Dear Mary,
To continue. Not that Hollywood is fine. The traffic is unmoving. It moves you, to wonder why. Why do so many put up with inadequate roadways? More cars than any other nation. Yes, the U.S. is first, California is second.
And the architecture is silly. Downtown has its wonders. The Disney Hall of Frank Gehry is startling. So shiny that crews have had to buff down the glint because it was blinding condo livers nearby. And down the road, no doubt. But the malls—everywhere!—are obese. Yes, they are overeating, over-selling, over-stocked, over-emblazoned. There are so many signs that they are un-seeable. Impossible to actually read. Store aisles are not traversable. Too many displays stuffed into open spaces. Customers are intruding. Strange. Whimsy is dead. Killed by garnish and gold (fake) and zig-zaggy. TOO MUCH.
But Saturdays on Ventura Boulevard, the Valley’s main drag, was pleasant. Quiet and sunny, breezy in my two weeks, and old-fashioned. I am actually thinking of a condo, but not there. In El Segundo. I wonder where El Primo is. The former is near the airport. The bike path, wide and breezy, separated from the sea by a hundred foot deep pristine sandy beach. People go there only on the hottest sunny days. Ninety-eight percent of the time it’s yours alone. I rode my bike from Santa Monica twenty miles some days, down past El Segundo through Redondo and Manhattan Beach. Stopping to read my school assignments. At ages 34-37. They gave me an M.A. in Literature. The rides helped save my sanity. Sobriety left me wide open to totally clear, razor-sharp life, TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY! My brain was hungry, my body screamed for ACTION. So…bike rides A.A. meetings, school, appointments, bike rides.
Three years later I was about to be famous.
Since then I have been…grateful, happy, miserable, certain, confused, resigned, enraged, chastened, disappointed, gratified and still determined. The condo would be for family and friends, too. But only if I can expect regular work there.
The breezes and the traffic are freer, spaces are uncluttered and the bike path beckons.