DailyFreakOut

I booked my flight to go back to New York/New Jersey for the holidays. I will be there 12/20-1/4/10. I look forward to seeing everyone!

Yesterday was my two month anniversary of living in Los Angeles. The two months have flown, and yet it seems to have taken forever. It’s a weird feeling. I feel much more comfortable here. I love my apartment, slowly it’s coming together. I have a sofa, table and chairs thanks to some good friends. I have met some really fabulous people through my two months here. I am learning a lot about myself. I have always thought I was independent, but my independence is far greater than I ever imagined, and I am stronger than I ever thought. I know, especially now I can put my mind to anything and accomplish my goals. Even with the move here, I knew it would happen, it just took a hell of a long time to get here.

In the span of two months, I have seen who my true friends are back east, and who can’t return a call since I have been here. I know who is supporting me, and who is full of shit. I miss New York some days, and others I think I am so glad I am out of there. The sun shines most days here. I don’t think I could deal with the cold one more day in NYC.  I rarely have missed my very good friends mainly because I talk to them all the time either AIM, Facebook, text, email, twitter, or phone calls. I feel like I am always in connection. I do miss some traditions I had in New York, like Wednesday Happy Hour, but I seem to have found a Wednesday Happy Hour group here as well. It’s just different.

In the past two months there has been some fighting between my mom and I, but overall it has simmered to almost none existent.  I speak to her almost daily, which is more than I spoke to her in NY. She might come visit the week of Thanksgiving if flights come down, but if not regardless I am going to visit NY/NJ for 2 weeks end of December.

I am so happy I made this monumental move here. Now that I am officially living my dream,  I know I would have without a doubt regretted not trying it out. In my heart of hearts I know I am not coming back to New York/New Jersey to live. I love Los Angeles, and will be here for a long time to come if not forever.  I think I have adjusted quickly despite not knowing many people when I first moved here. I am very thankful for all the fabulous people I have met during my time here. I am thankful for them including me in their activities, welcoming me into their lives, and to LA, and thankful I can truly say I have great friends here after only two months.

As they say, the best is yet to come.  I am very ready to see where the new adventure takes me.

After much thought, consideration, and true love for my new city I have decided to sell my NYC furniture and other things. Here is what I am selling, if you are interested in anything please email me at pamelasbernstein@gmail.com.

Pier 1 Entertainment Center - $400 or BEST OFFER
5', 10" tall 3', 4" wide 1' 10" deep


Pier 1 Sleeper Sofa - $325 or BEST OFFER
5 feet, 4 inches long, and 3 feet deep. The sleeper is under 23 inches long


Pier 1 Square Glass table with 4 black stools - $325 or BEST OFFER


Microwave stand - $20
21" wide, 10" deep, 2', 10" tall




Wall Mounted Wine Rack- $30
2' x 10" (length and depth), holds 6 bottles & 15 avg size stemmed wine glasses


6 wine glasses with steams $5
3 Margarita glasses $5
ALL 9 GLASSES $8

6 stemless wine glasses $8

TV with universal remote- $25
24"


Cranium Pop Culture (used once) - $10

I have not written blog posts recently. I have been super busy getting settled into my new apartment, and my new life. I am so much happier at the new apartment. I have not seen one roach, which is cause for some excitement! A few fabulous friends donated a sofa, 4 chairs, and two stools to the “Help Decorate Pamela’s apartment” cause. Slowly but Shirley things are coming together. I am so excited not to be sitting on the floor.  I bought a table off Craig’s List yesterday, and should be getting it Sunday with the help of Lily.

Back in NY, I have made the very hard decision to sell all my things. Deciding to sell my things was not easy. I kept thinking I will just get movers and have everything brought here in 4 months when my NY lease is up. The more I thought about it, I knew it didn’t make sense, soon after the sale began and is an ongoing project. I would not be able to be selling these items without Jen’s help.  So far I have sold my vacuum, microwave, Panini maker, and divider. I am really hoping some of the larger items sell soon. I have a sleeper sofa, an entertainment center, and a table with stools up waiting for a new home.

