My Trip to California (plus sentimental ramblings) by Chris

On a smoggy Saturday in April, Allinson Ken Lazo, still working for Collins, Collins, Muir & Stewart in LA, but pining for France, and myself, until two weeks prior operating lift #7 atop Aspen Mtn. but temporarily inhabiting Ken's couch, made a visit to the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Venice Beach.

Incongruously stitched in among the anonymous mexican restaraunts, dry cleaners, carpet stores and stucco apartment complexes of this stretch of Venice Boulevard, the Museum of Jurassic Technology's forgettable little facade and solid door hid a strange collection of objects and helped me turn the corner from hating LA to finding it oddly liberating. Spotlighted within the darkened interior, exhibits ranged from theoretical explanations of memory, dubious fruit stone "carvings," and documentation of trailer home life to microminiature sculpture, letters by quack scientists to real scientists at Mt. Wilson Observatory, and a memorial to the dogs of the Soviet space program. In threading this line between the fake, the absurd, the intriguing, and the revelatory, the museum's most lasting effect was to make me reevaluate the idea of the museum itself. I found myself ready to write on and on about it, but then Ken found a book--a Pulitzer Prize winning book-- entirely devoted to the museum. So I doubt I could improve on that. We'll just have to read it I guess--I still haven't gotten my hands on it yet.

But cutting the bullshit short, yes, the Museum is a place worth visiting. Preferably with as little info as I've given you--maybe even less, but now I'm loathe to delete so we'll leave it as is. I'll make a disclaimer--reactions are often mixed. Miz Liz Shapiro, who we took along on our second field trip the following Thursday, was a bit less impressed than Ken or I. Maybe it was a visit that required the extended hermitage atop an Echo Park hill and ample brain marination in advance that I had received at the white clapboard stronghold where Ken was living.

In the afterglow of the Museum of Jurassic Technology, helped along by that insipid, but absolutely irresistible emotion: nostalgia (to which this blog probably owes some level of debt as well, I might add...) I changed my outlook on LA. Yes, it's kind of a shitshow, yes, almost all Angelenos are slaves to the automobile, yes that highly touted California sunshine comes out kind of gray when fighting through the grimy smog, but precisely because it's a shitshow, because there's no worrying about messing things up or offending someone, some weirdo like the guy who came up with the Museum of Jurassic Technology has perfect freedom to experiment and do his own thing.

Places like Western Colorado and San Francisco, where Liz, Ken and I went to visit the proprietress of this blog that following weekend, are almost too perfect. One is overwhelmed and even maybe intimidated by the order and beauty. Like when I'm trying to do drawings or paintings in Carbondale, I feel compulsively drawn outdoors, into nature. It's kind of like "What the fuck? Are you going really going to draw some sad sack, New Yorky scene when you got this outside your door?" In some hole like LA there are none of those expectations.

As I mentioned, we did make it up to the "promised land" and visited Miranda. It was Idyllic. Delores Park to be specific. What a wonderful civic vision to see all these people just hanging out. A peaceful public gathering for no other reason than it's nice out and we've got the time. Besides Delores, Liz and I went to SFMOMA and saw a picture of mindclamp and we did some touristy stuff--SF is a great tourist town, unlike LA. Then it was time to disband--Ken back south, Liz back east, Miranda back to the desk, me on to the the family.

In all I was roughly five weeks in California. The trip actually started out with Coachella--ridiculous, but not sure I'd do it again--and it ended up, after a jaunt up to my grandmother's in Chico (north of Sacramento), with my cousin in Oakland. Now I'm working as laborer on a sod farm up on Missouri Heights, with plenty of time to think, and for a short time I'll be a wilderness guide for Wilderness Workshop in Carbondale guiding artists into proposed wilderness areas to document their beauty. But it feels a bit like treading water. I'm torn about what to do. I feel I'd like to be near some of you and be in a bigger place--sometimes I even still woolgather about your idea of Berlin, Josh--but I also feel like Carbondale is blooming and I shouldn't miss it. I think mostly I'm still terrified of getting stuck on auto pilot going somewhere I don't want to go.

