Back to Basics, Drivers!

To those in California who think they know how to drive. You don't. I'm sorry but it's true, you have no clue what to do on the highway. And how do I know this? Well I haven't killed anyone and you have made several attempts on my life, in one drive! More than I ever experienced in New York in one year! And I will make a case with several points:

Point 1: When I put my left or right signals on to change lanes, that doesn't mean you get to speed up. Yes, you're pissed that I'm cutting in front of you even though your 4 car lengths behind but that doesn't mean you have to go 90 just to get in front. Freakin' ay! Go around me if you get close.

Point 2: When changing lanes and moving in front of me don't make that I have to slam on my breaks. Hello?! Make sure there's room so I don't have to rear end you because the guy behind me rear ended me! Do you want that? No! Neither do I. I hate insurance companies. And don't slam on the breaks after you've changed lanes that's ridiculous.

Point 3: Stop signs mean STOP! Come to a full and complete stop and don't hit people. It's wrong and stupid. I'm crossing the street that doesn't mean you can roll through and look at me like "how dare you walk in my path." I have the right away!

Point 4: The left lanes of the highway are saved for people who are either carpooling and/or going fast. Going the speed limit or below it doesn't mean you're going fast so don't drive in those lanes. Stay away from them because I'm there and if you want to pass someone go ahead but get back in your own lane. Because I am going to go fast whether you like it or not

Point 5: You see an exit approaching that you want to take, this is not the time to practice your Fast & the Furious moves. Do not cut 5 lanes just to get to the exit, just wait for the next one. It's not like you're going have to go cruising for an hour just to turn around. It's not that big of a deal. Besides you shouldn't have been listening to your Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits Album and paid more attention to the road. It's that simple, douche!

So there are some points about my frustration with driving in CA; let's not even get into the topic of parking because the curbs here are nothing like the ones that were back in NY. I was a rock star parallel parker, I should know. Sigh. The one thing that I miss from NY, consistent drivers.

How to avoid a ticket with a police biker

Like any great city, cops can be found doing one thing; waiting at your car meter until it expires so they can write you a ticket for letting said meter expire. Yep, that's what they do so how did I avoid getting said ticket? Easy. I didn't change my out of state plates, and made sure my car is trashed beyond recognition.

So this story takes place at the Trader Joe's located in downtown San Francisco on 9th street. I had gotten up to enjoy some breakfast at my cousin's place when I realized that I drank all the milk the other day. Opps! Well this was an excellent chance to get some of my staples: granola (holla!), cheese, orangina and a $3.99 bottle of wine for the cuz and roommate that serves as a thank you for letting me hog the living room again. When I arrived to my location I threw in a few coins for the meter giving me 17 minutes (I knew it wouldn't be forever) and made a dash with my bag to the Joe's.

Now I'm leaving the Joe's feeling good about my purchases and the fact that I'm using my own bag to haul the food to my car. I don't know why but I always reflect on the recycleable bags and how I'm saving the enviornment, or how much easier they are to throw over your shoulder, or even how much food I can fit into one bag and it's not ripping, cause let me tell you that bag was loaded. And as I'm approaching the good old Toyota I see a man on a bike looking at my vehicle. At first I think the worst has happened, my car was dinged by another car but then I see him on the bike and realize that he's looking at the registration sticker on my car. (oh no!) And so this is how the conversation goes:

Me: (putting load of groceries on hood of car) "I guess I judged too soon on the meter."
Man on Bike (MoB): "This your car?"
Me: Yeah.
MoB: (takes look at the interior and the condition is BAD, my friends) "Really?"
Me: Yeah.
MoB: "From New York?"
Me: "Yep. Please is their anyway that you can not give me a ticket."
MoB: "Well tell ya what? Why don't you throw in another coin into the meter and we'll call it even?"
Me: "Really? I mean I was just about to leave too."
MoB: "I think it's fair."
Me: "Yeah, me too. I'm just letting you know. So you don't think that I'm trying to buy time or something."
MoB: "Ok." (smiles.)
Me: (I throw in a quarter and show the MoB.) "Thanks so much. Have a great day. Enjoy your weekend."
MoB: (Nods and pedals off in the other direction ready to attack any non-expecting citizen.)

So how do you get out of getting a ticket?! Move to a city where people seem friendlier. Ok, so San Fran isnt perfect put the people are pretty nice and cool. Second, wear your pjs and carry your own reuseable bag, preferably filled with groceries; I must've gotten som sympathy for that. Third, make sure you still have your out of state plates because that always confuses people. And lastly, make sure your car is a bit trashed so they know that you didn't mean for it to be this way. It just happened. You know random bags here and there. Jackets in the back, Jane Austen book laying on the floor, napkins everywhere; give it character. I mean that's gotta be the way I got out of that stupid ticket, right?

Regardless, I'm heading out to clean the nasty car. Because right now it looks pathetic. :)

How I got here

It's only fair to start off with the history of this little adventure with how I got here. And it all started with a wedding in the Dominican Republic. A wedding for my cousin and his now wife Arelis, I was surrounded by family member that I hadn't seen in months, and some I haven't seen since I was 10 in Colombia. Plus, I even got to spend time with my 2 little monkeys (how adorable are they?!).

Carlos & Arelis & I

My Michael & My Alex

And while we were all out there I sort of had an epiphany of wanting to be closer and to spend more time with them. Even though my boys live in Atlanta I knew that I've lived too far from people who have known me my whole life.

