We’ve all bitched about it. (Those of us in Los Angeles anyway.) We’ve changed plans because of it. We’ve made excuses due to it. It’s so far to go to that party, or go visit that friend who you haven’t seen in five months, or god, really, I have to drive to get to your house? How often do you think to yourself: “It’s Friday at six o’clock. Screw it. I’m gonna continue to sit here and watch the Bones marathon and then hit the gym.”
I, along with my other Venice Hoodrats, get poked fun at for not venturing past Lincoln. We get comfortable in our little bubble, but everyone does, no matter what area of the city you call home. I have friends who never leave downtown. I have friends who never leave Ventura. You get stuck.
The nice thing about LA is each section of town has everything you need. Bars (yup, necessities first): there are at least sixteen of them walking distance from my house. Barber: I ride my bike a whole four miles to Santa Monica, but the closest one is three blocks. Groceries, make you choice: Trader Joe’s, Ralph’s, Albertsons; the furthest I have to drive is fifteen minutes. Football: okay, I gotta go fifty feet past Lincoln to watch the Eagles, but hey, like I said, necessities). I’ve made a lot of friends here. They don’t replace my oldest and dearest friends who live all over this fine city. However, I sometimes selfishly make my plans based on the proximity to my house.
It’s a damn shame too. Back east I wouldn’t think twice about driving two hours to hang out with friends; out west the decision to cross county lines takes more planning than the invasion of Normandy. The time it takes to cross this city even the shortest distance arms me with such disgust sometimes, I easily go months without seeing my closest friends. Guys, which when I lived on the east coast, I would see at least once a week. Now, who knows when our paths will cross?
This issue can’t be better illustrated than with the help of my friend AJ. AJ used to work on Viva la Bam with me. We used to hang out all the time. I crashed with AJ, who had since wrapping Viva relocated to Santa Monica, for a few weeks before I found and moved into The Hotel. Since that time, AJ has moved to North Hollywood. I might, MIGHT, see AJ two or three times a year. That’s pathetic seeing how we pretty much grew up in the same area.
AJ moved into a new apartment with a fellow Dakota Pictures employee, Jeremy, who shares AJ’s love of Xmas. And if you know AJ, you know he looooooOOOOOOOvvvvesss Xmas. If you could only see the massive miniature village he put up at his folks house every holiday season, you would see just how deep his yuletide love goes. Anyhow, for his housewarming, AJ threw a “Xmas in July” party, complete with wreath shaped cookies and killer eggnog.
Now, if I was back in Philly, driving from my old apartment to AJ’s folk’s place is about forty miles away, maybe a forty-five minute drive. A drive I think nothing of making to participate in his awesome holiday extravaganzas. In our City of Angels, AJ lives a little over twenty miles away, but it could take anywhere from thirty minutes to ninety minutes to drive there, depending on the time of day.
And you must go alllllllllll the way over the hill to The Valley to get there. Making a trek like this takes planning, days in advance. You can’t drop what you’re doing and take off for The Valley on a whim. You gotta make sure you have time, you can’t drink because you have to drive so far home and the cops are sure to bust your ass, and god forbid the party starts late. I mean, shit, anything after ten at night and my ass is parked on the couch if I have to go anywhere further than walking distance from my house. All of this leads to you getting more comfortable in your hood, and results more often than not in a lack of mobility.
When you come from a small town, you take certain aspects of friendships for granted. Living in city like Los Angeles, you can’t. As we all age and grow up, and move out, and change cities, and make new friends, you need to realize these friends might not always be right there, just a bike ride away. We all make and have friends spanning this globe. Some of these friends you get to share a pint with once a week, some you’re only lucky enough to see once a year. The important thing is no matter how comfortable you get, to never put aside friendships because of time or distance, no matter how close or far they are.
This is how we stay so connected… So connected over space and time…
