My daughter lives with her dad up in the Bay Area and visits me once a month, so I consider myself a sort of “airport connoisseur” as I am there picking her up or dropping her off 25 or more times a year. Of course, I have never seen this perspective of the field, as I am driving there, but what I love about Burbank Airport is how easy it is to get in and out, especially compared to the nightmare that is LAX.

photo courtesy of PilotAge.com

The cops in front of the terminal are kind of grouchy and they don’t have a lot of patience with the pick-up scene, so my daughter and I have worked out a little system that I will share with you, because it’s been working for us. I probably should keep my mouth shut.

A side note: Here are some photos and the mission statement from the Burbank Airport Police website (!)

Their stated mission is: “…to provide a courageous, professional and courteous law enforcement response…”. OK, I get the professional and courageous part, but the courteous, well, maybe not so much. But then again, I guess standing outside in the heat and cold, telling people to move on is not that much fun.

Back to my smooth sailing technique: Right across the street from the terminal’s South entrance on Empire Ave. is the Amtrak Station. They have a small pull-in parking area there and that’s where I sit in my car and wait for my daughter’s (usually delayed) plane to land. Once her plane touches terra firma, she calls me from her cell and I swing my car into the terminal. On weekends (when she usually flies), there is often a terrible wait to even pull up to the terminal, so even though she’s on a Southwest Air flight, I have her walk beyond that first terminal, where all the crowds hang out, south to the end of the airport and wait for me there. I can usually just glide in, toss her bags in the trunk and screech out before any of the world’s grumpiest police officers can blink an eye!

Let me know (in the comment area) if you have any better tricks!

Just as an FYI, here are the airlines that currently are flying out of BUR: Alaska, American, America West, Delta, Jet Blue, Southwest and United.

If you are going out of town for a while, the long-term parking is pretty reasonable. The cheapest parking lot is across the street on Thornton and the bus ride is about three minutes. Don’t you just love it! Here is a handy parking rates chart.

burbank-parking-rates.pdf

ok, gotta run,

see you on the freeway!

jessica

Home Depot Center Job Fair
Located in the Main Plaza of The Home Depot Center soccer stadium.
(Please enter the facility thru Gate A off of Avalon Blvd.)
Feb. 6, 1 p.m.-6 p.m.; Feb. 7, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
(Times subject to change.)
Questions? Please call 310-630-2000

Available Part Time positions include:

• Guest Service Representatives/Ticket Takers
• Box Office Ticket Sellers
• Security Officers
• Concessions Cashiers/Supervisors
• Restaurant positions (Bartenders, Servers, Cooks)
• Retail Sales Associates

The Home Depot Center soccer stadium
18400 Avalon Blvd
Carson, CA 90746
www.homedepotcenter.com

Home Depot Center is home to the MLS Cup Champion Los Angeles Galaxy. The Home Depot Center is 125 acre complex featuring a 27,000-seat soccer stadium, 8,000-seat tennis stadium, 10,000-seat track & field facility and a 2,450-seat indoor velodrome.

Courtesy: Los Angeles Jobs

Greetings, friends and welcome to the newest addition to HomeTurfMedia‘s growing list of city sites!

My name is Jessica Duquette and I am a professional organizer/lifestyle management consultant and adventurous person, lover of the quirky, the fiery hot, the heartfelt and of delicious food and passionate art in whatever form. As long as the inspired one is coming from their heart, it works for me!

InvisibleLa is a blog about the city I was born in, was not raised in, but currently (happily!) live in: Los Angeles. No, it’s not just another LA blog, it’s my mission to ferret out the cool, the weird, the freaky, the marginal and the touching, in people, events, architecture, food and fun. I will be asking regular guest bloggers to add their talents and insights to the blog each month and I always love to hear from you, the reader, on what you think and feel about what you see here. Let’s get this party started!

Even if you don’t live in LA, I hope you will come back and visit to see what’s going on here!

see you on the freeway…

jessica

PS please come visit It’s Not About Your Stuff, my blog about the reasons people find their lives cluttered and stuck and what we can do about it.

