The biggest difference from here and Hawai'i is the temperature. Right now, it's hovering around 58 degrees. The rain is a constant drizzle, enough to dampen everything. Every now and again there's a bit of a downpour but it doesn't last.
Maybe it's because Altadena is at the foothills of the mountains, or perhaps we're at a bit of elevation (around 1500 feet above sea level), but it just looks like we're in a cloud. I like it. Supposed to be like this off and on for the next 4 or 5 days. Sorry Zoilo and family, you may get a sprinkle while we're at Disneyland. The bonus... It's not going to be busy.
Best part, there's no A/C in the office so it's just above 60 degrees in here while I type. I like cool temperatures and weather.
-
While we were in Hawai'i for the holidays, Nicoles younger sister house and pet sat for us here in Los Angeles. Upon our return to Los Angeles, between bouts of trying to catch up with our sleep, Nicole and I had conversations with her about her living situation. I'm not going into detail, but it reminded me of my youth and finding my way.
She's 23 now, the same age I was when I moved out of my parents house and on to Los Angeles. When I first came to the mainland, I didn't move directly to Los Angeles, I moved to a suburb of San Diego called Mira Mesa. If you look it up on a map, it's just north of Mira Mar, home of "Top Gun". Never did see Tom Cruise while I was living there, but I did live with a family who owned a dog named "Cruise" after Tom and his "Top Gun" character. The family I was living with, the Oltmans, their daughter and son were friends of mine from Hawai'i who happened to moved to San Diego a few months before I was moving to L.A. to go to school. I thought it would be a good idea to live with them for the summer before starting school.
They took good care of me. They fed me and let me use the car to go play roller hockey down in San Diego. I didn't have to worry about much. I think it was a good transition from family living with my folks in Hawai'i at a surrogate family in San Diego. No shock of moving into a dorm room on my own with a strange roommate.
As the time drew near to my move to the CalArts dorms, I began to get antsy. I wanted to be prepared for all the things I was going to need to do for myself that I never had to do before. Among those things, the thing I remember most was toilet paper.
Toilet paper is something you never really think about when you live under someone else's roof. It's always there, when it runs out it's replaced or you know where the replacement roll is. You never have to choose what type of toilet paper you're purchasing, you just use what's on hand.
But when you live on your own, it's just one of many choices you now get to make for yourself. You can choose your dish soap, laundry soap, what type and colour coat hangers you have, plates, bowls, utensils, drinking glasses, towels, bed sheets, how often you wash said bed sheets, and toilet paper.
It may not seem like much, but making these small choices are what makes us truly independent. Toilet paper has become my analogy for independence.
Of course, when I moved into the dorms, they provided the toilet paper for us. My roommate Clay and I shared a bathroom with the adjacent dorm room. I'm assuming CalArts wanted to prevent the independence debate by providing the toilet paper. I did however have to make all the other independent choices in August of 1993: Dawn, Tide, white plastic not wire hangars, a set of 1 dollar plates, bowls, utensils, and plastic cups from the dollar store, Target towels and bed sheets, washed once a week.
I bought my first package of toilet paper in May of 1995 when I moved into the house on Bircher Street with 3 other students/friends from CalArts.
I bought Charmin.
...
1 comment:
How was Disneyland?
Post a Comment