Apparently, LA is the homeless capitol of our country, and I'm not saying that sarcastically. Oasis Church, where I've been attending, has really helped make the community aware of just how extensive this problem is here in LA. It's estimated that over 600,000 people are homeless here. Oasis had a "Christmas in LA" campaign that was geared towards several ministries, one of them being a rescue mission and partnering with EDAR to provide a collapsable shelter. EDAR stands for Everyone Deserves A Roof. It's a great idea...but the price tag is a bit much! On just about every corner you can find someone who is homeless and I've been trying to think of something that I can daily do to help them. While I don't feel comfortable directly giving them money since:
a) it draws attention to the fact that you have money on you
b) you don't know what they are using that money for: drugs, alcohol, cigarettes
c) I rarely carry cash
So today, I found myself at a traffic light with a homeless man approaching my window and I reached into my purse...only to grab a fiber one bar and pass out the window. Then it hit me! That's a perfect thing to give them! This way, I know I am providing them with food, and healthy food at that. Hopefully he has access to a public restroom because those things can really help get things moving! I'm now going to make it a point to keep granola bars in my car to pass out. So what can you do to help?
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Rain Rain Go Away!
I'm going to make an assumption that the East Coast is reporting on the ridiculous deluge of rain that SOCAL is experiencing since we report on all your snow! So, you may have heard or seen that relentless rain started last Thursday and is supposed to last until this Wednesday. LA is not built for such large amounts of rain, creating flash flooding and making driving through LA even more difficult than usual! Originally the plan was for some friends from San Diego to come up and visit me, but I decided to go down to them since they were experiencing less rain...I couldn't fully escape it :( Visiting with Emily and Kai over some pizza and lasagna in Little Italy was definitely what I needed to help boost me in my resolve to get out of my "I'm so lonely at Christmas Blues". I then went back to Emily's where we watched a movie and looked at some pics she had taken of me when I'd visited her for my birthday. Emily and her husband Vic have recently started their own photography business and it's amazing to see how far they've come in the past 6 months! I knew Emily from college, where she actually went by her middle name Raley, and then later ran into her at my church in Raleigh. All too quickly she met Vic and moved out to California where she excels in her Cali fashion sense and now in photography! Check out their work on their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/bluepolystudios
Anyway, I got up this morning with the intent to get back to LA and drop a friend off at the airport and do some Christmas shopping with another only to make it into LA, to then stop for gas, and proceed to get into my first fender bender :( Not exactly what I was planning on for the day, especially since I'd just spent 3+ hours driving from San Diego into LA amidst the bad weather, flooded highways, and heavy traffic without harm. So here's my side of the story that I submitted as a written statement to my insurance agent:
I was backing out of the spot at Pump#2, this is a very busy and small gas station. I looked over both my shoulders for cars and pedestrians, seeing no one I backed up slowly, only making it about 6-8 feet before I felt resistance and heard a tap. I looked over my shoulder to see a car behind me who appeared to be backing out of a parking spot and a woman walking out of the gas station, towards the passenger door, about to get in. I immediately motioned to the couple that I was going to pull into a parking spot, which I did, gathered my insurance & registration and walked over to their car. I apologized for the inconvenience and informed them I was going to call the police. They are an older Korean couple who did not speak enough English to converse with me about what they thought happened. While waiting on hold for the police I offered for them to sit in their car since it was raining but they did not understand my words and hand motions. I am the only one who contacted the police via phone and provided the basic information, and requested if possible someone who spoke Korean to assist. The officers came, only to inform us that they do not file police reports unless someone is injured, but they did assist in information exchange. Above is the information provided to me. Again I apologized to the couple, informed them that I was going to contact my insurance, and wished them a Merry Christmas, but they did not have the courtesy to do so back. I spoke with the attendant at the gas station and he was unsure if the surveillance camera would capture the accident, but told me to contact Susan his supervisor on Thursday.
