Pasadena, CA

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

10:30 a.m. local time; 1:30 p.m. OH time

Woke up this morning to the sound of “unintelligible-quickly-spoken-Spanish-followed-by-‘idiota’!” From what I could make out, some Hispanics in the neighborhood were collecting glass from the trash and recycling, I’m assuming to resell. Although it’s never really been relevant to me before, I do believe glass bottles get a 5 cent return in CA. So at 20 bottles for a buck, to make a decent wage (let’s say $10/hour), you’d have to collect 200 bottles an hour. But there were at least two men working, so they would have to find 400 bottles within an hour to be making a solid exchange. It sounded like one of them had dropped some bottles, and the other guy got a little frustrated.

I am staying at Chuck and Ally’s house – Jennifer’s brother and sister-in-law’s house here in Pasadena. They call their neighborhood Little TJ (along with their wireless internet connection haha). Chuck said the neighborhood is comprised of a majority of Mexican families. They told me that it is true about leaving your windows open and not using AC at all or really much heat. They left their windows open through the night last night.

Also, the light in my room this morning was this pure golden color thanks to the windows in my room facing due East, and the drapes changing the sun’s color so I felt like I was waking up in a bar of Dove soap.

My flights were uneventful, although my plane from Denver, CO – LAX was an hour late but no big deal there. What was interesting was a conversation I couldn’t help overhearing because the guy was sitting right behind me talking loudly while I was waiting for my second flight. The man was a pilot and was talking to one of his friends about how he wasn’t piloting international flights anymore. He began to complain about all the aspects involved, which I’m sure that schedule would be exhausting. What was interesting though was when he began to talk about the terrorists that, “he knew were consistently on the international flights.” “People get so upset about racial profiling. That’s a bunch of b*** s***! We need to be profiling these Arabs! I know who they are – we know they fly on these flights, and the government doesn’t do a thing to stop it! I just got sick and tired of flying terrorists around all the time!” Now keep in mind – this guy is talking loudly, and is one of the pilots on the flight we’re about to take. It seemed pretty brash to be having such a conversation in an airport with many of your passengers sitting within earshot of you.

I’ll check in again soon hopefully. Off to explore Pasadena!!