On Such a Winter's Day

Well, I made it back to the Midwest safely, though my trip to Southern California was not without incident. Towards the end of the first day, I dropped the work camera, and broke the part that attaches the lens to the body. It still kind of worked, if I held the lens on tightly whilst shooting, but that proved to be a tough method to get any shots that would be suitable for publication. When I called Frema back home to commiserate my mishap, she suggested I go ahead and buy a camera for our personal use that I could use for work while still out in Los Angeles, as we had been contemplating buying a new one, anyway. So I used that for the remainder of my time out west and just packed up the barely-working, expensive digital SLR work camera.

Much of the rest of trip was spent the rest of the trip worrying about what would happen when I got back. I knew I wouldn't get fired, but I didn't want to get in trouble, either. Instead, I just got made fun of a little by my boss. I guess I worked for crappy employers for far too long at the newspaper back in Rensselaer and got used to expecting the worst from those who sign paychecks. I need to give my current employers more credit in the future.

I wish that I had more interesting stories to tell of the journey, but I spent most of the time on the freeway, trying to get to the places I needed to go for work. You hear stories about the traffic and the roads there, but they don't compare to the arduous task of getting around the LA metropolitan area. I had all of my routes carefully mapped out well with estimated travel times from MapQuest, but what I didn't know when I was planning this trip is that from about 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. or so, you have to quadruple that number to know how long it will really take to get where you're going.

Although I didn't see any celebrities or take a stroll down the Walk of Fame, I did glimpse the famed HOLLYWOOD sign from the road. I also took a short side trip to Santa Monica at the end of my last day out there to see the ocean. Not having a lot of time nor the proper attire for swimming, I stuck my hand in the water to say I've been in the Pacific. I also took a walk up and down the Santa Monica Pier, which has been a location for various movies and television shows. But it really just reminded me of a smaller, cleaner version of the Atlantic City boardwalk sans casinos, stray cats, and street names that inspired Monopoly spaces. I did stop and watch a few outdoor performances, including a "one-man band" who advertised himself as being on both Jimmy Kimmel Live and America's Got Talent.

Now that I'm in Indiana again, I have to reacclimate myself to winter. I was only there three days and got used to not wearing a coat, though I saw many Californians in cold-weather gear who seemed to think that temperatures in the mid-60s were chilly. I suppose it's all relative, but I still couldn't help thinking that they were wusses. Not that I, myself, especially enjoyed being outside while scraping the frost and ice off my car this morning, either.