Tuesday, March 08, 2005

the disconnectedness is catchy

I have a weird obsession with bags. I’ll shop, and no matter what, i can’t seem to throw the bag away, I’ll try, folding it up neatly and walking up to the trash can, but then i think that I might need it for something sometime, and place it in the cabinet underneath the bathroom sink, or underneath the kitchen sink. Same thing with boxes, like i’ll buy new make-up and can’t for some reason throw away the box it comes in. I know i won’t need the box, but yet, again, i can’t seem to get myself up to throwing it away.

People are obsessed with a lot of things in LA, like, coming home from the bar, I notice people always going to run the stairs on Avenue A at 2:10 a.m. It’s safe here, in South Redondo Beach, to go out late at night and do things like that. We don’t even lock the door at our apartment, well, we live in a security building, but even feeling safe enough to not lock the doors is a huge thing. I don’t think many people run the Santa Monica stairs at 2 in the morning, but, they could, i mean this is LA after all. My gym is open 24 hours and I do try to go, at least I try to go at night instead of going to the bars, It’s better to burn 600 calories than to drink them. But usually, the bar urge far outweighs the gym urge.

LA is a very interesting place. I think its so interesting becaus you can’t really say “LA” because it encompasses so much. I grew up in san diego, and i thought that was big, until i moved up here. Now I go back there and someone says, “oh we’re at the beach and we want to go downtown but its so far,” and I’m like, far, dude, it’s only 8 minutes. Where I live in LA it takes me 16 minutes to get to the freeway.

Which also explains the disconnectedness of LA. Like, I live in the south bay, not far, still considered LA county, but in fact, very disconnected. If we venture out to Hollywood, we always, have to leave by like midnight, so we can make it back to the south bay for last call at the bar by our house. But most of the time, it is very difficult to get people to leave the south bay to go anywhere north of Manhatten Beach.

But It’s really the same all over. Living in Long Beach, it was such a trek to get to Newport, and living in Burbank, it took serious effort to get to the West side. People in LA live in their own bubbles, visiting the same coffee shops right by their house, seeing the same people at the same hip happening bars and night clubs right next to home. I wish there was a more convienent car less way to get around LA, but LA is too vast and for as much that there is to do, I’m not sure as many people as could do really experience it.