Gutted

It's about quarter to 7 on the night before Thanksgiving and I'm missing out on one of my favorite bands, Maximo Park, at the Wiltern. They're opening for Travis and go on at 8. Everybody in LA is going everywhere. There's no way I would make it the 8-odd miles over hill and dale and surface streets to The Wiltern with enough time to see even half their set. Add to that $37.50 (plus convenience charges) for a ticket and parking and it's (monetarily) really not worth my while. If I was a Travis fan.... maybe. But I'm not. I am gutted. Le sigh.

Damn you, poor planning of laundry and false optimism about the traffic in LA!!! According to reports, nothing is moving, in any direction, anywhere. I thought, 'Well, doors are at 7 and the show's at 8, so if I leave about 7.30 I'll be fine!' Count in losing track of time folding my socks and suddenly it's 7.35. Doubts set in. I hem and haw for 5 minutes. 7.40 -- this is doing me no good. I check google maps for a time/distance estimate and traffic updates. "7.7 mi – about 21 mins, up to 30 mins in traffic" does me no good. It's too late -- no one can save me now. 7.45 and I capitulate.

Defeat is mine and victory is yours, once again, you cruel, cruel car-clogged asphalts of Los Angeles.

However, with this post I've turned inaction to action, so I feel at least 10% productive. I'll have to make the trek across town later anyway to pick up old-high-school-friend Britney who's coming up to NorCal with me for Thanksgiving. However, we leave at 5.15am tomorrow morning so there won't be anyone on the streets at that time!!! Ha HAH! Take THAT, city of angels!

Oh... oh, damn. I've given our brilliant plan away. Now I'll have to pray to the Parking Fairy to at least make our time in gridlock bearable.