City of Angels, one week in

I've been in LA for one week now, and am kind of starting to get a feel for JPL and how things work. I have a short term project to work on which will give me some autonomy and not be too stressful. That will be nice, allowing me to ease into the work environment and learn how things get done before I really have to worry about actually getting them done. It seems like all my coworkers are pretty good people, and smart too. I think it will be a good place.

It also appears that LA might not be so bad. I went for a really nice hike today, just minutes from town, and there was hardly anyone out. I guess there are a ton of nice hikes right in the San Gabriel mountains, which are at the edge of town in the same way that Mt. Sanitas rises out of the edge of town in Boulder. Then there's the Santa Monica Mountains on the other side of town, which sound like the same thing, and also the Angeles Crest Mountains behind the San Gabriels, which may require a bit more driving, but are supposed to be very nice. It sounds like at least a few of the people I work with like to ride bikes, or are otherwise active.

I signed up at the climbing gym near my temp housing, and it's been good to get some climbing strength back, but I'm not in love with the gym. Most gyms mark the routes with colored tape, but these guys just choose holds all of the same color. Then when they want to put up another route but are out of different colors to use in the same area, they'll begrudgingly resort to the standard colored tape method. Maybe 25% or less of the routes are taped. That leaves me totally screwed because I'm mostly colorblind. Colored tape is hard enough some times, but holds covered in chalk and grime are basically impossible for me to determine. Oh well, just have to ask for help in "finding the route" despite people's crazy looks. "You're asking me to show you the blue ones?!?"

I get a sweet Independence Day vacation. I work Mon & Tues and am off the rest of the week. I'm trying to figure out how to get out of town for that. I'm thinking of going kayaking or camping on one of the channel islands, or maybe just backpacking somewhere inland. I'm sure I can come up with something good.

That's all for now, gonna make some mac n' cheese and figure out what movie to see.