2000-09-25 | 03:50:55

today i fell back in love with los angeles.

i know, i know. i've been waxing poetic about new york. i had a couple of weekend rendevouses with the city that never sleeps. nyc became the big apple of my eye for couple of months.

that first time i flew back to l.a. from la guardia, i knew it was over between me and the city of angels. just a matter of giving the key back and packing my stuff up to go. i was tempted by the fruits of another and was ready to give up everything i had in l.a. for hot passion on the eastern seaboard.

then i got back into my regular routine. realized how much i like where i work. how much i love spending time with my sister. how much i dig my friends here.

still, i frequently found myself in a new york state of mind. so nyc and i gave it another shot a couple months later. oh yes, the magic was still there, but it felt like our timing was off. it was the right place, but the wrong time.

sometimes still, when i'm alone, late at night, i think about new york and get a little jolt of excitement. a tinge of longing. i want to be with it one day, but right now i can't deny that i love the one i'm with.

yes, l.a. has her charms, despite the dissing everyone else in the world likes to dish out. sure, it's full of shallow people and silicon valleys of a different sort. sure, it's smoggy and over-crowded. sure, it's spread out so thin it's hard to get a sense of a thriving metropolis. but...

it rained a bit here on friday and saturday...nature's way of windexing the sky of all that gyacky pollution. today, sunday, was warm and clear. i visited a friend who lives on a hill near downtown. the tilting palms trees and proud skyscrapers excused themselves to kiss the sky. (like the old joke says, UCLA when the smog clears.)

my friend and i wandered through the funky shops of silver lake while i loaded up on kitschy schtuff i just HAD to have...like a velvet postcard "painting" of kurt cobain and a roll of orange packing tape with "handle with care" written in japanese on it and orange leopard sunglasses. (a friend of mine told me that orange is the color of sexual power. gee, could there be some freudian reason it's my current favorite? actually, a couple of people have recently told me that orange looks good on me and is "my color." heh. well, it's about time. bring it on!).

my shopping hunger whetted, i drove home on sunset boulevard (we love it!). i passed crowded, security gate-corseted shops and businesses with cacophonous signs announcing flank steak on sale and shoe shining while you wait. i passed the famed chateau marmont where belushi bought it. i passed the pretty-in-pink beverly hills hotel where marilyn monroe frolicked in the bungalows. i passed sprawling craftsman houses and turreted towers. i passed chubby latino boys waving rags to get drivers' attentions, as if the yellow signs as tall as them screaming "maps to the stars' homes" weren't attention-getting enough.

on the way, i swung by the virgin megastore for an indulgent music fix, then, sensing the tempting waft of movie theater popcorn, slipped into the multiplex to get a snack to go.

i was wearing this orange t-shirt (quel shock!) with a little '60s-bobbed-hair-meets-anime illustrated girl on the front, featuring the slogan "sugar girls are fierce." (sugar being the brand throwing down the manifesto.)

the cute popcorn jockey caught me off-guard by asking, "are you a sugar girl?" for a second, i thought he was asking if i wanted candy with my popcorn, then i realized what my shirt was broadcasting. i grinned. "yep, and i'm fierce, too." he grinned back.

loaded with my retail booty, i continued down sunset, drinking in the bell-clear, golden, slanting sunlight of about 5 p.m. my favorite time/light of the day. at a stoplight, a mom holding her little curly-topped daughter on her hip crossed the street. the sun got tangled in the tawny blonde of their hair. twinkling. lovely.

twinkling. lovely. los angeles. she's been my love for two years. i guess i had started to take her for granted. my mistake was trying to compare her kick-back beauty to the cosmopolitan chic of new york. it's really not fair. they are both sexy for their own reasons.

i'm sorry i neglected you, baby. i'd like to stay awhile longer, if you'll still have me. i may heart new york, but you have my sol.

*****

for more soul food, why not swing by girlboy and see what weezerchick is looking for in the man she'll stand by.

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