I'm toasting to my decision nine years ago this week to move to Los Angeles, and I'm telling the story on how I came to be a Hollywood Housewife. If you're just now checking in, you can start here then read this and this.
*
Through August, Dr. Megan and I figured out how to scrape by. We found the grocery store and post office. We ordered a couch and met our cat-loving neighbors. I sent out moving announcements, desperate for everyone to know how big and exciting my life was now.
Except that it wasn’t. Los Angeles was growing on me after my dismal first impression, but it wasn’t glamorous. I read, and nursed deep wounds, and tried not to think much about the future. I found that I didn’t mind isolation in a city of millions.
One of the few connections we had to anyone in Southern California was through Dr. Megan’s uncle, who knew an executive at a popular network. Phone introductions were made, and I am so grateful for this family that took us under their wing. I’ve often thought that Dr. Megan and I wouldn’t have lasted the length of our lease without them.
We spent those first few months almost exclusively with T. & Cyndi, babysitting and talking and taking instruction on how to navigate life post-college in unfamiliar territory. When I think back on myself in my early days in Los Angeles, a broken bird, their faces come to the surface first.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was roused from sleep by the incessant phone ringing and I assumed it was an assignment from the temp agency. It wasn’t.
Dr. Megan and I spent the rest of the days that followed bumming television time from friends of friends, since we didn’t have our own. Unable to watch the planes hit the towers in a 24-hour news loop kept us somewhat protected, I think. Though the enormity wasn’t lost.
Our friend T. helped us each land our first jobs in entertainment, Dr. Megan on a BBC talk show and me on a short special hosted by a shy and funny guy. Dr. Megan met Rachel, and I made my first friend. By the time I went to Oklahoma for the holidays at the end of 2001, life in LA, while not settled, wasn’t quite as scary.
*
The story continues later today with how I landed my first movie and how it changed my life. Check back! Since my mom is frustrated by the dribble-y pace of my storytelling, she's going to pop in tomorrow with her own interpretation of events. You probably won't want to miss that.
Title taken from a Travis song of the same name. This band made an appearance on the BBC show where Dr. Megan worked, and several songs from that album are close to my heart.
