What someone should have told me before I moved here

I have been talking back and forth with my friend Kristen up in NYC and we both agree on one thing: Austin, Texas is WAY better than whatever crap this is that we are doing on the two coasts. We both moved to our respective coasts because we wanted to be with our friends and boyfriends after college, but to what avail? The main thing I know is that I want to end up in Austin in the end, but I want to come back a success. I know that once I move back to Austin, that will be IT, nothing will be able to make me move away again (unless I buy an extra house in Sydney) so I have to make my time away from Home count. I want something to show for my time in the trenches and it turns out that it is a lot harder to be successful than I would prefer. I can't get anywhere here! The page program is about to run it's course for me (we only get a year) and I don't have any idea what to do next. I have an email that my friend Rachel sent me with 78 different up and coming productions and I am slowly working my way down said list but I haven't heard anything from anyone! It is impossible to get a job out here unless you know someone and I wish I had been warned about how difficult LA is before I moved here. And that is why I have put together a list of things I wish someone had told me before I moved here:

- Everyone here has a car and drives EVERYWHERE.

- There is absolutely NO dependable public transportation out here. Especially when compared to the East Coast. There is officially a bus/subway/train system here, but it takes WAY too long to ever be a viable option for getting to and from anywhere and the schedule online is ALWAYS wrong when compared to real life, so you can not trust it. Sometimes it stops running as early as 11pm on a weekend night and there are never any timetables listed anywhere so it is extremely easy to get stranded. Also, there are very few taxis any where so you can't trust that either.

-It takes a really fucking long time to get anywhere here. Realtors, craigslist and people who have lived here for a long time will tell you that it takes "twenty minutes to get anywhere" from wherever they are but it is always a LIE. So if you are considering living far from work or school and commuting, you should really think about how much your time is worth to you versus having a more expensive rent. Example: I live in Pasadena and work in Hollywood (17miles apart) and it takes me at the very least one hour to drive to/from work on weekdays (with the terrible terrible traffic here, at night it only takes me 22 minutes ) but the few times i have taken the Metro, it has taken me minimum three hours each way.

- The weather is nice here almost all the time, but compared to Austin, the nights get pretty cold (nothing compared to NYC, tho) so don't give away all of your jackets and sweat shirts if you move here.

- There are a lot of forest fires here so don't live too close to the mountains because that shit is forever on fire and that is scary.

- All the bars and clubs here are strictly for those who want to see and be seen. the cheapest drink you can find in most bars is minimum $11.00. No one here is nice to strangers and girls are especially mean to other girls (but that might just be something that all people outside of Austin do) so that is not fun. Politeness and courtesy are of no value here.

-And most importantly, your college degree and previous work experience mean absolutely NOTHING to any employers here in LA, but especially Hollywood. The only way anybody ever gets a job here, outside of academia, is through a friend or knowing someone. The most worthless & expensive thing one could have out here is a college education.

If you have anything to add to this list, please post it as a comment. Moral of the story: LA = bad, Austin = good.