That's how I would describe Los Angeles. It was something else; definitely not what I had made up in my mind's eye. Oh yeah, it was fun. A real good time. I was so happy to see friends I haven't since August 2009 to farther back in time.
PROs: overheard conversations (I love you, loud Americans! You're so inspiring!), hiking in the hills, murals and graffiti, celebrities as normal people, ocean, pho, the buses, Richard Simmons, LACMA, trees and houses, that my friends live there
CONs: all the cars and lack of public transportation, that my friends live there
My plane landed on Monday, May 30th at 4:40a.
My amazing, awesome, fantastic, Chicago concert companion, mind boggling buddy, Ty, came to pick me up at LAX. We dropped off my luggage at his apartment and went for omelets and coffee, and stories at some real American diner.
Everybody in LA wears hats. This is not an overstatement.
I was in a daze as Ty drove me from the airport to his place, passing through the neighborhoods - we opted for the "scenic" route instead of the freeways - full of houses and trees. (For some reason I thought everyone in LA lived in mansions or cardboard boxes, and that it was full of streets, highways and byways. Some childhood fantasy that was only recently dispelled, along with Madonna being in every limo and all my friends being only children orphans until I met their parents, shocked and confused that said friends didn't actually live in train cars with wealthy grandfathers bringing them meals and letting them play in gardens and solve mysteries in their spare time - which, let's face it, all time was spare time in childhood.)
The day was jam-packed full of LA/America overload, but in the best way. My eyes zig-zagged across the scenery as if watching things fly by from a train window.
I was actually in a daze for most of my first week in LA. Maybe it had something to do with the smog, but there really didn't seem to be any. Stereotypes!!! Shattered! It was cold though. So cold. After living in the 80s for the past year, essentially, 60 degrees with the sun shining was a major shock. Unpleasant, LA.
We went to Target. TARGET!! That beautiful store. I got toiletries and a trac phone. Then we drank bloody marys (Ty should win an award) and my friend, Katie came over.
After laughing and catching up for a glass, we headed out to Griffith Park and hiked all over those hills.
There was one point we came to - under Ty's beckoning - that seemed to be a sheer vertical climb, with a family to the left of us using a system of jump ropes tied together to pull each other up. Katie and I looked at each other nervously and scrambled up after Ty who had scaled the face in a matter of seconds, and stood at the top, looking at us with his hands on his hips. Tapping his foot, too, I'm sure.
That evening there was grilled fish and veggie kabobs (I'm currently not eating animals of the walking or flying variety. Someday I might stop eating those swimming ones too, whether out of consciousness or the fact that there aren't any more, I'm not sure yet.) and confusion in my exhaustion of the longest day ever: jerking asleep on the couch, I wondered aloud what time it was. Eight fourteen. But the sun was still up!!! Ty was confused. I was confused! In Guam it set at or around 6:30 every day, being only 14 degrees north of the equator and all. Summertime in the middle of the northern hemisphere, days last forever, it's like the opposite of Siberia in the wintertime.
PROs: overheard conversations (I love you, loud Americans! You're so inspiring!), hiking in the hills, murals and graffiti, celebrities as normal people, ocean, pho, the buses, Richard Simmons, LACMA, trees and houses, that my friends live there
CONs: all the cars and lack of public transportation, that my friends live there
My plane landed on Monday, May 30th at 4:40a.
My amazing, awesome, fantastic, Chicago concert companion, mind boggling buddy, Ty, came to pick me up at LAX. We dropped off my luggage at his apartment and went for omelets and coffee, and stories at some real American diner.
I was in a daze as Ty drove me from the airport to his place, passing through the neighborhoods - we opted for the "scenic" route instead of the freeways - full of houses and trees. (For some reason I thought everyone in LA lived in mansions or cardboard boxes, and that it was full of streets, highways and byways. Some childhood fantasy that was only recently dispelled, along with Madonna being in every limo and all my friends being only children orphans until I met their parents, shocked and confused that said friends didn't actually live in train cars with wealthy grandfathers bringing them meals and letting them play in gardens and solve mysteries in their spare time - which, let's face it, all time was spare time in childhood.)
The day was jam-packed full of LA/America overload, but in the best way. My eyes zig-zagged across the scenery as if watching things fly by from a train window.
I was actually in a daze for most of my first week in LA. Maybe it had something to do with the smog, but there really didn't seem to be any. Stereotypes!!! Shattered! It was cold though. So cold. After living in the 80s for the past year, essentially, 60 degrees with the sun shining was a major shock. Unpleasant, LA.
We went to Target. TARGET!! That beautiful store. I got toiletries and a trac phone. Then we drank bloody marys (Ty should win an award) and my friend, Katie came over.
That evening there was grilled fish and veggie kabobs (I'm currently not eating animals of the walking or flying variety. Someday I might stop eating those swimming ones too, whether out of consciousness or the fact that there aren't any more, I'm not sure yet.) and confusion in my exhaustion of the longest day ever: jerking asleep on the couch, I wondered aloud what time it was. Eight fourteen. But the sun was still up!!! Ty was confused. I was confused! In Guam it set at or around 6:30 every day, being only 14 degrees north of the equator and all. Summertime in the middle of the northern hemisphere, days last forever, it's like the opposite of Siberia in the wintertime.
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