Going to California

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been busy daydreaming about California. Today I turned in my letter of resignation, and effective June 13, I'll be living in San Diego (La Jolla, to be exact) for at least the next three months to house-sit my youngest sister and her husbands' place while they do some missionary work at some camp somewhere.

I hope the move is permanent, since I've lived in Iowa my whole life. I'm anxious to see a different world, to live in paradise, the "Beverly Hills of San Diego," according to a new gal at work who just transferred from Oceanside. I'm going through the contents of my apartment right now, trying to see what I want to take with me on the plane. Right now I wish I had an ipod and a laptop; that's all I need, is my music and my writing. All I want to take with me are a weeks worth of clothes--no need for my sweaters, hats, winter coats, and mittens anymore--and the contents of my hard drive, my digital camera, and voice recorder. That's all I need to start a new life in California. Everything else in my apartment, my couch, my tv, my dvd's, mean nothing to me, and can all be purchased again someday. I'm trying to think of a way I can ship my box of old writing from my childhood media mail to my new place. I originally thought I'd put everything in storage until I found my own place in California, but I want to sever all ties to Iowa right now and make a fresh start.

I'm excited to meet an entirely new group of people who have no knowledge, no stereotype of who this "Jonathan Nauman" guy is supposed to be. I'm anxious to try something new. I don't want to have to play the stupid kid from Iowa anymore so I don't get beaten up. I want to live up to my full potential. To find other smart people who understand me. I want to go somewhere where my intelligence is an asset, not a liability. "This is our chance to reinvent ourselves," I say to my younger sister Holly who is coming with me for support while I find my new life in California. "This is our time to be who we really are. I've changed tremendously this last year working as a line cook--I've broken out of my shell. Goodbye Norma Jean, hello Marilyn Monroe. This is the new Lisa Simpson. You can be anything you want--anything!" I tell her.

I want to eventually move to LA and become a staff writer on some comedy show. I don't care which one. And then maybe if my ideas are as good as I think, I can write my own screenplays and pilots based on my life. The way I see it right now, I'll start out in an improv group and do open-mic stand-up nights like my mentors and heroes, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, from my favorite show of all time, Mr. Show. I'll try to find an agent who understands my point of view, and who can best represent me, who will put me in touch with whoever I need to speak with to land a job as a staff writer. Then, after I get the staff writer job, and meet some new people who will help me script some pilots based on the ideas inside my head, if they're good enough.

When I go to California, I'm going to overhaul everything on this site. It'll be about me trying to make a name formyself in California as a comedy writer. This is going to take some time. Definitely more than three months to get famous enough to make a living, and probably more like five years or so to make enough of a name for myself in Hollywood to quit my day job. So I'll have to get a real job in La Jolla. I've already talked to management at work about transferring to the San Diego restaurant. But I don't want to be a line cook at a corporate seafood restaurant anymore, especially since San Diego is so close to the ocean. I'm sure La Jolla has some 'real' seafood restaurants that would be willing to take on an apprentice cook. I just hope my lack of culinary training doesn't stop me...

This is all I can say right now. I've written several versions, several first drafts, about me moving to California. My life is going through tremendous changes right now. I'm both scared and anxious, but mostly excited at the promise of starting a new life in San Diego. My biggest fear is that I don't apply myself, I don't at least try to live out my dreams. My fear is that I don't try any open-mic nights and end up moving back to Iowa. But Holly assures me she won't let that happen. "I've realized why I'm going with you," she says, as if she's seen the light, as if she has had some sudden realization from God, sitting and drinking at Old Chicago here in Coralville, Iowa, our favorite bar. "I'm going with you to make sure you don't fail. To make sure you don't just sit on the couch and drink beer. That you at least try. My home is here in Iowa, but I'll stay with you as long as it takes, I'll work as a server at some fancy restaurant, but you HAVE to do your stand-up. You have to try. I believe in you." And that is all I ever needed to hear. I'm going to pack my bags. I'm moving to California.

Peace.

Currently Listening to:
Led Zepplin
"Going to California"
Led Zepplin IV, 1971

Going to California

Spent my days with a woman unkind,
Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine.
Made up my mind to make a new start,
Going to california with an aching in my heart.
Someone told me theres a girl out there
With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.
Took my chances on a big jet plane,
Never let them tell you that theyre all the same.
The sea was red and the sky was grey,
Wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today.
The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and shake
As the children of the sun began to awake.
Seems that the wrath of the gods
Got a punch on the nose and it started to flow;
I think I might be sinking.
Throw me a line if I reach it in time
Ill meet you up there where the path
Runs straight and high.
To find a queen without a king;
They say she plays guitar and cries and sings.
La la la la
Ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn
Tryin to find a woman whos never, never, never been born.
Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams,
Telling myself its not as hard, hard, hard as it seems.