LA - sunny, warm (dare I say hot?), flat and dry. It's all these things. A walking city it is not. I muled some packages for some friends on the plane, so I spent the morning looking for a post office (not a drug thing, and expat thing. It's far easier to mail packages within the country than to ship from offshore). The post office was about a mile away and the walk was oh so much fun.
One upside of the walk was that I discovered a branch for my bank. Saved me the hassle of mailing in a deposit, and let me change my stack of Grants for a larger stack of Jeffersons (learned the hard way that you can't use "big" bills in Quito). I asked the teller to leave the bank ribbon on the stacks 'cause that's, well, kind of cool. Nothing like walking around the mean streets outside of LAX with an inch thick wad of bills hanging out of your pocket. This is one of those situations where a not particularly observant observer might jump to the wrong conclusions. Reminds me of the time back in the internet explosion when I bought a domain name off some guy in the Borders parking lot in Herndon, VA. Drive into busy parking lot, meet a total stranger, hand over a cashier's check for an ungodly sum, receive small envelope in return. Nothing untoward or morally dubious going on, but it still feels a little strange.
While I was walking around the deserted parking land that is both LA and the entire area around the airport, I couldn't help but compare A and my traveling styles. Here I am, taking the late night coach flights into godforsaken airports, shuttling around to low rent motels and walking everywhere to save a buck, while she jets off to Chicago for some hoity-toity food show and is spending the week driving from place to place in a fancy leather-upholstered, voice-activated, navigation-assisted monster SUV. What gives? Ah well, to each his own, I guess.
I'm missing my camera. I've come across some great images over the last couple of days, and I haven't been able to take any pictures of the construction efforts recently (Saturday's laundry day, by the way - all the workers string up their clothes across the construction site at the end of the day). It would be a lot simpler if I just splurged on a camera phone...hmmm, that's not a bad idea.
I also had a random product idea.
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3 comments:
wads of cash hanging out of your pocket? ssskkkeeeeetttttcccchhh.
Yes - this reminds me of a time when my boss was traveling to Russia for a month to shoot a show.
They are very particular about the dollars they will accept over there, so I had to go to the bank and get her about $40,000 in crisp, uncirculated $100 bills.
There was something about walking through Dupont with $40K cash in my bag that added a strange vibe to an otherwise normal walk...
and whatever you do, don't get any blood on the bills.
and don't be too jealous about A's traveling style. thats just how it is sometimes (says the 5 star first class traveler)
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