Winterized Windows

These winterized windows are making me very very uncomfortable and unhappy. I know that I have a mild form of claustrophobia. It's not the "I can't ride in an elevator" kind. It's the kind when I first walk into a place I immediately notice if there are windows are not.

Years ago I went to join a gym in Los Angeles and you walked in off the street and there was the front desk and when they took you for a tour they took you downstairs and there were no windows because you were underground. I couldn't even concentrate on what the guy was telling me who was giving me the tour. I just keep looking at the block walks and feeling creepy.

When I would to go the Apple Store in the Canoga Park Mall I was okay because I could look out of the store front and see the mall skylight. I can walk into a store that doesn't have any windows but I am not likely to do any amount of shopping in there.

As a kid, my favorite aunt was claustrophobic. She would not pass a big truck on the highway, even though she drove a big ass Cadillac. And she would never get in an elevator. I remember when we would go somewhere with her we would all have to take the stairs, which didn't make much sense to me because sometimes those stair wells were small and had no windows. I personally think it was the least of two evils for my dear aunt.

Even though I can see out of my windows I can't open them and that bothers me. It feels like a weight on my chest. I have always, as long as I can remember, lived in places where I can open the windows. I love windows open and air flowing in and out. I don't care if it is hot air or cold air.. it's air and it flowing. And with my windows winterized there isn't any air flowing and it bothers me.

Yesterday I couldn't take it any longer so I unwinterized one of the windows. Wow, I could feel my energy change. I got excited and happy and I don't care how much my heating bill will be. I'll gladly pay for the happiness in heating $$$s if I have to.

This is a picture that I took from the first snow storm that we had. My first 6 inches of snow. The weather guy says we may have some snow showers tomorrow and/or Tuesday. But nothing like we have had in the past.

Ciao

I Also Forgot What it Means When Someone Flashes Their HeadLights at You

I was driving down the road and the car approaching flashed their heads at me and my instant thought was, "WTF, I HAVE my head lights on." A friend who was with me said, "Slow down he was warning you that a cop is sitting just up the road."

This happens in the south and I had forgotten about it because flashing head lights in Los Angeles is not a cool thing. In facts, it will get you killed.

A few years ago I heard about a guy who flashed his head lights at someone. The car that he flashed then turned around and followed him to Seven Eleven. When he exited the store he was shot. Apparently, and unbeknownst to this poor dude, flashing your head lights in Los Angeles is a gang sign. Go figure.

Ciao

I Got on the Scale This Morning

I left California 8 months ago, Memorial Day weekend, 2009. I am 5 ft. 6 inches tall. I weighed 123 pounds when I left California.

My weight is "relative". And thanks to Einstein, I learned that the word "relative" means: depending on where you are.

So if you are a doctor and you are commenting on my weight you would say that I am at a normal weight.

If you are in the south and you were commenting on my weight you might say that I was on the skinny side and try to get me to eat something.

If you are in Los Angeles and you were commenting on my weight you would say that I am fat. Yep, FAT! The first thing you would look at is my stomach to see how flat it is or isn't. That would be the determining factor on whether or not you wanted to be seen with me..... oops I meant, talk to me....lol..lol...lol... It is funny because yes if you were in Los Angeles your decision to say one word to be would be based on the flatness of my stomach. Isn't that wild? Don't you wish you lived there? lol..lol..lol...

I knew this guy who worked at the Apple store and he was a cutie. He told me "Dottie I only have pretty friends. I don't want to be friends with someone who doesn't look good." Woe is me... I hate to have to learn the life lessons that this Dude is going to have to learn. I asked him, "What about the qualities that someone might possess, you know all those important things that you can't see, like trust and integrity?" And he looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. And that is typical of Los Angeles... if they can't see it.. it doesn't matter.

I haven't lived in this part of the country long enough to tell you whether I am considered at a normal weight, skinny or fat. I can tell you that I haven't gained one pound! Which was my main concern upon moving here. I didn't want to gain 100 lbs like my friend, Linda, who moved from Los Angeles to Idaho and was afraid to go outside when it was cold, raining or snowing. I have kept moving and living and I am happy about that.

Ciao

Road Signs You SHOULD See in California

I was surprised to see these road signs (except the big one) here in Pennsylvania, especially since we don't have nearly as many people driving on the roads as they do in Los Angeles, California.

These signs should be posted every couple of feet in California. Every year you hear about people who get shot at while driving. Yep, they probably inadvertently cut someone off and then someone pulls a gun and shoots them.

