dispatch from lax

(giant robot store in LA)


(condominium complex called "The Jeremy" in LA)

Sitting in the LAX McDonald's eating a fruit and yogurt parfait. I had a great visit to LA, which did include a trip to the Giant Robot Store (photographic proof to follow). Two very brief observations of a more sensational nature about my LA experience:

1. Walking around in all the early April sunshine made me feel like I was being continually irrigated by this light mist of joy. It was all I could do to keep from skipping as I walked between buildings.

2. I had occasion while I was here to acquaint myself first-hand with the condo market in LA. I was reminded of this time I saw someone eating at a sushi restaurant for the first time who mistook wasabi for guacamole. At least judging from the look on their face, that of someone whose sinuses had just been completely and searingly cleared, perhaps permanently, makes me think the sensation was something like what I felt upon seeing the prices. It's one thing to hear a housing market is "very expensive," another to see it firsthand.

Incidentally, I also took a taxi from a taxi stand at one point on my trip. I walked to the first cab to get in, and was told that the last cab in line was actually the first. The way I was told was as if this was something they thought I ought to know, so I'm not sure if this is the common way for taxi stands to work in LA. If so, maybe it's a south of the equator thing--I didn't check whether the water spun the wrong way down my shower drain.

Update, next day: I do, truth be told, know both that LA is not actually south of the equator and that water does not spin the other way down the drain south of the equator.