I am sort of starting to understand the whole East Side-West Side divide, though also not really. Maybe it will finally click in when I move to the West Side. Or maybe it won’t. Is it distance? Is it culture? Is it both?

This period in Silver Lake and Los Feliz has been uncertain and intentionally lonely. It’s been about rediscovering and initiating the process of rebuilding without actually doing the rebuilding part. February was my Silver Lake hideaway period and my introduction to LA, a period when I was open and excited and yet tentative and hidden. I didn’t have a car, so I would Uber or take long walks to the gym. Hours would be spent looking up at the ceiling fan.

Los Feliz and Silver Lake are literally blocks apart, and where I ended up living in Los Feliz is actually closer to parts of Silver Lake than I was when I was actually living in Silver Lake! And yet, they are worlds apart. Silver Lake is like Williamsburg, or at least like Williamsburg used to be. Edgy, cool, artistic, raw. And yet, not even that anymore, as the edge moves further in the direction of the edge towards Echo Park, Highland Park, and who knows what lies beyond that. I haven’t bothered to study a map. Listening to GPS without actually looking at the map moving hasn’t helped. Being generally oblivious to my surroundings hasn’t helped either. Continue reading Last week on the East Side →

The Uber pulled up to my Lower East Side apartment. My friend Melanie helped me lug my luggage downstairs – a suitcase, carry-on, and guitar. She’s been there in a few of my final moment type situations with her mom vibe and encouraging wave. When it comes to life decisions, we are on opposite ends of the spectrum with myself valuing adventure, freedom, and challenge and with her valuing building a good, stable life free of sudden movements. She would never blow up her life in the way that I have. Then again, I was never the type of person who would do something like this until I was someone who would do something like this. Continue reading Early days in LA →

Week 2 in Jeju-do, South Korea has come and gone. The week was low on productivity and high in social and community activity. I have been feeling a bit burnt out from balancing a communal digital lifestyle with visiting guests and my personal goals.

The vibe here in Jeju has been jovial and warm. There are roughly 35 of us participating in a program called Hacker Paradise, a traveling community of “digital nomads” – freelancers, creatives, entrepreneurs, and other remote workers. At any given time, you can check Slack to see what people are eating, drinking, working on, and otherwise planning.This essentially serves as an open invitation for anyone to join. There is a fair bit of humor involved too – new emojis made, giphys shared, and lively banter (sometimes drunken, sometimes sober). I am personally part of a few different groups, including hiking, yoga, writing, music, saunas, drinks, working at cafes, waterfalls, sketching, and actually, quite a few more. Continue reading Whirlwind community →