L.A. EXPLORER

The past month and a half has whizzed by. I can hardly believe it!

Most of January was spent getting established - especially once I decided to go ahead and become a California resident. That was far from definite when I arrived. (If I ever get an overseas job, they would have to pay my way back to my "point of origin", so being from California would guarantee I get back here - and anywhere in between!)

After some pretty surreal bureaucratic hurdles, I now have my California driver's license, license plates, and title. California gives new residents only 10 (yes, 10!) days to get the process started, or there are fines. I think it's mainly a rip-off of newcomers to fill the state coffers. I doubt 90% of newcomers are even aware of the law. They also ask you to give your exact mileage at the very moment you entered the state - the last thing drivers are thinking of when they finally cross that dusty state border after a 2500-mile trip! Let's say, it encourages "creativity" in those of us who have to fill out the forms!

First, an idea of a typical week (although most of January was anything but regular):

Saturday - a day off to explore, see friends

Sunday - church in the morning, somewhere. I have been church shopping, so I haven't really committed yet.

Monday - a visit to Weight Watchers in Manhattan Beach (just SOUTH of the airport - Ann lives just NORTH of the airport). I am about 5 pounds away from my target, but the last few pounds always seem to be the most unattainable.

Some time during the week I also try to visit the Westchester YMCA at least 3 times to exercise. Afternoons I aim to "take the show on the road", packing up my Mac iBook laptop and dissertation materials, and seeking out a coffee shop to work in. I try for variety, combining work with exploration of new parts of the city (mainly here on the Westside on the ocean). The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at Hermosa Beach has been one of my favorite haunts, one street back from the beach in a converted historic movie theater. Today I made a new discovery, which may become my "regular" café for a while: a cozy non-chain coffee house in Redondo Beach with overstuffed chairs and good work spaces - the farthest south I have ventured for my afternoon sessions. I have tacked out a different direction quite a few times over the past weeks, just to learn local surface roads and get to know the reachable "neighborhood" of towns and suburbs: Westchester, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Long Beach, Santa Monica, Venice.

Highlights of the past month

- Hearing Prof. Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the new book "Collapse", lecture at a swank new Barns & Noble bookstore in Hollywood. (Jan. 5)

- "Doing" lunch at a typical California bistro in Santa Monica with friends from the UK, Tony & Jan Askew and their son and daughter-in-law, in LA briefly on their way across the Pacific to New Zealand (Jan. 13). A chance to repay their hospitality to me in Surrey, UK back in September. They commented on the hordes of street people everywhere. However, I dampened their brewing social theories of LA life by pointing out that Santa Monica, one of America's most expensive housing markets, is infamous as an easy lunch and flop for the nation's homeless, who migrate south and west like birds during the winter. The city has been extremely generous with services - overgenerous, besieged locals might say, however.

- Taking a trip back to childhood, visiting Griffith Park train museum and zoo with a friend from my old Episcopal church in Burbank (Jan 15). Later that same day, I bought an authentic Harris tweed suit coat (made in Scotland) at a thrift shop for $15! Main problem: a tear in the inside lining under one arm. It's an unfinished project to put in a few more bucks to fix it up. It has "good bones", though, as they say.

- Renting a Catholic priest costume at a costume store in Santa Monica for the 50th birthday party of an old Aramco friend's boyfriend (Jan. 22). He's an established choral writer and conductor and wanted guests to dress "exotic formal". The party was at a small Catholic college where he teaches music, so it took people a good half hour to figure out I wasn't a real priest! It was fun kicking up my heels in the costume later that evening when the DJ put on some dance tunes. Singing Nun eat your heart out!

- Visiting the Gene Autry Museum (by Griffith Park Zoo), a surprisingly well-done museum - not only of Western movie memorabilia (Jan. 29). It has a very serious multimedia section for the history of the southwest (Indian, Spanish, Anglo). The real crown jewels, though, are the posters (in French and Portuguese, no less!)and other historic artifacts from old Western movies going back to the dawn of the industry. In fact, one of Edison's first moving picture experiments was of Wild Bill Hickock's show, viewable at the Museum. Throughout the exhibit, they have TV monitors showing excerpts from ancient Westerns that were already old when my grandparents were married in Riverside in 1915! Fascinating!

- Having dinner at Dad's cousin Lois and Walt Johnson's (Feb. 5). Cam drove up from San Diego for the event, the first time he'd been up to LA since I arrived. (He came up again just yesterday to pick up Ann to drive way north to Modesto for a family emergency. His older brother had just had emergency surgery for a stroke. They're up there as I write this.) That evening, Lois shocked me by gifting me with my great-grandmother Elsa Sundberg's Swedish Bible. It was quite an unexpected honor. I guess the Swedish I've been studying off and on the past two years will finally come in handy!

- Driving up to the San Bernardino mountains to see Dad's sister, Aunt Helen, now 85 (Feb. 14). The burden of caring for her has fallen to Ann and me now. (Dad didn't even wish to speak to her on his death bed, he was so frustrated by her bitter griping.) I've tried to see her at least once per visit out here. This time I determined to go with no agenda and just talk about family history (she is our one link to Dad's parents and childhood years) and dig up old photos. It actually went quite well. I brought her a Valentine's bouquet and some chocolate cookies, and we spent an atypically pleasant day together. She still won't leave the mountains for a more secure retirement community, however. Another day, another battle ...