HONK if you hate cell phones
First of all, let me just tell you that the LA is covered in fog tonight. Weird, I know.
Secondly, I took the day off today. Earth-shattering, I know.
Thirdly, I took Michelle Jannone up on her invitation and hiked Runyon Canyon today - my ass and calves already hurt/burn/feel like jelly. (I think Michelle is secretly trying to kill me.) Yes, Chicken Little, the sky IS falling.
This evening as I sat idly in my apartment reading an entire book in one sitting, I was all-of-a-sudden snapped out of the fictional world of the novel in which I was completely engrossed by an unending series of loud honking.
Finally, as I was about to explode, I put down my book and grabbed a jacket and stormed outside to see who was disrupting the lives of everyone on my block. “Puerto-Rican Doorbell,” as it is known to some, is the refusal to use one’s cell phone to let someone know that one is waiting outside to pick someone up.
As I stamped through the entryway of my building and realized I should prop open the front gate because in my haste I’d forgotten to grab my keys, a thirty-something white man hurried behind me. “Is that one of YOUR FRIENDS honking?” I barked at him ready to give him a piece of my mind.
It turns out he is not the enemy but a fellow peace-keeper like myself. In fact, he is the same guy who stormed out to battle alongside Brad some months ago at 4am when this same honking business interrupted us in a late night chat over bottles of wine (not glasses of - I’m inclined to believe.) As I would’ve gone out there and shouted at the offender in a voice louder than any car horns, we thought it’d be a smarter idea if Brad went out there and I stayed on the balcony to watch from a very safe distance in case there was a fist fight (which there almost was. My friendly neighbor is on a crusade against rudeness just like we are.)
I have only seen this thirty-something white man on these two occasions although I suspect he’s lived in this building as long as I have. But with the Armenians taking over all the common areas, we less colorful cultures of people in the building seem a lot less noticeable by comparison.
I guess that although super annoying, the honking has brought two neighbors closer together.
And you always thought I was a pessimist!
