Mind of Migg

We’ve had an admittedly rough start to our time here in West LA. There’s been a lot of ups and downs, and while not all of it is directly related to the new neighborhood, we associate it with the new area. I’ve felt constantly on edge, uncomfortable, and multiple times have thought, “what are we doing? I just want to go home now” (home being our old place in Redondo).

The last two weeks or so have made a huge difference in getting settled in though. We brought back our larger couch from Violet’s parent’s house. We were planning to sell it in a garage sale, but we figured it made more sense to just keep it and have a full living room set without having to spend any more money. We also finally got a dining room table and a few chairs. We brought back our mini fridge from Venice to use for drinks again. The best thing of all though, we finally got our shower head fixed and cleaned out. It would run at a near drizzle and we initially just accepted it and complained about it to each other. We finally reached a breaking point, told our apartment manager about it, and now have a working shower with great water pressure.

The little things make a huge difference in feeling at home. I know we’re here for at least two years before we can move back to South Bay, so we have to make the best of it. We’re still discovering go-to restaurants out here, which is tough. I have a huge bias for the places we discovered near Redondo and would honestly rather drive down there to hang out then search out new places up here. I’ll eventually start to crack and grow more comfortable out here, but in the meantime, we now have a fully furnished place and a working shower. We’re getting there.

Since the law changed in California allowing only hands free calls while driving, I’ve resisted having to buy a bluetooth. The only problem is, I’d make a majority of my calls in the car. It was a great way to kill time in traffic and catch up with people. However I had always sworn I would never be seen with a flashing blue light in my ear.

The only reason I gave in is because I’ve sworn that I would only put it on while in the car. After using it a few times, I took that even one step further and decided that I’ll only wear it when I actually make a call. I’m not gonna drive with it on the entire time, I just feel silly doing that.

I bought my bluetooth over the weekend and tested it out on my drive back from Phoenix yesterday. I feel like I should answer any call with, “this is Miguel” or with a company name or even answering, “talk to me". It’s just silly. I don’t think I could ever making a habit of using one, but at the very least, I can talk in my car again.

The dirty, soulless, corporate whores have still not settled and demanded I go back to Phoenix and give my deposition on short notice. So I had no choice but to take a day off work and pay my own way back. To make up for this very frustrating turn of events, I decided to make a weekend of it, so Violet and I drove out on Friday afternoon.

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This last month has been very frustrating in terms of writing. I have a lot of projects going at once and I’ve done a terrible job of managing them and setting aside blocks of time for each one. Instead I’ve nibbled at all of them at once thinking, “there’s so much to do, I don’t even know where to start", which of course, accomplishes nothing.

I knew the first month going back to a day job would be rough on my writing schedule, but I was hoping it wouldn’t take this long. I need a new draft of Monsoon for the second part of the writers lab in September, I need a final draft of Carpet Maker by the time Dave leaves for India in September, and I need a final draft of The Line (first time I’ve revealed the title!) by the end of next week.

These past two weeks I’ve done a better job of scheduling time, I just had writer constipation. Fortunately, that’s coming to an end now and I’m getting back in a flow. On a positive note, I also may be able to work from home a few days a week, which would do even greater wonders for my writing. So now I’ve got a schedule again, and I’ve got words flowing. Looks like we finally have liftoff.

I finished the new draft of The Line tonight and sent it off to Abe. I really want to get into pre-production of that short as quickly as possible now. I was also able to finally write up a response and feedback to the new treatment of one of my fellow writers from the Writers Lab. I had left him hanging for too long, but hopefully his rewrite is going well.

Now the next step, tackling the painful beast that is the Monsoon rewrite.

This weekend was busy with a combination of trying to be productive and also have a little fun.

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