Transplant Theory: Oxen and Chameleons

Along with palm tree and fake boobs, another thing LA is full of is transplants: people who have moved to LA from other places.  People who actually grew up in LA are about as rare as snowflakes.  I've met many a transplant over the last six months and have actually started to categorize them into two groups in my mind: oxen and chameleons.  Stay with me here, it's good I promise.

Oxen are the stubborn people.  The ones who move to LA and refuse to give up their customs and traditions from their old way of life.  They are often the ones who have moved to LA for a job or a relationship, not because they actually wanted to move to LA.  They tend to pick out the negative qualities of the city and claim that it's fake, plastic, and materialistic. They refuse to let the city change them.

Chameleons are eager to blend in and become "Hollywood." They are the people who have come out to LA to try and live the California lifestyle. They often have preset ideas about how living here will change their lives, and genuinely want to embrace change and absorb what LA has to offer. They may desire fame, fortune, or something else entirely, but they see LA as they key to their success. They want the city to make them.

Now, obviously not everyone fits into one of these two categories, and quite honestly, the people I gravitate towards and all of my friends out here have a healthy mix of both animals, perhaps we call them, oxeleons. They are open-minded, up for trying new things and having adventures, yet they are grounded and confident in who they are and where they come from.  They want the city to inspire them, but not define them.

The real question I have been asking myself lately is, which animal am I??

Urban Jungle

Moving from the 3rd largest city in the US to the 2nd largest, I expected that I would be getting more of a lot of things.  More traffic, more smog, more people, more money (earned and spent), more sunshine, more professional basketball teams, more celebrities, more homeless people, and well, you get the picture.  One thing I was not expecting more of was nature.  I was actually expecting to move to a larger city and get less nature to account for the more of everything else.  LA has pleasantly surprised me by being a place that is FULL of natural beauty and outdoorsy activities.  Who knew?

Out with a bang

Alright, so you know when you were a kid and you would get a new toy and play with it all day, everyday for like a week and then never again??  I find that as an adult-ish person, I still have this quality though now it mostly applies to workout plans and guys I attempt to date.  I'm also concerned that this may happen to my blog.  So my first 5 posts were all consecutive (*cough* excited child) and then followed by about 5 days of radio silence however, I feel that I have a perfectly good excuse for my lapse: playing in Chicago!

Before I head out to California, I really wanted to make one more visit to the city I love enough to consider one of my three homes (Iowa and Colorado would be the other two) and soak in all of my favorite things.  It seems logical that I should have memories of having fun, knowing my way around a place and spending time with people I love before I'm lost, confused and friendless on the coast.

The moment we've all been waiting for...

Ok... the moment I've been waiting for, I'm sure my fantasy roster is not a significant priority in anyone's life but my own.  Regardless allow me to present to you:

Refrigerator of Sweetness 2011

STARTERS
SLOT	PLAYER, TEAM POS	OPP	STATUS ET	PTS
QB	Matt Schaub, Hou QB	Ind	Sun 1:00	--
RB	Frank Gore, SF RB	Sea	Sun 4:15	--
RB	Ryan Mathews, SD RB	Min	Sun 4:15	--
RB/WR	Ryan Williams*, Ari RB  IR	Car	Sun 4:15	--
WR	Jeremy Maclin, Phi WR  P	@StL	Sun 1:00	--
WR	Johnny Knox, Chi WR	Atl	Sun 1:00	--
TE	Chris Cooley, Wsh TE  Q	NYG	Sun 4:15	--
D/ST	Bears D/ST D/ST	Atl	Sun 1:00	--
K	Robbie Gould, Chi K	Atl	Sun 1:00	--

BENCH
SLOT	PLAYER, TEAM POS	OPP	STATUS ET	PTS
Bench	Josh Freeman, TB QB	Det	Sun 1:00	--
Bench	Julio Jones, Atl WR	@Chi	Sun 1:00	--
Bench	Chargers D/ST D/ST	Min	Sun 4:15	--
Bench	Roy Helu, Wsh RB	NYG	Sun 4:15	--
Bench	Steve Breaston, KC WR	Buf	Sun 1:00	--
Bench	Benjamin Watson, Cle TE  Q	Cin	Sun 1:00	--
Bench	Jalen Parmele, FA RB	** BYE **		--

I have a bye this week, so I can sit back and watch how these guys perform before I set my roster for the following week which is kinda nice.  I'm also a bit confused on how and when to trade and things like that.  I will obviously need another kicker if I play when the Bears have a bye week.  SUPER pumped about the Bears D and my wide receivers.  Less thrilled on my RBs and QBs, I had the hardest time trying to place them in my autopick strategy.  I made a last minute call to pick an RB first that cost me Drew Brees :(  It got me Gore though, who will be awesome if he's not injured a bunch.  I think.  I guess after all my smack talk yesterday, now that I have my team, I don't really know what to do with them.  It's not like I can invite them over for a team dinner and give them a pep talk or anything... meh, I've got over a week to figure this thing out...