A Piece of the American Dream - Homeownership

The American Dream is to own a house in the suburbs and in the San Fernando Valley it has always been a families dream and goal. With a population of over 1 million in the valley land comes at a premium and the hillsides are becoming sprinkled with homes as more and more people demand a piece of the American Dream. One of the things about living in an ever evolving valley is that a plot of land never sits empty for very long. This particular plot of land sat empty with overgrown grass for quite a while and in the previous decades it would have had one or two homes on it with large front and back yards. When the fence surrounding the property came down it was interesting to see the dirt being removed and the houses being built from the ground up. Once an empty plot of land now 6 months later sits 9 brand new homes with beautiful landscaping, a community pool, and 2 car detached garages. Here's the website of the new Haskell Mission homes and click on the slide show for a peek inside these homes.





Happy House Hunting!

~Valley Girl~

Britney Spears Fights the Forces of the Dark Knight

The shocking court news came last week that Brittany awarded sole custody of her kids to Kevin Federline or K-Fed as he was nicknamed by the media. Wasn’t K-Fed the bum that Britney kicked out of her house, because he wasn’t working, his singing career was really going nowhere and she wasn’t satisfied with him as a husband or as a father? How is it that K-Fed can be awarded sole custody of his kids, Jayden James and Sean Preston with Britney getting only visitation rights?

Britney Spears was America’s pop music singing sensation less than five years ago and her downfall started as soon when she married Kevin Federline. The marriage was a disaster from the beginning and sent her on a downward spiral. Even though she’s been trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and career she also fights against the evil forces of her own Dark Knight. Through her own actions she became a danger to herself, her kids and her singing career and the result is the battle she must fight with K-Fed to win her kids back. Britney became her own worst enemy and single handedly fueled “The Britney Economy.” Businesses showed a profit where she visited. The paparazzi stalked her every move, her photo graced the front covers of magazines. She was on the cover of People Magazine in excess of 40 times. Britney Spears in her downfall period probably became more of a household name, than she ever was before. Even this blog, Valley Girl Musings, added to “The Britney Economy” with the different posts written about her. Can Britney turn back the clock of time and recapture what she used to be?

When Britney started divorce proceedings she ended up on the losing end and was ordered to pay K-Fed, some astronomical monthly support figure. K-Fed got temporary custody of the kids after she refused to give the kids back at the end of one of her visits. She had locked herself in the bathroom refusing to come out and this started the procession to take her to the psych ward at the U.C.L. A. hospital. At this point every move she made whether good or bad had the paparazzi chasing her. The lawmakers even went so far as writing a new law and naming it after her, “The Britney Law”

After a second hospital stay and losing custody of her children and a court appointed conservatorship was granted to her father to monitor her affairs, Britney seemed to get better. She cleaned house by clearing out those people who had managed to take advantage of her. She stopped her late night Paparazzi attention-getters and started wearing underwear. She learned to stay at home and out of the spotlight and less was heard in the news of her until she was involved in a fender bender at night and even that was pushed to the fourth page of the paper. Her father suggested that she keep herself busy and so she went everyday to a dance studio in the city of North Hollywood and taught girls how to dance. Much like our nations slumping economy there seemed to be a “Britney Recession” on the horizon.

The custody battle seems to be temporarily over with the announcement of Britney giving sole custody to K-Fed; just who is Britney’s attorney and why did this play out like it did? Was Britney promised that if she gave up custody that she would get more visits with them? It may not matter what Britney does in the future because the court system and the America public seem to have a bias against her because of her past and her celebrity status. The American public puts celebrities on a pedestal and when they fall from grace, it all becomes front page news and its there for all to criticize. Will Britney ever have more of an advantage than the Dark Knight?

Thursday Thirteen - Thirteen Things To Hate About Living in Los Angeles

People living in and around the valley and Los Angeles have a love/hate relationship with where they live. If you ask them why they feel this way they’re sure to give you a different answer each time. Here are Thirteen reasons to dislike living in L.A.

