Los Angeles can be exhausting. If you’re not careful, it can spiral into all of the commonly associated stereotypes that made my Dad say, ”Los Angeles? Los Angeles? (deep sigh) Are you sure about this one troopie?” when I told him that I was relocating to the left coast. The traffic is terrible, the rent is worse, the people do not always pick up after their dogs, and then there are the actors…oh the actors…they and their beautiful skin seem to be everywhere. Yes, it can really get to a girl sometimes.
Last week I was the MC at a pity party for one and without a doubt I was in the throes of a Los Angeles beat down. The way that I was feeling it would have been easy to lay in bed all weekend and wallow. It was rainy, cold, dismal…a perfect storm for wallowing, but I couldn’t. I had guests. I had to be the hostess. I had to plan marathon-training routes. I had to make sure there were enough towels. I had to pull my shit together…and it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.
My friends are amazing. I forget how lucky I am that they put up with me, because after all, I am the definition of a handful. But the people who I’m fortunate enough to exchange Christmas cards with are the absolute best. Seeing LA through their virgin eyes put the spark back in my love affair with my city. We were like explorers, discovering and rediscovering all the hidden treasures that she has to offer.
Whether we were magic erasing a little “love tap” between the parking gate and my rental car, watching Marquette turn in the most embarrassing NCAA tournament performance that the modern age has ever seen, putting a face to a mysterious moniker over the best poured beer in town, listening to the next big thing in an intimate concert venue, or cartwheeling down a virtually empty beach. we.had.fun. I lost count of how many times I had to put my head down on the table and firmly give myself a time out because I was laughing so hard I couldn’t catch my breath. As my 15 year-old self would say, “we had a time.”
But more than the jackpot vintage boot I found in just my size or the countless culinary success stories we had all over this town, I got a little reminder of how pretty darn fantastic my life is, even with the occasional misstep that results in an unplanned prescription for penicillin. I have an adorable roof over my head, super cute shoes on my feet, and awfully great people in my address book. And this morning when I woke up it was like Dorothy opening the door to the munchkin village. It feels as though my life is in color again.