InvisibleLA will be providing more frequent posting including Local cafe reviews (contact us for more information) and Live content – in regards to Los Angeles. Here are a few topic ideas you may want us to let you know about. Like the writers guild strike…..Hot spots for travel…Things to do free in LA. Tourist spots with pictures like Graumans Chinese theater. Or Vine and Sunset with the stars with the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Venice Beach – Santa Monica Beach, Pinks, Tommys Burgers. Pictures of outside the studios like Paramont(LA) and Sony(Culver City) and CBS studios on 3rd and Fairfax. A pic of the Hollywood sign(can be seen from in front of my house) to a pic of the Pantages theater.

Ok, Linda is just on her way out the door to Farmers Market behind CBS Studios. Let her see what she can pull up. She knows about 3 restaurants at Farmers Market. Farmers Market is a tourist attraction for its history(has been around since late 1920’s). Its behind CBS studios and right across the street from the Screen Writers Guild/Union where the strikes has been taking place. And the movie the “Black Dahlia” was about a murder that took place across the street in the 40’s.

So give her about 24 hours and let her pull something up for you.

I know that some people just aren’t “joiners”, but I am, and I am a HUGE extrovert, so a fun, lively gathering of interesting people calls to me. If you need a little jolt to spur you to action, here are some ideas…

There are networking meetings for business, there are singles gatherings, there are social groups to find new friends and then there are plenty of special interest groups like the Sierra Club, etc.

The other night, I attended my first meeting of a business networking group that I recently joined called Ladies Who Launch. More about the organization in a minute, but this gathering was held in a retail store. Not just any store, but the fabulous Three Dots, home of the famous delicious high end T Shirts and comfy, hip easy to wear clothing that feels like you’re in your pjs, on Melrose near Crescent Heights.

The founder of Three Dots, Sharon Lebon and her creative director Yuchin Mao were on hand to tell the fascinating tale of rags to riches (Yuchin recently came on board, previously designing for the likes of Helmut Lang and Prada). There were about 75 high-powered business-owners and would-be start-ups and a good time was had by all. Most inspiring to me was Sharon’s humble account of the last 10 years, growing the company from having $4000 in the bank to an expected gross next year of over $100,000,000. That’s ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS. Wow. She made it really clear that if SHE could do it, we could do it and each one of us went away with a feeling of true inspiration. If you’re interested in hearing an interview with the innovative young designer Yuchin Mao, go here: Three Dots Creative Director Yuchin Mao. There are many amazing stories in Los Angeles, it was extraordinary to get such an up-close and vulnerable peek into a superstar in the fashion industry’s business.

Ladies Who Launch, the group I mentioned, is for women only (sorry, gentlemen, there are plenty of places for you guys to gather!), particularly women who have the intention of launching a business or who are ready to jumpstart a business they already have. They offer a four week program called an incubator, where you declare your idea and get support, homework and a shot in the arm from the leader and the other participants. MANY women-owned business, as well as friendships, partnerships and affiliations have started from these impactful groups!

Pictured here is LA Chapter Founder Amy Swift (on the right) and Jen Sincero, sex columnist and Incubator leader extraordinaire. They are modeling Three Dot dresses, hence the title of this post. If you are interested in finding out more about this amazing group, go ahead and check out their website. And if you don’t live in Los Angeles, they have chapters in most of the major cities in the US.

I feel so great about being a member of this national organization that boast some powerful movers and shakers in their membership.

Here are a few other resources for connecting with people in LA:

My People Connection

My People Connection features weekly events for friends in most of the major cities, including LA. With thousands of subscribers and thousands of events in the past eight years, MyPC brings together friends from diverse backgrounds and communities. It’s still FREE to belongno mandatory membership fees, since 1999!

These events are for any age, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, etc. It’s just people getting together to have fun and to meet others in this vast metropolis of ours.

Meetup Groups

Time magazine says MeetUp is:

Meetup is a website where anyone can create an interest group and for a small fee, post their ongoing event or meeting on the site. There are so many interesting and quirky things going on here, such as Santa Monica DEPECHE MODE Devotional Group or the Gin in North Hollywood group for those gin rummy enthusiasts in the San Fernando Valley, that you are sure to find one to suit your lifestyle!

In fact, all you have to do is go to Yahoo Groups or Google Groups and type in Los Angeles, and you will be shocked at all the people meeting all over this city!

So, have fun, and if you have any other great resources or ideas…let me know!

see you on the freeway

In Los Angeles and Orange counties, real estate prices fell 8.8% year-over-year, in the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller composite index.

