Day 1 LA

I love coming to see Joel!

Travel was uneventful except for Joel being stuck in traffic picking me up.  LAX feels like an airport in a foreign country with all the hustle and bustle and the variety of people.  It reminds me so much of the airport in Guatemala City.  

So we were facing traffic to get to Disneyland right off the bat after Joel had driven in horrible stop and go traffic from work, so we slowly made the decision not to go and to workon other options to get to Disneyland this weekend. Later we were glad we did.

So,first Joel shared that he is eating his version of the paleo diet.  Ha!  This is quite unique for my very non health conscious son.  So he talked me into a vegan Cuban restaurant.  What?  I ate fake chicken with potatoes and carrots and peas with rice and fried plantains.  Joel shared his delicious black beans.  It was all surprisingly edible!  

Then we drove through a whole bunch more traffic across familiar street names (from movies), Ventura, melrose, sunset, Holywood blvd.... Joel's apartment is a block off Hollywood blvd. on a cute wide street with palm trees and unique apartment buildings and converted homes.  Joel's house is very craftsmancottage style.  His apartment is in the back on the ground floor. It seemed small but very homey right off the bat but seems plenty big now because it is arranged perfectly with all he needs-- a decent sized kitchen and bathroom and closets, a sitting area, work area, and full size bed.  

So we went walking right off the bat down Hollywood blvd to get some things Joel was out of.  Hollywood blvd has coffee shops and restaurants and familiar places like petco and Marshall's. All with palm trees and lots of people, mostly normal looking and some quite unique, of all races and ages and socioecominc groups.  We went to a basic pharmacy place to get the supplies and saw these cool planters on the way back.

After settling in to Joel's apartment, we walked down to his favorite coffee shop, less than a block, and got some coffee (Joel isn't drinking coffee now!). It was open mic night.  I am telling you it was more entertaining than anything you'd see on tv.  First there was a comedian who read his jokes off his phone who wasn't funny at all.  The audience was so small that he kept reading and commenting on my facial expression!  There was a poetry reader and some not so great musicians then this big lady dressed in black with sunglasses and a hat, had them crank the volume and with guitar accompaniment she sang a ballad about growing up in Tuscan at top volume with lots of vibrato, not on key and complete with all the animal sounds, coyotes, rattle snakes, etc.  It was a trip.  Extreme entertainment.  Then there were rappers who were very energetic and very into it.  They reminded me so much of my students that I must have looked very encouraging because they commented on me liking it.  They were not very good but made up for it with their enthusiastic hopping around and gestures and style.  And how much fun they were having.

We returns to the apartment and watched glow on netflix and got a good night sleep.  Here is my quiet time place right in front of Joel's aprtment and we are about to embark on day 2.