It has been eight months since my last post for The Great Whatsit. During that time, here’s what’s been happening with me:
- My relationship of nearly ten years, with the woman I’d hoped to be with for years to come, ended.
- I left a decade-long freelance career I liked and was good at for a job with a small startup.
- I moved away from the city and community I’d lived in since the early ’90s to a city on the opposite coast, where I knew no one well.
- Four months after moving across the country for it, I quit my new job.
- I then turned 40, a milestone I’d been dreading, since my ex and I had met at my 30th birthday party.
A year earlier, if you had told me I’d be turning 40 in these circumstances — unemployed, recently broken-up, in a city I now have no reason to have moved to — I wouldn’t have believed it. I think I would have been horrified.
And yet, five months after moving to Los Angeles — a city I didn’t expect to like and which I anticipated leaving after a year — I am really, surprisingly, delightfully… happy. I have been embraced here by people who have quickly become dear friends. I love the perennial sunshine. And as much as I enjoyed the cozy cocoon of life in Washington, I’m energized by the newness of my life here, and by the creative buzz this city emits.
After a rocky first month during which I spent much of my free time sitting in my furniture-less apartment, talking on the phone for hours with friends in DC and missing my ex, things turned around quickly. Is it the weather, or some West Coast-y vibe that leads people here to (a) do lots of things while (b) inviting any and everyone to join in? My greatest fear, that I would feel lonely living by myself in this new city, has proven completely unfounded. Evenings at home alone are rare enough that I actually look forward to them, something I can’t remember ever happening in DC.
Of course, the West Coast TGW’ers have been a huge part of my successful adjustment to LA life. And seeing the rest of the TGW crew, at Tahoe and in Montreal, was like a happy-drug injection, a much needed boost just as I began seriously contemplating quitting my job. Those weekends were a wonderful reminder that no matter how many miles separate us all, the bond never frays.
So, this is my unabashedly sentimental return post. I am so grateful to all of you for helping me with this adjustment to the next part of my life. I’ve missed writing for TGW and am very glad to be back. I promise to be less inside-baseball with my next post, but for the moment, please grant me the indulgence of writing, with delight and relief: Dave, I’m home.
And now, because I can and because I’ve missed this, too, I’ll post a few goofily-cropped photos from recent Western adventures.
Provo River
Heber City
Vasquez Rocks
Sequoia
Yeah! I am so glad you are “home”…thank you for making my summer so much better with your visits. You have an amazing intelligent, fun-loving resiliance and I admire you for it. It will be good to read your blogs again.
Parrish moves to LA; we experience record heat and fires. Coincidence? Is it accidental that Parrish spelled backwards is Hsirrap, one of Satan’s minions? I say, Parrish, welcome to Hell.
In other news, you got to perfect your golf swing out here.
welcome home lisa!!!
oh how we missed you.
love,
trixie
Lisa, we have missed you dearly. Welcome back! There is no better chronicler of adventure than our LP.
p.s. Heber City=best shakes on earth! Yum.
LP, what a blessing is your blonde head (so like an angel, despite Scotty’s “Satan’s minnions” reference) here in the land of blondes. If there is any devil in you at all, it’s more like one of Satan’s minnows.
Have you taken your surfing lessons yet?
No, seriously, there’s an ing performance coming up on Sept. 18; please come.
Welcome back Lisa! It’s always fun to read your posts–you’ve been greatly missed. Enjoy the sunshine but remember there’s always a home for you in New York (next chapter!).
xoxo
I’m glad you’re back, too! You are one of the voices that hooked me on reading Greatwhatsit.
Re #11: I look forward to the LT performance on the 14th.
Welcome back to the Whatsit, Parrish! So glad to have your virtual presence on the site, alongside your corporeal presence in LA. I’ve missed reading you since you left that other place.
#8: I hope comment #11 actually contains details on that performance!
and to lisa dear: woo-hoo! welcome back to *our* chart, baby! we’re the only hookup in town, as far as i’m concerned …
News of the future: Tremain, Parrish, Zitter, Wells, Godfrey, and Gaggle of Non-Whatsitzers Dance Their Butts off at House Party
i was going to write something more substantive and thus more to dave’s liking, but i can’t help it… yaaaaaaayyyy!
Hooray! Obviously, you belong here–on the site and in the state. I reread your old posts often. Now I look forward to more ugly baby photos and perhaps a 5-part series, “My Friend the Satanvertible.” Not to mention a rendering of *our*chart–and I wouldn’t mind seeing the customized song Jen performed for Parrish’s 40th birthday posted here for the amusement of all . . .
Re. #11: What, no Mancillases?
i heard those triplets really cut the rug something fierce
Not to mention their folks shook some of the best ass at my birthday party.
12: You’re adding value, Jeremy. So God bless.
well back lisa and yes you are adding value jeremy
Change is good. Welcome back
ahhh! . . . the cropping!
Thanks for the kind words, everyone! Epecially in light of the recent attempted moratorium on kind words.
And re: #13, it was a very fine ditty indeed. I shall send it around to the author’s list with the kind permission of the head lyricist. J-Man?
Welcome back Lisa P! I’m so glad that LA is working out for you! I’m constantly surprised how much I like it. I get the creative energy thing too.
P.S. Did someone say dance party?
Beth, Tremain was supposed to pass an invite along to you. Talk to her about the details.
Yes, I know this is my equivalent to “Dave, I’m home” — I mean the original “Dave, I’m home.”
To LP:
Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!! Kind Words!!!! Kind Words !!!!
your the best!
I mean: you are the best!
LP! You rock. Sadly I lost your sunglasses from Montreal, but this might just sooth my grief. Here’s looking at you, kid.
so so so glad to have ya back!
Welcome home and Happy birthday – 40 is the beginning of everything . . .
P.S. my brother lives in Santa Monica and I am not sure how to account for this, but when I visit him, I am prettier, smarter and wear better clothes. What is it about CA??????????????
[…] a nod to S. Wells and apologies to anyone who read the earlier version of this post on that other website we shall […]