It's been five months into this unemployment/COVID-19 lockdown "journey" and as the weeks and months wear on, one gets used to the new routine, but also anxious about the realities that living an urban lifestyle in a city like Los Angeles costs money.
Although one's parents will (jokingly - but is it really jokingly?) urge you to marry a rich person, I dodged that bullet (his subsequent partner after me, he married, but 11 years on, they are divorced) and have mostly had to rely on myself financially since my father gave up that mantle of responsibility at my late age of 26. I was lucky - my dad was/is a generous man, but the real reason I hung around at home so long being the two of us were lost ships in a sea of storm after my mother passed when I was 21. Dad and I were holding on to each-other for the emotional support in our grief and living under the same roof until I was literally kicked out by the influence of his new love interest - now wife - five years later. She didn't want his adult daughter hanging around and she won that battle despite an epic war struggle.
On losing my job back in March, I am still somewhat in denial about spending. I have cut back on the designer clothing and expensive dinners and wines out, but I am still ordering "to go" $7 almond decaf lattes from Verve, buying matcha almond lattes, vegan cake, and strawberry almond milks at Erewhon, and have now started up somewhat of an addiction drinking the $13.5 smoothies at Kreation. Once the U.S. government's additional $600 to our unemployment allowance runs out, I guess I'll have to reassess again.
I would like to stay in LA, but it's a tough town to find work if you're not in entertainment and the movies. I found this when I first landed in the U.S. seven years ago. For three months I met with several PR people and set up "informational" meetings with PR agencies, but the efforts led to nothing. Well, I wouldn't say entirely nothing, as some solid relationships were made, and I still have some of those today. But no job.
It took moving to San Francisco to kick things off on the "making money" front - but after three years, I was able to relocate back to LA with my PR job at commercial real estate company, Cushman & Wakefield. When I lost that I was thrown back into the "LA is a tough job market" and it's been that way since.
Sure, great jobs come around but it's such a competitive space - PR, many, many people in it and all claiming to be experts. The competition can be enough to turn you to your own thing - I aim to build up (again) my own freelance PR business but also look into an entrepreneurial idea I have rattling around in my head after striking the idea watching a french film called, "Bright Days Ahead."
An older woman, the character played by Fanny Ardent, is given a free trial by her millennial daughters to an "activity house" called "Bright Days Ahead" for seniors. She goes along, gets involved in drama classes, wine tasting, pottery, computer classes, etc - and meets lots of like minded people. Rather than being fuddy duddy and depressive, the center and its offerings are friendly, adventurous and fun.
Well anyhow - there's a snippet of where my thinking is going and I'm still in exploration mode - I just think there's something to targeting the 45+ market and catering to them especially when so many of us feel like life has begun its age discrimination in our 40s (so young!) - how does it feel at 55, 65, 75, etc?
On that note, I have gotten back into my yoga because the studios have now opened back up - the lockdown and lay off sent my regular yoga practice down the drain - and I have an Iyengar yoga class to get to, so time to go. I have, perhaps temporarily, hung up my ashtanga yoga hat for now (it's a rigorous practice and well suited to younger people), and eased into the little less aerobically intense form of Iyengar.
Signing off from sunny California this Friday afternoon (argh, the unemployed still love Fridays...), adieu.
Although one's parents will (jokingly - but is it really jokingly?) urge you to marry a rich person, I dodged that bullet (his subsequent partner after me, he married, but 11 years on, they are divorced) and have mostly had to rely on myself financially since my father gave up that mantle of responsibility at my late age of 26. I was lucky - my dad was/is a generous man, but the real reason I hung around at home so long being the two of us were lost ships in a sea of storm after my mother passed when I was 21. Dad and I were holding on to each-other for the emotional support in our grief and living under the same roof until I was literally kicked out by the influence of his new love interest - now wife - five years later. She didn't want his adult daughter hanging around and she won that battle despite an epic war struggle.
On losing my job back in March, I am still somewhat in denial about spending. I have cut back on the designer clothing and expensive dinners and wines out, but I am still ordering "to go" $7 almond decaf lattes from Verve, buying matcha almond lattes, vegan cake, and strawberry almond milks at Erewhon, and have now started up somewhat of an addiction drinking the $13.5 smoothies at Kreation. Once the U.S. government's additional $600 to our unemployment allowance runs out, I guess I'll have to reassess again.
I would like to stay in LA, but it's a tough town to find work if you're not in entertainment and the movies. I found this when I first landed in the U.S. seven years ago. For three months I met with several PR people and set up "informational" meetings with PR agencies, but the efforts led to nothing. Well, I wouldn't say entirely nothing, as some solid relationships were made, and I still have some of those today. But no job.
It took moving to San Francisco to kick things off on the "making money" front - but after three years, I was able to relocate back to LA with my PR job at commercial real estate company, Cushman & Wakefield. When I lost that I was thrown back into the "LA is a tough job market" and it's been that way since.
Sure, great jobs come around but it's such a competitive space - PR, many, many people in it and all claiming to be experts. The competition can be enough to turn you to your own thing - I aim to build up (again) my own freelance PR business but also look into an entrepreneurial idea I have rattling around in my head after striking the idea watching a french film called, "Bright Days Ahead."
An older woman, the character played by Fanny Ardent, is given a free trial by her millennial daughters to an "activity house" called "Bright Days Ahead" for seniors. She goes along, gets involved in drama classes, wine tasting, pottery, computer classes, etc - and meets lots of like minded people. Rather than being fuddy duddy and depressive, the center and its offerings are friendly, adventurous and fun.
Well anyhow - there's a snippet of where my thinking is going and I'm still in exploration mode - I just think there's something to targeting the 45+ market and catering to them especially when so many of us feel like life has begun its age discrimination in our 40s (so young!) - how does it feel at 55, 65, 75, etc?
On that note, I have gotten back into my yoga because the studios have now opened back up - the lockdown and lay off sent my regular yoga practice down the drain - and I have an Iyengar yoga class to get to, so time to go. I have, perhaps temporarily, hung up my ashtanga yoga hat for now (it's a rigorous practice and well suited to younger people), and eased into the little less aerobically intense form of Iyengar.
Signing off from sunny California this Friday afternoon (argh, the unemployed still love Fridays...), adieu.
