Appropriately for today, I will point out the times recently when I have smelled marijuana around me. This, of course, is 420, man. I’ve never smoked … well, anything, but no one I know has ever even smoked marijuana around me. I only know what it smells like because it smells like skunk. This has made me question how many times I thought I was smelling dead skunks on the freeway. I thought it was odd that I never saw a skunk on the freeway, but I was smelling them all over the place. Patti and I smelled them from our hotel neighbors and on the street recently in Vegas. Just yesterday, I smelled them in a classic arcade and pinball bar in Los Angeles. The next paragraph will explain what the hell I’m talking about.
Patti and I went to visit our nephew and his husband in his new apartment in LA. The arcade and pinball bar was just one place we went, but it was there that the smell of skunk was wafting. It was only here and there I smelled it. There wasn’t an overwhelming marijuana smell, but I knew that’s what I was smelling. If I hung out in bars more, I might know if that was a common smell there. The pinball machines took me back to my younger years, but it was the games Frogger, Tron, and Tapper that reminded me of my love of arcades in the 80s. Our nephew wouldn’t be born until several years past the 80s. They also had video games from his younger years.
Going back in time and dropping the whole marijuana discussion, Patti and I visited our nephew’s apartment to see their house. The apartment in the art district must have housed many well-paid creatives. The evidence of this was the fancy amenities of the apartment, the expensive black, white, or gray cars the residents drove, and the amount of specialty shops selling expensive and chic items around the local area. They filled their apartment with expensive and artsy furniture. It seemed to me like it was just moved into, but they had apparently been there a few months. Minimalism was the main decorating aesthetic. It was a contrast to our maximal style at our house. The lack of a TV was the most noticeable absence. I’ve heard of people who don’t watch TV, but I had never visited their houses before. Now I have.
Our nephew’s husband had an appointment with a tax person because he works independently, and taxes are complex when you do work for several different people. We went with our nephew to Philippe’s. This was a deli my family had been to quite often in my youth. The outside and inside of the building were exactly as I remembered them down to the sawdust on the ground. Their double-dipped French dip sandwiches were legendary. I gladly gave up my vegan status for the day to experience them. The macaroni salad and purple egg from a jar truly awakened my memories; that’s exactly what I remembered getting as a kid. Our nephew thought I was kidding when I ordered it, but I was very serious. I kept telling my nephew that the memory just might make me cry.
After we got more of a tour around the apartment, our nephew asked if we would go to the store with him. The store was a gourmet grocery store with prices to match. We decided we could eat again and ate in a local restaurant. It had Mexican food with fancy twists. They had food experiences and a hip clientele. I had the sweet potato tacos, and they were excellent. The art district would be perfect for me for eating my vegan diet, but the prices make this an unrealistic place to live for Patti and myself.
We then went to a shop across the street from the restaurant. It had unique Asian items for your bathroom and kitchen. There was a footstool constructed completely out of wood for hundreds of dollars. Everything was hand crafted and more like art than utility items. They made a statement well beyond what you use them for. They had an LP collection of all Asian records. I’m sure they were Japanese, Chinese, or another Asian language, but I don’t know enough to distinguish between them with confidence. I pointed out a Jesus Christ Superstar album to Patti. It was humorous and slightly troubling to see how western religions have traveled to the east.
Thoughts from Life 
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