What I Learned Today in Hollywood

By 2pm this afternoon I had already learned two valuable lessons for living in Los Angeles:

1. Parking Tickets are $50.... and $50 that I don't have! No one ever seems to pay the meters on my street so thus far I have been following their lead. Last night I parked my car out front around midnight, all of the non-metered parking spots were taken so I parked next to a meter and didn't pay it. The sign says 4 Hour Parking from 8am-8am except on Sundays (when it's free) but last Saturday afternoon I didn't pay the meter and I didn't get a ticket so I figured I'd be fine. I walked out of my apartment at 11am to go for a run only to find that I have a $50 parking ticket on my dashboard! Blah!

2. Quarters are a Valuable Commodity... When I was home over the holidays unpacking boxes from NY, packing bags for LA and cleaning out my childhood closet (finally!) I found an entire coin collection so I now have a heavy coin purse in my bag that I carry everyday. Okay so that's the background story... So this afternoon I went to the laundry room in the basement of my apartment building for the first time- keep in mind this walk-up building was built in 1926. I had everything I would have needed in my NYC apartment buildings- my wallet with cash and credit cards, laundry detergent and a bag full of my dirty clothes- oh and my door key to get back in. I assumed that I would pay for my laundry by using a debit card-type machine.... no such luck! The washers and dryers accept 4 quarters and quarters only! So with all my clothes in the washer I went back upstairs to my 3rd floor apartment and get out my newly created coin purse which, unfortunately, is full of nickles, dimes and pennies! Not wanting to drive my parked (and ticketed) car I walked half a mile to the corner liquor store and had the guy give me eight quarters in exchange for seven nickles and twenty two dimes! Needless to say, I felt pretty pathetic and rather annoyed.
My clothes are in the dryer now so all is well. :)