It makes me wonder "What happened here in Pennsylvania for the road authorities to think that it was necessary to put a sign up like this?"

Other unusual street signs that I noticed were in Philadelphia. On the freeway there are signs that say "Main Street exit 8/10th of a mile" or "Forelone Avenue 9/10th of a mile". In Los Angeles it would say "Main Street exit 1/4 of a mile" or "Forelone Avenue 1/2 of a mile." What's with all these weird fractions of a mile?...lol...lol...lol...

Check out the "High D.U.I. Crash Area" sign. Must have been a lot of drunk drivers crashing where that sign is posted.

There should be a sign"High D.U.I. Route" posted on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. It seems like every celebrity that has been stopped for driving under the influenced was driving on PCH in Malibu.

The super big picture of the road rage sign is one that is posted in Australia because of the problem with aggressive drivers and episodes of road rage. I really think that this sign is necessary in Los Angeles. Road rage is such a big thing in Los Angeles that they have lawyers who specialize in it. Click here to read more about road rage and cyclist road rage (yep, people riding bikes and getting pissed off and fighting).

Ciao

It's Going to Warm Up!

This picture was taken by my friend, Luci, in Galveston, Texas. Yep, cold enough for icicles to form on Luci's home. That's wild for Galveston!

I talked to a client who is in Miami, Florida, yesterday and she said, "We just aren't use to this cold." She said, "You are use to it." I was like "What?" I am definitely not "use to it". I lived in the south for 28 years and California for 23 years. I am not use to it. It just is.. what it is...

The weather is warming up everywhere, except California..lol... their weather is doing to drop about 10 degrees. Next week they will get about 6 rainy days, which they desperately need.

One thing I am really surprised about is that "special guy" told me that the sun didn't show itself, here in Northeast PA, for several months during the winter. Well, I am delighted to report that this year has been different. The sun has come out 99.9% of the time, so far. I say "so far" because I checked the 15-day weather report and on June 23rd our sunny days will disappear for about a week.

I realize I talk a lot about the weather in this blog and it is because one of the main reasons that people live in California is because of the weather, sunny dry days. And one of the reasons that people live here is for the distinctive four seasons of weather. I like the changes in the weather, it feels exciting to me.

BTW, I think Luci Girl should seriously look into photography classes. This isn't the first great picture that she has taken.

Ciao

Heads Up - January 10th - Pomegranate Day = Money

Yipppeeee I got a new tea kettle. Bought the old one back to the store and no problem. I did not get the same kind, instead got something better!

Okay guys and girls it's time to make that trip to the supermarket and get a pomegranate for January 10th.

Approximately 20 years I was a personal assistant for a very wealthy woman. Muhammad Ali lived across the street from her and Lou Rawls was her next door neighbor. She lived in an affluent part of Los Angeles called Hancock Park.

Every January 10th she would take a pomegranate and cut it open. She would eat 10 seeds and put 10 seeds in a piece of plastic wrap and then in her wallet. She said that doing this would insure that you would always have money in your wallet.

I have always, as long as I can remember, had money in my wallet, so I can't say it is from specifically doing this on January 10th. However, I am not going to take any chances and I have gotten my pomegranate all the same.

Here is a youtube video that I made about the pomegranate + January 10th = money http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKyHx4k1pPc

Ciao

How Small is Bloomsburg?

A good time was had by all last night at my first dinner party in Pennsylvania! The food was good and the conversation was grand. Everyone had a lovely time.

I invited Eric and Sara who are a younger couple and live above their store on Main Street. I met them while on my walk on Christmas Eve. Come to find out, my neighbor John, who lives across the street, plays golf with Sara's Dad on Sundays.

I was told that the population of Bloomsburg is approximately 12,000 with 8,000 being University related.

Yesterday I walked into the post office and the lady in front of me had given the postal clerk a change of address card and then turned and walked out of the post office. The postal clerk looked at it and then looked at me and said, "She didn't sign it. Dottie wait right here." And she ran from behind the counter and out the door and down the street after the lady to get her signature. I was in shock. There were people in line who all acted as this this were normal. I was shocked on two accounts; 1) The postal clerk knew and called me by my name, and 2) She ran after a customer!

