Prologue Part 6: Los Angeles

2/18/13 (like 1ish am)

It's been a while since I've posted, but I haven't had the desire to post for a while. I've spent the past week in Los Angeles, and I've been busy doing nothing. This is the first vacation I've been on since being single, and it's been freeing in a way I wouldn't have imagined. A lot has happened for me here, but I want to keep this entry as brief as I can. I'm also realizing that this blog is less about the funny, and more about me as a person. So, sorry if you're here for the lulz.

Before coming here, I was extremely intimidated by Los Angeles. The prospect of such a huge city seemed like an inevitable monster that eventually I would have to tackle. Upon landing, I understood something I hadn't realized before: Los Angeles is just another city. Don't get me wrong, every city has it's own charms/quirks/idiosyncrasies that make it unique, and thus worth visiting. But I'd always separated LA and New York from all of the other cities I knew. They were the big players, and they were not to be trifled with. Maybe it was the fact that I was coming from another larger city, but regardless, I realized upon landing that despite its size, LA really just reminded me of any city.

The comedy here is good, but man is the atmosphere different. Everybody here talks about what they're doing, and talks about their job in show-business. I managed to go to two open mics, and a paid show in Santa Monica. I'm really glad I got a taste of what it's like here (even it was just a morsel), but I can see that I'm not ready to live here.

Other than the comedy here, I did the obligatory things to do in LA: I went to the beach, and I went to Hollywood. I posted my reaction to the beach on Instigram, but my thought is worth reiterating here: I was very surprisingly awestruck by the beach. I want to mention that this was not my first time visiting the ocean, nor was it even my first time at an ocean beach, but it was my first visit since becoming an adult (of sorts). And as if on cue, I felt like a child again. I ran from the waves, I played in the sand, I chased the birds. It was particularly magnificent. I'm looking forward to having a beach so readily available in my new home.
For the second obligatory, I made several trips to Hollywood. The first trip was early on with a friend from back home. It was cool to see a few ins and outs of the city, stuff I never would have seen without her. Additionally though, I met a group of international types at the hostel here, and have been back to Hollywood several times. It's odd to so easily make friends from around the world, but I'll be damned if it doesn't make the experience more fun. I want to sum up Hollywood like this: touristy and unremarkable. I felt obligated to go and am glad I did, but honestly, it just feels sort unnecessary.

Which brings me to my next point. While I had no intentions of visiting Las Vegas, well, ever, sometimes life throws you a curveball. I'll be going to Vegas with my buddy Joe in the morning.

Prologue Part 5: San Francisco Tourist Destinations

Saturday 2/10/13

I want to start off by talking about a few things I missed last post: there are a lot of funny road signs (including "speed hump", "trucks not advised", etc); wild parrots in addition to pigeons. SF reminds me of a like a really nice shanty-town. Not like the quality of the buildings (because they're super nice), but like how everything is arranged. It's odd, and very hilly/mountainy.

I've been in San Francisco for about 5 days now. I like it, but I'm not sure how much I'd like living here. It seems like there's always something going on. I'm sure it's more relaxing once you live here.

I figure I'll go  sequentially through the past few days:
On Thursday I went to an open mic. The place was called "Brainwash", and it was a bar/restaurant/laundromat. Quite the different experience. I got to the place about an hour before the sign-up started and there was already a decent sized line, which was the approximate order for the show. Also, women went to the front of the line to get more women in the show, and kept bumping bigger name people in front too. The long story of it is that I waited about 5ish hours to get 3 minutes of stage time. Hooray...
Will and his friend Julie (I think? I've met a lot of people) came out to see the show, and we ended up getting drinks at a nearby bar. They were both quite amused that I called it a cowboy bar since nobody there was a cowboy (but still, it was a fucking cowboy bar). I had a weird, but humorous situation there: after telling me that she wanted to spend the rest of her 25th birthday night with me, the stripper daughter of the President of the American Bar Association (who, btw, also told me that despite her lack of a law degree, she is a really great lawyer) told me I'm what's wrong with "fat America" because I didn't agree that Family Guy should be taken off the air for their offensive Downs Syndrome jokes. Ah, cowboy bars.

I spent Friday in the suburbs near Will's work. I saw Palo Alto. It was a nice little town. Will's actual school was in a different town nearby. It felt a lot like Prior Lake; sort of rural-ish with tons of new buildings going up. I finally saw the German bakery Will adores. I got coffee and pretzel early during the day, then after will was done with work we had some beers and a pretzel there. And later, they just gave me a free pretzel. If you'd have asked me how many pretzels I was gonna eat on this trip, I bet I would have said one maybe, during the entire year.
We went to to Cobb's Comedy Club that night. I really wanted to see the Coco show during Sketchfest. The show was alright, but jesus fucking christ was it pricey. $25 per ticket plus a two drink minimum? Good christ, I was completely blown away. Rory Scovel was great though, as expected. We then went to a Taqueria. Pretty good tacos, but most surprising was the fact that I saw a friend from Minneapolis. That was a nice, unexpected surprise.

I spent the day yesterday doing all the touristy stuff. Will and I went to Fisherman's Wharf, and then crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. It was nice, but again, a bit touristy.

This post is already too long, so I'm gonna stop writing...

Tl;dr version: SF has been pretty fun.

Prologue Part 4: San Francisco

It's Thursday (2/7/13) morning. It's my second full day in San Francisco. I like it. It's a bit of an expensive city, and I really wish I would have thought about that... Additionally, I didn't expect so many places to cash only. I know that it helps keep costs down to reject credit, so I definitely appreciate that. Furthermore, since SF is a Wells Fargo city, there are ample opportunities for me to get cash. Thanks for reading through the boring parts of this post to get to here; it probably won't get less boring continuing on.

I've seen a few touristy things so far, and am getting a feel for the city. I have yet to take the Golden Gate Bridge, but I went up Coit Tower with my brother Will (he's my actual brother; I am not staying in monastery) which has a great view of the city, including sites like the Bridge and Alcatraz.

I tried to go to an open mic last night. We checked out a bar that had one where I got advice from a somewhat crazy lady gave who claimed to be a comic. It was far from where we were going though. The one we ended up checking out seemed good because it was nearby and apparently a pretty great bar. Guess what: it had burned down. The outside still smelled of burnt plastic... I plan on going to one tonight though. Beyond that, I would like to see Valley Meadows on Friday and one of the shows with Rory Scovel.

The picture is SF skyline from Coit Tower. The other picture is of a flyer I saw for an open mic that looked suspiciously like the logo for Stand Up! Records. Of additional note is that my tablet doesn't recognize the word "Prologue". What an idiot.