Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

The driving out here, especially on the freeway, is unbelievable. It's not quite the same as driving in New York city, but no less stressful. We drove from our hotel near LAX to where we are supposed to be living, which is just East of Beverly Hills and just South of Hollywood. It's actually a very nice area. Anyway, this involved getting on the 405, which is a numeric term around here for 'parking lot' and then taking I-10, a stretch of road that sees higher average speeds than the Bonneville Salt Flats. All in all it is quite exciting, but overall not the stressful part. No, the stressful part comes on the surface roads, where left turn signals are a thing of myth and legend. Instead, cars going left inch out into the intersection, wait for the light to turn red, and then floor it in front of oncoming traffic. It really is great fun once you get the hang of it!
But now the bad news. The place we are supposed to be staying, Park La Brea, isn't ready yet, so Katie and I, along with our two suitemates, are being put up across the street in the Park Plaza Motor Lodge, which is not exactly the pinnacle of comfort and refinement. But I have been told we will only be here for a week, so I suppose that's not too bad. In other news, I had my first taste of true Hollywood lifestyle. Katie and I went to this place called the Grove, which is an upscale shopping center like BayWalk, only much more expensive. What amazed me the most was the transformation from outside to inside this shopping niche. Out on the sidewalk it looks like any other big city, with bills posted everywhere and cars honking and garbage on the street, but on the inside everything clean and there are benches without bums on them, and a nice trolley running down the street and little cafes where wealthy people can sip wine and nibble cheese and take a rest from toting around their Nordstrom shopping bags.

The people in Los Angeles are a unique breed. Of course there is the stereotype that everyone here is an "actor and..." which happens to be true, I learned while dining at The Cheesecake Factory. Our waited was giving Katie some contact information for voicing cartoons. But aside from that, there seems to be some element that is distinctly Californian. In New York, no one ever looked at anyone, a smile was rare, and few people would hold the door for anyone. Here, people make eye contact, and are generally rather friendly. But there's also some element of judgment from everyone. I always get the feeling that whenever someone looks at me, in an instant they judge my wealth or status and then move on. Don't get the impression that I get treated different because I am clearly not from around here, it's just am impression I get from people around here. I've been told that this city can be kind of fake and superficial, and I suppose that's what it is. But I'll still take it over the callousness and indifference of new York any day.