SoCal Memories

Greetings from Los Angeles!
Last night was my first attempt at salsa dancing; it was exhilarating, but I'd rather leave the dance floor to all the more experienced (aka better) dancers! Had I taken lessons while I was living in California, I would probably have been more confident with my dancing skills (or lack thereof). We moved here so my father could get his PhD in something like linguistics, but I was young and to this day it probably makes no difference whether I know or not. LA is probably the most ghetto, polluted, yet interesting city in the world. Driving on the highway as a kid was fun because you got to see all the pretty colors on the side of the road. Yes, graffiti was rather attractive, especially at an age when I could neither comprehend the meaning of what a gang was nor understand the words I was reading. I imagine I asked my mother some innocent questions such as "mommy, what does s-h-i-t spell?"


I remember being at a bank one day, sniffing and prodding at the birds of paradise (shown above) and my mom telling me there was nothing in them. Out popped a butterfly, nearly flying up my nose, and I have not been the same since. Honestly, I should explain that I have had many 'close' encounters with insects in those days. One time at a birthday party I had a ladybug crawl down my dress, which was rather distressing. A year or two later, a spider did the same. I was left absolutely mortified by that particular experience. Now that my room is infested with ladybugs -we're so lucky- I'm happy to say that I conquered most of my fears.
Anyhow, my family and I moved twice while we were in LA. Since apartments were the most abundant housing option, we moved from one in the scary side of the city to a big town called South Pasadena. For those of you who watch the Rose Bowl, this is where all the action is. I participated in the creation of a couple floats in the three years we were in Cali and got to watch them on TV! I was also privileged to witness part of the Rodney King riot and a robbery while we still resided in the "bad part of town".
After moving to South Pas, my brother and I fell in love with a park called Garfield Park. Here we fought each other with huge bamboo sticks and supposedly met the editor of the Garfield comic strip. Ah, the many brushes we had with celebrity status. I really could have cared less, however, because I had my huge ladybug field and bamboo bushes. There were 'normal' park objects, like slides and swings, but running around was much more fun. Only if we got bored with beating each other over the head with bamboo twice as long as our bodies and wider than my two hands put together would we actually play on the playground. Now that I think of it, we were demented but imaginative children; we didn't even play on the playground equipment in the 'traditional' way. School in California is also nontraditional compared to the rest of the country. Of course, this was where I began school because my mom homeschooled me for kindergarten. I was the smartest kid in first grade, but probably the most popular as well. First grade marked a new era of liking boys and having about three best friends all at the same time.
California is well-known as the land of blonde bimbos, and I just have one response to that: "Dude, like duh! That's totally awesome and gnarly!" You pick up words really easily when you're young, so excuse my use of any of these ditzy words in the future. Most of my friends were blonde, most of the boys I liked were blond, and life was wonderful. We lived about an hour from a few beaches, which was awesome; we went to San Diego once, which was one of my best beach experiences ever. Natural disasters known as earthquakes occurred mostly while I was sleeping. I was only awake for the worst one after my mom woke me up, convinced that the sky was falling and we were all going to die. To this day, I ask her "why did you wake me up for the one that would make me the most afraid and none of the others?" It was really fun walking on shaky ground, I didn't understand what everyone was so scared of. Weather in Southern Cal was really great too, the coldest it ever got in LA was somewhere around 50; we did have four seasons though: summer, fall, summer, and summer. My sister was born in the 'fall' season of 1993. Not long after that, sibling rivalry was at its peak in my family. Since I was the oldest, I was blamed for everything that went wrong, as I'm sure all oldest siblings can identify with. Now that I'm out of the house I'm proud to say that I've passed that torch onto my brother, I feel redeemed for all the violence I was accused of on his behalf. He admits that it's worse to be the oldest, and I snicker. Indirect revenge is so sweet.
I have so many CA stories that I could recount if I had another few days, but next time we'll recap my nine years in NOVA (Northern Virginia, that is), including my exciting year at James Madison University (JMU, gooo dukes!)! I know, the suspense is killing me too.
Much love from your Cali girl,
Anna