Earbuds and Not Being an Anomaly

Part I
Why does everyone in Pasadena walk around with earbuds in their ears? That's my latest question about life here. Technically, it's not everyone, but the proportion is much higher than in Memphis. I have a few hypotheses.

• I live by a train station, so the people I see walking around are commuters listening to music/podcasts
• People are on their way to or from working out so they are rocking out to their warm up/cool down music
• They have iPhones and they want to be able to take calls easily
• No one wants to talk to anyone else

I mean seriously, one of our movers had his earbuds in the whole time he was unloading our stuff. That didn't seem very friendly. But also, he didn't really seem to speak English, so maybe he was wearing them as a way to fend off my attempts at conversation.

Part IIOn a totally different subject, so far it's been interesting living in a place where many residents are also transplants. I've come across a handful of native Californians, but the majority of people I've met are originally from somewhere else. So when I say that I just moved from Tennessee, I get responses like, "Oh, I grew up in Virginia," or "My aunt lives in Chattanooga," or, "We moved here from Boston 10 years ago," etc.

No one yet has gaped at me and said, "MEMPHIS??!! Why did you guys (y'all) move HERE??!!" That's the reaction I often got about our last move, except it was SEATTLE??!! Most people just ask if it was work that brought us here, and they don't seem shocked at all about it.

My point is, Los Angeles metro is a place where lots of people are moving all the time, for all sorts of reasons. Memphis, by contrast, has a smaller in-migration effect going on. Sure, people still move there, but it doesn't have the pulling power of Southern California. I guess we're more "normal" here with our nomadic lifestyle, ha ha.

SoCal: An Introduction

DF, Gus, Gibson and I survived our epic cross-country road trip from Tennessee to California! Wow, that was a long drive - just over 2,000 miles. We arrived last Thursday afternoon.

As is my predilection, I'm analytically observing my new environment and trying to get a feel for the place. So far, I'd say it's quite different than Memphis! Here are some things I've noticed.

Urban living
We're in a big (300+ units) apartment complex in downtown Pasadena. Within a 5-10 minute walk, I can visit countless restaurants, coffee shops, bars, grocery stores, gas station, a park, retail stores, and office buildings. Or, I could catch the light rail train right at our building to go lots of other places in the metro area.

In Memphis, we lived in a single family house on a quiet side street of a residential neighborhood. There was a church 2 blocks over. The closest commercial structure was a gas station about half a mile away. There was a bus line on a nearby major street, though I never did ride it...

I've taken the boys out for a couple walks around the new neighborhood in their wagon. They seem mesmerized by all the people and activity! Actually, Gibson gets a little overwhelmed. As we approached the elevator this morning, he looked nervous and asked, "people?" Yes buddy, we're going to see lots of people out and about!

Diversity
I can't help but notice how many Asian people are in this neighborhood! When we moved from Seattle to Memphis, it was weird to not see Asian people very often. I know there are some people of Asian heritage in the mid-South, but the percentage is way lower than in the greater Seattle area. Well apparently, lots of Asian people live and/or visit Pasadena because I keep seeing them everywhere. I'm trying not to do a double take all the time but I keep thinking I'm in Memphis and saying, "Wow!" in my head.

There are also all sorts of different people here - younger, older, Hispanic/Latinx, African-American, White, homeless, tattooed, pierced, sharply dressed, speaking languages I don't recognize, with dogs in tow, pushing strollers, in a hurry, staring at their phones, ambling with friends, etc. I'm loving it!

Food
Having little kids who don't enjoy sitting still, we're not exactly in a position to explore new restaurants as easily as when we moved to Memphis (where we ate BBQ like 9 times in the first 13 days or something like that!) We have managed to try El Pollo Loco, which I'd describe as fancy fast Mexican food, kind of like Chipotle with more choices. The grownups thought it was tasty! The boys liked dumping cups of water all over the place.

There's a wood-fired pizza restaurant right next to our apartment. It smells delicious. They don't do carry out, though, so we'll have to brave it with the kids sometime when they've settled in to CA life.

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I have tons more thoughts about the move, but they're still tumbling around in my brain at the moment. I'll attempt to distill them in future posts. For now, I'll say that moving is stressful and living in a huge apartment complex will take some adjusting. I'm doing my best to be resilient in the face of challenges. I think that will get easier when the movers deliver our belongings on Wednesday and I'm no longer sleeping on a leaky air mattress...