In Los Angeles it was literally years before the people at the post office acknowledged that they knew me and began calling me by name. Which shouldn't be outrageous since I am there every single day! I do realize it is harder to make personal contact with the people in Los Angeles, at the post office, when there is 3 inches of plexiglass between you and the postal worker. You would put your mail in a window and lower the door and only then would they be able to open the window on their side and get your mail out. It was all so impersonal. I would joke around and say that the reason the plexiglass was there was to prevent us, the public, from being hurt by one of the clerks should they decide to go "postal."

At the downtown Los Angeles post office there were six psychologist "shrinks" on staff for the postal workers to go and talk to if they felt like doing anything crazy. One would really have to wonder about a job where they employee six doctors for your mental state. That's wild!

The picture was taken of me in New Zealand. I am at a deer farm and I am holding up a pair of deer antlers. I had no idea they were fuzzy like a peach. The deer antlers have thousands and thousands of blood vessels in them. They are sliced very thin and sold to the Chinese who believe that putting the deer antlers in their tea and drinking it will help with a variety of health issues.

Ciao

OMG I am a People Person

I have long thought that I am NOT a people person. I think I got this idea because it was so difficult to connect with people in Los Angeles. Not only difficult because of time, traffic and jobs but because of hidden agendas. In Los Angeles, because time is so valuable there's got to be some reason for people to go out of their way to spend time with you. I found it not only difficult but exhausting to connect with friends.

Many years ago I had a friend who lived about 6-7 miles from me. We would send emails back and forth to schedule lunch or a quick hour at Starbucks and every time the date would arrive she would have to cancel (i.e. her dog is sick and has to go to the vet, car trouble, don't feel well, got to run errands for her husband, blah, blah, blah). After 1 year of excuses and no meeting. I called her and said, "It shouldn't be soooo difficult to connect with a friend. This is not normal!"

My stock broker said to me, "Dottie you will do very well on the east coast. You are friendlier than the average person." I don't think I am friendlier than the average person. I think I am probably as friendly as the average person.

Well, I have been in Bloomsburg for 5 months and I am having my first dinner party tonight. I have invited 3 sets of neighbors over for dinner. It should be fun and I am really looking forward to it.

I was having dinner on Christmas Day with one of my neighbors and I mentioned that I love to cook Braciola once a year so that I don't forget how to make it. It's a famous Italian dish that I learned to cook while visiting Bari, Italy in September of 2005. I told my neighbor that I had not had a chance to make it this year and he said, "You still have next week." So I decided to throw together a last minute dinner party so that I can cook the Braciola in 2009.

This picture is of a common sight you see in the fall. Unharvested corn fields... go figure. With all the supposedly starving people on the planet, the government pays farmers not to harvest their crops. I tried to find out some inside dirt on this, on the Internet, but wasn't able to find anything substantial. Just doesn't make much sense to me.

Ciao

I Went to the Bloomsburg Fair

You would think by now I would be use to the big difference living in Pennsylvania is versus living in California. But I am still amazed.

Last night we walked to the Bloomsburg Fair and we paid our money and walked right in. I was shocked. I didn't have to walk through a metal detector, have my purse looked in or get scanned with a wand. I just walked right in.

Then I realized, Los Angeles is on the map for a terrorist attack, Bloomsburg isn't. No matter where you go in Los Angeles, the county fair, a Dodger baseball game, an amusement park, it doesn't matter. You will go through a metal detector, have your bags checked and get scanned with a wand.

A few years ago I attended Santa Monica Community College and they installed metal detectors going into each building. I had a metal ruler because I was taking a drafting class and I would have to arrive to class 15 minutes earlier just to go through the door. What a pain that was.

Every court house in California has the same thing. In March of this year I had to go to the court house and they wouldn't let me in because I had a metal pad lock (that I used for my locker at the gym) in my purse. I had to walk back to my car and leave the pad lock there before I could get in the court house. I have to tell you... this shit is not normal. However, the people in Los Angeles are so accustom to it... and so busy... that they just can't see the forest for the trees.

I feel free here. Free to come and go without having to be patted down.

Ciao

An Apology to my Friends in California

I know that my last 8 or 9 months in California that I wasn't the nicest person to be around. I wasn't always pleasant.

I guess if I were more Gandhi like I could have focused on my friendships and not let Los Angeles get to me. However, even knowing this I don't think that if I could go back, that I would be able to do things any differently. Sooooo much of Los Angeles affected my soul. I found it hard to be pleasant when I could not stand the air I was breathing, the continuous sounds I were hearing. Those were the two main things. Yes, there are other things that bothered me and they have been written about in this blog.

