California Dreamin' (Part II)

Hey Folks,

So, I finally made it over and moved into my apartment, and I have to say, the complex itself is actually pretty nice. It's literally (and I mean literally) across the street from the Warner Brothers studio. If I had a better view (and not of the grassy area where everyone takes their dogs out) I could see the iconic water tower. The complex has two gyms, two pools, two sets of tennis and volleyball courts, laundry a convenience store on premises, everything I could really need. They even have personal trainers, which I may take advantage of when I get my work schedule, as one of my main goals for this summer is to get in shape.

While the complex is nice, however, the apartment leaves one to want... well, more the interior decoration does. Everything is wood with grey/dark green/brown tones. The couch looks like a less exciting houndstooth and even the lamp is grey/brown. The only two pictures in the main room are a large one over the couch of sundown behind a wooded area with large birds (pelicans?) flying by and another smaller one on the adjacent wall of a... cowboy. Yes, a cowboy on a horse in front of a half-dead tree. The decor of the apartment makes me feel like I'm staying in a roadside lodge outside of Dallas more than in the middle of Burbank, California. I tried my best to add some color, but the blandness of the room seems to suck it all away... we'll see if I can change that as I live here over the next two months. At least there's not a picture of something/somebody staring at me.

The other odd part of the apartment is my bed. It's a studio apartment, one room (aside from the bathroom) but the bed is a murphy bed. For those unfamiliar with the 1960s/70s, a murphy bed is a bed that you pull out of the wall. Now, while most murphy beds go up into the wall and then have doors that you close on it to make it appear to be a closet, my decorator decided to, instead, slap a giant Queen-sized mirror on the bottom of it, making the bed both surprising and heavy. I can see what they tried to do. By having a mirror there, you're basically doubling the size of a relatively size apartment (in appearance). It makes the room look larger and has the added bonus of giving you a full-length mirror.

The downsides of this mirror are two: First of all, the weight of the bed does not allow it to be closed up into the wall entirely, meaning that the top sort of leans forward a bit. Because of this, the mirror is tilted down and creates this freaky sideshow effect of making you appear shorter in it. It's a little off-putting. Even more off-putting is the fact that positioned immediately opposite of the mirror when the bed is up, is the couch. And next to the bottom of the bed/mirror is the television. Meaning that while you're sitting on the couch watching television, out of the corner of your eye is a reflection of you sitting on the couch watching television. And let me tell you, it's unnerving. I have yet to have guests over, but I know this would become one of those things where you start talking to them THROUGH the mirror and never actually turn to look at each other. I thank God my apartment at home isn't set up this way or dating would be impossible, nonetheless real social interaction of any kind.

But, all in all, the place is very nice. Much better than I was expecting. I'm sure I'll update with some more things about it, but you've read enough about it for now. Hope you all are enjoying your summers.

le grá,
Cody