I'd love for this blog not to die out. I love hearing about your exploits--I apologize for the somewhat drunken manner this update careened about with little or no rationality. Where are you guys geographically?, mentally?, ____-ally? I envy some of you for jobs that seem like they will go somewhere interesting or people you just can't resist and have no other choice but to follow. I need some clarity like that.

Hope all is swell!

--chris


p.s. having started the entry mid-trip, it is dated Apr. 27th, but most of it is from today: Saturday, Jun 19th, 2010

Update

As an update to that last post, the article is syndicated (that's right, ain't it?) and so it just popped up in an Illinois paper.

Also, if you like James Franco, come to the 826 Valencia annual luncheon and shmooze with the Kimiko-the-pillow lover himself. That is, if you have a hundred and fifty dollars lying around uselessly.

The weather is nice, except it was sort of drizzling just now. Also, I hear they're going to shut down Dolores Park for the summer (GASP! Shock!!) to do some remodeling (PURE OUTRAGE).

In the words of my co-worker, "where will they (people) all go?" which, of course, reminded me of The Catcher in the Rye, where do all the ducks go question.

What has been the most exciting thing to happen to me in the past week? Perhaps the bomb scare at a high school I was at last Friday morning. Everything was alright in the end, but evacuating is pretty scary, especially when everyone around you is like, I hate fire drills.

--Ate a delicious caramel-coated lemon thyme doughnut from Dynamo Donuts. 
--Painted my nails.
--Went outside; beach, GGP, tried out Trouble Coffee and Outer Lands on Judah. That block is so damn trendy now! There's a little shop called General Store that sells these great used leather boots, but they're still 100 a pair. Sooo....
-- The latest David Shrigley book (I mean, it's nearly 6 months old now, but I'm slow) is at Park Life, where they worship his humor (thank god) and have a really funny art exhibit right now including a bunch of pictures framed together with the words special victims unit written in red over them. As I love that show, I wanted to buy it on the spot, how Hilarious!

I'll be in Boston for a week mid-june, and then in South Carolina sometime in July. My family will be somewhere on the southern california coast for the summer, so find me there sometime in July. huzzah!

Bay-farer finds its way to Norwich, Conn. Newspaper

The little newspaper class I run out of 826 culminates every five weeks or so in the printing of the Valencia Bay-farer. It's written by kids, read by all, and it's also free to kids. Anyway, the Bay-farer has somehow made its way over to Norwich, Conn. and into the hands of one Terry Marotta who wrote this sweet article. Check it out!

Out of the Mouths of Babes (Bay-farer article)

wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome ...

Hallo und Liebe Grüsse aus Ost-Berlin!

Well ... it has only taken me 7 or 8 months to finally join all of you, but I promise I have been reading the updates as everyone has been starting successful post-grad lives and I have felt honored to be included on the list, for sure. I guess the reason that I was so hesitant up until now to post anything is because, despite my best-laid plans, I have been rather embarrassed about my life after Middlebury. 

Despite doing my best to find some sort of semi-permanent gainful employment, it all fell flat. On the long car-ride down I-87 with my mother after graduation, I burst into tears somewhere just south of Albany. It lasted only for a few minutes, and my mom sort of took it naturally in stride, assuming I was sad about leaving behind my friends or something. In reality, I was terrified about what I would do with no safety net, no one to pat my hand and tell me that it's okay (or even great!) to have absolutely no clue what you want to do with your life, no reassuring professor's offices full of books organized by subject and freshly brewed tea and cultural artifacts. There is nothing reassuring or comforting about South Jersey really. No one ever leaves New Jersey. It is a Bermuda Triangle. It's like the island on Lost. It is a place that sucks you in and all of a sudden you realize that you married someone from your high school and that you've stopped going into the city and have two kids and drive a Chevy Suburban you say "wudder" and "youz guys" that you have become completely content with spending the rest of your life in New Jersey. Forever.

This postcard is just so true ...