Freeway traffic - Ah! The morning commute, bumper to bumper traffic, car accidents, speeders, tailgaters, freeway debris, disabled cars blocking the lane, carpool lanes that are moving slower than the other lanes. It’s all in a morning drive.

The neglected yard next door to your maintained and trimmed yard

Living so close to Hollywood it’s easy to recognize a lot of the streets and background scenes used in television and movies.

Just because we live close to Hollywood all of our relatives living in another state think we live next to Hollywood celebrities and talk over the backyard wall.

What happens if you participate in a contest and the grand prize is airfare and hotel to Hollywood, California to visit the stars? Since we already live here will the contest judges fly us somewhere else, maybe Disney world in Florida?

High Speed Camera’s – when you run the run light say cheese it’s your two minutes of fame. That camera just took your picture of you face and your license plate and you’ll be receiving some fan mail in the form of a hefty traffic ticket.

No matter how we try to disguise it L.A. is still a desert and the temperatures in July, August and September are uncomfortable and unbearable.

No-one makes eye contact with the next person. We keep to ourselves and rarely think of extending a morning greeting to the person next to us, of course, when you do you’ll usually get asked to give someone money.

We set the standard that bigger is better from our SUV’s, our box stores and those 7,000 sq. ft. home sticking out of the hillsides

Our Mayor’s Pet name given to the people of Los Angeles - “Angelino’s”

Those darn skinny people that have made it acceptable to be a size zero

L.A. drivers view the posted speed limit as something to be challenged and exceeded

Sunshine everyday makes you feel like going to the beach instead of work

A Britney Spears Sighting

Britney Spears was definetely not an unidentified object when she was spotted in a confrontation with Paparazzi earlier this week in Mission Hills. It was a little before midnight and the paparazzi were stopped by the police and brought in for questioning and charged with reckless endangerment. Mission Hills is a small little city in the northeast part of the San Fernando Valley.

Now, as a Valley Girl whose lived her entire life in the San Fernando Valley there's plenty to do in the valley, but what would bring Britney to our little corner of the valley at a little before midnight? There's no stores open in the area and and unless she was planning on picking up the freeway to head back to Malibu there was nothing for her to do out here. Earlier in the day she was spotted at the Galleria shopping center, but that's a long ways from Mission Hills.

Obviously the paparazi thought her fascinating, and with all of her escapades lately, it sure seems like Britney is adddicted to attention and in dire need of a lot of attention. She is a singer and performer and should be on stage in front of thousands of people. When she's not on stage she seems to fall apart.

Snow in the Valley

Snow in the valley? no way! We've had a lot of cold weather in the last month, but not enough to make it snow, but take a look at the snow falling in the backyard of the dogs Tasha and Spencer. http://dogsrulecatsdrool.wordpress.com

Don't delay, the snow only lasts till January 2, 2008.

Stars Among Us

I've heard it said that there are movie stars living among us in the San Fernando Valley, but they are elusive in their disguises and while they might turn up at any moment I wonder if we would even recognize them if we were face to face with them?

Not to long ago a friend went to dinner and she recognized a voice from another table. The lady was much older than her televison days, but it was her. It was the actress Rose Marie who played Sally Rogers on the Dick Van Dyke show.

The Dick Van Dyke show is an American television situation comedy created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. It aired on CBS television from 1961 to 1966.

~Valley Girl~

Nobody Writes in Los Angeles

As the writers strike continues the Veterans Building in the North East San Fernando Valley has become a ghost town. It used to be a bustle of activity in the morning with the filming of the many television shows that use these grounds. Television stars trailers are delivered right after the first rays of sun become visible in the east part of the valley. A few hours later crews are busy with setting up food tents for the people involved in the days filming. On the streets yellow signs with black arrows and the name of the show are always posted on nearby light poles. Some days the signs have a code name for the television show and at other times the code name is forgotten and the name of the television show is on the sign. It totally makes for an interesting drive in the morning.

~Valley Girl~