So it’s now Friday and I am back in NYC and so many exciting things are happening. We’re opening in an amazing new store in Hawaii. Seaside Luxe. It’s going to be really tough to find the strength to do trunk shows there! Also, if you see Gail Simmons in the new promos for Top Chef Desserts, yep…she is decked out in KMD thanks to my friend and amazing stylist Darshan.

It’s great being back in the city for the holiday weekend. Wishing you a very happy Independence Day and thank you to the men and women in our armed forces who put their lives on the line to preserve the Freedom of Independence that we enjoy without ever having to think about it. You are the backbone of our nation.

So…still waiting. And discovering new things. For example, I have geckos. They’re really cute and curious. I expect at any moment one will stand upright and ask if I’d like to save 15 percent on my car insurance.

The bee issue continues. I think by now I must have rescued 50 or so. Though I’m told they just fly right back to the next that’s been poisoned. Its sad. I hope they come and move the hive. I’ve heard several times in recent years that the bee population is dwindling for some inexplicable reason. Entire colonies are just abandoning their hives. I think one optional explanation has to do with Global Warming. I’d ask Al Gore but he seems pretty tied up these days.

Another bee desperately needs rescuing. More soon…

The best thing about it is that the cars all have GPS and GPS directs you to all of the major roads…which have the major traffic. So I’ve spent a couple of days figuring out that I can travel quickly on Franklin, and avoid some of the gnarly mess of Sunset or Santa Monica. And I am determined to find a way to Malibu that doesn’t include coming anywhere near Beverly Hills. I’m open to suggestions, y’all.

Still no furniture but I did get a call from the dispatcher today and my things will be here bright and early Wednesday morning. She also threw in that she loves Sex and the City and had seen the movie and loved the geode earrings that SJP wore in the film. Just want to give a shout-out again to Pat, Molly, and Paulo. Love!!!

Today’s Bee count: 5 saved.

Well, to begin with, within an hour of landing I’ve now learned that my furniture (which was due to arrive in LA on Thursday or Friday) is now delayed because someone didnt show up to meet the truck for their things…in Kansas. Really? Your whole life is on a semi and you are late to meet it? Anyhow, thank you to that lovely person or persons in Kansas, because missing the truck delayed my things for 2-3 days!

Anyhow, I show up at the new place, which is a lovely garden-surrounded home tucked into one of the hills of Hollywood and am greeted by…Bees. Most of you won’t know this but I have an unusual fascination with bees. I particularly love the big round fuzzy bumble bees, but in general I just love bees. They’re good luck. I was completely deflated when I found dozens upon dozens of dead bees all over the new living room. “It’s an Omen” I thought. I was pretty distraught until I realized that some of them were still alive. So I picked up a fly swatter and…spent the first hour in my new home scooping up any bee with a sign of life and carrying them on the fly swatter outside, lightly washing whatever toxic poison they’d been sprayed with off of them with the garden hose, and propping them up on tree leaves to let their wings dry out. And so I have passed the last 4 days – shopping for necessities for the home, trying to track down my belongings which I am told today are somewhere in Utah, and rescuing bees.

I cant describe the lovely feeling that overcomes me when I see one of them take flight after drying off from their shower.

That’s the buzzzzzz….for now!

But to begin with my first day in Los Angeles, I need to back up a week. Thursday the 17th of June. Moving day.

I have lived in my apartment in NYC for 7 years – and in the same building for over 8. Its a nice building on the UES. Nothing overly fancy…but safe, clean, and for longer than any other place in my adult life – home. My next door neighbors are this wonderful elderly couple who I know pretty well. We commiserate over inconsiderate tenants upstairs and every November the gentleman and I walk to the local voting station together bright and early. I believe they’re both in their mid to late 70s. Other than this couple, I have never really interacted with the other neighbors on my floor. So it was a huge, and pleasant, surprise when moving day rolled along and literally every tenant on my floor stopped in to wish me well. They each expressed what a nice neighbor I had been – I think that means quiet. Everyone seemed overjoyed when I let them know I would be back and forth.

There I was in NYC where its true, you can have a good neighbor and never know who they are (I still don’t know any names – but I know they are there and they know I’m there and it was a very comforting revelation.

So moving day came and went and yesterday I flew to LA with my best friend Trish to unpack the furniture that was set to arrive today. I say “set to arrive” because it won’t be here, I’m told, until next week. So Trish and I have busied ourselves with shopping for a new sofa and trash cans, kitchen stuff, cleaning supplies…all the things you don’t pay movers to move for you.

My first impression of normal life in LA? People are nice. I have always been here as a guest, not a resident. When you’re a guest at a hotel, they are typically very nice to you. It was refreshing to learn that as a resident, I would be treated just as well when buying garbage cans at Target.

So I am here waiting for all of my belongings and starting this blog on my year in LA. I promise the other entries won’t be nearly this long…but they be filled with interesting events, people, and inspirations, so stay tuned!