2011-05-10
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Goin' back to Cali
Hello blog! I need to catch up on this since Annanotbob completely shamed me and called me a lazy git for not writing anything. I�ve been truncating down my long diatribes into FaceBook photos and status updates. Geez, I AM a lazy git. At any rate, I�m mostly recovered from my shoulder injury, and have the majority of my strength back. The range of motion is likely about 85-90%. It would be higher, I�m sure, if I were still home to do physical therapy. As it happens though, I�ve been back on the road since the 2nd week of March. I�ve been from North Kansas City to St. Joseph, Missouri for the most part, but have been out to California twice. We had a potential client in Santa Monica, which is just west of Los Angeles. The first trip out was to give a presentation about why they should hire me and my company. Before this presentation, the client had whittled down the long list to a short list, and we had only 2 other competitors. My boss and I gave the presentation, him starting, me finishing, and they said they would make a decision the next week. Well, they called us the next day and told us that we got the gig. The next trip out to Cali was to attend a few meetings in order to familiarize ourselves with the project, timelines, and have some face time with the owners, contractors, project managers, etc. As of now, it looks like mid-June before I actually need to be on-site to do work. It could change, of course, but I doubt if it will be sooner. I�m excited about this opportunity since it will get me back to LA for a while. For those of you who may not know, I grew up about 40 miles from Santa Monica, and many, many of my old friends (no offense) still live in the area. My brother lives about 22 miles north of there as well, so it�s both friends and family. I have said that California is a good place to be �from�, however, over the last few years on Facebook I have reconnected with a lot of people that I love and care about, and surprising even myself, I�ve found myself really wanting to hang out with them again. It�ll be like coming home. The schedule, at this point, is multi-phase. The first part of the project is going to be about 2 months, tentatively mid-June through August. Phase 2 will start in the autumn, and will go for around 4 months. After that, there is a new building that will be completing construction, and that will keep me in California for a minimum of 1 year, maybe much longer. As I mentioned, I�m really excited about this trip even though the traffic is going to suck, it�s more humid than I�m used to, and I�m not much of a beach fan. As a musician and music lover, this will be great for me since EVERYONE comes through LA on tour. LA concerts used to be a real pain to get to, but being in LA this time, I�ll be worlds closer to the venues. One of my very dear friends, Nina Storey, also lives in LA and I�ll see her shows at every opportunity. She�s an incredibly talented singer-songwriter, as well as a multi-instrumentalist, and is hands-down one of the most talented people that I know. As far as housing arrangements, there is no fucking way that I�m going to live in a hotel. My boss and I looked at some furnished apartment while we were there, and there is a reasonably priced 2-bed, 2-bath in Marina del Rey, which is just south and maybe 15 minutes from work. It�s about $2700/month (plus Internet), but A) for a furnished apartment in LA, this is a deal, and B) a hotel would cost around $5000. Easy decision? Oh, you bet. If you don�t travel much, I can tell you that staying in hotels is a real drag. You have to eat out for every meal, you have to pack and unpack all of the time, and there is no regular place to unwind. Usually there is fuckall to do in the hotel besides, and it�s noisy, inconvenient, you always have to worry about parking, making reservations, forgetting your phone charger, etc. A place where I can unpack, cook my own meals, play my guitar, and the like is SO much better than sleeping in a strange bed every week. It�s not going to be all rainbows and penguins though, since I will likely have long workdays/maybe offshift work, and I�ll still be at the airport every 10 days to fly back home to Colorado. No, I�m not moving back to California, I�ll just be living there while I�m on the project. It was the same way while I was working in Spokane. That�s about it for now, I guess. I�ll be working here in Missouri until the Santa Monica gig comes through, and it�s not getting cooler here. 95 and sticky today, and it�s only May 10. Still though, I�ve got friends in this area too, including my friend Ed whom I�ve known since 1st grade. We haven�t spent much time together, but I�ve been working 10-12 hours/day every day that I�m here, so it�s problematic to find time to spend together. *sigh* See you sooner than later I hope!
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