After coming home from said wedding I went back to work at Discovery and realized that I wasn't happy there. I was far away from people who knew me when I was kid but don't know me as an adult. I also realized that I was being given a chance to either leave New York now and try something new or always feel that I'm going to be stuck in NY for the rest of my life. There were a few weekly phone calls with the cousin extraordinaire who has been through change enough to to turn and tell me, "hey, you only live once." So I turned to Discovery and said bye. My aunt flew in and helped revamp my apartment so I can rent it out in the New Year and in about one month I was in the car bound for CA.

A 2 week adventure started off with my friend Jon who drove with me to Kansas in a weekend. (The poor guy saw me freak out at least 3-4 times each day. And drove a huge amount of the trip.) He flew home on Sunday after we arrived at my best friend Lyndsay's house and then she and I did the final leg on the following Friday in 3 days. So one person can drive across the country in 5-6 days. However making it a 2 week trip was worth it as I got to spend some quality time with wonderful people.

So that's how I got here and I'm on the job hunt and looking for friends and looking to hang out in cool places. Kind of exciting I know. I'll let you know how this state treats New Yorkers. :) But now I leave you with some photos from the road.

A sunset between Salt Lake City ad Nevada.

Hitting the road with Lyndsay.

The field outside Lyndsay's house.

Somewhere in Indiana.

California?! How did I get here?

Well this blog was originally intended for my life in Europe, particularly my life in London. And it was going along swimmingly when then life gave me a beat down and sent me back to NY with my tail between my legs. (For the whole story read next paragraph if you already know the story move on, please.)

Last year, 2007 to be exact, I thought I'd give life with my family in England a try and live out there for a year or 2. I go every year for Christmas and this was no different. Instead, I was just going to stay a little bit longer, say 12 months or more. So after the lovely Christmas holidays I got a job working for a publishing company that sent me the following week off to Paris for a design show. I went and was heading back to London when Border Control stopped me thinking that I was working illegally in the country and wouldn't let me go home. I tried every way possible to get back to my family, friends and things in London and was forced to spend 3.5 weeks in Paris living in a random woman's house until I flew home to NYC on Valentine's Day. (Tickets were provided by my wonderful friend Mike who without I would still be living in Paris.) Now Paris was fab and I had an amazing time there. I really hope I get the chance to go again in the spring/summer because it was pretty cold when I was there. But I'm heart broken that my European experience ended that way and I was quickly forced to say goodbye to people that I was getting to know and places that I was starting to love. Now I'm working on getting back again at least to get my DVDs and books back. Oh how I miss them.

So instead of staying in NY hating my life and not wanting to be there anymore I've decided to pick up and go again to California this time. YAY! Plus, having family out here is a blessing since they let me sleep on their couches and eat their food. But the one little problem of picking up and moving across the country is not having a job or friends right away so you gotta work on that, which I'm trying to do now. So I guess this will be the theme of my blog, the new adventure of making a life for myself in California. New Yorker meets sunshine and happy people while trying to do something new on the opposite end of the country. Whoa! That's pretty insane.

So now I leave you some pics of my new home town.

My cousin Michelle and I with a view from Nob Hill behind us. We were at friend's house watching the Blue Angels.

Coit Tower!

Hello San Francisco! My new home, for now!

Celebrating my first California Birthday with Michelle, her roommate Laura and my aunt. The first of hopefully many.

My world has/is changing

It's been roughly a year since I last updated this thing and if you know me then you know that 2008 has been one hell of a ride. I've been in 3 different countries; living in 4 different places. I thought I had everything that I wanted, lost it all and now I'm slowly putting the pieces back together. I learnt that I'm stronger then I thought and that I can handle some challenging events that are thrown at me. I've grown and now I've seen my country grow.

I wanted a way to commemorate this day, this moment and without a journal or pen in my hand I've decided to use the internet and a very old blog that I found the other day to celebrate the fact that I was part of a historical moment in this country's history. I saw an African-American man, Barack Obama, become the 44th President of the United States of America. He's worked hard to get where he is and yes, he's probably made some stupid decisions along the way but who hasn't. And for the first time in a long time I have hope for the future. When the man speaks I can't look away, his voice stops me in my place and I listen to what might be a better future. We are steps closer to free health insurance for all and for me that is the greatest joy; because I never want anyone to watch their loved one suffering from cancer feel the stress of insurance companies while trying to fight a disease. And if anyone has a problem with that, give me a call when you watch your family member go see a hospital's insurance representative before they see their doctor for a check up, it'll make you sick.

Now from my life experiences I know one thing, no one is perfect. We all screw up; actually we're professionals at it. And yes, Obama will screw up but as he said in his speech last night he needs everyone's help. We need to work together to get out of the crap hole that we're in today. We are all responsible for getting ourselves into this so we're going have to work together to get out.

I have the utmost respect for McCain and he has done so much for this country. He's a true honest civil servant for this nation and he made sure that Obama's name wasn't tarnished by stupid rumors. I'm sorry that he had his heart broken, but he will do what's best for this nation and I know for sure that he will help Obama reach out to the Republicans; to make sure that the American people are cared for and no longer have to suffer. And I can't help but be thankful for that.

So how do I end this note... Once upon a time in a nation where things were looking awful, when it felt like it could never get any better one man gave hope. He looked around and said this isn't the way people should live; lets make a change. And sure enough with some radical ideas and some strong guidance from colleagues and family the man campaigned his heart out. He worked and worked to make sure people heard what he said, that it was time to make changes for something better to look to the future with excitement and not dread. With that people got excited and the spark in the eyes came back; they headed to the polls on November 4, 2008 and this country was never the same again.

And guess what?! I saw it all; I made it happen. What a time to be alive!