Car insurance is going to cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of $2000 annually. You've got to be kidding me. I was paying less than half that in Boston, and the drivers there are more selfish and more stupid and more reckless and the city is in ruins.

Last night, Kat said something that my best friend had also mentioned to me before I moved out here. She said that L.A. can be a very lonely place, and that the first year out here is invariably the hardest. Making it through that first year, that's apparently the key.

I understand what she means. In Boston, I had several networks of friends. On any given free night, I had at least a handful of people that I could call up and get together with. Here, I don't know that many people at all, and, on top of that, those that I do know have their own lives with their own networks of friends that they have plans with and that I'm barging in on. It'd be unfair to them if I were to keep calling them incessantly and asking about plans every night or every weekend, not to mention that some of the people I know here are significantly older than I am and it wouldn't be the same kind of time spent together than if I were to grab a few beers with a friend.

This leads to a double-edged sword. Do I sit back and wait for them to come to me and be a little lonely sometimes, or do I pick up the phone and call and perhaps make a minor pest of myself on occasion? I hate feeling like I'm forcing myself in on other people's plans, but sometimes I just crave social interaction and I like meeting new people as well in addition to hanging out with friends who I enjoy spending time with. I also now need to factor in the fact that I've taken a rather large pay cut in order to take this job, so I can't run around spending cash by going out several times a week like I was in Boston.

I've been in Los Angeles a month now. And I've managed to keep myself busy socially so far, which is a good thing especially considering that I've only really been settled here in my own place for around 2 weeks. I'm thinking maybe it won't be as hard as I'm imagining, but there will be some times when I may have to bite the bullet and make my TV my date for the night. It's all about the gentle compromise.