I am ok, and my car isn't damaged so much that I can't drive it. Initially I was just frustrated at having to deal with this stress (in the rain!) while trying to be as polite as I could with this couple who barely spoke any English! I learned a new pet peeve of mine today: If you are going to LIVE and DRIVE in my country then SPEAK my language! Since LAPD doesn't help resolve the situation it will be interesting to see what this couple reports to their insurance agent as to what their side of the story is. I really feel it was one of those flukes where we both looked, didn't see anyone and backed into each other. I held myself together during the moment, and feel that I contacted everyone I needed to, took pictures, got all the information I'd need for my report then came home, filled my dad in and cried...a lot...only to hear my dad yelling at me on the phone. I hadn't hung up! Oops! So now we're both upset and honestly, I think I was crying more over missing my family than my car situation. And the damage to my car isn't that bad. It's a linear dent on my back passenger bumper and some missing paint. I can't help but believe that God did have His hand over my accident, as evidenced by:
a) It could have been A LOT worse! It would have been much worse if I would have had a fender bender while on the highway with all that rain and hydroplaning it's amazing I made it back to LA!
b) It happened in a safe place where I was not alone or stranded on the side of the road
c) NO ONE was injured as it was a tap at a very low speed
d) Just last week I received a check from the city of Cumberland to cover damage to the passenger side of my car caused by city property
and e) I had no yet had my car repaired from above mentioned damage so hopefully I can get all this taken care of at once!
So for any skeptics out there, how can you argue with this? Could all these factors just line up as fate? I'll keep you all posted on what happens as I'm sure our insurance companies will have to duke it out since we don't speak the same language! Hopefully I'll get credit for being a responsible citizen, kind to some non-English speaking fellow citizens, and for my very detailed report and photos that I submitted! And I'll try to post pics later when my internet decides to cooperate!
Anyway, I got up this morning with the intent to get back to LA and drop a friend off at the airport and do some Christmas shopping with another only to make it into LA, to then stop for gas, and proceed to get into my first fender bender :( Not exactly what I was planning on for the day, especially since I'd just spent 3+ hours driving from San Diego into LA amidst the bad weather, flooded highways, and heavy traffic without harm. So here's my side of the story that I submitted as a written statement to my insurance agent:
I was backing out of the spot at Pump#2, this is a very busy and small gas station. I looked over both my shoulders for cars and pedestrians, seeing no one I backed up slowly, only making it about 6-8 feet before I felt resistance and heard a tap. I looked over my shoulder to see a car behind me who appeared to be backing out of a parking spot and a woman walking out of the gas station, towards the passenger door, about to get in. I immediately motioned to the couple that I was going to pull into a parking spot, which I did, gathered my insurance & registration and walked over to their car. I apologized for the inconvenience and informed them I was going to call the police. They are an older Korean couple who did not speak enough English to converse with me about what they thought happened. While waiting on hold for the police I offered for them to sit in their car since it was raining but they did not understand my words and hand motions. I am the only one who contacted the police via phone and provided the basic information, and requested if possible someone who spoke Korean to assist. The officers came, only to inform us that they do not file police reports unless someone is injured, but they did assist in information exchange. Above is the information provided to me. Again I apologized to the couple, informed them that I was going to contact my insurance, and wished them a Merry Christmas, but they did not have the courtesy to do so back. I spoke with the attendant at the gas station and he was unsure if the surveillance camera would capture the accident, but told me to contact Susan his supervisor on Thursday.
I am ok, and my car isn't damaged so much that I can't drive it. Initially I was just frustrated at having to deal with this stress (in the rain!) while trying to be as polite as I could with this couple who barely spoke any English! I learned a new pet peeve of mine today: If you are going to LIVE and DRIVE in my country then SPEAK my language! Since LAPD doesn't help resolve the situation it will be interesting to see what this couple reports to their insurance agent as to what their side of the story is. I really feel it was one of those flukes where we both looked, didn't see anyone and backed into each other. I held myself together during the moment, and feel that I contacted everyone I needed to, took pictures, got all the information I'd need for my report then came home, filled my dad in and cried...a lot...only to hear my dad yelling at me on the phone. I hadn't hung up! Oops! So now we're both upset and honestly, I think I was crying more over missing my family than my car situation. And the damage to my car isn't that bad. It's a linear dent on my back passenger bumper and some missing paint. I can't help but believe that God did have His hand over my accident, as evidenced by:
a) It could have been A LOT worse! It would have been much worse if I would have had a fender bender while on the highway with all that rain and hydroplaning it's amazing I made it back to LA!
b) It happened in a safe place where I was not alone or stranded on the side of the road
c) NO ONE was injured as it was a tap at a very low speed
d) Just last week I received a check from the city of Cumberland to cover damage to the passenger side of my car caused by city property
and e) I had no yet had my car repaired from above mentioned damage so hopefully I can get all this taken care of at once!
So for any skeptics out there, how can you argue with this? Could all these factors just line up as fate? I'll keep you all posted on what happens as I'm sure our insurance companies will have to duke it out since we don't speak the same language! Hopefully I'll get credit for being a responsible citizen, kind to some non-English speaking fellow citizens, and for my very detailed report and photos that I submitted! And I'll try to post pics later when my internet decides to cooperate!