Another ongoing project in LA, is making friends. Making friends when you are out of school is not an easy task. I am doing my best to join activities, and get involved to meet people. I have been have a great time here. I look forward to meeting more people in the future!

The job hunt is still an ongoing project as well! I have been looking and applying for jobs daily. I am doing my best to take full advantage of my time off by working on my apartment, exploring LA, joining clubs, and making friends. I am dreading going back to work!

I will do my best to update the Daily Freak Out more often. I love to write here, and will do my best to make this more of a priority!

Your first look at Heaven on Gardener. Enjoy the tour, and let me know what you think!

I am so happy I am here! I love LA.

I started looking on Craig’s List for apartments on Saturday. I found a few cute ones, some with roommates, some furnished. They were all just ok. That was until I saw a listing for a one bedroom apartment with a pool in West Hollywood! I knew the moment I saw the ad this was it. I have never acted so fast in my life. I called the on-site manager, Brandon. If that was not a sign, I don’t know what was!  I was the first to see the apartment. I looked at it, 30 seconds later I said I will take it. I didn’t even know if I could get out of my lease yet, but this apartment needed to be mine. After praying all weekend, I found out early today I got the apartment.  Around the same time today, I got a call from Connie, the manager of my current apartment. She told me Mr. Simon read my letter, and will let me out of my lease with my full deposit back!

Tomorrow I have 2 interviews, plus I am signing the new lease!  It seems like things are finally turning around.

I have not been able to sleep lately thinking about the apartment, a job, a car, etc. On top of that, Ali seems to only want to play when I am sleeping, so I get up to feed her. I finally got back to bed around 6am, and was woken up 45 minutes later by a HUGE, disgusting, dirty roach crawling on me!!!!! I woke up, and saw the roach on my arm crawling. I acted fast and swung it off of me. Of course, I was FREAKED OUT.  A few seconds later I saw the roach crawling on the other side of my air mattress. I jumped up, and went to get something to kill it. By the time I got back it was gone.  I am so over this crap. I am not living in this roach infested shit hole!!!  I refuse to live like this. I really cannot believe I am the only person in this building having a problem with this. Am I the only one with standards? It’s not that cheap! I am  beyond grossed out. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to be in this apartment. I don’t want to sleep on the air mattress or sit on the floor. (yes I still don’t have any furniture). ARG!

I am going to go to walk around West Hollywood and take down phone numbers for rentals today. Fingers crossed I get something ASAP, and get out of this shit hole.

Today is day 18, Ali and I have been relocated for the next 4 hours. The apartment I have been living in, and stupidly signed a year lease for is roach infested. I nearly lost it on Friday which I am sure didn’t help my day 14 depression.

Since I moved into this joint, 18 days ago I have been complaining about the roaches. At first I thought it was not that bad, and was hopeful it would be taken care of in a timely manner since that is how things happen in NY. How wrong I was!  Friday I was getting ready to meet my cousin, when a roach, a dirty disgusting roach, crawled on my leg. I have been calm until this moment when I began screaming. I refused to live like this anymore. I am paying rent to live here. I will not live like I am a homeless man. After talking over the situation with my mom, family, friends and a random dude I met at the bar I called Connie, the manager of the building. I told her the situation, and I am not living like this anymore.  If this is not taken care of ASAP I am moving, and I want my full deposit back. It’s only been 2 weeks, and this is disgusting. No one should live like this.

She said, “Oh, I am so sorry. Is it that bad?”

To which, if you know me I wanted to say, no I am making it up!  I said, “It’s horrible. I came from NY, where roaches are out of control and never dealt with this. I will not deal with this here.”

She said, “Ok, I will tell Mr. Simon.”  Mr. Simon is the owner of the building, who Connie has told me doesn’t like to spend money. No one likes to spend money, but your tenants should not have to live like homeless people.

I know I tend to exaggerate, but I will be honest this is one situation in my life I am far from exaggerating. I have killed way over 20 a day, and more than one a day is out of control.

