Dusty Skies

My dad taught me how to parallel park yesterday, which was like getting driving instructions from Groucho Marx. And even though I'm leaving for Los Angeles today, without a job or apartment lined up, at least I can parallel park a car. Not that I have a car yet to parallel park, but I'll figure that out once I'm there. Or a parking space for the car, don't have that yet. But these are just minor details.

Heart Food

It's not all relaxation on the homestead, though, especially when following my dad's motto, "You don't work, you don't eat." Lamps, that's how we make a living around here. For 30 years now, my parents have been running the most expansive lamp store in the Southeast, one of the last tried and true Mom & Pop stores of its kind. And when I'm home, I work. It's not always so glamorous, helping Southern housewives with too much time on their hands find the lamps of their dreams. But all those lamps put me and my two older brothers through college, as well as instill in me a heightened appreciation for light fixtures that goes beyond the average human's basic understanding of light.

Bringing It All Back Home

But before moving to Los Angeles, I am taking a pit stop in Nashville for a couple of weeks to catch up with my family. After falling into a grilled cheese rut back in New York, it feels good to have access to a real kitchen and nothing, absolutely nothing, beats sitting around the dinner table with my family. The first weekend I was home, I experimented with different cocktails of relaxation cocktails: sleeping in, catching up on TV (my grandmother's endless loop of Law and Order and Turner Classic Movies), reading, and movies. It's pretty easy to fully appreciate all the amenities of home, from my mom's old collection of vinyl she's been carting around since the '60's, to this one drawer she has that contains about eight kinds of scotch tape.

Off Night Backstreet

For my final night in New York, Tina and I ordered up some street meat from the best vendor in town and positioned ourselves on a bench in Tompkins Square Park, where we were entertained by rats and drug deals. Then we headed over to 11th & A for a little going away party, where I managed to wrangle together as many of my local dears as possible for a bittersweet farewell.

And now, New York, it's time for Los Angeles. I've been plotting this move for quite some time, ever since I decided that I want to make movies, not websites, and I definitely do not want to face another New York winter. And, fine, maybe I have a boyf out there who I'm a little wild about but, ultimately, I just get a really big high off moving to new cities.