Sunday, October 28, 2018

Shoes and Dumplings

I headed down to Row DTLA to meet my friend Steve today. He hadn't been to these converted warehouses yet. I had. It's where I'd first seen the sofa I bought a few months later. I stumbled over this area while traipsing around DTLA in search of...I can't remember. I think I was going to an art supply store down there, or maybe Moskatel's, the big sorta-Michaels.
Smorgasburg soup dumpling the size of my fist

Getting down there was a bit of a pain in the ass, because I was headed over to catch the commuter rail when I glanced at the commuter rail sign to learn about the—oh, joy—delays. And I'd just missed the bus to the Red Line. I got a Lyft to the Red Line to DTLA, where I caught a bus down 7th Street. I barely notice the tent city there anymore. This is not a good thing.

Steve and I had a good day exploring Row DTLA and Smorgasburg, and he dropped me off at a shoe store in Silverlake. I'm on a quest to find close-toe shoes I don't hate before I have to hike around Haiti in them. But Sole Junction was not the place I'd hoped for—the place I need to go see if Lucha's in South Pasadena, but a girl can dream.

The bus I needed from there to Glendale (for my stop at Nordstrom's to check out some Vionic shoes) wasn't going to be along for a half-hour, so I took a Lyft there too. Then after traipsing around Nordstrom's and DSW, I caught the bus back to Burbank.

Of course, it ran late, and I just missed the bus home from downtown Burbank, so I took my third Lyft of the day.

Which turned out to be a good thing as I had this charming conversation.

Lyft driver: "My parents are Armenian. They have not been able to learn English, since the Valley has such a large Armenian community, and so they haven't had to. Plus, it's hard for them to learn at their age. They're 50, 60, you know?"

I laughed. I couldn't help it. Yeah, 50 is soooo ancient. I guess it was to me when I was his age too. (He was 21 years old.)

Two minutes earlier, he'd asked how long I'd lived in New York.

"About 25 years," I'd said.

"So most of your life you were in the greatest city in the world."

"Um, not exactly." I laughed.

"I guess New York has its problems. It seemed pretty great to me the one time I was there."

I gave him a nice tip. 

2 comments:

William Kendall said...

That's the kind of driver you'd like to have about!

Anonymous said...

Got to love a dumpling that comes with a straw. Had the opportunity for Duck Ramen at Morimoto's in Florida recently, excellent broth...