Lindsey & Co.
2 weeks ago I had some expected and unexpected company and it was a much needed pick me up! You learn a lot about yourself when you live alone, and especially when you spend most of your time alone...which is a new thing for me. I already knew I was a social person, but living here in LA has really shed some new light on just how much human interaction---especially that of good friends means to me!
I loved living in DC because it put me so close to my college friend Alicia, who's married to Bobby and is the mother to the cutest 1 yr old twins I know. It was nice to be a short drive from her for those few months and and I dearly missed her when I moved out here. Thankfully, her family gave her and Bobby their Christmas present early and sent them out to LA for 5 days. It was fun having company and showing off how much I know my way around LA. We packed a lot of fun into those few days! Of course we made a stop at In-N-Out burger as soon as they got off the plane, we went to the Jay Leno show (which I highly recommend, it's the best taping I've been to yet), got some sushi off Sunset Blvd. and then we crashed! Unfortunately, I had to work while they were here but we squeezed in a late show at my favorite comedy club (staying out that late after work, and then having to go back in for another 12 showed me that while I may look younger than 25 I no longer have the college all-night stamina!) and they ran all over town while I was gone. Bobby's favorite part was probably Madame Toussad's wax museum! I can't tell you how many pics he took their. Those wax celebs are so real looking it's scary! I loved having a shopping buddy to help spend my coupons at the Loft! I found this chic place for us to grab lunch and was SO excited to take them to Joan's on Third but it almost ended up being a REALLY expensive lunch as we walked back to the car to find an officer writing a parking ticket! I wish I would have taken a picture of the confusing parking signs so you could fully understand my parking dilemma. It was a packed side street and I was so excited to find a space, but then we made Bobby get out of the car to read the sign to make sure it was ok to park there. Let's just say, it was confusing. There was one sign reading "No Parking Anytime" and below it another saying "2 hour parking 8am-8pm" and another "No Parking on Sunday for Street cleaning"...needless to say, not the clearest YES or NO on whether we could park there. So here we are, walking back to the car and see a cop writing a ticket for my car. Me, being my verbal self, yells out "Officer, excuse me sir, that's my car!" and then I began to plead my case and throw in a southern twang to help verify my NC license plate! He wasn't feeling too sympathetic to my "I'm not from around here" plea but fortunately his partner was and took the time to ask me where I'm from and then to tell me that I don't belong here and that I should go back! (To which I agree). This second officer was so sweet, agreed that the signs were confusing, and finally convinced his partner to let me off with a warning and go in search of another car that they could ticket instead! He ripped it up right in front of me and I haven't received anything in the mail so I'm in the clear! What a relief!
On top of having the Cox's, I also got to have dinner with some unexpected college friends! I don't even know how it all came about, but on Saturday night I found 5 friends from LU in my apartment! They came from all over: outside of LA, San Fran area, and various places in Virginia! Our friend Paul was nice enough to feed us girls! It was so nice to have company visiting in my apartment and sit around and see where we all were in life. Most of these friends I hadn't seen in over 3 years!
Having all these friends here was such a blessing to me! I've definitely been battling loneliness here in LA. Most of the people that I meet are superficial in their offers of friendship, or are more interested in what connections you have. All these people I just wrote about could care less who I know or what I do, they simply enjoy me and that is such a great gift!
I loved living in DC because it put me so close to my college friend Alicia, who's married to Bobby and is the mother to the cutest 1 yr old twins I know. It was nice to be a short drive from her for those few months and and I dearly missed her when I moved out here. Thankfully, her family gave her and Bobby their Christmas present early and sent them out to LA for 5 days. It was fun having company and showing off how much I know my way around LA. We packed a lot of fun into those few days! Of course we made a stop at In-N-Out burger as soon as they got off the plane, we went to the Jay Leno show (which I highly recommend, it's the best taping I've been to yet), got some sushi off Sunset Blvd. and then we crashed! Unfortunately, I had to work while they were here but we squeezed in a late show at my favorite comedy club (staying out that late after work, and then having to go back in for another 12 showed me that while I may look younger than 25 I no longer have the college all-night stamina!) and they ran all over town while I was gone. Bobby's favorite part was probably Madame Toussad's wax museum! I can't tell you how many pics he took their. Those wax celebs are so real looking it's scary! I loved having a shopping buddy to help spend my coupons at the Loft! I found this chic place for us to grab lunch and was SO excited to take them to Joan's on Third but it almost ended up being a REALLY expensive lunch as we walked back to the car to find an officer writing a parking ticket! I wish I would have taken a picture of the confusing parking signs so you could fully understand my parking dilemma. It was a packed side street and I was so excited to find a space, but then we made Bobby get out of the car to read the sign to make sure it was ok to park there. Let's just say, it was confusing. There was one sign reading "No Parking Anytime" and below it another saying "2 hour parking 8am-8pm" and another "No Parking on Sunday for Street cleaning"...needless to say, not the clearest YES or NO on whether we could park there. So here we are, walking back to the car and see a cop writing a ticket for my car. Me, being my verbal self, yells out "Officer, excuse me sir, that's my car!" and then I began to plead my case and throw in a southern twang to help verify my NC license plate! He wasn't feeling too sympathetic to my "I'm not from around here" plea but fortunately his partner was and took the time to ask me where I'm from and then to tell me that I don't belong here and that I should go back! (To which I agree). This second officer was so sweet, agreed that the signs were confusing, and finally convinced his partner to let me off with a warning and go in search of another car that they could ticket instead! He ripped it up right in front of me and I haven't received anything in the mail so I'm in the clear! What a relief!