I felt that I had worn my welcome out in Los Angeles, keep in mind my first day there I knew I only wanted to live there 2o years. I knew I would be happier somewhere else. And I am a lot happier. Every day I feel happier and happier. The energy shift is quiet dramatic and catches me off guard every now and then. At first the feeling of contentment felt strange and I could feel myself pulling back from it. I wondered out loud to my special guy if maybe I was being pulled to the other side... maybe I was going to died and this is what it felt like. His response was, "Go to the doctor." and he began cooking with less salt..lol..lol..

So to any of my Los Angeles friends who read this (and I know 80% of them don't, cause they told me, "I don't read blogs.").... I am sorry for being bitch like, crabby or bent my last few months in Los Angeles. Please don't take it personal... it's had nothing to do with you and was all about me and my internal desires for a different kind of life.

I have talked to a few of my Los Angeles friends on the telephone and they ask "When are you coming back?" And when I tell them that I am not sure I will ever make a trip back to Los Angeles, the phone goes silent. And then I remind them.... the plane flies both ways! They can come to visit me. Anyone and everyone are welcome. Come one and come all! Who knows.. you may inspire me to open up a Bed & Breakfast next year!!!!

Ciao

"You Sound Happier"

Those are the words that I have heard echoed from around the world! And YES, I AM HAPPIER!!! I was not happy living in Los Angeles for the last 3 years. In facts, I told my sister that I felt as if I were dying a slow death by being there. That's all changed now.

It's totally different. Almost like going to another planet (except they speak the same language).

For example, I went into a restaurant to eat breakfast and on the menu with my eggs were a choice of bacon, ham, sausage or scrapple. Click on the word and it will take you right to Wikipedia and let you know it is a Pennsylvania Dutch food thingy.

Okay, then there is this food called "pigs-in-a-blanket". This is not the traditional American Pigs in a Blanket, sausage wrapped in a bread pastry. These are Pennsylvania specific, pork and rice stuffed cabbage leaves. My special guy, the intuitive chef, made some night before last. Man they are good.

There are also a lot of different traffic signs. The one that I can recall from today was a stop sign with a white sign right below it that said "Except Turning Right'. That's a new one on me.

Today I looked at a 45 acre farm with a small house. The land isn't being farmed right now. I didn't go in and look at the house. Just walked around the land. Ideally I would love it to be 45 acres of woods.

The video is of a deer that was in the corn field next to the storage facility where my furniture is. He/she is in deer Heaven right now. Today I saw him/her dead along the side of the road, it had been hit by a vehicle.

Ciao

Just a Few Differences in PA and CA

First, I would like to thank my friends who took the time to comment on my last post "Waves of Christmas". The comments were very interesting and insightful.

There are differences that most might not notice... however, I do.

For example, it takes longer to go in somewhere and get something done, especially if you have to talk to someone. Everyone here has the time to talk to you.

Yesterday, I had to go to the bulk mailing part of the post office and get information on a bulk mailing permit because I send out 1,700 newsletters every quarter for my business. There were two girls working and they asked me why I was mailing my newsletter "first class". I told them that's what I was told my only option was. They opened up my 4 page newsletter and said "You don't have any advertising in it so you can send it parcel post, which will only take about 2 days longer. Do you have any time sensitive information in your newsletter?" My response was, "No." Bottom line I will be saving about $500 a quarter when I mail my newsletters because these girls took the time to show me a better way. It never happened in LA. People rarely take the time like these 2 girls did.

I have a t-shirt that has an advertisement for a "Lost Kitty". It's pretty funny. I have had it for about 10 years and worn it a ton of times. Every time I wear it here people stop me to read my t-shirt. I can be at the grocery store looking at the produce and the person next to me will say "Let me read your shirt. Oh, that's so cute." Like 4 times in one day I will be asked if someone can read my t-shirt. I think in the 10 years that I have had the t-shirt only one stranger in Los Angeles has asked to read my t-shirt. Just different I tell you....just different.

Hey yesterday I got my PA drivers license!!!! Yeaaayyyyy.

I heard the news yesterday that July 1st, the sales tax in Los Angeles will go up again this year... to 9.75%. Like Wow.... just a few months ago it went up to 9.25%. Sales tax is paid on everything in Los Angeles. You do not pay sales tax in Pennsylvania on anything considered a necessity such as food and clothing! Like Wow, what a savings that is!

My sister took this picture of me at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles on her last trip.

