Perspective

I was talking with a fellow classmate at school the other day and I was commenting on how "crazy" and "amazing" the traffic and parking (respectively) situations are around here. "Yeah, I know!" she said. It wasn't until a few minues into the conversation that I realized she thought that the traffic and parking were BAD when I had been trying to say that they were nice! Each day when I walk to my car (parked just a block or so from school) I'm shocked to see that there isn't a ticket on it. Not that I've been parking illegally, its just that to have a whole street side available for parking at 9am on a weekday must mean that there is some mysterious reason that one isn't allowed to park there. Because if I was allowed to park there then the whole street should be filled with cars, right? That's what I was used to in Philly. And then the traffic - there really isn't any. There are a few cars on the road, but rarely am I impeded in my aim to drive 5 miles over the speed limit. Occasionally (like when I merge from one highway to another) I have to negotiate with some others, but never has the road speed dipped significantly below the speed limit. But, for my classmate who lives in a REALLY rural area (17 miles from a small town) that there are other cars and merging and sometimes a logging truck or something, that is bad traffic. And since we have to park a block or so away (and not right in front of the school) that is a trying parking situation as well.

I guess it is all about perspective.

In some places I'm exotic. In my native western climate I'm about as far from exotic as you can get.

With some cycling groups I'm a strong climber. With the crazy bikers in these mountains I get my assed kicked and arrive at the top red faced, sweating, wobbling and gasping for air with 180 beat heart rate while they are starting to feel stiff from having to have waited for so long.

My parents' condo in Palm Dessert was robbed. The thieves cleaned the place out taking everything from the computer to the TV to the car even. It was someone with a key who knew the place and where things were and that no one was around. The thought is that one of the contractor's doing work on the place at some point has a nefarious worker who swiped the key and made a copy. It really sucks. Financially it is a wreck (and at a time when my mom and step-dad put everything they have into the house they just moved into) and it also makes my mom feel very violated. For me, it makes me feel really sad that someone we knew did it (we just don't know who exactly.) I don't know their situation and maybe for them the perspective is that they don't get paid shit and here are these fat cats with a second home so why not take their stuff? My perspective is - financially it sucks, practically it is a major major pain to replace everything and deal with the insurance. But they are just things. Some nice things, some useful things, some things with sentimental value, but just things. I'm just glad that everyone is safe and no one was hurt.