The other day I was driving home from work and, fancy that, I was cut off by a car that was crossing six lanes from the left to the right in order to get on the freeway. HOOOOONK! My thought “what the he….” was rudely interrupted by a blatant horn. I look to my right and this woman in a dilapidated Honda rolls down her window and starts talking. Now, over the years here I’ve learned rolling down your window to hear someone yell at you is a really bad idea. But, for some reason, like a naive country bumpkin from the mid west, I roll my window down. And I’m so glad I did. The woman yelling at me was not reprimanding or condescending. She was loudly asking “did you need to get on the freeway?” “Yes,” I responded “Did you see that man cut me off?” “Yes, honey. How RUDE! Go on ahead of me, I’ll let you in”.

Bless this woman’s heart. What a great reminder that there are truly some good people in this world and some of them DO live in Los Angeles. Maybe there’s a lot more angels here in the City Of Angels than we know. I think its time to start focusing more on good people, and stop wasting our time donating even one more ounce of energy to the negative ones. In the words of a wise friend:

LA can feel like a tough city. So much commotion. Bottleneck traffic. Everyone in a hurry to get nowhere and do nothing. Delusions of grandeur and self entitlement all around. Its not like the south. When I lived in Austin everyone was legitimately friendly. Here in LA no one thinks your crazy if you smile at them, but its certainly hard to find people that show their real selves above the 7th layer of their epidermis.

On the flip side, LA is an amazing land of opportunity. One can re-invent themselves as often as they like. The city is so disjointed that if you get sick of one area you can move to another and its tabula rasa. The weather is incredible. There is so much to do, indoors and out. Its a polyglot community full of vast cultures and sensitivities and yes, somewhere in the dark (or not so dark) corner of someplace, each and every one of us Angeleans eventually find some wonderful friends. If your new here- don’t give up!

I guess one can find angels anywhere, often in the most unlikely places and in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes YOUR “angel” may be someone else’s “crazy”, and that’s ok. Here’s a collage of photos of two of my favorite Angels:

xoxo

QJ

PS. I’m so excited I’ve discovered the way to change text colors! Advancement in blogging. Yay!