Why I'll Never Live In LA
RF and I went to LA over the weekend for a friend’s birthday. While I like LA to the extent of visiting for a couple of days every now and then, I would never want to live there. Every time I go I get reminded of why - the smog, the traffic, the people.

The smog…you can see it with your bare eyes. Not a pretty sight. In fact, it’s pretty disgusting when you can see what you are breathing in.
The traffic…there’s no beating/avoiding/getting rid of it. It just comes with the territory. As RF’s friend says, everything in LA is 20 minutes apart…until you hit traffic. At that time it’s anyone’s guess how long it will take to get anywhere. LA’s traffic is so notorious that even Google Maps indicates a travel time with traffic and a travel time without traffic when you ask it for driving directions. From RF’s friend’s place in Valley Village to my friend’s place in San Gabriel, with a total distance of 22 miles, it takes 28 minutes without traffic or 1 hour and 30 minutes with traffic. Yes, Google Maps told us that.

The people…they are too superficial, artificial, self-centered, snobby, and ghetto. I really don’t like using this word but alas, it totally fits the bill in this situation. People do not care about you, your feelings, or what you think because it’s all about them. The world revolves around them. I can raise a few cases from this trip and a previous trip to illustrate.

Case #1 - Ghetto and Self-Centered: I was waiting in a long line to use the bathrooms at Venice Beach. If you haven’t been there before, Venice Beach has two or three bathroom facilities that each has 8 or so unisex bathroom stalls. Each facility often has a line of 10-15 people deep. Since I needed to go pretty badly, I got in line. About 10 minutes my wait, a guy walked up to the stalls and started shopping for an open one. Everyone in line called out to him that there is a line and he needs to get in it like everyone else. He ignored all the screams. Then a gentleman stepped out of one of the stalls and this guy went over and stepped right in. Noticing that the guy wasn’t the next in line, the gentleman who had just gotten out attempted to stop him by telling him “buddy, there’s a line”. The buddy didn’t care. He proceeded into the stall and closed the door behind him to do his business. We all gasped in disbelief. But what could we do? He could’ve pulled out a gun if we pressed further.

Case #2 – Ghetto and Self-Centered: Shortly after witnessing the guy cut us off and still waiting for my turn, an elderly woman (I’m guessing she’s in her late 50s) walked up to the front of the line and said out loud to everyone, “I really need to go. Can I go first?” Still irritated by the previous guy, people ignored her. Someone said softly but audibly, “We all need to go too, so get in line”. Normally I would’ve let her go ahead of me seeing that she’s an elderly person, but since I was already irritated by my surroundings and the previous happening, the situation got the best of me.

Case #3 – Ghetto/Rude/Self-Centered: As my friend was driving along Valley Blvd, a pick-up truck was stopped in the middle of the road blocking all lanes. He seemed to have backed out of a driveway and stopped there diagonally for some reason. My friend stopped up close to the truck and honked. The truck started to back up slowly, inching towards my friend’s car. I was sitting in the front passenger seat and saw that the driver wasn’t even looking as the truck was backing up. His head was down as if he was adjusting the stereo. My friend honked more vigorously seeing that he was about to get hit. The truck driver finally looked up and stopped. He looked back at us and then sped forward. My friend started driving forward as well. Then the truck suddenly stopped dead in front of our tracks. Luckily my friend was able to stop in time to avoid rear-ending him. We looked up at the driver and he laughed and drove off. This case shows how people drive as if they own the road.

Case #4 – Rude: We were walking across a relatively busy street at a two-way-stop intersection. We were already halfway thru the intersection as a car that could’ve and SHOULD’VE stopped to yield to pedestrians drove by right in front of us, narrowly missing our toes. So much for pedestrian rights.

All four cases above happened in one day. In just one day I got a good thorough look at what Los Angeles people are like.

The superficiality and artificiality of people in the LA area can be seen every which way you look. People sporting brand name clothing, the latest trends, the newest gadgets, the most expensive cars, the best figures, the cleanest shaves, the nicest hair styles, the brightest teeth, etc. I saw the most Hummers in one day in LA in a previous trip. In this trip, RF pointed out to me that practically all cars, whether new or old, nice or trashy, have a nice set of rims. Why? To show off of course. For example, we saw an old trashy Corolla that is probably worth no more than $1000 with a set of shinny rims that can probably fetch $2000 or more. The rims are more expensive than the car itself. Go figure.

In a previous trip, I noticed that all girls in Studio City had big boobs. I’m sorry to say, but they caught my eyes, especially those that were attached to a body of a girl no older than 16 years old! No friggin way EVERY girl in LA can be born with nice boobs. Unless you want to tell me the smog-filled atmosphere somehow trickles into the water system which somehow causes the human gene pool to naturally produce big boobs, I’m gonna have to say they are all fake! Those must have been artificially Pamela Anderson boobs on those 16-year-olds hanging out at the Cold Stone Creamery! Maybe I’m just jealous. But I’m pretty sure I’m not.

Anyway, enough of my LA encounters. I need to go eat now. I don’t care if my waist line grows as a result.