MomMomMomMomMom

So last weekend my mom came to visit. This was to make up for not visiting me in Japan, even though my dad and brother both did.

Except for Jeremy and Sarah, no one else from the world of Vancity has yet visited my LA world, so it was kinda sorta thrilling to share it with someone. When Steve came to see me in Sendai, I remember having a small heart attack of happiness when I first spotted him inside the train car as it pulled into the station. It was equally thrilling searching through the LAX-ness for my mom and finding her sitting very patientally on the edge of a luggage carosel with her rolly suitcase.

Having my mom visit made me realise several interesting things.

One:
I'm a freak, and having someone who is freaky in the same way that I am around made me much more conscious of, and also delighted in, the kind of strange things I do in my life. For example: my mom constantly made pots of tea, which was great because it saved me having to. She also dug up a small jade plant that was growing out of the dirt near where I lock up my bike and she potted it in half a 2-litre pop bottle. And she found some mint growing in the backyard and deadheaded a bunch of roses so that they would bloom more. I felt as though I suddenly had a team member around, from my team, you know. Fuck, I miss Canadians.

Two:
LA is a tough city to be a tourist in, but for last weekend, I more or less was one. I tried to do as little as possible in terms of stuff for school, which felt very strange, and we drove around and looked at stuff and went shopping and did all the things I never never do here. It was strange trying to regard this city as a place to be a tourist in, and I don't think I like thinking of it that way at all. LA is considerably more utilitarian that it is anything else and all the Mulholland Drives in the world are not going to be able to do much about it.

Three:
I prefer the discomfort of being hungry over the discomfort of being overly full. I had two very expensive meals at big ol' steakhouses last week: one at Palm with Scrivy and Lee (tooling around LA enjoying the spoils of a successful bid at an auction in Rossland, BC) and Jordan and one at Fleming's out in Manhatten Beach with Scrivy and Lee and Mom. Both restaurants were very noisy and served the vegetables family style (which Lee translated as "being too lazy to spend a few minutes on presentation"). The company more than made up for any deficiencies in the restaurant in both cases, but my poverty-induced urge to clean my plate made me feel overly stuffed for a least a day after both meals.

Four:
My ridiculously insular social life allows me to spend almost as much time as I ought on school. I just don't have time to hang out with people who aren't as insane and busy as I am. If I was trying to do this in Vancouver, I'd be pulling D's. The summer is going to be bloody fantastic for remembering who I am and where I am from (as well as going camping and spending a good bank of time by the sea or in the woods and remembering what the quiet world sounds like).

Five:
My mom and I would be very good travel companions. She wants to go backpacking when I graduate for a couple months. I say: allons-y!

Six:
The rest of 69 Love Songs is as good as the first third. Thank you, Mom, for the first new cd (triple album!) in over a year and a half.