Item: 3 editions of the LA Times
I forgot to cancel my newspaper delivery before I left this weekend. I had Saturday, Sunday, and Monday all waiting for me when I got back today. The delivery person, apparently realizing that I wasn't home and picking up papers, stacked them behind a bush so they weren't visible to anybody else. It was one of those times where somebody goes beyond what's strictly required of him, and that was nice.
But then there's the opposite. A lot of people seemed to have the same idea as I did that today would be a good day to go grocery shopping. It was one of those scenes where everyone drives in circles around the parking lot, waiting for somebody to leave. I'm aware that I'm often more frenzied about time than I should be, but I watched a man come out of the store and put his 1 bag of groceries in the trunk and spend several minutes carefully arranging things (there were eggs, after all). He then walked around to the rear driver's-side door, opened it up, went and got the groceries from the trunk and then spent some more time carefully arranging the bag in the back seat of the car. When he finally did get into the car himself, I observed him combing his hair for awhile and then taking a leisurely drink from a water bottle before he finally decided to start the engine.
He wasn't even doing it on purpose, was what had me floored. I had no idea it was possible to be that oblivious of what's going on around you. How do you not notice 10 or 12 cars that can't move until you do? This is just part of the code of living in a big city: you have an obligation to your fellow citizens to keep things moving. It's general adoption of behaviors like speeding up a little that make life in LA possible at all.
But then there's the opposite. A lot of people seemed to have the same idea as I did that today would be a good day to go grocery shopping. It was one of those scenes where everyone drives in circles around the parking lot, waiting for somebody to leave. I'm aware that I'm often more frenzied about time than I should be, but I watched a man come out of the store and put his 1 bag of groceries in the trunk and spend several minutes carefully arranging things (there were eggs, after all). He then walked around to the rear driver's-side door, opened it up, went and got the groceries from the trunk and then spent some more time carefully arranging the bag in the back seat of the car. When he finally did get into the car himself, I observed him combing his hair for awhile and then taking a leisurely drink from a water bottle before he finally decided to start the engine.
He wasn't even doing it on purpose, was what had me floored. I had no idea it was possible to be that oblivious of what's going on around you. How do you not notice 10 or 12 cars that can't move until you do? This is just part of the code of living in a big city: you have an obligation to your fellow citizens to keep things moving. It's general adoption of behaviors like speeding up a little that make life in LA possible at all.
posted by Karen at 4:29 PM
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