Okay, maybe that's a little dramatic, but that's what scared the crap out of me! I was pretty sure I had ruined my life, picked the wrong subjects to study, wasted the last four years and would never find a job or be able to afford a cute apartment with a dog and a cute kitchen and lots of adorable stuff from Ikea ... you know, the Twenty-Something American Dream. The next evening, after resting up and taking stock of my options, I camped out on my couch with a bottle of red wine and my laptop and began trolling craigslist for some sort of a job. After two hours of semi-drunkenly applying for various positions in and around Philadelphia, I made an important decision that I had been toying with for months. I was getting out of my mom's house, getting out of South Jersey and getting out of the continental United States altogether. I decided to move back to Berlin. I don't know why it took me so long to accept that it was the only thing I really wanted to do, but once I figured it out I stopped panicking and started planning. I had spent two semesters there already, had more friends in Berlin than anywhere else really, still kept in touch with most of them on a regular basis, and was the happiest there that I've ever been. I wrote some emails, got some advice and stopped worrying about growing old living in my mother's attic.

So over the last 9 months I worked for a little while as a telemarketer for the Pennsylvania Ballet (nightmarish), I interned as a snarky blogger all summer up until mid-fall (philebrity.com), and I mostly worked 50-some odd hours a week as a diner waitress at the Crystal Lake Diner in scenic Westmont, NJ. In my case, the only way to get out of South Jersey was to fully embrace everything wondrous and awful about it by running around, serving fried food and pancakes (with scrapple, natch) and calling everyone "hon" and "babe". I even started to enjoy my job as a diner waitress, envisioning myself as the narrator of a League-Of-Their-Own-type movie full of salty older waitresses with hearts of gold waiting under the surface. Needless to say, handling copious amounts of blue cheese dressing and coated french fries every day is slightly less glamorous than all that.

Me, in uniform obviously.

But I saved up all my pennies, took a TESOL certification course in November, continued saving up pennies, deftly handled the mental breakdown which ensued once I sat down with all of my student loan paperwork, tutored high school students in German (which is surprisingly lucrative, although the demand isn't too high), saved even more pennies!, bought a plane ticket, found an apartment, a few job leads, and as of Friday afternoon it's become official. I have successfully moved to Berlin, and am currently gainfully employed as an English Trainer as well as a freelance writer (more on that as things line up). I guess it was silly to feel insecure about My Brief Career As A Diner Waitress (which is high on my list for autobiography titles), but it seemed to me that literally EVERYONE else that I knew was doing something that was a) intellectually stimulating, b) wildly interesting and/or romantic, c) good for the greater community/world, or d) highly profitable. I seemed to be the only one who was doing what I did in high school - waiting tables and making ends meet. I felt sheepish telling people about it, and additionally, when I said that I was planning to move to Berlin permanently, most people seemed a bit incredulous. But now that I'm here, I realize it was silly to be ashamed of being a sassy diner waitress for a few months, and the good news is that Berlin has definitely welcomed me back with open arms.

The mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, famously said "Berlin ist arm, aber sexy" - Berlin is poor, but sexy. Berliners live rather minimally, rents are relatively cheap, roommates are plentiful, and there are literally hundreds of places to go and things to do all the time that generally cost next-to-nothing. The city is full of students and tiny coffee shops and cold war buildings and clubs that stay open for days at a time. Berliners have a way of living cheaply, but with style, spending as much time as possible out of doors, riding bikes everywhere and casually drinking beer in public (aka everywhere). There's really nowhere else that I feel more at home than a bustling city full of inexpensive fun and no public consumption laws.

So in conclusion, hopefully in a matter of months my life will be much like this:

Okay so Liza Minelli as Sally Bowles is sort of kind of my inspiration. Not a big deal, right?

Much love from East Berlin, hopefully the rest of you are doing well and please contact me if you too decide to dump your boyfriend, pack up your life and scare your parents by moving to Europe. I am full of advice on the subject.

Alles liebe,

Rachael

Play it again, Samuel

I wish this flippin' blog would let me comment one day. It seems to work fine for everyone else, and I can't for the life of me figure out what setting I might have that disables my ever-so-agile-and-complementary fingers from leaving sweet notes on your posts.

While the skies are still foggy or a blank white, the temperature has already begun to rise, and, as I walked along Dolores Park toward my car today, the grass was covered with the summery usuals; tennis players, dogs and their walkers/masters, potheads, bikers, kids, people of all variety just chillin' out, maxin'. Well, all variety besides gainfully employed, obviously.





