SMOOTH TRANSITION

Leaving Miami was tough all over. Hard emotionally to leave my lifestyle and friends, hard physically with the actual moving, and hard mentally with double and triple checking that the condo was shut down properly. Then my very first European style vacation could begin.....

First it was off to New York City for Pride. As usual, New York City did not disappoint. This year was the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, a landmark in the gay rights civil movement. Besides the festivities and parties, I saw 9 to 5 The Musical, which was funny, but forgettable. Then I fulfilled a life long dream of seeing West Side Story on Broadway. WSS was amazing. I have seen many amateur productions, but to see it live on Broadway was a completely different experience. WSS is one of those musicals where I can't decide what I love more - the music, the lyrics, the choreography, the story. Simply put, it was just a magical musical experience.

After a great time partying all week long in New York City, it was off the Fire Island. I'll write more about Fire Island. And Fire Island worked it's magic on me (more on that later too).

After a week in NYC and then a week in Fire Island, it was off to JFK to fly to Los Angeles to start LA 3.8. Since I was flying on Warner Bros., I flew business class. As luck would have it, the flight was oversold. The airline must have upgraded some passengers from coach to business class and I ended up flying first class from JFK to LAX. As I was flying over this beautiful country of ours, I couldn't help but think......

When I moved to Los Angeles the first time, I was 21 years old. I drove my Dodge Shadow with all of my belongings across country. Now, here it was 17 years later, promoted to VP, flying first class to LA and my Mercedes was being shipped.

Now that I'm in LA, taking this week to get set up was definitely a good move. I moved into the new apartment today, the Mercedes got delivered and I start apartment hunting tomorrow. So far, everything has been relatively problem free. (Knock on wood!)

That's quite a smooth transition for 3 weeks. It's been great.