Ciao

Waves of Christmas

So like this really super weird thing began happening to me my last week in Los Angeles when my guy and I were busy packing up my things.

I would get these "waves of Christmas".... which I can only describe as being something like "waves of nausea". The "waves" part was the same... but "Christmas and Nausea" are obviously two different feelings.

They were good "waves of Christmas". The weird thing is that I wasn't packing anything remotely connected to Christmas and I don't have any great good feelings of Christmas stored up in my data bank of experiences. In facts, last year, I took a 3 week trip to the other side of the planet (New Zealand and Australia) to purposefully avoid the month of December and everything that went along with it.

These waves happened about 6 or 8 times each day. We would be packing and I would tell my special guy "I just had one of those waves of Christmas". Something may have flashed super fast in my mind or not (not really sure).... it was more like this feeling that would run through me. It was warm, fuzzy, loving... everything good in one wave. I wasn't thinking about Christmas before or after the "wave" thingy happened.

During our drive to Pennsylvania the "Waves of Christmas" only happened a few times.

Since I have been here I have only experienced the "Waves of Christmas" about once or twice.

It's super weird and have no idea what it means or why it is happening.

Ciao

Like Wow Another Earthquake in LA

Well, well, well... another earthquake in Los Angeles.... hummm... this makes 3 or 4 in the last couple of weeks. Not good I tell you...not good.

I am in Pennsylvania right now. Thank God I didn't feel that earthquake. I was on a plane from LA to PA. My nerves have been on edge lately due to the fact that I have a lot of things going on.

I was telling one of my friends, on Saturday, that I don't feel like myself. I feel like my tag line on my emails should be "Sporting a titanium broom and platinum pointed hat!" Yea, I have had a short fuse.

I went around with the real estate lady this afternoon and looked at 4 places to rent. I think I have found the one I want. The real estate lady set up appointments for me to see a couple of more properties tomorrow morning and so my noon tomorrow I will make a decision so that I can get that ball rolling.

The picture is an aerial shot of Los Angeles.

Ciao

Life in Los Angeles - Where the Sun Shines

The name Los Angeles is Spanish for The Angels. The nick name for Los Angeles is City of Angels.

I can tell you right now that there aren't "Angels" walking around here in Los Angeles. And if the angels are up high looking down, I wonder what the hell are they're thinking.

There is a video of a 72 year old man who got hit by a car earlier this week being shown on television. The news announcer said that their was outrage about the video because it shows the man getting hit by the car and then several vehicles driving around his body in the street. It also shows several people standing on the sidewalk just looking. Absolutely no one went up to the man who was lying in the middle of the street after being hit by the car. This is life in Los Angeles.

About 15 years ago I was driving home on a Thursday afternoon. I remember the day like it was yesterday. It was approximately 3:15pm. I was on Beverly Glen Blvd. heading north. I was about the 5th car in the turning lane to head west on Sunset Blvd. As I sat and waiting for the light to change I heard a thump noise and I thought to myself "Someone must have dropped something off of the back of a truck." The light changed and the cars in front of me began to go round something in the street. I thought to myself, "I was right, someone did drop something off of the back of a truck." But I was wrong. I was shocked to see a woman laying in the middle of the street and everyone was driving around her like she wasn't even there. I stopped my car right in front of her and got out of my car.

I can tell you, time stopped in my world. I had no place to go and nothing to do. I ran up to her and her eyes were open but they seem to be fixed on the curb. I began talking to her telling her that she would be okay, she wasn't alone and I was going to get help. I knew she heard me because her bottom lip started to quiver. She had blood coming from her ear and nose.

This was before I had a cell phone. The traffic heading east on Sunset Blvd. was stopped. A guy in a white convertible car told me that he had called 911 on his cell phone. I thanked him. I saw this red car stopped at the light and I have no idea how I knew he had a blanket in the back of his car. I asked him, "Can I have the blanket in the back of your car? You will never see it again." He said, "Sure." and gave me the blanket. I don't know a whole hell of a lot about first aide but I did know this woman was probably going into shock. I took the blanket and put it on her.

An ambulance did arrive and so did the police. The police were taking down my information and a man came up and said that he had seen what had happened. He said that she was crossing the street and a white pickup truck (a gardener's truck) came out of Bel Air Estates and hit her and then rolled over her and just kept going. He said he pulled out of traffic and made a u-turn and followed them. He gave the police the address of where the truck was.

I personally don't think that she survived. She looked to be in her 50's maybe early 60's.

