Anyway, on to what I love to complain about, traffic and driving in LA. A couple of recent anecdotes for you: I drove a friend visiting from out of town to Six Flags Magic Mountain (about 30 miles North) out of the kindness of my heart, and on the way back (because I'm a dip sometimes -- I have my brunette moments) I missed the 405 turnoff from the 5. Because everything in the valley looks the same and I hadn't had my tea that morning, I just kept on trucking along until I ran into the 10. (For those of you unfamiliar with LA traffic, that's about 12 miles East of where I was supposed to be.) Needless to say, hitting the 10 first confused, then shocked me, enough so that I promptly went the wrong way on the 10, tried to correct my error, and ended up hopelessly tangled in the freeway mess that is Downtown LA. (Also in my defense, the signs merely said "10/exit only" and did not specify "San Bernadino" until you were well committed to the off-ramp.) I was hopelessly trapped, and worse, unable to remember the right combination of freeways that would unlock my route home ('The 101N to 110S to 10W? No... 110N to 101S? 5S to 110S to 101N?'). Not wanting to end up on my way to Long Beach, I took the upcoming exit for Wilshire Boulevard, and limped home on city streets, seething, and with wounded pride. I am afraid that Los Angeles has won this battle.
Second anecdote:
Everyone who knows me here in LA is, I'm sure, tired of me saying this, but I'm going to do it again because I'm thick-headed and I like the sound of my own voice (typing?):
As bad as driving is in LA, parking is worse.It's basically my core philosophy about this town -- if you think this is bad, wait till we get there and they empty your wallet at valet. Anyway, having a few errands to run down in Westwood Village and a cranky Achilles tendon, I decided to drive the normally easy walk down there since I know a couple of parking lots that offer validation deals with nearby businesses, making parking essentially free. (On an environmentally friendly note, I did pick up a couple of friends who had to run some errands too, and gave them a ride down. Hooray carpooling -- now where's my medal?) Aside from the character profiles I could draw you of the perfect LA stereotypes I saw on my trip (that's a whole 'nother post, really), it was uneventful until I tried to leave the Rite Aid parking lot. The deal was, you pay $5, take a parking ticket, get it validated, get your $5 back. Not great, but simple. Right? I was so amused with one of the women in front of me in line at Rite Aid ("How much are these plants out here?" "They're from $3.99." "What about this one?" "The prices are on the bottom." "Well I need someone to help me lift them, I'm disabled.") I forgot to get my ticket validated. I was too lazy and my foot was too tired for me to go back upstairs to the store, so I decided to ask the guy at the ticket booth if I could use my receipt as validation. He was apoplectic. No no no! You have to get validation! You park here and go get validation! "No, you know what, that's ok, I'll just pay and go." No! You park here! Look you can back up and park and go get validation! "No, that's alright, I don't need the money. I have to be somewhere..." NO, just park now, go get validation! You need sticker like this! "No. That's OK. I NEED to BE somewhere." And so on, until I was just considering driving through the barrier to get free -- he may have seen the look of determination in my eye. I've never argued with someone to get them to keep the money they were kind of cheating me out of. It felt like a scene from Fawlty Towers.
Being able to drive again is definitely a mixed blessing.
However, here's something that makes everything ok:
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