The women of Mad Men.

I’m a pop culture junkie. I love looking for signs of life in music, movies, and TV  shows. Here are my current addictions.

1. Mad Men. I can say with confidence that this is my favorite show of all time. Life in the 1960s never seemed so appealing yet terribly sexist, racist, and every other ist. Watch it from the beginning to follow the characters’ full stories.

2. True Blood. This show is complete trash, and I love it. The story is super imaginative and moves really quickly.

3. Passion Pit. This band is simply delightful. These kids are a bunch of recent college grads who created the magical album Manners.

4. Phoenix. Don’t ask. Just listen. You can’t go wrong with an album titled Wolfgang Amadeus.

5. Modern Family. A formulaic sitcom gets a makeover with hilarious characters and dialogue. Mitchell: As kids we were a figure skating duo, Fire & Nice.  Cam: Wow, you made figure skating even gayer.

Truthfully, I love many things about Los Angeles. In fact, I think I love it more each day. The thing is that it’s a hard city to love. It’s not like  San Francisco, where everyone who passes through for an hour falls in love with the fog, the food, the delightfully crooked homes and peculiar people. It’s not like Chicago, where despite the chill, you can grab a fantastic lunch and climb aboard reliable public transportation.

LA is polluted, it’s chock full of cars, and there aren’t enough parks. The people are annoying (see overheard in LA) and there are way too many pathetic actors. There are probably more fake boobs and fake people than there are failed movies and rejected screenplays.

The biggest reason I am a reluctant LA girl is a personal one. Start up the violins:  It’s because my family isn’t here. I know a lot of people live far from family, but I’m an emotional head case, so it’s hard for me.

Dave loves LA because it’s an underdog city. He loves the diversity of cultures, the taquerias, and the feeling in the air that anything could happen.

Indeed, in the three years we’ve lived here I’ve seen things I would have never imagined for my life. I’ve seen my husband’s name in movie credits and my own personal and professional growth. We’ve gone from a shoebox apartment in Burbank to a much larger shoebox by the beach.

At the end of the day, I’m probably more of an ambivalent LA girl. But at the end of the day, after 1.5 hours on the 405, would you begrudge me a small “I hate LA” tantrum?

2. My puppy Chomsky. Nobody wags their tail like that. Nobody.

3. Our garage. Sounds weird but the following things happened when we used to park on the street 1) we had two or more driver’s side mirrors clipped off 2) we got parking tickets in excess of $600 3) we had a Toyota Camry totaled by a drunk driver. Plus, our garage allows us to store all of our Christmas crap!

4. My iphone. Damn you Apple! Just kidding, I love you Apple.*

5. Dave. He listens to my rants. He inspires me. When he’s not around, I wander listlessly around our apartment doing unnecessary loads of laundry.

*Please send free stuff.

The Husband.