Poppies and Freeways

The other day I was driving home from a meeting in a town over an hour away and I had to take a bunch of freeways I wasn’t used to driving. I listen to the traffic news a lot so I’m familiar with the numbers and the names but not always sure which name goes with which number. In Los Angeles the freeways have names, like The Golden State, or The San Bernadino. The newscasters also refer to specific areas on the freeways, like the Orange Crush, and the East L.A. Interchange. I don’t always know where these places are because I don’t drive them.

Another point about the freeway system is that my “Eastern” friends, i.e.; anyone past Nevada, are always making fun of us Californians for saying “the” before a freeway number. Well, I discovered there is a reason for that, and I quote from Grant Geyer’s article in “American Speech.” 

“In about 1941, just before the completion of the first of the famous freeways, intercity traffic came into Los Angeles on the north-south axis on U.S. 99, U.S. 101, or California Route 1.... Before the freeways were built, locals generally preferred the old, time-honored street or road names instead of numbers in conversation. So for ‘U.S. 99’ they said San Fernando Road because the highway followed that particular named street, as far as the distant end of “town.” Likewise, ‘U.S. 101’ was Ventura Boulevard and ‘Route 1’ was Pacific Coast Highway....Route 1 or Route 101 was not used in town.
...
When the federal interstate system grew up, the southern California area got its share of funding and road numbers.... However, for the first 20 years of the interstate system, no one used the numerical designations.... The interstate routes around Los Angeles were called the Ventura Freeway, the Hollywood Freeway, the Santa Ana Freeway, the Golden State Freeway, the San Bernardino Freeway, the Pasadena Freeway, the Glendale Freeway, the San Diego Freeway, the Santa Monica Freeway, the Harbor Freeway, the Riverside Freeway, and the Long Beach Freeway.

....The strange-sounding usage of the plus number, as in the 118, was the natural result of an amazing proliferation of new, minor interstate cutovers, extensions, and bypasses that began about 1975.... [It] was even more pronounced when new major Los Angeles interstates sprang up without having any precursors and without being extensions of earlier, nonnumerical freeways. The first one I remember in this category was the 605 Freeway.” (“The” Freeway in Southern California, by Grant Geyer, American Speech, Summer 2001)

So, fancy that, a legitimate reason for our “funny” way of referring to the freeway system.

Along my drive I had to take “the” 10 West to “the” 57 North and right there at this colossal interchange (not the East L.A. interchange) there were wild poppies growing along the side of the road. It was beautiful! I was surprised by the cluster of nature that created a small haven of beauty on an urban freeway. It pleased me. Maybe I was already happy from having had a wonderful day and evening by myself (sans children and spouse) with little demands, or maybe it really was just an appreciation for an enigma among spoils.

 

Poppies, by the way, are one of my most favorite flowers. Maybe a true Californian at heart, but mostly their presence in late winter and early spring in the desert where I live signals new life and color in an otherwise drab environment. Unfortunately when the blooms disappear they look like messy weeds and their roots like pale carrots. While they bloom along roadsides, on the hillsides, and yes, apparently even along freeway interchanges, I am awestruck at their cheerfulness.

Accessories

I have recently, as in the last few years, discovered the joy of accessorizing. I fell in love with shoes first, then moved on to bags, handbags, backpacks, totes, etc. I am now a connoisseur of a variety of accessorizing and trying to get into the scarves thing but haven’t quite grasped it yet. That new look is so awesome but I’m just too hot to do it (and you can interpret that any way you like).

My favorite accessory has to be shoes. No matter what size I am my feet have stayed the same. If I was smart I would have kept those cute shoes and sandals I paid good money for in the 80’s because those funky boots and Cherokee sandals are back in style now. My shoulder-padded dresses are just too dated for my daughters to wear but I bet they’d get a kick out of my chunky, wooden-heeled leather boots I had!

I have a great collection of shoes which I try to pare down every now and again, but it’s so hard! Especially when you know, just know, it will be in style again. Unfortunately for me I don’t have my own “shoe and purse closet” so I have to make sacrifices now and then. In the last couple of years, however, I have just bought those crates and stacked them up in my closet and rotate them with the seasons. You know flip-flops for summer, flats for fall, boots for winter and sneakers for spring. It’s only logical. I have a fettish with ballet flats right now and just can’t get enough of them. I’m thinking about silver…

As far as bags go, well, I have one for every season, and then some. Since starting school again it’s been a necessity to have a backpack. I’ve been pretty good with that one as I usually just use the Breast Cancer backpack I bought at their site. It pretty much goes with anything I own because it’s in my basic colors; black and pink. If it isn’t pink, what’s the point?

My niece told me that she “allows” herself a purse budget and buys a new purse every month or so. I liked that idea and had my eye on a really nice red bag and was fortunate that I found one on sale at Target. Then I got a black bag via Mary Kay, very nice! And that one goes perfectly with my pink and black backpack. Right now I’m using the Hawaiian one I bought last year on my visit with my brother. I’m sure I’ll switch again soon, the weather is warming up.

My latest craze has been jewelry. I love earrings. I can’t leave the house without a pair of earrings on, I feel naked! I really need to keep a pair in the car for those days I leave in a hurry, i.e.; naked! I recently discovered Park Lane Jewels (thank you Leslie!) and have had the time of my life accessorizing with that stuff!!!

Hats? I don’t do hats. I look hideous in hats. Hats are my bane. Bandanna’s however I find very fun.

