I’ve been in LA for three weeks now, and I’ve really enjoyed connecting with people. Some people I know well, some people I knew 20 years ago and some people I didn’t know at all until I moved out here.

Take for instance my friend Marion. We are sorority sisters and we met when we were undergrads at Ohio University’s Delta Gamma house. We had a great time in college and kept in touch over the years via Facebook. We got together for lunch this week and picked up right where we left off…which means hooting and hollering after about 5 minutes. She scored us a reservation at the executive dining room on the Warner Bros. lot, and we had a great time catching up and reminiscing. One of her colleagues saw us and said we looked like we were power lunching….little did that person know we were mainly gushing about Luke Perry! Marion is a successful talent agent out here in LA, but she’s still as down to earth as she was when we all lived in Athens. Love that girl.

Today was another beautiful day (big surprise), so I wanted to spend it outside. One thing I really wanted to do was to volunteer while I was here in LA. Volunteering is very important to me, so I didn’t want to go a whole month without giving back to my new community.

Unfortunately it wasn’t as easy to find a local volunteer gig as I thought it would be! Luckily Jenny J had an idea (of course!), and she suggested that I spend some time at Bark n’ Bitches. This was a rescue facility for dogs that was right around the corner from my apartment. They always need help walking the dogs and getting them some exercise. This was perfect for me as I do a lot of volunteer work with Ohio Pug Rescue. I stopped in last week and they said I could come in anytime around 10:00 AM to help. I was paired up with a sweet white dog named Kisses that totally reminded me of my friend Yuko’s dog Bagel. We had a great time walking around the neighborhood with another volunteer named O’Neil. He was a high school Junior who was volunteering as part of one of his class requirements. What a great idea to combine volunteerism with education! It was great meeting O’Neil and the rest of the volunteers and staff.

Later that afternoon Heather (an example of a friend I didn’t know until I moved out here) gave me a great tip for planning things to do: “There’s an app called FIVE EVERY DAY that gives you five (!) things happening in / around LA that day…a lot of out-there art stuff, but also, like, ‘get really good tacos at this one rando place.’  I’m pretty sure it’s free, and I highly recommend it.” I downloaded this app, and it’s awesome! Today’s suggestion was inspiring:

The day has finally come. You can board a Gold Line train in Azusa and wind up in Santa Monica, all for a measly $1.75. What had been just a glimmer in many-a transit wonk’s eye, has finally become a reality—7 new light rail stops from Culver City to just shy of the Pacific Ocean. Metro spent $1.5 billion building 6.6 miles of rail line connecting the westside of the city to the growing network of light rail lines. So tell the 10 freeway to shove it and kick back and relax while you ride to the beach in style.

So I’m the crazy person who checks out the new Metro Expo Line train on the day it opens. It was pretty nutty, but I loved being a part of all of the excitement! It was great spending some time down in Santa Monica without having to find a place to park. Or drive back on the 10!

See? I’m totally becoming a local.