Getting a Feel for How LA I've Become

So, as usual, I wax and wane with my blogging. This time, it's been for good reason - I attended two friends' weddings in New England over the last month. And it offered me the opportunity to see how much of an Angelino I've become. Here in LA, I still feel feel very far to the East on the coastal spectrum - I wear a lot of black, I gasp want to ride the metro and bus system, and I don't strike up conversations with strangers. But it turns out I've been moving ever so slightly West in my attitudes.

In particular, I've gotten friendlier. This is really the one big difference that has struck me the most here, probably because it was so unexpected. I know folks in the South and Midwest are famously more cordial and hospitable than us curmudgeonly Yankees, but people in LA? Who knew?

So, there I am, standing in line at the Radio Shack on Boylston St in Boston, picking up a new battery for my parking gate remote when I hear myself launch into a whole story to the clerk - how I had been at Starbucks across the street and I knew I needed a new battery pretty soon and I never have time to get to the store on a work day.. how I was thinking "What kind of store do I even get this weird, specific battery at?" and I looked up and there was Radio Shack, right across the street... I mean, waaay too much information. I used to scowl at those people who held up the line, blathering on about anything outside the strict parameters of the transaction at hand. Now I am one of them.

However, I think this friendliness to total strangers thing it must be on a logarithmic scale - now that I'm back, I feel almost as scowly and guarded as ever compared to those around me, but I no longer feel I can wear it like a badge of honor, since I know I don't really match up to true Bostonians anymore.