September 30, 2005

Before I begin this long (short) series, I need to acknowledge a couple of worthy blokes. One, Adam Thada for his relentlessly creative blog that inspired this series. And two, Douglass Coupland for his unbelievably honest and insightful book, Generation X: Tales for An Acellerated Culture. Written in 1991 for a generation born in the 60's, it is a tail of three friends trying to figure out life. I think half still applies to generation whatever-we-are-called. SO, to Adam and Douglas, I salute you as I begin the definitions:

1. Historical Overdosing :: To live in a period of time when too much seems to happen. Major symptons include addiction to newspapers, magazines, and TV news broadcasts.

September 9, 2005

After living in 1 condo, 2 houses, 2 apartments and a duplex - we felt confident in what we're looking for as we moved to Pasadena. The world knows we've failed on at least three of those occasions. 50% is not good when your talking about a HOME. So we, at 26 and no kids, came to LA with a few desires:

Keep it small :: We've never enjoyed space. Sleeping in our living room? Sounds nice. A studio will do just fine.

The older the better :: We like the wall that's been painted 18 times and the bathroom tiles that are more than "off white". With age comes authenticity - unlike the newly built exposed brick, fabricated, "city apartments" down the road. :)

Spend. Try not to waste :: Our desire for simplicity flows into the kind of place we live in. We know we need a roof...and that IS what we need - just a roof. So we came to find an inexpensive place. Fortunately our first two desires make the third desire easy.

All that to say:




Kitchen.





Living Room 1.





Living Room 2.





"Bedroom".




Office.

September 7, 2005

We're on Euclid Ave. between Colorado Blvd. and the 210 Freeway. Our building is an East Coast style - more brick and wood floors, less bungalow and carpet. We like it that way. We haven't met anyone over the age of thirty who lives here. It seems to be full of artists and musicians. We like that too. I'll let the pictures say the rest...


Walking up the steps.




Three story brick. Lots of character.






Each floor has it's own lounge.




The view from our rooftop deck.

September 5, 2005

Today is Monday, September 5, and our work is nearly complete. After 6 long months of invisible stress - living out of suitcases, traveling back and forth, sharing bathrooms and watching movies on our laptop...we are HOME. We're renting a little studio in the heart of Pasadena. Thanks to some friendly advice, we're keeping our world small. In other words, we can walk just about everywhere. And after leaving Sydney with a few suitcases, we want to thank the good folks at Goodwill and Craig's List for supplying us with most of our new (used) belongings. After purchasing a couch, television and fan from a middle aged man now working for Richard Branson, he decided to give us four boxes full of dishes, cookware and appliances to outfit our new studio. As we hopped into our Civic hatchback he said, "I only wish I would have done what you're doing when I was 25, instead of playing it safe in North Carolina." So to Ralph - thanks for the stuff.

We spent the weekend setting up shop. We already feel settled - which in short means that we can walk to our closet instead of our suitcases. We have a roof, we have jobs, and we're slowly finding our purpose.

Today is Monday, September 5, and this adventure...begins NOW. I get the feeling I better buckle up.

September 3, 2005


August 17 :: Kari applies for a Paige Position at CBS.
August 22 :: CBS calls for an interview. Unreal.
August 24 :: Kari spends two hours interviewing at CBS.
August 25 - September 1 :: Waiting (and waiting) for a call.

Septemer 2 ::

"Hello."
"Hi Kari. It's Karen from CBS."
"Hello!"
"I just wanted to call and let you know that you've got the job here at CBS."
"Holy crap, I can't believe it." (Not really, but something was said here)
"Can you start on Tuesday?"


Kari met a bunch of people at an interview on Wednesday who have been here for a year and still haven't cracked into anything. To put it mildly, we can't believe our fortune. We're so thankful to get a break like this. The Paige position is an entry level job where you assist in a variety of ways on different live television shows. CBS intends to move you up from this job into a full time position. In fact, if you hven't been hired within CBS or one of it's production companies within 18 months, they hire someone to replace you. They actually told her in the interviews that after 3 months, you're free to make as many connections with producers and directors as you can. Next week she'll be working on the Tyra Banks Show and Dancing with the Stars. Unfrickenawesomebelievable (a word picked up on the hike that's intended to be used for a moment like this). We'll keep you posted.

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