Most of what I talk about in this blog, I have already mentioned before, but it is worth mentioning again.....in more detail. Three main things: traffic, gas, weather.
First, let me speak about traffic here. All the stuff I heard about L.A.'s traffic before coming here was definitely not false information. Yesterday I experienced the FULL WRATH of the Los Angeles freeway system. It all started when I was bored yesterday and so I decided to try and find a walmart. I remembered reading that there was one on Crenshaw, so I thought I'll just make my way to Crenshaw Ave and drive til I see it. Well, I was driving east on Melrose I think. Little did I know Melrose was too far north to intersect with Crenshaw (if not then, then I just plain missed it) and I find myself dowtown basically. Next thing I know, I'm crossing Normandie Ave, which I happened to learn about while watching the National Geographic Channel. Yeah, they did a whole documentary on one of the most vicious gangs in L.A. that controls most of Normandie Ave. I had to laugh to myself. Normandie is right next to downtown. So, I make a few turns and get going west again. It's easy to do that in L.A. because its just a grid system. So, anyway, I make my way to the wal-mart and of course they don't have what I want. Keep in mind that this is the nearest wal-mart to me and it's more than 10 miles away. I guess West Hollywood/Beverly Hills is too good for walmart. So, I ask the people where a Home Depot is because I need an adapter to convert the un-grounded outlet in my room to a grounded one since this place was built in like 1700. Of course, I have to go all the way to Inglewood. But by now, it's 3:30, and I still have to go all the way to West L.A. to pick up some more pictures from the photographer. I just know I'm gonna be on my way home right smack in the middle of rush hour. I get my stuff at Home Depot, go get my pictures, and BOOM, I hit the freeway back home at 5:30 pm. It was inevitable. I thought I'd try to be smart and take back streets home. No luck, AT ALL. All of L.A., all the streets and freeways were just one big parking lot. I am not exaggerating. I live maybe 15 miles from West L.A. and I got home at 7:45!!!!! That's over 2 hours!!!! Well, I made one stop at the grocery store, but still. It's amazing. I will do my best to avoid rush hour whenever I can, but on the good side, I did learn a lot of the streets in L.A.
Next thing is gasoline. Now, we all know gas is a lot higher in California. But I don't get 2 things. One is necessarily why gas is higher in California. I mean, I know the demand is higher, but gas stations in Cali don't pay more for there oil do they? I'm not good with politics because I hate politics, and I don't understand much about oil and the stuff in the middle east, so excuse my ignorance. But if gas is $80/barrel, isn't that for everyone. It's not $80/barrel in Ohio and $100/barrel in California, is it? Hell, I don't even know!! The other thing that amazes me is how the gas station I get my gas at is $3.19/gallon now for regular unleaded, and the gas station one block over has their gas for $3.39/gallon. How does that happen? Whatever happened to the competition. Oh well, doesn't matter to me....I'm going for the cheapest I see, lol.
The other thing I want to mention here is how funny the weather people are here. I really had to laugh. I mean, it is sunny and hot everyday here. It has been the same every single day since I arrived in L.A. over 2 weeks ago. So this morning I hear my weatherbug chirping on my computer, it says there is an alert for my area. I look, and it says severe thunderstorm warning. I think that's funny. A few hours later, it says something about a flash flood watch. I'm like damn, this is like Ohio weather and stuff. Well, it has been sunny and hot all day today. It's just funny because the weather is so monotonous here (which of course I love), but I guess it could get boring for a weather person. I guess they just wanted to spice up their job for a day, haha.
All right, last topic: the people. Everyone is in such a rush here, which I understand because it's a big city. I've been to NYC so many times since I was born, I know how it is. But man, these people won't even let you park. Obviously there is lots of street parking here, even on busy streets. So, to parallel park you have to stop and back into the space. This makes people M-A-D. You see the looks on their faces as they swerve into the other lane to go around and then speed off into the distance. Cracks me up. The other thing, is the drag queens here. I have never really seen men in dresses just walking down the street before. I mean, buff men with big shoulders, walking down the street in a backless dress with wig and make-up on. It's just something I'm not used to. I guess I'm not in Kansas, err, um, Ohio anymore, lol.
That's all I have for now. I'm just about to get my pictures printed and duplicated and things of that nature, so hopefully after all that my blogs will be a little more "exciting" if you know what I mean.
Later
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2 comments:
You're right; gas is gas and the base price is uniform. The main difference in prices are:
1) It costs more to bring gas to downtown LA or Chicago or New York City because truckers spend more idle time on the highways in order to get to the inner-city stations. Those costs are passed on to you, because gasoline companies can get away with charging more in the city.
2) Each state has its own gasoline tax. I don't know if you have ever gone to Cincinnati, but gasoline in Indiana, a mere ten miles away from the city, is on average ten cents more than gasoline in Ohio because of tax differences. Urban areas have sales taxes of their own in some cases. West coast sales taxes for gasoline are, in general, higher.
Drag queens...I myself only saw my first when I moved here, to suburban Massachusetts of all places. The guy that rang us up at Filene's was wearing a small amount of makeup, had huge shoulders and fake boobs (or a stuffed bra). He was wearing a skirt and a black sleeveless mock turtleneck.
It was funny, not because I think drag queens are funny in general. He just seemed so out of place at my local mall!
And of course to top it off he wouldn't shut up about the war in Iraq (he guessed Joe was in the military)...and said everything negative short of "baby killer." Jerk.
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