After two full weeks, I am almost used to LA...except for the driving. I only live 5 miles from work, yet I feel that I am driving all the time. I might think "I'll go over to such and such town" and it will take me 30 minutes to get there. Last weekend I went "driving" in search of a cool coffee shop and ended up in my car for an hour and a half without finding one. I know with search engines like Google things shouldn't be so hard, but if I don't write it down I may never find it. Downtown Lawrence is so unique with awesome coffee shops on literally every corner, but here all you find is Starbucks and Coffee Bean.
So, I found a roommate. My friend Chris Lemmon introduced us and she is really cool. She lives in a house in a "not so good" part of town, but the house is really quaint and the neighborhood is nice. Rent is a lot cheaper than most places and it is only 7 miles from work. I am probably moving there September 1st (my birthday). Though there are a lot of apartments here, there are a lot of neighborhoods with houses for rent. I've had plenty of friends in Phoenix live in "questionable" areas, so I feel completely fine with the decision.
After a full week of researching cars, I finally ventured out this weekend and did some test driving. I've never experienced car salesmen, but a few this weekend took the cake for sleaziness. First I spoke to a man at a Toyota dealership who had a strong accent. I couldn't understand a thing he said, and I thought, "how did I end up with this man?" Yesterday I test drove a Honda Civic and the woman working with me said, "this car gets 40 miles per gallon." Are you kidding? Only hybrids get 40 miles per gallon, though a civic might get close to that on the highway. She said it so seriously, and I corrected her. Each dealer tried to get me to buy the car on the spot, but I decided to look a little more. It reminds me that I need to do more research and know what I want before I go.
Work is going well, but slow. I had hoped to have some jobs by now to get the juices going, but all I've been working on is a parking garage and all the design is done. Most of our jobs are large and take months or years to design, so I understand that they haven't put me on one yet. I will most likely help different people out and try to pick up new knowledge along the way. I'm sure it will take a few months before I feel a part of the team. People at work are pretty cool, but they are pretty focused on the job and after hour social events seem to be limited. People rarely go out to lunch, at least not in large groups like I'm used to. I find that relationship building is slow and difficult. I've always thought of work as a "mission field", but that definition is starting to evolve. I see work now more as my responsibility to cultivate the earth. I've had a lot of time to listen to podcasts while doing busy work to the point where I am sick of my iPod.
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