Really, when you’re chubby, like me, it’s good to know how to accessorize efficiently. It helps when you’re skinny too. Accessorizing can be loads of fun no matter what your size, or even species for that matter!

Media

I have been considering adding reviews to my blog, well, just because. I have opinions and I like to share them. My favorite part about being an English major is when we get to sit around in class and bash…I mean discuss an author’s work.

I love to read and am always reading something. Sometimes it is a book for school but more often than not it’s just something I picked up. I have favorite authors and favorite genres but I don’t limit myself by that at all. I tend to read almost everything I can clap my eyes on, from cereal box backs to billboards, to the instructions that come with just about everything (those can be rather humorous if they’ve been translated from another language).

Movies and television are also something that easily amuses me. I have yet to figure out where this comes from but I have noted that most of my siblings are the same way. As a matter of fact, when the television is on it tends to lure us in like a siren song. My dad has always been notorious for walking in at the worst part, however. If a movie had a nude scene or bad language, that’s when he entered the room.

I’m not particularly high-brow either. Sorry to disappoint, but my tastes run rather broad. My most important goal in media is entertainment. If I’m not entertained then it won’t hold my interest. Um, and I’m pretty easily entertained.

I also enjoy media that is informative, instructive and profound. I love putting down a book or walking out of a movie with a “smack my forehead” experience! This is when you know you have been ignorant or sheltered and someone has hit that cord. I’m not necessarily talking about a “history lesson” as most of those are incorrect (I’ve found) but about lessons about human emotions and relations. Those are amazing to watch, when done correctly.
Picking apart why something strikes me is one of my favorite things to do, so welcome to my media autopsy.

Funny Language

The other day I had a random memory. When I was working for the Japanese bicycle tubing company a customer called regarding an accounting error. He asked about a payment and I checked the computer program because I actually remembered the transaction and figured the exact information should have been posted where it was supposed to be posted.
Silly me.
When I couldn’t find it I commented, “That’s funny.”

The next day we received a multi-paragraph rant via fax (pre e-mail days, for you internet children) from said customer about how my response was totally inappropriate. Huh?
He continued to rail on me for commenting that it was “Hilarious” that a payment had not been posted.
Idiot.
I meant funny-odd, Moron, not funny-haha!

Why does this simple example of semantics still bother me? Who knows. What I do know is that I still seem to come across the Semantically Stifled much too often! English is a difficult language to learn. When you incorporate the slang and idioms you really have a mess on your hands! I get so frustrated by people who don’t understand what I’m talking about because they don’t know the true meaning of the words in their own language. Now, I admit, I have been known to use words incorrectly, but not very often. Really.

I suppose part of the problem is that some of us (ahem!) sometimes use our “own lingo” then expect others to understand us. I know I like to add –ish and –age to the end of words a lot.

“Sure, I’ll be there around noon-ish.”
“That recipe is a kind of casserole-ish dinner.”
“I didn’t want to take my DMV picture with that monstrous zit-age growing on my forehead.”
“I SAID COME IN HERE AND PICK UP YOUR CRAP-AGE BEFORE I THROW IT AWAY!”

That sort of thing.
Sometimes it can really cut down on the amount of words you need to use. Or better yet, remove entire sentences from you statement. I like that ish…

Unfortunately, it is confusing. I suppose.

A Page from My Journal

I keep thinking that in order to blog “properly” my entries need to be several paragraphs long. I have decided that I need to get over that.

I am not a consistent radio hog. My listening interests change periodically. Of course, as a teen I listened to pop and rock. As a young adult I started listening to Country, I don’t know why, actually. Eventually it evolved to News Radio. I listened to news radio religiously. That relationship began as a nightly tune-in for the wonderful old radio programs they used to run (they don’t do that anymore). I enjoyed hearing the mysteries and cowboy programs from the “olden days.” In the morning I would listen to the traffic alerts and became quite addicted to the ever evolving news. I remember being so swept into a particular story about a missing politician (I could take that all over the place!) that I was in tears on the freeway when they finally found him.

After meeting my husband I went back to listening to country. I still vacillated between news radio and country music for several years—I admit I was a Dr. Laura fan for a long time (until she was rude to me). Lately I have been listening to my kid’s music which is a combination of pop/hip-hop/rap and even country… My friend affectionately calls it CRAP.

Until recently.

I’ve started that private affair with news radio again. As soon as my kids get out of the car I tune it into the AM station that carries constant news, KNX, my favorite source for up to the minute news! I have to turn it up because I can’t hear very well and I don’t want to miss a word! If I hear of a motorcycle accident anywhere between Palmdale and Pacoima I’m on the phone with the husband to make sure he’s still alive and we won’t have any expensive repairs on the Harley! If I hear a funny or interesting story I’m on the phone with my Dad to share it with him (another news junkie, but more of “The Weather Channel” variety). I love the news and am figuring this relationship will always be a part of who I am.

So in addition to the news they occasionally have little blurbs from Charles Osgood, Katie Couric and others who express their opinions, Op-Ed pieces I think you “real” writers might call them. Katie Couric does this thing she calls “A Page from My Notebook” and it’s a short, maybe two paragraphs, blurb about something relevant and recent. The other day she did a commentary about Obama’s inauguration speech and his use of scripture. This made me realize that I do not have to write a full-on essay for my blog. I could keep it limited to one or two paragraphs! What a relief! So maybe you’ll see more of me because I don’t have to write so much.

Hey wait! This turned out to be several paragraphs after all. Dog-gone-it, and I was shooting for one or two!