I starting to FREAK OUT. I don’t want to live in a roach infested, studio. It’s bad enough I am sleeping on an air mattress, where the roaches could crawl on me. After the situation on Friday, I have not been able to sleep thinking something is crawling on me. It’s a horrible feeling.  I called Connie again on Sunday. She told me she left Mr. Simon a message. He doesn’t have a cell phone. I said well this situation needs to be taken care of immediately or I will move out. She apologized over and over again. I know it’s not her fault but she is the link I have to Mr. Simon. So I have to call her and tell her how I feel.  She told me as soon as she hears from Mr. Simon she will call me back. Connie never calls me back so I knew this would most likely not happen.

I called her again on Monday, and left a message. I told her this situation is out of control. I feel like I am being taken advantage of. I will not stay here much longer. I told her I am not able to sleep since I feel like something is constantly crawling on me. I told her it’s so bad, that when I unroll paper towels, roaches fall out. I told her if this is not taken care of, I will have no choice but to call the housing department (thank you random guy I met at the bar).  I reminded her rent is due the first and I was not paying until this was taken care of.

Finally, I called again Tuesday around 5. She answered and told me she spoke to Mr. Simon and they would be bombing tomorrow. Hello! What if I didn’t call her?! Now, I am pissed off, and cranky because I am not sleeping! She told me they will be at my apartment at 11am tomorrow. I need to leave the apartment for 4 hours with the cat, and put all my food into the fridge.  I agreed of course, but was pissed. I need to give this a shot, I signed a lease for a year! What the heck was I thinking?

I am sure the roaches will come back. I will fingers crossed be able to get out of the lease, and find a fabulous one bedroom in West Hollywood with a parking spot and possibly a pool!  I am sure I just convinced everyone who was going to come visit me, not to, but by the time anyone comes this will all be taken care. By taken care of, I mean I will be in a new place--- Hopefully!

I woke up this morning and was rushing to get everything ready for the great bombing of 2009. I could not get up since I could not sleep again. I was half asleep, went to drink my coffee when I realized the milk was bad. Now I am pissed off, cranky and caffeine deprived which is NEVER a good combination. They were 30 minutes late which nearly made me jump off a cliff since I needed coffee. I didn’t run to get milk thinking they would be there at 11. Thankfully I didn’t put Ali in her bag until they came, otherwise she would have been in her carrier for 4 and a half hours. 

Mr. Simon gets there and tells me I need to take everything off the floor in the closet. I am pretty sure I gave him the look of death. Are you kidding me? Why didn’t anyone tell me this before?!  The guy who starts spraying the chemicals right near Ali’s bag, I nearly lost it. I was doing my best to remain calm. Hello! Can you see there is an animal in there?! Chill out. I am leaving this roach infested shit hole. 

After all the vet appointments getting Ali ready for the move, she better not get sick from this roach situation.

This day started off sucky, but hopefully it will improve. I walked 5 blocks east to the Starbucks, where I was finally able to get a cup of Joe. I am feeling much better now after a cup of coffee and writing about my roach adventures. Ali and I are off doing our fun thing today. I pray she behaves in her carrier, if not I am going to call Kevin who was nice enough to offer to come get me.

Fingers crossed this situation is rectified before I loose it!!!

After a 45 minute walk, one way (shocking for the LA locals), I made it to my Bubie and Aunt Gussie’s apartment complex. I knew exactly where it was. I had not been there in 6 or 7 years but it looked almost the same. It looked as though it was painted, and refreshed. I sat at the corner, and looked at the apartment windows where my grandmother and aunt lived. I just remembered how much I loved being here with them, how much I missed them, and without a doubt I have moved here mainly because of them. I know that sounds strange since my Bubie has been dead for 16 years, and my aunt has been dead for 5 years.

I remember how I talked about moving to CA to take care of my grandmother. She had enpahzema, and lived on an oxygen tank.  I wanted to be a doctor to help her get well. Of course, she died when I was a freshman in high school so that was never going to happen.  This is where the dream began, and I was so excited to finally be living in the land of my dream.

Here is there apartment building.  I am so glad I still remember her, and the fun we always had together. I will always miss her and my aunt and wonder how different my life would have been if I had grandparents.

Life is how it is for a reason, and I am thankful for the time I had with them.