Rides

During the early days after I had moved to LA, I depended exclusively on public transportation, because I had no car, and few friends. Almost everywhere I went, there was no one I knew who was going there. This wasn't so bad, because I happened to be in a strong area for public transportation: Highland Park. Highland Park is served by the Gold Line light rail, the 81 bus running downtown, and the 83 bus which did likewise, but ran all night long. I seldom faced a situation where these failed to provide the bare minimum in terms of getting somewhere and getting home before morning.

Today, the story is a little different. In the Valley, service is a little more spotty. There's the Red Line subway and the 224, neither of which run all night. The 656 does, but goes only between hollywood and the subway station. Using Metro, I can now only get within 1.7 miles of my home with the same certainty that I once had in getting within yards of my door. Late night remains fully viable, but middle of the night gets tougher. One must cobble together a series of all-night buses, which take a long time and, as I said, bring me only within two miles, necessitating a brisk walk through the less nice area north of the Arts District.

All this being the case, I'm always glad for a ride. I'm lucky, therefore, that moving here brought to me so many friends. Since most of my activities bring me into contact with them, a ride home tends to be possible, and often a ride there as well. I just have to be careful about imposing on people. My great fear is to be known above all else as the poor mooching wretch who is sure to keep someone from bed for that much longer because he needs a ride. When I feel that I have other options, I try not to give any indication that a ride would be desirable.

For the time being, the well of good will among my friends has yet to be exhausted, or so it would seem (I have always cautioned against presuming to know what lies in the hearts and minds of others, since it's impossible to know for sure). Perhaps my value as entertaining companionship helps me out here. I sort of keep a haphazard tally in my mind of the relative number of rides and favors I will owe to those people when the time comes when I can begin repaying in kind as opposed to graciousness.