Mile 5, 594

Seven day work weeks were a bad idea, and that's all I have to say for myself.

I realized somewhere around three weeks ago that I had three weeks left in California and soon made the mad dash to start savoring everything so every moment I wasn't working was spent outside walking around, doing yoga in Santa Monica or at the park, and trying to break out of the Culver City bubble. I finally have friends--a good number of them--and now I have to leave. Saying good-bye to the canvasing crew was especially hard--how do you say good-bye to a group of people you feel so strongly connected to but have not hardly been afforded the time to get to know?

It seemed appropriate that I should post today, on the eve of my departure from Los Angeles. They picked up my car today. Not having a vehicle to run errands most of the day put an extra strain on the stress caused by the huge pile of tasks my boss has been loading on me this week; not the least of which was the contracting thing. That's right, she asked ME to hire a contractor to pave her neighborhood. Seriously. It was requests like that that were starting to wear me thin. This morning I stomped out of the house screaming about some battery I had bought that she had bitched to me about it not being the right one, but she had been so vague about what type of battery, how was I supposed to know? I think I scared my roommates, yelling and slamming the door this morning. Now they're probably thinking, good ridance ;)

On Sunday, I went to Ventura with a friend and we hung out at the beach and I bought some stuff at an outdoors store for Kenya. Then we went to a pool party in Bel Air with my office folk. It was sweet. One of my friends came over later to watch a movie "Valentine's Day"--it was really entertaining to see all the places in LA I recognized in the movie :P

On Monday night, I went out to dinner with my roommates. It was a very nice Italian place. I've been racking my brains for months trying to figure out a nice parting gift for them. I was just about to buy them a record player when I noticed the exact same record player in their living room. My mom's convinced me we can just get them something Michiganian when I get back and send it back, but I don't think it will be adequate, they've been so amazing to me.

Tuesday I went to yoga with some friends from GCI. It felt really relaxing after the week I've been having. Then we went to a cafe to chill and talk and have a little midnight brunch. I will miss those warm summer nights once the school year starts--being able to hang out outside and just chill with friends is so relaxing.

On my last night, I hung out with some girlfriends at Cafe Brasil on the westside. Then we went for one last froyo and a walk on Venice Beach. They had work at 8am tomorrow morning so they turned in early but I've still got a little bit of packing and some loose ends to tie up.

It's been great and I wish I had more time here, but Kenya calls ;)