Tonight, I'm sitting on my couch watching an episode of Psych. A week from today, I'll be tired from a long day at work, and Huntington Beach will just be a memory. And memories are cool, but I think that's the reason why we travel so much. It's also probably why we travel back to the same place again and again. Because time numbs everything - good or bad, for better or worse.
In fact, time did enough of a good job that I've already forgotten a few things about the trip. So here they are:
The Earthquake
I'm not going to lie. One of the reasons I don't like going to California is the threat of the earthquake. Not an earthquake - the earthquake. The one that has been prophesied by everyone, displayed in movies, and looming at all times. People have said that the Big One could happen anywhere from the next five minutes to the next fifty years.
And that's what I don't like about earthquakes - there's no detecting them. Living in Texas, our biggest concern is tornadoes, but we get ample warning about them. Tornadoes only show up during certain weather conditions, are predicted by highly paid weathermen using very expensive equipment, and prompts a huge tornado siren that can be heard all over the city. Plus, Dallas has Fort Worth, it's own private tornado defense system - tornadoes are much more likely to hit there than here (and I thank all my Fort Worth friends for this).
But earthquakes can happen at any time without warning. One minute, you're enjoying dinner...and the next minute, your dinner has been thrown on the ground by violent shaking. Oh, and you're running for your life as the building collapses around you.
And, yes, I'm afraid of getting sucked up into the sky by a tornado and taken to the Land of Oz. But I'm a lot more afraid of suddenly falling into the Earth and into a Brendan Fraser movie.
However, I can tell you that I've been in two earthquakes. One was about ten years ago in San Diego, and one was a week ago tonight (in fact, it happened almost exactly one week ago). The funny thing is that I didn't feel either.
The earthquake last week was a 5.3 and happened pretty close to my aunt's house - close enough to shake some things off the table. It was pretty big news locally, and it seemed like a pretty big deal. But I was at a happy hour at the time, and I didn't feel anything. And not only that, no one seemed to feel anything. The three people I was with didn't feel anything, and the group I had dinner with didn't say anything about it. And no one in either restaurant said anything about it.
So this one wasn't bad, and I'm okay with earthquakes that I find out about after the fact. But I'm guessing I'd feel The Big One. And that's enough to keep me away from California a lot of the time.
Real Sushi
One of the great reasons to travel is to experience different foods. You go to Kansas City and try the barbecue, you try the seafood in New Orleans, and you try the pizza in Chicago/New York. And when I was in Los Angeles, I decided to try some real sushi. I say "real" because I've only had sushi from Dallas-based places, and I wanted something from Little Tokyo.
So we went over to Little Tokyo, and we had some legitimate sushi. The menu was in Japanese, and everything looked authentic (at least, moreso than the Tom Thumb down the street) so it was pretty good. I decided to get an assortment of the sushi that they had - tuna, shrimp, eel, and a few others. Add in some California rolls, and it was a pretty cool meal.
I've recently started to get a taste for sushi, and that probably helped get me a little closer to finally accepting it. I've been told that there's actually some good sushi in Dallas - I wonder if that's true.
One Hundred Percent
When we were at dinner (Bubba Gump Shrimp at Universal Studios), our waiter was very charismatic and entertaining. It turned out that he was an aspiring stand-up comedian, and we asked him what percent of people in the front of the house (the wait staff, hosts/hostesses, and bartenders) were working to be in the entertainment industry. So...actors, actresses, writers, singers, dancers, directors, etc.
He said it was pretty much one hundred percent, which makes sense. And it was accentuated by the fact that we met several others that seemed to be looking in the same direction. And what it really does is make Los Angeles a great place to go out to eat - all the waiters/waitresses that you have are attractive, charismatic, funny, and entertaining.
Conclusion
So there you have it. My trip was fun, and it was pretty cool to throw together a trip on a whim and a prayer. It was nice to stare out at the ocean and allow myself to sink into the sand. And it was fun to be out in sunny California for a week, even though it wasn't all that sunny most of the time.
I wanted to thank my aunt for having me and for setting up everything. Every minute was filled with something fun and interesting, and it made for an exciting trip.
And it makes sense that I'm wrapping up the LA trip today because I booked my plane tickets for my next trip (to Washington, DC) today. There will be more on that later, but I definitely have the travel bug at the moment. Hopefully, I can win the lottery soon and I can continue to feed it.
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