Los Angeles

(DAY160 : Medellin - Los Angeles : 11 hours with zero legroom)
(DAY161 - 187 : Los Angeles)


My unplanned flight to California was simply disorienting. In about eleven hours, I was yanked back to LA as if out of a dream. The INS officer had said "Welcome home" but I could not have felt more out of place. This is home?

I recognized the headlights when Gizem took the corner. Big hug. More like home now, but not enough to disperse the strangeness. Then, we got in her 2-door Accord and left. Wow! What a fancy car! Shortly afterwards on 405, it was "Wow! Check out this road!". This went on for a while to later include variations; "Wow! I have this many clothes?", "Why do I own this much junk?", etc. Which life is mine? Will I ever have a home?

The first few days in LA, I could faintly feel the presence of my powers. During my last couple of weeks in Medellin, I could already feel them subsiding but I was having too good a time to worry about it. Or perhaps it worked the other way around; the awareness drove me to partying till I could numb it down. In any case, sooner or later I would don my transformer-jacket, fire-up my transporter, and hit the road. That, I knew would in minutes revive the powers that quietly fade when exposed to static mortals for extended periods. It never crossed my mind that I could get exposed to LA.

You have no idea what I'm mumbling about. (If you do, skip a paragraph)

Ask any guy riding far about his super-powers and he'll just laugh. Of course! Do you see me going around yapping about it? So strictly between us; once all you have becomes your motorcycle, whatever you carry on it, and an endless road, you gain a long list of extraordinary yet fragile traits. To summarize the more important, you possess ten times more luck than normal, unlimited optimism and appreciation, advanced patience, evolved vision, hightened awareness of now, and even the capability to achieve stillness of mind. You get to see what everyone else is too busy to see, you perceive all things old and tired as fresh and new, you are rid of the worry of tomorrow. Kids wave at you, people offer their support and friendship. You get transformed.

So, like I was saying, the first few days in LA I still felt some of my super-liveliness. Untimely smiles for no reason are some of the most common physical manifestations of their presence, so other people feel and respond to them as well. Only if they could survive here a bit longer. Maybe if I took Hoover out for a ride everyday!..

Tired of sitting in the dark garage, she first gave me some attitude, but nothing a shiny battery couldn't fix. Then... "EEEEKK!!!" Omigod, she is a monster! How did I ride this thing the way I used to? I took her back in before I got myself killed or arrested, with an intention to work at it everyday. Ofcourse, who has time to do that in "real" life.


Before getting cozy with Katirga, I could handle Hoover's 130 ponies.

With each day of to-dos, my other life felt more and more like a dream I woke up from. The things I could not care less for only a month ago eventually started to make sense again. What has been my daily life started to look like a crazy adventure. How easily we get used to the routine and the comfort. How quickly the powers abandon. They may be addictive, but if you let go of them long enough... Like a long distance love affair, you end up with just the memory.

When my LA time was up, I had already dissolved my then-new business and torn apart all strings and plans, yet still had so much to be done. When did everything ever get done? I might have almost forgotten about the trip, but I did remember how much I hated living the blind life of to-dos among machinery, whether it be man made or made of men.

How wonderful to know my capricious old girl is awaiting my return.