The Best Western Mayfair: two star living at its best!

Home Sweet Los Angeles Home

So there’s this running gag that pops up in the office from time to time. Whenever one of my fellow staffers at LACO starts talking about how the dinner they cooked last night wasn’t quite perfect or how their bed frame got scratched by the movers, I cut in by saying…I LIVE IN A HOTEL…and I do.

Living the nomadic life as an American Symphony Orchestra League Orchestra Management Fellow definitely has its challenges. Case in point: finding affordable housing for 2 (New York), 7 (Memphis), 14 (Pittsburgh) and 16 (LA) weeks at a time. If you are lucky, someone with your host orchestra such as a board member with an extra guest room (or house) will put you up for weeks or months at a time. Or, if you are REALLY lucky (**cough Gloria cough**), you have the fortune of landing exceptional housing situations throughout the whole year without paying a dime. At the very least, your coworkers are usually happy to suggest nice neighborhoods or even visit potential housing leads prior to your arrival.

Using services such as online classifieds, craigslist and westsiderentals prior to my arrival in LA, I drew up an extensive list of prospective apartments, with the intent of looking in person after my road trip from Aspen. It didn’t take long before I found my temporary home. Above all, due to the horror stories I heard about LA commuting and public transportation (or lack thereof); I ideally wanted a single apartment within walking distance of the LACO office downtown. Running off of a lead in LA’s downtown newspaper, I quickly found the Best Western Mayfair. Sure, it may be smaller than my college dorm room; it may lack a kitchen or even a kitchenette; I may have to log off and on the internet every 30 minutes (yeah dial-up and time limits); heck, it may even lack cold water from time to time but nevertheless it is home and come next weekend, when I’m driving back to Chicago for Christmas, I might even miss it, if just a little (single tear).

There you have it, for those of you itching to know how I found housing in LA, this is my story (albeit not a perfect one). Thankfully, I have been able to land a nice place, rent free, for my two weeks in New York just after the New Year. Plans are also in the works for my housing in Memphis (a big thanks to Pat). As for Pittsburgh, no rush! I’ll cross that bridge when it the time is right.

Goodnight all!