"Solidarity"

I finished up my year with JVC last week...but this is something I wrote a couple weeks ago in my journal. I may perhaps update again with some general thoughts on my year.

I am not poor. I have never been poor. One of the goals of JVC is to foster a sense, a feeling, of solidarity with the poor. Standing with them. Of course, I am not really poor. At the end of every month I knew another $100 is coming. My housing is paid for. Heck, I even got a car to get me to work that I pay no bills on. And if anything really serious ever came up, I knew I could ask my parents for help. So I've never felt what many people in the neighborhoods that Verb serves undoubtedly feel.

I have never had to worry over when a next paycheck would come. If I qualify for government assistance. If my EBT will cover the food for my children.

But I do feel a changed perspective--a more nuanced understanding. I know the frustration of relying on publi transportation in a sprawling city wiht an unreliable schedule. The tenuousness of plans when they rely on such a system. Even how it can cost someone their job. I have felt a small (tiny) dose of the shame that comes from not being able to afford things. In a consumer society so much of a person's value is inherently linked to what they can afford. And for a man that is so intrinsically linked to ones masculinity and perception of self. You grow bitter not being able to take your girlfriend out on a date--embarrassed, less self-confident. This I've struggled with a lot. Our sense of self is so tied up with wealth or lack thereof.

How can we, as a society, criticize the poor for providing their children with video games or smart phones when so much of our society expects and pressures people to conform to certain standards. We judge people based on their possessions, so how can we stare down our noses when a parent tries to spare their child the shame of not-having? I see this sentiment so often and it breaks my heart.

Until you cannot afford those things you take for granted, how can you understand how wrapped-up our sense of worth is tied to our net worth? How can you judge another for trying to escape the shame placed on them by the people who have--the people who decide the norm?

It's embarrassing to not have money. I don't know how to even describe my money situation this last year. I feel vulnerable, open to mockery or just at risk of not being understood. I am trying to explore the danger of associating my self worth with my income. And yet I so often fail. I worry about dates, housing, marriage in the future, kids, careers, vacations...the things I want down the road, and so I tie myself tighter to these destructive ideals. A man's worth especially is so intimately entwined with his bank account in our society.

"Solidarity" is a sometimes frustrating word and increasingly meaningless to me. I honestly couldn't define it for you at this point in my life. I know I am not truly standing in the same place as those I have served this year. If I were I'd live in gang territory. I'd feel persecuted for the color of my skin. I'd know someone dead from drugs or violence. All on top of the normal consumer desires thrown at us constantly on tv, in music, and every other facet of our popular culture. And I'd know I can't afford any of it. Not if I'm going to stay off the streets. But the world teaches our young people they need things. To fit in. To be judged as acceptable. We are shamed into spending our money, and the poor are villainized for trying to conform.

I only know a little of what it feels like to feel the shame of being "poor." But I do know that as a society that so defines itself on its wealth is a society that needs advocates, that needs analysis and change and greater equality and understanding.

Sara Came to LA!

A week ago, I said good bye to Sara for the last time this year. Today, I am happy to say I'll be seeing her again in 17 days! It was a sad end to an AMAZING week. But it also had a silver lining: it was going to be the last time. And that felt nice.

One of the hardest parts of this whole year has been being in a long distance relationship. Calling on the phone, Skyping, it never has the same feeling of just hanging out and being with someone. The visits I've made back home have been wonderful. Something about having Sara here, though, was special in a much different way! Maybe just having her come and see the city, my house, my work...knowing she has some kind of perspective was nice. It made the whole year seem more real in an odd way, to have someone from home here!

It was a very nice vacation for the both of us,  I think we both needed some time to just get away from everything! Having it be together was even better.

So, what did we do? So much! I keep forgetting. Well, when she first arrived:

!!!!

We went from LAX to the Santa Monica Pier to see it at night. It looked pretty cool all lit up! We tried to get a photo with the ferris wheel.

RIP Beard

 The next day, we visited Verb so Sara could see the place. It's undergoing  construction this summer so it's a bit of a mess, but she got the idea! And saw my offices. After that, we drove over to check out the Watts Towers, which I have been wanting to get a good look at all year. They are pretty cool! Made up of recycled material. Sadly, they don't really let you walk around it so I just got a few camera shots from Barney and read about it from the signs. Still...pretty cool.

 Then we went to the zoo because Sara really wanted to see something new there!

Hopefully those aren't the explosive beans Rhinox ate in Beast Wars...

 oops. That's not right.

 The giraffes at the zoo recently had a baby! It was cute. The zoo was nice, although it was really hot that day and shade doesn't exist in LA. All-in-all, I think we agreed that it doesn't stack up to the Philly Zoo! Although, there was some fun to be had. The chimps were having a ball and their cute little ones were playing around. And who can resist a six-foot-baby giraffe?

Then, since we weren't far from Burbank, I decided we had to go see this one particular site I have been dying to see since I knew I was going to be in LA!

 This is the outside of the Warners Brothers Animation Studio--awesome, right?! It was pretty neat to be there where so many tv shows and some of my very formative childhood (and adulthood) cartoons were made! I even got a glimpse at the WB Lot Water Tower... That's where the Animaniacs were locked up.

We finished our day with Man of Steel.

The next day we headed out to the beach! Neither of us are super beach people, so we didn't stick around all that long. But when someone visits LA you've got to go...right? Unfortunately, Sara's bathing suit decided to break so we couldn't get in the water! Oh well, it wasn't that hot anyway. We also walked the bizarre Venice Beach Boardwalk which was...well, we didn't love it! I expected more performances to be out, but maybe we went on an off day. Certainly a "cultural experience..."

