Smog Sunsets

I'm now in a peculiar position because I'm sort of in between places. I know I'm moving away but not for 2 months. I don't want to squander my time here thinking about the future but I also don't want to forge new connections here if I'm leaving anyway. I'm in the Waiting Place, as Dr. Seuss would say.

Of course now that I'm moving I've suddenly become friends with some of the parents at Asha's school. That seemingly unpenetrable group of friends. It turns out that two of the kids who have a long-standing twice-weekly playdate only have it because one of the moms works and pays the other mom to babysit. Well we now have a weekly yoga class date with Maya and her mom and most weeks we go to the farmer's market with some other kids and their parents. We're going to the zoo tomorrow with another family. I guess it's like those women who desperately want to get married and as soon as they stop trying they find him immediately. I still haven't found my L.A. best girlfriend but a bunch of playdates will do.

The fact that our time here is winding down has made me think about what I've learned from my time here. I had a lot of pre-conceived ideas about Los Angeles before I came here and most of them were unfounded. When David first threw out the idea of moving here my immediate response was "absolutely not". I thought that this city represented all that was wrong with the world: disparity of wealth, obsession with fame and beauty, pollution, crime. Don't get me wrong, those things all exist here but there's more to this city than that. Here are a few things that I've learned about this crazy place:

Not all of L.A. is Beverly Hills
I was literally prepared to be the ugliest person in the entire state. When you picture California you imagine beautiful, blond women who have paid ridiculous amounts of money on plastic surgery. I also thought that everyone would drive fancy cars and wear fancy clothes and I wouldn't fit in at all. Well it turns out there are parts of the city where that is the case but in my little 'hood and most of the neighbourhoods people are just normal. I also imagined everyone here would be snobs and look down their noses at our hillbilly truck and reserve dog but this hasn't been true at all. I guess the people that are too cool for us stay away!

Not all of L.A. is Hollywood
As I mentioned above, not everyone here is a movie star. However, although not everyone in this city is a wannabe starlet, it has actually surprised me how big a part of the local economy the film industry is. I have met the following: a movie producer, a costume designer, a talent agent, a rapper, and several movie extras. I been inconvenienced several time by movies being filmed on location. I even met an actual, real-life actor! Remember that movie "10 Things I Hate About You"? I met the woman who played Julia Stiles' best friend. And I was very close to meeting Blossom. Remember Blossom?! She's the co-leader of a holistic mom's group. Unfortunately she was absent at the meeting I went to. Rats! David said she would definitely fulfill my need to see a celebrity while I'm living here.

Not all of L.A. is South Central
I suppose I assumed that if an area of L.A. wasn't fancy schmancy Beverly Hills then it would be sketchy and crime-ridden. Although the area that we live is Inglewood-adjacent it seems to be really safe. I probably shouldn't say that out loud. Now I'm going to get mugged for sure. I often walk Stobie at night by myself without batting an eye. I suppose any would-be muggers would be scared of my tough, res dog! Little do they know he recently got his ass kicked by a cat and he's scared of water to the point that he walks on the road to avoid people's sprinklers.

The Mexicans are the hardest-damn-working people in this place
I know there is more to the immigration situation down here than I understand but I'm pretty sure that if they fixed the "immigrant problem" the city would fall apart. The Mexicans are the people who do all the jobs that people could do themselves but choose to outsource including mowing their lawns, parking their cars, and taking care of their kids. I have never seen a Hispanic homeless person. Every Sunday night people go around with headlamps looking for bottles and cans in people's recycling bins on the curb. I think that's downright resourceful! Our neighbours across the street are from Mexico and I am not exaggerating when I say that they are the hardest working people I have ever met. Both of them work their butts off so their kids can go to a fantastic private school in Brentwood. And did I mention that they have the 3 nicest girls in the world?

It isn't that smoggy (most of the time)
We live on the west side of L.A. so most of the smog gets blown away from us and into the valley. I've heard the air quality can be so bad in the eastern part of the city that asthmatics can't live there but on our side of town it's not too bad. It does get noticably worse as the week goes on. There was one day when the wind had shifted so there was a haze of yellowish-greyish smog over the ocean. It was fairly disgusting. Someone told me that it's not too bad though because smog in the west makes for beautiful sunsets. How's that for a silver lining (or a yellowish-greyish one).

People in L.A. are actually pretty friendly (most of the time)
Someone told me that Los Angeles had been voted the rudest city in America. That hasn't been my experience with the exception of when I'm in traffic. People become downright evil in traffic.

Airplane travel is very safe
We live about 10 minutes away from LAX airport which can be noisy although we live near the part of the runway where planes land which is much quieter than the area where they take off. It's been very convenient for picking up visitors and it has provided endless entertainment for visitors who like watching planes land. The thing you realize when you watch a plane land every 5 minutes all day long is that airplane travel is really quite safe.

Well I may have tempted fate with this post. I'll probably get mugged and yelled at and then die in a plane crash now. Oh well. I still stand by my observations!