Preparations for Landing

There are few things more beautiful than flying into LA at night. Brightly dotted tentacles of civilization undulate up from the pitch black ocean of desert below. Eventually they congeal into a horizon-spanning amoeboid of streetlights -- continually twisting, splitting, and dividing along to the pulse of headlights on its asphalt arteries.

It's simultaneously familiar and incomprehensible.

My mission for the week: to find an apartment and sign a lease.

My darling friend Liz scooped me up from LAX and shuttled me once again to the friendly environs of Chez Murray where a warm bed and laptop were waiting for me. (No, that's not a metaphor.)

The decision over the next four days was: what could I afford and what could I settle for. In the end, it came down to a really nice 1 bedroom in Valley Village and a spacious, but somewhat dingy studio apartment in West Hollywood.

I decided I couldn't live in a place where you walk in the door and step into my bedroom. Call me snobby, those days are over for me.

I called the leasing agent for the Valley Village place and made arrangements to put in my rental application. I arrived Tuesday afternoon and immediately there was a problem: the leasing agent had quoted me the wrong price.

Now, you might argue this wasn't my problem. But all the decent apartments rent within two weeks of being on the market. In fact, the place I was trying to rent wasn't even going to be available for viewing for another week. So they had no compulsion to rent to me or honor the quoted price - if they waited another week some other doofus would come in and take it.

And I couldn't just walk out the door because I was getting on a plane in ten hours -- and the only way I was coming back was with a U-Haul full of furniture.

As it turns out, the agent had another unit about four blocks away that rented for the original price. The place doesn't have as much curb appeal or the same view as what I wanted, but it is big, bright, and comfortable.

And in Los Angeles, if you find that, you've hit the tri-fecta.

-Tom, who'll post pictures later.