Nationwide using a sample of the 10 major US metropolitan areas home prices declined an average of 6.7% from a year earlier, the biggest decline since the index was started in 1987. This is the biggest decline since April 1991 decline of 6.3%.

The San Diego area suffered the fourth-worst decline, with an 11.1% fall from last year. The only higher declines were in Miami (12.4%), Tampa (11.8%) and Detroit (11.2%).

The Los Angeles real estate market peaked in September 2006.

Reserved seating is sold one way and in select cities on specific schedules. The reserved seat upgrade must be purchased in person at the departure terminal, even if you bought your ticket online. Priority seating may be reserved from 30 days in advance to 45 minutes prior to departure, but you must be present at the gate no fewer than 20 minutes before departure.

GreyHound Bus Tickets amy be purchased at the follwoing location in Los Angeles:

Greyhound Bus Lines Hollywood
1715 N Cahuenga Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 466-6384

Priority seating initiative is available across the United States on the following routes:

Atlanta-Orlando; Atlanta-Charlotte; Atlanta-Savannah; Atlanta-Tallahassee; Baltimore-New York; Boston-New York; Charlotte-Richmond; Chicago-Memphis; Chicago-Milwaukee; Chicago-Minneapolis; Cincinnati, all schedules; Cleveland, all schedules; Dallas-Houston; Dallas-San Antonio; Detroit-all schedules; Houston-Dallas; Jacksonville-Charlotte; Jacksonville-Tallahassee; Las Vegas-Los Angeles; Las Vegas-Phoenix; Los Angeles-Las Vegas; Los Angeles-Phoenix; Los Angeles-Sacramento; Los Angeles-San Francisco; Minneapolis-Chicago; New York-Baltimore; New York-Boston; New York-Philadelphia; New York-Washington; Omaha-Chicago; Orlando-Atlanta; Philadelphia-New York; Phoenix-Las Vegas; Phoenix-San Diego; Richmond-Dallas; Sacramento-Los Angeles; San Antonio-Dallas; San Francisco-Los Angeles; San Francisco-Sacramento; Savannah-Atlanta; Seattle-Portland; Seattle-Spokane; Seattle-Vancouver; Tallahassee-Atlanta; Tallahassee-Jacksonville; Tallahassee-Montgomery; Tampa, all schedules; and Washington-New York.

Other guests included Mia Maestro, Ana Ortiz, Giannina Facio, Eva Chow, celebrity florist Eric Buterbaugh, and celebrity stylists Elizabeth Stewart and Rachel Zoe. Teri Weinberg of NBC and writer Marc Abrams were also in attendance.

Sergio Rossi at 8424 Melrose Place, West Hollywood. (323) 944-0864. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Nintendo has sold more than 6 million Wii systems and wii sales are now outstripping PS3 and the Xbox 360. It seems that everyone loves the wii. Even 4 year olds enjoying playing it.

MP3tunes has just announced custom technology for Wii, plus more music for New Year’s. If you were lucky enough to get a new Nintendo Wii for Christmas you now can play all your digital music through the video game with new technology from MP3tunes. Wii owners can now use the device’s controller to wirelessly stream their personal music collections from their
own Music Lockers.

MP3tunes is offering free playlists to sideload to the Music Locker for immediate access on the Wii and other devices. “To demonstrate how simple it is to add playlists to a Locker, we’ve created, in partnership with CDBaby, a terrific New Year’s Eve music set for our customers,” commented Emily Richards, President of MP3tunes. “With just one click, this New
Year’s playlist is sideloaded to your Music Locker for access on dozens of devices — with no listening limits.” Sideload the playlist to your MP3tunes Locker at http://www.mp3tunes.com/ .

The issue at large about the beef that the processing company Hallmark Meat Co. and their distrubuter Westland had provided was that many of the cows were downed cattle. The downed cattle pose health risks or pose a higher risk of contamination of E. Coli, Salmonella or mad cow disease. The downed cows wallow in feces and their immune systems are low and or weak, hence picking up such diseases.

The USDA is investigating into the issue along with Senator Diane Feinstein of California. The USDA has suspended the operations of Westland and Hallmark until the federals have completed a full investigation. Jack In The Box, the fast food chain is also affected by the downed cows and has stopped taking orders from the companies.