On top of having the Cox's, I also got to have dinner with some unexpected college friends! I don't even know how it all came about, but on Saturday night I found 5 friends from LU in my apartment! They came from all over: outside of LA, San Fran area, and various places in Virginia! Our friend Paul was nice enough to feed us girls! It was so nice to have company visiting in my apartment and sit around and see where we all were in life. Most of these friends I hadn't seen in over 3 years!
Having all these friends here was such a blessing to me! I've definitely been battling loneliness here in LA. Most of the people that I meet are superficial in their offers of friendship, or are more interested in what connections you have. All these people I just wrote about could care less who I know or what I do, they simply enjoy me and that is such a great gift!
I think my blog has an eating disorder...
Hey Friends!
Sorry for taking a few weeks off. I tend to not blog for a week, then write a few posts in a day. that's my explaination for the title. I wonder if there is a support group for bulemic and anorexic blogs? Or at least a creative workshop I could attend to learn how to be better blogger!
It seems that the holidays have caught up with me...but I can't say that the absence is due to excessive Christmas shopping! I'm the lamest gift giver this year :*( Since I'm so far away I opted for gift cards. Really exciting, I know! I think my last post was right before Thanksgiving...so to update you on that, this was actually my first Thanksgiving off work for the past 3 years, and no, I did not get to spend it with my family. However, I did get to spend it was A family. A college friend, Jessica (mentioned in previous LA post) lives about an hour away and invited me to spend the day with her family. It was so nice to get out of town, meet new people, try new holiday foods, relax, try geo-caching...it was not at all like my typical Thanksgiving but I was grateful for something to do! I did miss my family, and setting up the Christmas tree, and the possibility of snow...but maybe next year!
These past few weeks haven't held too much excitement until just recently. I think I've finally fallen into the groove at work, can locate most things I need, know most people's names, etc. I've had some unexpected days off and then some unexpected OT shifts so it all balanced out. I finally am caught up on paychecks from UCLA (they weren't submitting my time card...not cool) and of course it gets straightened out just when I'm getting ready to leave. I've only got 1 month left! Where does the time go?
Sorry for taking a few weeks off. I tend to not blog for a week, then write a few posts in a day. that's my explaination for the title. I wonder if there is a support group for bulemic and anorexic blogs? Or at least a creative workshop I could attend to learn how to be better blogger!
It seems that the holidays have caught up with me...but I can't say that the absence is due to excessive Christmas shopping! I'm the lamest gift giver this year :*( Since I'm so far away I opted for gift cards. Really exciting, I know! I think my last post was right before Thanksgiving...so to update you on that, this was actually my first Thanksgiving off work for the past 3 years, and no, I did not get to spend it with my family. However, I did get to spend it was A family. A college friend, Jessica (mentioned in previous LA post) lives about an hour away and invited me to spend the day with her family. It was so nice to get out of town, meet new people, try new holiday foods, relax, try geo-caching...it was not at all like my typical Thanksgiving but I was grateful for something to do! I did miss my family, and setting up the Christmas tree, and the possibility of snow...but maybe next year!
These past few weeks haven't held too much excitement until just recently. I think I've finally fallen into the groove at work, can locate most things I need, know most people's names, etc. I've had some unexpected days off and then some unexpected OT shifts so it all balanced out. I finally am caught up on paychecks from UCLA (they weren't submitting my time card...not cool) and of course it gets straightened out just when I'm getting ready to leave. I've only got 1 month left! Where does the time go?
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