Calibrating Between Los Angeles & Kalamazoo

I really do feel like a man with two homes. I’m missing my MichiPeeps hard right now. The beauty of Los Angeles is a minor salve. Ideally, I’ll be designing a life through FilmZoo that will allow me to get back to Michigan more regularly. Feel free to mosey on over to the FilmZoo page and follow the progress and read my pleas for assistance. Speaking of, I’m currently seeking a Michigan lawyer to help with the non-profit paperwork and filing. Of course, I’m asking for pro-bono help, right now. There will be plenty of contract work in the future, though, so…you know…invade my Inbox with offers! 🙂 As I ponder going going between Los Angeles and Kalamazoo, I feel like I will be constantly recalibrating to match each unique home. You knew this was coming, right???

1. Michigan peeps have a way of ending a sentence with the word “so” or the words “and uh”. The sentence would just happily end, but they throw this ending on and it gets confusing. “I’m going to store, so…” Um…so WHAT? So, do I wanna go? Do I need something? You get the idea.

2. Oh my fitness level is going to do that cross country roller coaster thing. I think I set my fitness level back two months with just one week of the SW Michigan winter layer via carbs program.

3. In Michigan, I audibly say “hello” and “how are you?” and other greetings to perfect strangers on the street. In Los Angeles, I *might* give the head nod…and it **might** get returned.

4. The average FULL price I paid for a beer in Kalamazoo was $4.50. Let’s just say that’s less than some happy hour pricing in Los Angeles and the beer selection isn’t always as wide.

5. The food choices in Kalamazoo have expanded so much and it is actually accessible to people with mainstream incomes. I feel like Los Angeles has a stockpile of great chefs in brilliantly decorated restaurants, but that bill will give you a heart attack. I’d rather the burgers, fries, wings, etc., cause any potential cardiac arrest.

6. I appreciate that I can hang with men more in Kalamazoo than LA. LA dudes tend to not like sports and do things like get waxed. My MichiDudes will watch sports, drink beer, and do excercises that don’t require a yoga mat. I can get my masculine on in Michigan.

7. I can always find a museum, live music event, outdoor movie night or some other activity in Los Angeles. Kalamazoo is getting rid of lots of the downtown events that had outdoor music because of the selfishness of NEW residents in the area. I hope to bring replace some of the lost excitement of downtown Kalamazoo, with FilmZoo.

8. Back to calibrating language. Michigan folks tend to mash words together and they’ve done this long before hashtags. Example: Did you miss me? = dja missme. Maybe that’s why Cris Comer calls me JeffDaly. If so, then Wisconsin must have a similar speaking style because Leann Slaby Bier calls me JeffDaly, too.

9. In Kalamazoo, I’ll have to get used to running into people without warning. This can be amazing, like when I ran into William Kinney at The Union. This can also be, let’s just say…um…awkward. This is the place where the IntimiDATER first roamed, so….

10. I do find that people from both cities generally think that my affiliation with the other city is “interesting”. Kalamazoo people think that in Los Angeles, I’m living in the danger of a rap video mixed with infuriating traffic, smog and wave after wave of fake people. People in Los Angeles think that when I go back to Kalamazoo, I’m heading into Mayberry with such inconveniences as winter and people who speak in incomplete sentences and lack culture and embrace every negative ism out there (racism, sexism, not-veganism). I inform them all that they are right. Neither city needs any new people moving in! 😉