So I'm sitting atop L.A. in a penthouse loft, stroking my solid gold tiger (it's actually a living, breathing tiger), whilst sipping on a glass of... hmm, I don't know the names of any fancy wines because I only drink cheap ones. Busted.
My friends live in this place in downtown, and I recently entered into a Dog-4-Dinner exchange (very different from the kind arranged in K-town) where I come over every now and then to take my friend's dog on a walk when he's at work for a long time. In exchange, he buys us dinner when he gets back. It works out well. Yesterday was Pho, and tonight we ate at a great Mexican place called Ensenada. Horchata, vegetarian fajitas, and... noodle soup? As in, soup with spaghetti in it. Not what I'm accustomed to getting gratis in Mexican restaurants, but that soup was gewd.
Dog-walking is proving to be a very strategic way to get to know downtown Los Angeles. No matter which way we turn we're on some fairly major street each with its own flavor goin' on. The sidewalk is shiny despite the fact that every ten steps it smells like pee. After interacting with so many dogs in the 15 minutes or so that we went out walking, I have a better understanding why. There be dogs all UP in L.A., homes!
I guess you never really notice until you're being pulled around the city by a large hairy dog-divening-rod. Everybody had dogs that were usually chill with all the butt-sniffing and whatever, which was surprising to me. Most dogs I'm holding my breath they don't tear each others' throats out when they first meet... maybe because that's what happens with cats 100% of the time (well that was a dogmatic statement... ah? AH??).
I also got to meet a lot of Angelinos because of the portable conversation piece on the leash I was holding. This dude is a half-labrador half-basset hound. For those of you who don't know what that looks like: it's fuckin' odd. But he's also cute in a way... he's at that age where he thinks it's okay to act like a puppy and not consider the way that works with his exponentially-larger size, so he trips over stuff and knocks into things all the time. In any case, people are usually all enthralled by the weirdness/cuteness of him so they strike up a conversation.
Or, as I soon discovered, use him as a way to try and hit on me. And this is why I'm afraid to wear dresses in crowded metropolitan areas. YOU gave me these over-sized basketball shorts, society. YOU did.
DTLA has a much higher concentration of the colorful people that I associate with LA. And yes, I did realize how racist that came out the second after I typed it. While it is true that downtown is more ethnically diverse than a lot of the... ethnically-specific areas I find myself in, I'm talking about the craziness ratio. In DTLA you get more people in funny hats and platform heels who are shouting at invisible shoulder demons or trying to eat their own lips. Seriously, I didn't think having two centered pupils would ever put me in a minority group. The people are harmless, of course-- or at least, that's been my experience before 10pm-- but it's definitely something different that keeps you more aware of your surroundings. There's very little crazy in Chinatown; at least, DTLA-caliber crazy. We've just got a lot of 120-year-olds creaking around... but they're not crazy; just very, very old. Most of Chinatown has its wires straight, or else they're just keeping all the crazy people locked upstairs.
Tomorrow is a day off from my internship. You know what that means.
No, it actually means doing all the stuff I scheduled to do on the one day where I was free to do them. EXCITEMENT COURSING THROUGH MY VEINS
My friends live in this place in downtown, and I recently entered into a Dog-4-Dinner exchange (very different from the kind arranged in K-town) where I come over every now and then to take my friend's dog on a walk when he's at work for a long time. In exchange, he buys us dinner when he gets back. It works out well. Yesterday was Pho, and tonight we ate at a great Mexican place called Ensenada. Horchata, vegetarian fajitas, and... noodle soup? As in, soup with spaghetti in it. Not what I'm accustomed to getting gratis in Mexican restaurants, but that soup was gewd.
Dog-walking is proving to be a very strategic way to get to know downtown Los Angeles. No matter which way we turn we're on some fairly major street each with its own flavor goin' on. The sidewalk is shiny despite the fact that every ten steps it smells like pee. After interacting with so many dogs in the 15 minutes or so that we went out walking, I have a better understanding why. There be dogs all UP in L.A., homes!
I guess you never really notice until you're being pulled around the city by a large hairy dog-divening-rod. Everybody had dogs that were usually chill with all the butt-sniffing and whatever, which was surprising to me. Most dogs I'm holding my breath they don't tear each others' throats out when they first meet... maybe because that's what happens with cats 100% of the time (well that was a dogmatic statement... ah? AH??).
I also got to meet a lot of Angelinos because of the portable conversation piece on the leash I was holding. This dude is a half-labrador half-basset hound. For those of you who don't know what that looks like: it's fuckin' odd. But he's also cute in a way... he's at that age where he thinks it's okay to act like a puppy and not consider the way that works with his exponentially-larger size, so he trips over stuff and knocks into things all the time. In any case, people are usually all enthralled by the weirdness/cuteness of him so they strike up a conversation.
Or, as I soon discovered, use him as a way to try and hit on me. And this is why I'm afraid to wear dresses in crowded metropolitan areas. YOU gave me these over-sized basketball shorts, society. YOU did.
DTLA has a much higher concentration of the colorful people that I associate with LA. And yes, I did realize how racist that came out the second after I typed it. While it is true that downtown is more ethnically diverse than a lot of the... ethnically-specific areas I find myself in, I'm talking about the craziness ratio. In DTLA you get more people in funny hats and platform heels who are shouting at invisible shoulder demons or trying to eat their own lips. Seriously, I didn't think having two centered pupils would ever put me in a minority group. The people are harmless, of course-- or at least, that's been my experience before 10pm-- but it's definitely something different that keeps you more aware of your surroundings. There's very little crazy in Chinatown; at least, DTLA-caliber crazy. We've just got a lot of 120-year-olds creaking around... but they're not crazy; just very, very old. Most of Chinatown has its wires straight, or else they're just keeping all the crazy people locked upstairs.
Tomorrow is a day off from my internship. You know what that means.
No, it actually means doing all the stuff I scheduled to do on the one day where I was free to do them. EXCITEMENT COURSING THROUGH MY VEINS
Haha love this! Still #1 fan of your writing. Glad post-grad life is going well =)
ReplyDelete-Angela