As Mike mentioned in his last post, we’re about ready to leave LA. I’ve had a great time meeting Mike’s friends, everyone is so nice and welcoming, and it’s been really fun seeing where he used to work and live. I like LA, it’s pretty; interesting architecture, palm trees, catcti and bougainvillea everywhere, and the ocean is just breathtaking. I’m enjoying the visit, but I don’t think I could deal with living here. Aside from 70 being considered chilly and there not being any snow ever, it’s strange here. I’ve had a hard time putting it into words, but it’s a weird place.

LA is a huge sprawling city, block after block, traffic light after traffic light. The roads go on seemingly forever, in completely straight gridmarked blocks. Then there are these weird little corner strip mall things every so often, and they all look exactly the same. The stores in each may differ, but they all have the same basic architecture. I usually navigate by landmarks, without mike’s help I’d be completely lost here. I’d have to memorize what stores each mall-thing contained, like “left at the one that has the supercuts, right at the one that has the laundromat”. Maybe that’s how it’s done, but it would take me forever to figure out.

Other than being very spread out, LA is odd because it’s mostly shorter buildings. The houses on the side streets are almost all single story, with the occasional two story apartment building like Neal’s thrown in. I love small houses and think they’re very cute, but it makes me homesick for the two and three families I’m used to. Also, absolutely everything is built right on top of the next thing. I know we do that back home, but it seems too weird to squeeze a bunch of one story buildings into a block, with barely a driveway between them, rather than having a couple of several story ones all spaced out. Even in the downtown areas there aren’t many taller buildings, just a handfull of skyscrapers, and a bunch of 4-5 story buildings. There’s got to be some ordinance or something limiting building heights, I can’t understand it. You could climb a palm tree and be able to see for miles.

Also, the main thoroughfares are typically 2-3 lanes wide depending on the time of day. Two lanes if parking is allowed along the curb at that hour, three if there’s no parking and then you drive through the metered spots. These wide main roads are lined with one or two story shops, and they go on straight and flat for as far as the eye can see. (I found a road that didn’t line up properly with an intersection yesterday and was delighted.) Driving here gives me this odd anxious feeling, it’s too open. I think I actually might have urban-agoraphobia. Seriously though, if they made LA more vertical and less horizontal, it probably would fit in the back bay. Okay, maybe not, but someone should really consider importing some brownstones, switch it up a little. I wonder if Boston would make LA people claustrophobic?

Then there’s the near-constant traffic, weird parking rules, and regular drone of low flying helicopters, but I think I’ve ranted enough. I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t like LA, and I think it’s important to visit other places and see different things. But I don’t feel too bad pointing out the negatives either, it seems like most people we’re talked to here have the same opinions. Maybe if we stayed longer I could get used to it, but right now I’m just really excited to drive up the coast, see some seals, and explore San Francisco again. We’ll be leaving for “the one” (what we’d call Rt. 1) in about an hour, and the drive up the coast should take a good part of the day. We’ll be back in LA later this week and then it’s off to New Zealand a week from today!

So it has only taken a few days here in LA for me to want to get out again. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we came out here, and it has been good to see my old friends. It’s been fun catching up with them, seeing the old apartment, visiting the studio; it brings me back. At the same time, it reminds me of why I left: too much noise, traffic, and people. And it’s a city so wrapped up in image, that image is the most important thing. Sarah and I walked down Melrose Ave, which has lots of clothing shops, and the super-ultra-mega trendiness was very tiring. And there are some cool places and activities, but they are few and very far between. Literally. Going 5 miles can take you a half hour on an average day. What a strange city.

This is the first official post to the blog! I’m writing from the couch of Neal’s living room, somewheres in LA. We’ve been trying to get this thing going, I think we’re almost there. I wish there was a theme that we could select/control the picture featured, but this will do for now. (I think it looks like spooky grass.)

We landed here late last night, after the most harrowing day of planes ever. It wasn’t so bad, until we tried to land in Chigaco. There had been quite a bit of turbulance the whole way from Boston, but when we tried to land it became severe. As the plane touched down (more like bounced and skidded down) it felt as though we were tilting right and left. We were positive that the plane was going to crash and spin out, I’m not ashamed to admit that I screamed, and I wasn’t alone.