Okay, this one is going to be an even quicker quickie than my quickie at a café yesterday.
Me and my e-bike are placed at a window facing La Brea Ave. I tilted my head up at the busy intersection’s street sign to verify, avenue.
What’s the difference between a boulevard and avenue, anyway? I’m certain that I’ve looked up that exact question before, probably multiple times, starting in childhood, and for some reason, I don’t remember it in the way that I can quickly recall the most random facts such as the difference between a hamlet and a village or density versus thickness in regards to hair characteristics. Hm, actually, those aren’t good examples. That’s why I know them, everybody would. Everybody is a bit of an exaggeration, however, I can bet that more people can define the latter than what the difference is supposed to be between an avenue and boulevard.
When it comes to facts that I can witness in practice or concepts that I’m able to observe in different contexts, EASY PEASY! If I can’t apply it, forget about it. People have thought that I was smart or I have “the memory of an elephant,” as my wild child classmate, K-la Mari, used to say, but I’m not confident that’s the case.
What I’m finding to be true is that I take time to process information and apply it when it appears. Even if I’m not an expert in an area, if a concept constantly presents an opportunity for me to see it, I’m able to identify it as if it were my field (so long as the original explanation from an expert was good enough for application).
I went on a date (unknowingly) with an Asian man named Sitian. I was brand new to Los Angeles and he was too. However, I’d moved here from Louisiana; he’d come from China. He’d taken me out to eat at Cheesecake Factory in the Grove. Though I drove, he treated, and it was his idea — hm, now that I think about it, that was my first time at The Grove; though attracting as many tourists as Disney, I’d never heard of this world class shopping center. (I’ve also never been to Disney; Calvin, my best guy friend, claims that I intentionally avoid places and pop culture that’s popular).
During my time with this man.. mind you, I’m saying man, but he may have been all of 19 or 21, somewhere in my college age range, he wasn’t some older creeper, he was a little sweet and petite guy here in the United States as a foreign exchange student. That’s why I don’t know much about him; he didn’t speak English. Nonetheless, we’re spending time together and he teaches me the difference between facial features and head shapes across Asian ethnicities and all this time later, I’m still darn good at it. From one lesson at The Grove, years ago, before the world went into that 2020 confinement, I’ll still impress (or freak out) Asians when I accurately guess their specific ethnicity.
If you make it make sense to me, baby, I’ll get it!
Maybe I’ll need to go on a date with a civil engineer to retain an understanding of the difference between roadway categories.
Well yeah, I’m sitting here, having eaten my buffalo chicken wrap, made in-house at this natural foods and vitamins store, and munched on half the can of outback barbecue potato crips. I washed it down with a can of oat milk matcha latte. I was about to get a cacao smoothie from the smoothie bar in here, which is the same place as the deli where I picked up the spinach tortilla wrap, but I didn’t want to spend 8 bucks on a smoothie. That’s a good price though; they’re running an Earth Day special… [checks date] Oh shoot, today is the last day of the promotion! Ugh, I knew I should’ve gotten a smoothie instead of stuffing my stomach with that other junk. None of it is junk, that’s why I come here, it’s actually a WHOLE foods store, unlike fake a** Whole Foods. [rolls eyes]
I’m going to go check my post office box when I leave this family-owned natural foods and vitamins store. Maybe there will be some money for me in there. If so, I’ll go by a shared credit union branch and add it to my University account. Rent is due soon. I go to Minneapolis, Minnesota in exactly a week.
Oh, TK, look up shipping options!
Then when I get back from Minneapolis, I’ll be getting ready to go to Sint Marteen in a couple of weeks. And less than a month after that, I’ll be getting only a flight to head home for my grandmother’s birthday June. Always gotta go see my ^tea lady. Some would say I was just down South in January.. [blank face]
Y’all, I promise I sit still these days, I do. This is just… coincidence?
I wonder if I could really go six months without traveling. A year would be overly ambitious. I want to “lock in,” as Your Favorite Comic might tease, and really commit the consistent effort to making the life I love in Los Angeles even better, but I have to be realistic. Me sitting still in one city for over six months is asking a bit much. I’d have to keep myself busy AF!
I’m in the mood for a nap. I was nodding off in the gentle yoga flow this morning. Let me get up out of this natural foods and vitamins grocery store. Maybe I’ll come back for an eight-dollar smoothie this evening since they’ll be ten dollars tomorrow.