From here to there

The nights here are strange. The weather is warm, the windows are rolled down, dining is done al fresco, and I, I go to the movies alone. In a strange coincidence of events when I entered my local, rather-fancy-yet-open-late grocery store, ABC was playing by the Jackson 5. Now that may not strike you as strange, but it happens to have been the number one song for the year I was born. And I happened to have been reading that curious fact in a little pamphlet I was perusing under the fluorescent lights. Somehow, the combination of seeing a movie alone, the warm nights, and rather pedestrian coincidence led me straight to the spirits aisle, when, in fact, I was only there to pick up some milk. Instead, I found myself choosing from a selection of Kentucky bourbons, stealing two cubes of caramel from the bulk candy section, and plumb forgetting the milk. I bummed a cigarette outside, drove past my high school and saw a ragged--ok, when aren't they--coyote running down the road in front of me as I drove up my canyon. My canyon. It sounds weird. Like not quite right. Or not quite real. I heard a rolling sound from the back of my truck bed and someone had thrown an empty beer bottle back there. I guess, you could say, I am getting used to my new life. A life that constantly reminds me of the last summer I spent here, back when I was 18 and freshly returned from my first year of college.

It's not the worst thing feeling like you're a kid again. And it was a spectacular summer, particularly because I knew it was my last. Because I knew I was changing. Because I was somehow outgrowing this vast metropolis. And here I am again. And every turn I see myself driving down the same streets in my old yellow Toyota Corona with the bench seat, girlfriends beside me, ready for adventure, ready to see what the night would bring. I used to love driving as a teenager. Hell, who didn't? It was so liberating, so grown up. We could drive for hours. And did. Aimlessly. Windows rolled down. Stereo turned up.

The good news is I am exploring this place in a way I never did as a teen. I s'pose I took it for granted. All the history here. All that it has to offer. For chrissakes, I live right next to Thai Town which is adjacent to Little Armenia. Where else in the world do those two populations make neighbors, let alone make neighbors with me? I walked to this city's famous sign, I rode my bike 30 miles on an errand I didn't even need to make, I went to the 98 cent store and it was good.

But I kinda feel like that aimless teen again, minus the girlfriends. Where is this all gonna take me? When will the journey end? And yet, like any teen will tell you, the destination is not really the point.