Hasta Luego Los Angeles

Good bye, good bye, good bye, The great city of Los Angeles.


No more traffic jams on the Hollywood fwy, with a naked guy picking his nose to your right and a rocker chick (who's Tuesdays are her Paris Hilton look), blasting 50 cent in a Mercedes Benz to your left.


I'm gona miss rolling outta bed, getting dressed and driving downtown within 10 minutes to buy my beads. Passing through skid row and saying, "Now I've seen everything." Every time. And every time, I realize how the fine citizens of skid row mixed with the scum bags of high society are actually living the same life. And all I'm trying to do is buy my beads.


Hasta luego, Los Angeles. You have taken me in and spit me out just like that 16 year old runaway from Kentucky with big city dreams. 'Cept, all I had were childhood memories of bus rides through this native city.


RTD (Rough Tuff & Dangerous) Line 108 got me from South Gate to smack dab in the middle of 7th and Broadway. Looking around at the people selling knock off Gucci's on the street corner while the architects and lawyers were wearing the real McCoy's in the old skyscrapers at the top of the building. What a stretch in lifestyles from the street level to the 20th floor.
Jessie called us Angelinos. A word that I will no longer be associated with. I have now been stripped of my Angelino badge and have been sent packing with the rest of the unworthy visitors.


That savory smell of smog, car fumes, tar and bloody pork loin from Farmer Johns slaughter house is no longer mines to claim. Mmmm, only a select few know how that aroma brings you home.


I knew something was awry when The Belmont Tunnels were taken over. What's L.A without a graffiti safe haven? No more graffiti competitions...what's this world coming to? That place was thick with years of spray painted egos of kids wanting recognition. Damn you city politics!
L.A. love story. Where else can you meet the man of your dreams other than on the corner of Hollywood & Vine? We were destined to be. Late to a concert, ex-boyfriends, my cousin not making it & sending a stand in, bump into Mr. Dante on Hollywood & Vine. Any other outfit and I coulda been a hooker and he my John that infamous night. I guess it still turned out that way, some nights...;)


Orevua City of Angels. Where else can you take your kid to a Children's Museum (for face painting), Moca (for Andy Warhol exhibits) and The Placita (for some delicioso carnitas) all around the corner from a Federal Prison? If we all took our kids to these free places and actually spent time with them, perhaps they wouldn't end up spending time behind bars wishing they had a childhood filled with museum and Placita memories. A stretch I know. But nonetheless, it's L.A, (I'm still technically here 9/14/05) so, the book says I can still dream while I'm in this zip code.


Car rides at night were the best. Thanks Dante. Those are the times I will never forget. The cold night breeze, seeing the hot steam from the industrial buildings on the other side of the bridge, knowing that their are working class men/wo who are sweating for their families. Kids at home somewhere knowing that they are safe and fed. Looking back at the City of Los Angeles. City lights, neon signs and homeless men wandering around with baskets with no where to go will forever be burned into my mentals.


Teaching Dez and her cousin to drive in the alleys of downtown L.A. An instant bowl of whiplash but it was all worth it in order to hear the girls giggling. You gotta love the fact that the cop did not stop a 10 year old, midnight driver cause he had better shit to do. Only in L.A.
So, you think I'm a bit dramatic? You must have not lived here. I Love being in love with L.A.
El Taxco, Palermos, El Tepeyac, Cliftons, La Placita, Philipes, Ramonas, Woody's, Amapola's, The Water Park, Book Soup, Pink's, Melrose Flea Market (just to gawk), King Taco, Sunset Blvd.at night (to scream out: "YOU FUCKIN LOSERS!!!), The Hollywood sign (ditching school to find it on The RTD), Compton Fashion Center, Slauson Swap meet, Exposition Park (and the caboo), The abandoned cemeteries of Bell Gardens, Barney's Beanery (and the crazy secret), The Dresden, Tommy's at 3 in the morn, The California Theatre, Million Dollar, Shamrock Social Club, The Anti Club, Farmers Market and fish n chips, Saint Vincent's thrift shop, South Central's Animal Shelter, Griffith Park, Lillianas Tamales, El Superior, The River Bed, Greenspans, China Town (and skinhead fights), Venice, Amoeba, driving through Echo Park (thinking what happened?) All within 10-15 minutes from my home. Then suddenly realizing, real estate, the good, the bad and the ugly is what happened. Depends what side you're on. To you who can afford to stay, I say, "you bastards." For me I say, "Hellooo Riverside."


Good bye, L.A. and all the dead memories of what once was.