Katie had a doctor's appointment on Friday that required for us to take public transit deep into the heart of, for lack of a better descriptive word, "Crapsville." It seems like this is the trend with doctors offices here. With exception of Neil's doctor..but even then there is that one little stretch you have to cross under the freeway...where bums live in the bushes...We became aware of the fact that this is the bum capital of CA. when we arrived.The local news stations were boasting that the city had some 10,000 homeless in the city. At first, before we realy started to explore the entire area, I thought it was an over exaggeration. I thought it was similar to San Francisco's downtown. I was wrong. There are so many homeless and they seem to be multiplying. I hate to blog about it but when it is in your face all the time it is hard not to.
Now hear me out, I enjoy taking the trolleys and trains and even the bus. I love not having to pay attention to the traffic and just sit back, listen to the interesting conversations, or my IPod and not have to realy worry about anything other than making sure I keep on schedule and don't miss my stop. With this, there is ALWAYS a story to tell when one of us comes home about some "weirdness." I don't mind it unless it gets too close.
Friday night Katie and I, after making a day of it, were headed downtown when we had our first real scare. This drunken/high or both older gentleman bum(and I am being very nice here....) came and sat next to us, and would not leave us alone despite my subtle hints to be left alone. There were a lot of other people around and two of the men nearby were also trying to "hint" that we needed to be left alone. All of a sudden he sat super close next to Katie and just as I was getting ready to cause a scene, I noticed our train was approaching our stop.
I told Katie, "Ok, this is us" and we hopped off as quickly as we could.
The transit cop must have seen the disturbed look on our faces and came over as I was calling Neil. I told him about our situation and he basically said that there is always a "someone" on the train.Then he gave us some alternate routes that don't have as many "someones" on them. I was thankful for the info and noticed that after that, the trains were heavily patrolled from then on.
After that we did a little shopping and strolled through the famous "Gas Lamp" district which is full of clubs, lounges and sports bars. They have a few live theatres and this night they had a fashion show. We arrived just as it was finishing up. We got to see some hairstyles that don't exist in nature! Curly hair standing straight up, gold painted faces, false eyelashes that were 2 inches long, 8 inch platform shoes, clothing that I really can't describe, and music so loud you could feel the bass thumping through your chest. Down the way we saw every club from Hip Hop, Underground downward spiral staircases, a Tranny bar full of Lady Gaga look alikes, High End formal wearing, to The Official House of Blues. All of these places are within a good 3/4 mile stretch or less. It was an experience to see all the people dressed to impress...some were a bit our there, and others looked like they stepped out of the pages of Vogue. We also got to hear the musical skills of the "Hari Krishnas" who played and sang very well...tamborines and all! Katie got to see her first steroid ridden bouncer too. I swear he had no neck! Let's just say if he was on the train with us, "No Worries!" haha!
And me without a camera! Darn!!
It was fun, despite the drunken turd from the train. It's always and adventure going into the city. I may not be seeing the rest of the world right now, but I am seeing a completely different world right here!!
Tomorrow we get the final set of shots for the puppies. They had to space them out as they are so little. Then we are going to go to a beach festival (weather permitting) and Monday we are off on our road trip for Neil's MRI.
We do still get our little 3 or 4 day sailing expeditions every week or so...and thank goodness for that!
(oh and I do carry a pocket knife and am going to start carrying mace and perhaps a whistle from now on!! haha).
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