Personal Dork Assistant

Came over the Grapevine

Came over the Grapevine around 7:30pm and was ready to refuel myself (refueled the car on Laval Rd. and got raped on the gas prices, should've stopped in Lost Hills instead). Once I reentered civilization, I stopped by the first In-n-Out I saw, just north of Magic Mountain. "Capacity: 92 Guests," the sign said, and there were just about that many people in the place. There were families with kids, groups of teenagers, and couples of all sorts. Far as I could tell, I was the only person eating alone. Hey, at least I had a good excuse. Sat next to an older white couple with their crisp clothes and church brochures as the guy complained about the Koreans taking over various LA neighborhoods. The younger couple to my other side had their cheeseburgers Protein Style, but like the other lady I saw with Protein Style burgers, they also had order of fries to go with their carbo-less burgers. What's wrong with these people? The buns are good. The woman had a gleaming diamond ring on her left hand. My god, these people are breeding.

The self-similar pattern of big-box malls and fast food joints blur together as I drive through the length of LA. But it's not a totally homogenized soup, from the new developments in the Antelope Valley, to the rundown heart of central LA, through the Orange Crush to Mickey Mouseland and the affluent beach suburbs of southern Orange County (noticed a new 99 Ranch Market along I-5 in Irvine), there's enough subtle differences and distinctive communities to make... something. Not sure if it's meaningful or representative, but there's definitely something. Maybe LA is the future, or at least half of it. Sugar Land is the affluent suburbian LA reflected through the bizarro mirror, and more places probably aspire to be Sugar Land than Los Angeles. Not surprised to see the chinks buy in (24% Asian vs. 8% Hispanic in a Texas city?). Good school and cheap houses will do it every time. Not that different from the story of Monterey Park and the rest of the San Gabriel Valley, really.