Blast from the Past

We moved inch by inch towards L.A in rush hour traffic. After an hour of crawling we got off the freeway and met my sister in the parking lot outside her dorm. My sister Kira is just two months into her freshman year of college and I was excited to see her and have her give me a tour of her new lifestyle. Kira helped us take our things to her suite (an amazing set-up for any college freshman) and then swiped us to in her all-you-can-eat dining hall. After having only eaten spoonful's of peanut butter all day long Sebastian and I stuff ourselves until the point of explosion. Within the first minute Sebastian had already eaten two slices of pizza. As we ate the three of us talked and laughed, we were having a good time and it felt great to see my sister again.

Afterwards Kira introduced us to her friends, a large group of guys who seemed to either have a crush on Kira or be gay...or both. All of them were extremely friendly, and some extremely awesome, and by the end of the first night Sebastian and I felt like we were back in college again. The next morning we laughed at the novelty of it, the hilarity of waking up on a futon in a dorm room and dragging ourselves to the dining hall to get eggs and waffles. "Man," Sebastian sighed, "I guess I haven't really matured much past eighteen" and we all laughed. As the days slowly turned into a week however, it became less and less funny. Suddenly, we WERE back in college. We slept in until twelve o'clock and then stumbledupon all day on the computer until dark. We scrapped for change for the vending machines. We even drank box wine. I'm all for the college experience but feeling like we were zooming back in time was just...bizarre.

We tried to get off campus to see some of L.A, this city that so many people love. My sister from a different mister Rachel, who lives in Hollywood, came and picked up Sebastian and I and showed up around. We did some amazing thrift store shopping and sightseeing in some chichi places but I kept feeling like I was missing something. To me L.A just seemed like an overgrown suburbia, with everyone locked up in their cars driving to and fro with tinted windows. Why does everyone love it here?

That night Kira took a bus down to Hollywood and the four of us went out for dollar tacos at a bar that happened to be right next to the Elliot Smith wall. Then Rachel, being the angel that she is, dropped us off at the Nokia center downtown where we had tickets to see the So You Think You Can Dance Tour. Sebastian, Kira, and I were more excited than most of the twelve year olds there. At the start of the show I got a gin and tonic and cried a silent tear for my friend Lesley, another Gold sister and my bestie who'd watched the show with me, gin in tonic in hand, all summer. The show was amazing. The three of us left dancing. On the way out Kira and I posed for a picture with pink duffels from Rite Aid that say "Camp Glam" on them and in exchange we got to keep the stylish gems, replete with free products and all.

We went out with Rachel again the next day, despite the intense November heat. That night Sebastian and I felt like we had to escape the college scene so we ventured out into Westwood to get a drink. It was a tuesday night and the bar was packed. We kept to ourselves until we struck up a conversation with a couple of Spanish guys. One of them had been living in L.A for the past six months and he talked to me about my reservations. "It's all underground, in L.A" he said, "you need to know somebody who knows somebody who knows whats going on. You need to get under the surface and then you find more than you ever knew was there."

I don't know if we ever got under that surface. We left Wednesday evening to visit our friend Archie at Calarts in Santa Clarita. By this time Kira had reentered her infamous and eternal "too-cool-for-school" attitude and seemed to just wave us off as we pulled away, which left Sebastian in particular feeling really bummed. When we got to Calarts, however, our spirits lifted. We were able to see our friend Archie perform a brilliant piece he'd written on the bassoon and hang out with people playing the hurdy gurdy and eating fire. He took us down into the basement to show us the labyrinth of graffitied walls and studios. Afterwards we went back to his apartment and sat cross legged on the floor with his roommate Pooja, talking, laughing, and reorienting ourselves to the post-undergrad world.

When we come back to pick up Kira for Thanksgiving maybe we'll have another go at cracking the exterior of this crazy town. Until then, it's the countryside for us.