Marking Seasons

Los Angeles exists in a perpetual state of spring. There are really only two seasons per year. There is spring and wildfire season. The local weathermen call them “fire storms” and this might be the only real work our weathermen do all year on account of how every other day it’s 80 degrees and sunny. These "fire storms" usually give way to mudslide season but only if you are very wealthy and happen to be living on the cliffs above the Malibu coastline. All these seasons come and go under a great cloud of smog. Or, air that you can see. I should add a third season: Allergy season. Now that I’m thinking about it, we do endure about two weeks of rain per year. This is when Los Angeles all but shuts down as resident’s are forced to dig through their belongings for a dusty umbrella and shed their sunglasses while the streets turn into raging rivers and getting on the freeway is more of a risk than ever before. So, it goes: spring, wild fire season, allergy season and finally monsoon season. 

V-Day!

Normally, LAX airport is like the 7th circle of hell. I'm always lost and running late because of the traffic. Let's face it, no one is at their best in an airport. Everyone is tired and hungry and a little turned around. Also, all the non-Angelinos are standing around smoking because they haven't learned that Los Angeles prides itself on having clean air...

Girls always sigh at that scene in Love Actually where the long last love finally arrives in the crowded terminal... it looks romantic but what they don't show you is the hour and half in traffic trying to get to the airport on time... I hate LAX...

Yesterday was different. And I had the distinct feeling as I parked my car and raced through two terminals because I was lost and I had sat in traffic for an hour and a half... that this is always the scene in the movie where the music swells and the girls sigh and the guys roll their eyes. Only, this wasn't a romantic comedy. 

Milan and Troy at LAX

I was there along with Hannah, Debbie, and Troy, to pick up our friend Milan who we had met on our trip to Bangkok last May. Milan is from Nepal originally. He was forced to flee to Bangkok because of the Moaists. He has been trapped as a refugee in Thailand for some time but with help from Troy and Speak Up for the Poor, and the U.N., Milan has finally been resettled, legally, in Los Angeles. Yesterday, Valentines Day, Milan came home to Los Angeles a free man! He will be staying with Hannah and her husband while he settles into his new life. Generations from now, Milan's grandchilden and great grandchildren will tell the story of the day Milan came to live in America.