"I love my life!"

In the two weeks since my last post, this catchphrase has been used a lot around our house. Julie is known to exclaim it sporadically when really exciting stuff is going on, and it seems we’ve had a lot to be excited about lately. I don’t want to brag, but I do want to share how blessed I feel to be here in LA with these great people and fun things to do!

Cinco de Mayo: After an afternoon of Maraca making with my kiddos at Urban Compass, we went over to the JD house for a Cinco de Mayo dinner party. We brought trays upon trays of leftover food from teacher appreciation week luncheons at Verb, and John Don made a fantastic two-layer cake for Zach’s birthday. Highlights of the evening included their 4 year old next-door neighbor bursting into the house yelling “NEIGHBORS!” at the top of his lungs, and then running around the house to check on the “girl neighbors” and the “boy neighbors” who lived there.  Hilarious.  Also, one of the JV’s parents were in town and I talked with them about just how small the world is; they live in the town next to a couple of my BC roommates and know their parents from high school and summer camp!

Party like a USC Trojan:  The next night, we began our week-long quest to party like a USC Trojan, class of 2011.  USC’s graduation was this weekend, so the neighborhood has been swarmed with families and graduating seniors. Since everyone assumes we go to USC too, we embraced this by hitting up their favorite bar on Friday night. We danced so much that we probably would have embarrassed ourselves, but since not a single person knows us, we didn’t care one bit. It was as packed as Mary Ann’s on a Tuesday night, and we loved every second of it.  The following evening we met up with some of Julie’s friends who live on the west side near UCLA for dinner and karaoke at a very weird Japanese seated bar. It was one of the stranger experiences of being in LA, but fun nonetheless. Earlier in the day, Julie and I spent the afternoon with the ladies from Verb for a little wine/cheese party. It was fun to see people from work in a very different context!

No patience for “the industry”: On Sunday, we rallied and went back to USC for a taping of Simon Cowell’s new show, The X Factor .We were excited to get in and see auditions, but after waiting in line for two hours with no sign of movement towards the door, we bailed. After being harassed by some people for being “quitters” (we didn’t care one bit) we walked across the street to the newest burrito joint and enjoyed a delicious lunch on the house. (That’s what we say when we charge something fun to our house account…it’s a treat!)

UC Report: This past week at work was Mr. Marcus’s last week with us. He has worked with us part time in the afternoons since September to help out with the kids, but he just got a full-time job after a year of searching! We had a little goodbye party on Friday! Otherwise the week at work wasn’t too eventful; the kids had standardized testing all week so they were CRAZY and had very little homework, but we had fun.

Best. Weekend. Ever.:  On Friday after work, Casa DK headed to a Mexican restaurant around the corner from us that had $3 margaritas for happy hour. We thought that it would be crowded because of USC’s graduation, but we were able to get in and hang out for a while. The food was awesome, and we are certainly glad we found somewhere so fun and close to our house!

On Saturday morning, Julie, Zach and I got up early to help cook for Verb’s Mother/Son Breakfast. We didn’t get to hear much of the prayer service or reflection because we were busy cooking, but we heard the boys were super sweet!  Along with the “God Squad” (Verb’s Campus Ministry team) we helped prepare a hot breakfast for over 70 people. It was a blast!

JVs + Verb God Squad before ZBB

Later that afternoon, Casa DK met up with some members of the “God Squad” again at the Jesuit Residence at Loyola High School, which is where the Verb Jesuits live. We brought everything we needed for a tailgate, because we were spending the afternoon preparing for the Zac Brown Band concert at the Hollywood Bowl! We grilled and hung out for a few hours, then headed North to one of the coolest concert venues I’ve ever seen. The Hollywood Bowl is a natural amphitheater, tucked in between the Hollywood hills. It’s beautiful! The concert was absolutely amazing and we had such a fun group to share it with. Obviously ZBB was awesome live, and we had been listening to his new album on the way to work all week so we were ready to sing along. A highlight was definitely when he did a cover of a John Mayer song (Neon!), as well of – of course – when he played Chicken Fried. Who doesn’t love that dong!? We kept the dance party going in the parking lot for almost two hours after the show in the parking lot, long after all the other cars had cleared out. 

To top off these two weeks, we spent yesterday afternoon at Redondo Beach near the Jesuit Villa.  The Scholastics from Verb took Julie, Zach, and John surfing! They had so much fun. I watched for a little then took a very solid nap on the beach, before nearly being attacked by the seagulls who were eying up our popcorn. Talk about a rude awakening….

 

Anyway, all in all, Julie’s right when she says “I love my life.” I am surrounded by great people who are up for anything, and who love their work. It has been nice to hang out with people from Verb outside of work because we’ve gotten to know them a lot better. Now that the clock is ticking on our time here we are trying to do as many “LA things” as possible…and we’re definitely enjoying every bit of it!