I left for So Cal on Sunday morning. I took a cab, which I thought was a bit much at $14, but the cab ride home was even more, $16. I had a 20% off coupon for my ride home from the cab company that took me to the airport, but by the time I got home I just did not want to wait. It was still cheaper than parking my car for $9 a day.
I was really anxious about my trip, which seemed to manifest itself in me being unable to pack for afternoons in 80 degree weather. I seemed to have already forgotten what that is like. I also forgot I was traveling on January 1st and they served free drinks on the plane, at nine am! I don't know what it is about airports that makes me think about getting drunk, I must have sat in many airport bars. I know I used to slurp down two drinks on the short flight from LA to Vegas. On the flight from Boise to Oakland I thought I was going to jump out of my skin.
In Oakland I changed planes. As I walked through the Oakland airport, everyone walking towards me walked directly at me without showing any indication that they might move to the side, like a walking version of chicken. Everyone must still have been hung-over.
The weather in So Cal was unbelievable. I felt obligated to go out walking all the time. I loved being outside and wearing a long sleeved t-shirt and sitting outside on a patio all afternoon, but it felt strange to be in So Cal. So Cal is a nice place, but it is not for me. On my walks I saw manicured lawns and plants and driveways full of BMW and Lexus and Volvo and I like Boise better, it is more wild and messy. I kept wanting to mess people's hair and make-up. Knock, knock, is there a real person in there? It was weird that everything is so green and flowers are still blooming. Some trees were changing color that changed color here months ago and I walked past a lemon tree full of bright yellow lemons that I wanted to pick. Unlike Boise, So Cal is still full of color in January.
It was great to see my friends in Simi, at least Simi Valley is a bit messier, and I could not believe I have been gone for a year and a half. I wish I had more time, it was impossible to catch up in a few hours. People ask me what is different about Boise, besides the price of everything being half, and I say people are more friendly here, but they are also more private, more respectful of your space, and this makes me friendlier, more open. I think I will now have to add that Boise is messier, less kept, more free to be itself.
I arrived back in Boise without event. This time I changed planes in Vegas. The Las Vegas airport beats Oakland by a mile. I wore my bright orange BSU sweatshirt home and made the mistake of not knowing all about their bowl game, if you are going to dress like a fan you have to know a few relevant facts. I probably forgot because it was so long ago, BSU beat Arizona State in the MAACO Bowl in Las Vegas December 22nd. Who ever heard of the MAACO Bowl and why so early?
As part of my new friendlier self, I struck up a conversation with the person next to me on most of my flights. I traveled with a guy on leave and going back to his army base in Kansas, a girl from Boise returning to LA after visiting her parents, and a high-strung woman who's son was just in Sun Valley, where there was no snow. The girl from Boise returning to LA is trying to break into the movie biz and if you are going to do that you have to be in LA. We talked about the fire-setting that started last Friday and how her parents in Idaho wanted her to come home. I can't say that I blame them. There is no snow at any of the ski resorts in Idaho and most have not opened. Today was the record latest opening date for Bogus Basin, the resort less than an hour from Boise, and as of today they are not open.
On Thursday morning, Boise treated me to this sunrise as a welcome home,
Before I left for So Cal I watched The Help, Anonymous, J Edgar, and The Descendants. So far, I'm finding many movies from 2011 include history I did not know. The Descendants is a decent small movie with a great performance by the older daughter and some Hawaiian history. The Help was super, with what has to be an award winning performance by Viola Davis and set in Mississippi during the civil rights movement. Anonymous is about the person who really (maybe) wrote Shakespeare's plays. I do not know how factual the story is, but it was fascinating and the film well done. Vanessa Redgrave and her daughter Jolie Richardson play Queen Elizabeth old and young, which was much more believable than trying to use the same actress. This is unlike J Edgar, which included the absolute worst movie make-up I've ever seen. This is not one of Eastwood's best, although he does include some of J Edgar Hoover's achievements and some history that I did not know. Anyone remember the Bolshevik bombings in 1919?
From intellectualconservative.com,
"April 28, 1919 saw the first fruits of the Bolshevik plot when a bomb was dismantled at the home of Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson. The next day, a Bolshevik bomb ripped the hands off of an employee of Georgia Senator Thomas Hardwick as she opened the deadly package and severely burned his wife. A few days later, May Day, thirty-four bombs were intercepted before reaching their intended targets which included, among others, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, North Carolina Senator Lee S. Overman, Utah Senator William H. King, Postmaster General Albert Berlson, and John D. Rockefeller. On that same May Day, coordinated and violent riots of a seditious nature were launched in several cities, notably Boston, and a bomb wrecked a municipal building in Brownsville, Pennsylvania on May 2.
One month later, June 2, 1919, bombs were simultaneously set to blow up in eight American cities. On that day, bombs exploded at the homes of Boston Judge A. F. Hayden and at the Newtonville Massachusetts home of State Representative Leland W. Powers. A bomb was intercepted and defused at the office of Cleveland Mayor H.L. Davis and two bombs exploded in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, one next to the home of Federal Judge J. Thomson and the other next to the home of immigration official W.W. Sibray. In New York City, the home of Judge Charles C. Nott was bombed. Night patrolman William Goshner was killed by what the New York Times referred to as an “infernal killing machine” as was an unidentified man trying to defuse the bomb intended for Judge Nott.
In Philadelphia, the Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church and the Frankfort Arsenal were bombed. Bombs also exploded at the homes of prominent citizens in Patterson and East Orange New Jersey.
Most significantly, from a political standpoint, a huge bomb ripped off the front of the Georgetown home of President Woodrow Wilson’s Quaker pacifist U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. The terrorist planting the bomb at Palmer’s door was killed when he tripped trying to flee the scene. Palmer and his young family were not hurt in the assassination attempt. The massive explosion caused windows to shatter at the neighboring home of Palmer’s close friend and political associate, Under Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt."
(http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article4593.html)
In So Cal I watched the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Parts of that book were hard to read and they were even harder to watch. I heard the Scandinavian series is so good that one wonders why someone bothered to make an American version, but I am not sure I could stomach that film again. Yesterday I finished watching The Artist. Interesting idea, superbly done, pretty boring to watch.
I was glad to thaw out for a few days, but I am more glad to be home. What will 2012 be?
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