As one of the aforementioned boring and busy people, I was stuck indoors for most of the day. I was also kind of sick, so I was wearing that huge cosby sweater that had belonged to Josh once, but which he didn't give to me-- I found it on the table in the 5th floor hepburn lounge junior year. i think he abandoned it when he went abroad because the next year when he was back, he said, "oh, I must have given you that."



Speaking of Josh, happy birthday, Josh. For the past four years we've have some kind of joint party, and this is the first year it hasn't happened. Emily and Cassie and Rachel did throw me the best AZN New Year's Eve party, though, and everyone was "hyphy" off the punch.

Anyway, as most of you know, I'm currently working at my place of business, let's call it "937" through Americorps. However, DRUMROLL, good news! I've been hired on! So, starting in August, I'll be a true, good for somethin', legit staff member. I don't know any of the deets yet. I don't know if my title will change, how much I might earn, whether I'll be up to exactly the same job as this year. But, I'm happy. Work can be pretty stressful, but the people are awesome, funny, and they've grown to be my friends, too. Not to mention that I feel like I am actually doing something good for the world everyday. Also, there are cool benefits. For example, the other day I brought some students to the Giants baseball stadium, PacBell Park, and we interviewed the entire Giants baseball team including Tim Lincecum.

Right now, I'm trudging along. come visit me; Summer is creepin' up on San Francisco, and it's gonna be excellent.

 

Vermont followed me South

On the topic of weather, DC has been getting bombed by snow this winter. We had roughly two feet over the weekend that led to the federal government closing four hours early last Friday--it has yet to re-open. Right now we are in the middle of a blizzard that isn't likely to taper off until this evening. I would imagine that the federal government is unlikely to open tomorrow and will be lucky to do so on Friday. Luckily for me my office follows the fed's lead on closures! Who knows we might not have to work until Tuesday given the upcoming Presidents' Day holiday.

Other than the weather here everything is groovy. My house just picked up a new roommate and she seems a great addition to our nut hut. On the job front (groan) I was picked up as an editorial/research assistant at the magazine I was interning with in the Fall. It's not wonderful and I am still very po' so I am still scouring the interwebz for alternatives. I'll holler if something comes up.

For now, enjoy a few photos of last weekend's snow. Should be a few more to follow once the blizzard weakens and I can venture out with my camera.

Toodles,

Biddy-mayn

Who'll stop the rain?

Yes, it's true, CCR is from the Bay Area. Suck on that, people who were actually born on a bayou.

I've been thinking about the new decade a lot recently. I've been thinking about what I'll be doing next year, what this issue of Bay-farer will be like (largest class ever with 28 kids), and what music I'll be listening to by the time 2020 rolls around (if it does... 2012 anyone?). I've been telling people some pretty silly stuff, but to be honest, I don't know where I'll end up. I told Chinloy's mom that I want to become a sailor. She seemed shocked. I don't think I could ever really become a sailor, but it's still fun to say that. I'm thinking about writing, going to law school, getting an MFA, going into editing or production, something like that.

Meanwhile, life is good.Well, I have bronchitis, but that should be over soon. Something else I hope will be over soon: this storm that's causing tornado warnings and landslides in Pacifica. It's been cold and raining like crazy, even a little hail, all week, and it's not doing anything for my health. There is a leak in my bedroom window, there are leaks in the pirate store. My car's roof has a leak. The other day, I backed out of the driveway and suddenly, water poured onto my head-- the sunroof is faulty, it doesn't quite close, so water had been gathering inside it. I park on a slant (hood endof my car up) and when I backed up onto the hill (trunk end up) all the water slid from the back to the front. I was soaked, and had to go back inside and change. It was sort of funny, but also really uncomfortable.

I went to visit Claire in Seattle last weekend, and it was very fun. I miss hanging out with my buddies from college, but college not as much. We ate and drank coffee and hugged poodles. It was great.

I am also loving working on the Young Authors' Book Project at work. This year's theme is the American Dream, and I've already heard some amazing ideas from the students we're working with. The book is going to be excellent, I just know it.

Is anyone thinking of going to Coachella? I might, and I hope the tickets don't sell out or anything.