Yesterday evening I went to buy a telephone and ended up with a sofa set. I went to Circuit City in Burbank and bought a phone for the bedroom. Then I drove into Glendale and stopped at the Jennifer Convertibles to look at their sofabeds. The salesman was ridiculously perky for a guy who's around furniture all day.
The store was having a sale that they're probably always having, which was if you buy a sofa and loveseat in a certain pattern it's only a $100 more than the sofa alone. Of course, once you factor in stainguard, delivery, and tax, it's a lot more, but as with everything else, buying the two seemed like a good idea at the time. The time, unfortunately, was when I was exhausted and the idea of a nice comfy sofa to curl up on was insanely appealing.
I got a blue-and-white striped sofa. It's California state law, actually, that you must own one blue-and-white striped sofa (that, and you have to register at Crate and Barrel when you get married).
I came home and apologized to Darin for spending more money in one weekend than he'll make this week or even this month. He said that it was okay, that I should just be careful of spending more money than he'll make this year.
Hmmm. I don't know what the film class fees are going to be yet, so perhaps I promised him that too early.
This morning I woke up and I managed to see on the clock that it was 8. Since I'd gone to bed really late -- at 11:30, as I was listening to Jay Leno's monologue, it suddenly seemed like a really good idea to start putting together more of the furniture from IKEA -- I went back to sleep. When I woke up again I was convinced it was afternoon and I was a complete waste of food-burning cells, but it turned out to be only 10am.
My two big accomplishments so far today are: setting up cellular service for the LA area (which might turn out to be cheaper than similar service up north, but I'll probably have to use it more around here) and visiting one cafe that Therese had told me about. Then I did a little more food shopping and came back to the apartment to assemble furniture I hadn't gotten around to last night. In a little while I'm going to go over to The Boys' and ask to borrow a hammer so I can nail the back of the bookcase on. The bookcase came with a bracket so that you can nail it to the wall. Furniture comes earthquake prepared around here.
I forgot about the other big accomplishment! I'm going to get together with Portia Thursday afternoon! I called her last night and left a message, and she called back this morning, saying that she was really glad I had called. She told me that what she said (if you remember, she called me and said that I had behaved badly at our last get-together, being completely self-centered and not letting anyone else get a word in edgewise, which I did not think was true) was the result of being stressed out and on edge after her move to Los Angeles.
I said, Moving stressful? Surely you jest. Hahahaha.
Anyhow, I think what she said counts as an apology. And boy, was I glad to hear her voice again; I was afraid we were never going to speak again.
I went to the Industry Cafe today on Therese's suggestion. It's at the intersection of Barham and Cahuenga. I followed her instructions precisely: go down Pass, follow it up and over the hill, at the bottom of the hill is the cafe in a brick building. When I got there, I thought, I wonder if that's the same Cahuenga that's near me? And, in fact, the Industry Cafe is more or less just down the street (by a mile or two), because Ventura Boulevard merges into Cahuenga just past Studio City.
(Slowly but surely I'm going to learn the topography around here.)
The Industry Cafe is an odd, funky place, designed to help you put your showbiz career together. It has lots of little tables for two, a big-screen TV, a couple of computers, several shelves of books for sale and TVs for rent, and a reading room. The computers are so you can use the Web, do your resume, or use the screenwriting software. The books are all about the Biz. While I was there there were some kind of sign-ups for auditions (I didn't sign up). In the back there are PO Boxes -- do people rent them as a mailing address? I have no idea. In another room were copier machines
It's basically one-stop shopping. How successful it is I have no idea.
The coffee was okay -- the chick behind the counter (a English blonde in a skin-tight wool summer dress; this was clearly her day job to pay the rent until she gets the big break) was unclued as to what she was doing and she had to get another employee to make the drink for me.
I spent a little time there writing in my Other Journal, the one I do by hand, which I haven't been paying very much attention to of late. I dealt with some of my fear issues and resolved to answer two questions each and every day:
I also did some work on where I'd like to be a year from now. I want to keep reminding myself why I'm down here.