Moon Petal

Moving to Los Angeles

Twelve years ago today, or sometime this month anyway, my best friend Julie finally talked me into moving to Los Angeles with her. She had been wanting to for quite a while but the last six months she would talk about it almost non stop. It really started to bother me but in a weird way. On one hand I was incredibly interested in the idea and her excitement and insistence really inspired me, yet on the other hand I couldn’t really get away from it and she just wouldn’t shut up about it or let me have time and peace of mind to really give it some thought. So, when I say she talked me into it, I really meant it. One night we were out having pizza and were going to go to a movie and I guess I just simply had enough. I couldn’t hear about it anymore and didn’t want her to whisper about it during the movie. “Fine, I’ll go.” And it was out. I said it and we both knew there was no taking it back. In fact, there was about a minute of silence between us before she threw up her arms, hugged me and said, “than it’s final, we’re going!”

Of course that didn’t stop her from talking about it, though she was quiet during the movie, and instead of trying to talk me into it, she began talking about how much fun we were going to have and how exciting this move was going to be. In a desperate attempt to get her to shut up I suggested we move as soon as possible and that weekend we took a road trip to LA to pick out an apartment. We found a great little place to stay and our first morning in town we found a little two bedroom bungalow in West Hollywood. We decided we could afford it if we both found jobs quickly. As it turns out Julie got a job in a restaurant that weekend and I quickly landed a courier position with a small company our first week in town. I’m a singer songwriter, which is now how I make my living I’m proud to say, but at the time, and for a few years, I needed the income. We spent a lot of time at the beach that week and did things like go to the La Brea Tar Pits and that kind of stuff. Oh, and moving to LA did nothing to shut Julie up. I’ll never forget her words the first night in our apartment. “We’re here, we’re actually here! We’re going to have so much fun in Los Angeles, I can’t wait to . . .”

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