I’ve used Ben-Hur Moving and Storage in the past, and they were okay (they only lost/broke a few things), but I’d like to get an estimate from at least one other company.

Aside from the tasty tacos, the highlight of the trip was when my friend Dan ordered a Pokka iced coffee, and it came in a can with a cute guy on it.

If a beverage with a hipster dude on it sounds cool to you, take a closer look. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but in the background, he has a whole gang of hipster friends.

After pumpkin carving, we ended up watching a PBS Nature special about creatures that suck blood. I’ll probably have nightmares forever about the tiny fish that swam up someone’s urethra, but I have to say, vampire bats are way cuter than they looked in last night’s TV movie.

The weirdest part of the night was when we decided to head over to Re$iduals (no link, because somebody let the domain name expire), where a zombie cowboy served our drinks. Just after we got there, the Saloonatics took the stage. Some of the band members were dressed like Kiss, so I half-expected they’d be a Kiss cover band, but instead they played songs by Matchbox 20, Stone Temple Pilots, and the Goo Goo Dolls. I was disturbed that in most cases I couldn’t name the original bands, but I still remember every bad ’90s lyric. I wish something more important was taking up that space in my brain.

After my stressful psychic experience this afternoon, I hoped a cream puff would lighten my mood. With tax, a regular puff is only $1.62, and when I stopped by around 4 p.m., there were only a few people in line. I’m not sure a cream puff alone is worth dealing with the tourist insanity of the Hollywood and Highland complex, but if you have to head over there for something else, a cream puff will sweeten the journey.

I had never been to a psychic before, so I picked one at random near Hollywood and Vine, went in and asked for a tarot card reading. The sign outside said they were $20. A few minutes into it, the girl and her assistant started implying I should give them all this money to light nine candles for me. It blew me away that they thought I could afford hundreds of dollars worth of spirit candles until I remembered that I was carrying a shopping bag from BCBG, where I had just purchased a cute, but overpriced, sweater. I didn’t tell them much of anything about myself, so I guess “buys expensive clothes” was all they had to go on, and they ran with it. When it was over, I ended up giving them $60 (way more than I wanted to spend) which covered the reading and something candle related that I didn’t understand.

Aside from feeling seriously uncomfortable with the way they kept trying to get more money out of me, the reading itself was a neat experience. A few of the cards seemed weirdly appropriate to stuff I’ve been dealing with lately. But I think the main thing I learned from my first psychic reading is that strangers (even “psychic” ones) have no idea what I’m like. If I ever decide to get another tarot reading, I’m carrying a bag from the 99 cents store.

Update: I’ve now talked to two friends about this, and both of them had similar experiences at other Hollywood psychics. I guess “give us hundreds of dollars for candles” is a common line. Maybe if they say it to enough people, they get somebody to fall for it once in a while?

It occurred to me yesterday that it’s two and a half months later, and I still haven’t received any kind of “welcome packet” from them. Today a KCRW envelope came in the mail, and I figured that was it, but no — they just wanted to let me know that if I contributed a few hundred more dollars I could be a KCRW Angel. Asking for more money before they’ve even thanked me for the first donation strikes me as seriously tacky. Anybody know if this is a common practice? Or just bad timing with my subscription?

Because all of a sudden, you might have a person who will actually go see Serenity with you, instead of laughing at the preview the way your other friends did. Maybe he will even wait three weeks after the release date, since you had to go out of town for work. And maybe, the night you finally see the movie, your new L.A. friend will say, “My friend’s band is playing, if you want to check that out afterwards.”

And his friend’s band will turn out to be The Hold Steady, and even though you thought you had to pay for your ticket, it will turn out that he is on the list +1. You will get to the Knitting Factory just in time for the band’s totally rockin’ show, and there will be a perfect moment (during the one song you recognize) when you realize that Yes, you might move back to New York in December, but right now, at this moment, you are exactly where you are supposed to be.