We did see the pretty Venice Canals, however! These canals span a couple blocks instead of roads and surround some REALLY EXPENSIVE looking houses.  It's very scenic, and I enjoyed getting a glimpse at them.

 Later, I was looking at the Observatory in the distance from my block and realized...WE SHOULD GO THERE! I heard the view is killer and seeing the sun set over the city sounded pretty cool!

 The views were, indeed, pretty amazing. We even got to see the sun set over the Hollywood hills.

 At the Observatory once it got dark we waited in line to use the telescope, and it was well worht the wait. Saturn was apparently uncommonly visible in the sky and we got to get a good look at it. I love space!!

Then things got dark and we got a really amazing view of the city at night. There was a ton more than just this. If you're in LA ever, you should really check out the observatory in the evening. It's crowded, and parking is rough, but the views are worth it.

 Then, I took Sara to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) so she could see the Urban Lights exhibit, which is where a scene from her favorite movie was filmed!

 The next day, I originally planned to hike to the Hollywood sign. But after the views from the Observatory I thought it would be less-than-impressive. Instead, we got to sleep in a little bit instead of go on a four-mile hike (probably a good idea!)

We took the bus over to Hollywood Boulevard and ate lunch at this cute throwback place, the Disney Soda Fountain! It was a lot of fun. The food was pretty good, got flavor-infused soda, and shared a milkshake. One of my more winning date ideas, I think.

 Then we walked Hollywood Boulevard a little. Checked out the Chinese Theater and the handprints, and went into the shopping center that is Egyptian themed maybe? I don't really get it. But, they have this huge candy store there that has a STAY PUFT MARSHMALLOW store included. I was blown away by this.

We've been going about this all wrong. This Mr. Stay Puft's okay! He's a sailor, he's in New York; we get this guy laid, we won't have any trouble!

 Then, we headed back to the house, got about an hour of relaxation and took public transporation down town to catch Grease in Pershing Square! This was definitely one of the most enjoyable times I've had in the city proper and actually kind of made me appreciate the area a little bit! Any other time I've been in this area it's just been swelteringly hot and normally, Pershing Square just looks like a slab of cement in the city, but this set up was nice and the weather was beautiful! We got Subway, hung out on a blanket for about an hour before the movie began and then enjoyed the show. There was trivia before the film started, and I brought our team half of our points!

 Saturday, we went around Downtown some more and enjoyed some sight-seeing. We started our morning with a delicious and socially just meal at Homegirl Cafe. As usual, their bread was exceptional. Then we hopped over to Angel's Flight and rode the oldest railway in LA! This short trolley ride up Angel's Knoll is a super-cool throwback and super-short, but well worth the 50 cents! We had some cute little kids in the car with us that made it even more enjoyable!

We got off the trolley and headed off! First, we went to the Walt Disney Concert Hall! The Concert Hall is this really bizarre-looking place, architecturally, but very, very cool!  There's also a cute park up top that we explored. Then, we marched up over to Grand Park, where we stopped for some Starbucks and to enjoy the cool air and moisture from the fountain! It was a pretty hot day so lots of families and little kids were running around playing in the fountain area. It was a nice respite and we had some fun chatting and people-watching.

We headed over then to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. It's a huge building in Downtown LA that was pretty recently constructed. There's also a courtyard that, for some bizarre reason has a lot of animal statues! Naturally, we played around with the animals.

After that, we went over to Olvera Street, an authentic Mexican flea market kind of thing and looked at the wares, then headed back to the house where we relaxed for the evening, had a glass of wine, and enjoyed the cool evening air.

Sunday, we went to mass at Dolores Mission, enjoyed a meal on the plaza, and took it easy. We also packed a picnic and enjoyed dinner in the Exposition Park Rose Garden up by USC. A pleasant evening! We finished our day up by watching 10 Things I Hate About You, starring Heath Ledger and a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt! Two Batman actors...!

Monday we went to Six Flags Magic Mountain! We didn't take any pictures together, so enjoy this picture of me with my favorite version of the Batmobile! Magic Mountain was a lot of fun and it has some really intense roller coasters! My favorite had to be BATMAN! And not just because it was Batman themed...it was just a ton of fun!! I may or may not have spent the entirety of the ride just yelling BATMAN!! over and over.

Another cool ride was Green Lantern First Flight! As you can kind of see there, it's a very bizarre looking roller coaster. That's because you're strapped into this wheel that spins you around! Sara and I were facing backwards so we could never see when the drops were coming, which was pretty hilarious. And it also spun us around a few times!  For $40 ticket price I'd say we got a good day of fun out of the deal!

That night we watched 500 Days of Summer. I haven't seen the movie since I've lived out here and it might have actually made me appreciate LA a little bit! And who can resist Joseph Gordon-Levitt? uh...

Tuesday, sadly, we had to say good bye. :( That was hard. But it was such an amazing week and it was so nice to just spend time together. It really reminded me about how important my relationships are to me and made it even more clear that I can't wait to be home!! It's been so tough being away from the people I love, and I know one thing for sure after this year: I never want to do THAT again!

I'll be coming home shortly, though, and it's nice to finally have something of a weight lfited off my shoulder, having a firm return date and knowing it's so close, especially.

So, all in all, it was one of the BEST weeks I've had in a long time! Because even the best day when Sara isn't here still feels incomplete somehow... But we did a ton of fun stuff, and most importantly, we were together!!

So that's 3 zoos in 3 different states, and 2 amusement parks 2 summers in a row...I think we have some traditions starting!