade, happy hour at Fig...when Al's phone rang again.  The woman was calling about the unit at 944 12th Street...it is 2,000 a month...the last call was about a different apartment on 12th street, Al got mixed up.  The record skipped...bummmmmer.  We had to let the dream apartment go and put it out of our heads...

We saw many more places, some of them start to blend together in my head...nauseating new paint smell, postage stamp kitchens, funky motel-style bathroom fixtures from 1971... was it possible to find that perfect, charming, bright, cat-friendly place with parking, laundry and hardwood floors?  Was there a 1,500 or less diamond in the rough?...to be continued...

Day 69: D.L. Rhein, Joan's on Third

It's Joni's birthday (almost!)  We had a great day walking around 3rd Street, between La Cienega and Fairfax.  We came upon this shop called D.L Rhein, owned by D.L. Rhein, a woman Joni knows from their kids' preschool.  When we walked in I was in tchotchke-lover's heaven.  There was jewelry, picture frames, leather note pads, beautiful beaded change purses, and a dreamy gardenia perfume oil.  Everything was so beautifully merchandised, I sort of wanted to move in.  After walking around we went to Joan's on Third. I get my Fringe Benefits 15% off for being a KCRW supporter, and the food is fantastic.  Joan's is one of those casual, order at the counter places with salads by the pound, quiches, sandwiches, quesadillas, and soups.  We both got chicken milanese with a side order - brussels sprouts for Joni and pasta for me.  We noshed, we laughed, sipped on a perfect old-school iced tea.  This is such a great area, home to one of my favorite stores, OK, right across the street from Joan's - but I'll have to save that for another day of the blog...

Day 68: Westwood

Aidan stayed home from school today with a cold.  We watched a screener of "The Fighter" (I had to fast forward through one or two naughty bits) while I worked out on the spin bike.  We had to see what all the fuss was about -- Christian Bale was amazing.  Afterward, Aidan requested Jerry's deli soup, so we drove to Westwood for lunch.  I had a feeling this was a mistake.  We usually go to Jerry's in the Marina near my mother-in-law's place, where there is ample parking and no traffic.  Westwood - not so much!  It's such a cute little college town, and I so seldom take the kids here that I thought it would be a fun thing to do.  After circling around looking for a meter, I gave up and parked in the lot right behind Jerry's.  We were hungry, damnit.  I have never been a fan of Jerry's Deli, home of the 15.00 sandwich, but my kids think this place is the Four Seasons.  They order the chicken soup, which Aidan got today, sans vegetables, extra noodles.  For medicinal purposes, I figured what the heck.  I had a super-average omelette, and a decent iced tea.  We got a quart of soup to take away for dinner.  On the way out, as we paid the 8.00 for parking, I felt a little indigestion coming on.