The thing that I have thought about most of all were the minutes from the time I heard the thump, that was when she was hit... and the time she heard my voice. It must have seemed like an eternity to her. Lying there in the street just listening to car, after car, after car going past her, like she didn't even exist.

In a future post I will write about the time I found a dead man on Wilshire Blvd. at 3:15pm on a Thursday.

The picture is of a beautiful rainbow.

Ciao

Earthquakes

Well, I definitely won't miss the earthquakes!!!!

I was sitting here getting ready to open my laptop and write a post about the swine flu and all of a sudden I heard a rumble and my cats sat up in the bed and then I noticed the room was swaying and the cats jumped off of the bed and got under the bed and the swaying continued so I decided "I had better get in the doorway, this could be a foreshock to something bigger." And before I got the doorway it stopped.

I immediately called my sister to tell her I was okay. The last thing I want is her to turn on the television and see that there was a 4.4 magnitude earthquake in Los Angeles. It was actually in Malibu is 24 miles from Woodland Hills.

You know what? I am going to be a much happier person once I move. I plan on being so relaxed and chilled. In one year people won't even recognize the person that I will be. No more worries, that's the ticket.

Well, if you didn't notice someone "anonymous" person has used my blog to post his long ass views on the state of the world and everything in it. He posted the same shit on my last two post. Way to go Dude. Spreading his shit on other peoples blog, I wonder if he is spreading his freakin seed that easily.

The picture is of an earthquake seismograph.

Ciao

I won't miss the Helicopters!

I was awakened last night at 12:07am by an all to familiar sound.... helicopters flying around in circles over where I live. In LA you can hear this sound at any time of the day or night. It's best to make sure that all of your doors and windows are closed and locked. Why? Because those Dudes in the helicopters are lookin' for someone. And that someone may be lookin' for a place to hide. Any open door or window will be a bit inviting to someone on the run. The helicopters stopped shortly after 2am.

I know you are probably wondering what kind of neighborhood I live in. Well, I wonder that too. Remember I live in a place where you don't believe any of what you see and 1/2 of what you hear. I recently discovered that crime in my neighborhood does not get leaked out to the public through the news media.

Woodland Hills is one of the 88 cities in Los Angeles county. It is located in the San Fernando Valley just over the hill (really a mountain) from Los Angeles proper and Beverly Hills. Woodland Hills has been labeled the valley version of Beverly Hills. It's small like Beverly Hills and we have just about everything that Beverly Hills has, i.e. celebrity sightings, Morton's steak restaurant, Ruth Chris' restaurant, Neiman Marcus, Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue, etc. Literally everything you could ever want or need is within a one mile radius of where I live. Within one mile I have Whole Foods, the post office, Home Depot, Borders, Barnes & Noble, Bed Bath & Beyond, Petco, Pet Smart, Burlington Coat Factory, Walmart, 2 Target stores, Party World, Ross, and these are just a few. Three blocks away are 2 malls.

About 2 months ago, I left my home at 2:00 on a Thursday to run some errands upon arriving at my "guarded" apartment complex I noticed that the streets surrounding my complex were blocked by police cars. All entrances to my complex were blocked. Helicopters were flying over head. No one could get in or out. I called the apartment office and said "Hey I live here. I can't get in. What's going on." And they said ..... "Can't tell you." I was like "What!?!?! I live here!" They said "Sorry. Can't tell ya." I walked up to one of the police men who was standing by his car blocking the street and said "Hey I live here. What's going on?" And he said "Can't tell ya." I called the local news team and said "Hey do you know there is something going on in Woodland Hills at this apartment complex?" And they said "Yes, we know." I said "Well, I live here. What's going on?" And they said "Can't tell ya." For 3 hours no one was allowed inside or outside of the complex. Then after 3 hours the helicopters flew away, the police went on their way and people were allowed back into the complex. I immediately surfed the Internet and channel surfed the television. And I couldn't find anything that mentioned what had occurred where I lived. The funny thing is that just a few miles away in a less desirable part of town if someone suspected something the police and helicopters would be there and it would be on every local news channel live while it is happening.

The sound of helicopters makes me feel uneasy. Why? Because they aren't going to a party and they aren't celebrating anything good. It's all because something negative is occurring. Since moving to California I have heard helicopters circling my neighborhoods at least once a month if not more. A sound I hope I never hear again after moving away.

The picture is of me taken at New Years 1989 shortly after I arrived here in California.

Ciao