75 and sunny

March 15, 2010 had weather conditions that Southern California is all too familiar with: 75 and sunny.

Not complaining, there's plenty of awesomeness that goes with SoCal weather: AMAZING sunsets, great time to go hiking, biking, swimming, tannin, kiting, whatever's your cup of team, and along with that is the ability to stay physically fit: The weather makes you want to get outside and do something, to be active, and you burn off more calories. Makes a whole lot of sense, that's why some of the fattest cities in the nation are Chicago, and Philadelphia, and Detroit.....cold weather destinations. For me, a young 20-something-year-old, it's doubly awesome cuz I want to lose weight, but I also like a bunch of outdoor activities like tennis, baseball, football....right up my alley.

Good weather also allows you to have a more enhanced mood: usually when it's rainy and drippy, people's countenances reflec that, but once the sun comes out, universally it's a "turn that frown upside down" situation...... and even if other stuff in your life is bad, at least the weather's cooperating!

Good weather also means everything goes as planned, including baseball games (when's the last time the Dodgers got cancelled at home cuz of rain?), barbeques, rock concerts, camping trips, cookouts, company gatherings, beach trips. They all go as planned, which keeps everybody happy and probably in the process avoids a plethora of breach of contract claims on faulty rain checks.

So I appreciate the L.A. weather. But you know, on a deeper level, when it's 75 and sunny EVERY day, you don't appreciate it that much. It's too much of a good thing. You take it for granted. Ice cream's real good when you have it once in a while, but imagine having it every for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner. Not so much. Similarly, in my native Chicago or other cold-weather cities, I imagine, you complain, moan, wail, and commiserate about the bad weather during the winter/spring/summer/fall (basically all the time), but on that rare 75 and sunny day, that beautifulsummer afternoon with little to no breeze, you really sit back and enjoy it, because you know it doesn't come along too often. That's the feeling I miss, the "sun just broke through the clouds" feeling of having weathered the really tough times, gotten through rippling winds and depressing downpours, to have the clouds clear and the skies open up, and the Mr. Sunshine sneaks shily through and eventually comes out of his shell. THAT's a great feeling.

And that's the thing with L.A., in general, too. People don't appreciate things that much. Yay, we have the beach. Great, you go once in a while but get bored of it. Yay you have Hollywood Bowl, but you tire of it. Yay you have great sports teams in all 3 major sports (well I guess the USC Trojans count), but you get tired of them (unless the Lakers win the Championship). There's just too much good stuff for people. I bet if you gave people in Smallville, USA just one of the things people in L.A. had (say, move the Getty Center to Champign Illinois) that it'd be the biggest thing to come through that town of all time, yet here in L.A. it's just a cool reminder of a time you went there in 7th grade as you drive down the 405.

I have a theory that all this "taking for granted" attitude is what drives people to consume marijuana and become consumers of other illicit drugs, but that's fodder for another post.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan