Tag: freeways

Musings

[Blog] Driving On

Faith Hakimian

The other day, I had occasion to remember how I felt about driving on the LA freeways when I first moved to California. Specifically, that the thought terrified me. Having grown up where there was one highway (not freeway, mind you: highway), with one lane going either direction, even imagining Los Angeles’ frantic hive of five lanes this way, eight lanes that way– and heaven help you if you choose the wrong way and need to get somewhere at a specific time– could be panic-inducing.

Which, given that my current job usually involves spending countless hours maneuvering a large vehicle through those same freeways and up and down the equally (even more?) chaotic streets, is rather amusing. The gaming nerd in me wants to say that I’ve really leveled up my driving stats. Or my Pilot (Ground Vehicle) skill, if you will. The writer in me is trying very hard (and clearly failing) to not say something cheesy about character growth. Mostly, though, I just find it interesting. That, and it goes to show that you never really know where life will take you. “If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans” and all that.

Also, I know this is at least my second post heavily referencing freeways. I’m sorry. I live in LA county. It’s a hazard.

In other news, I’m probably going to be looking at switching up my blog schedule and/or coming up with a more comprehensive plan for what I’ll be writing. The current one is proving difficult to keep up with for a few different reasons, one of which is my work schedule which is tricky, but not impossible to get around. I’ll keep you updated!

Musings

[Blog] Freeway Interchanges and Cloudy Mountains

Faith Hakimian

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Different landscapes have always made me want to write different sorts of stories. Show me a sweeping vista, full of dark forests spilling down the sides of jagged mountains and all half hidden beneath the shreds of cloud left behind by last night’s storm, and I’ll tell you that there are dragons there, coiled in lairs just out of sight. Catch me staring out the window while caught in traffic somewhere in LA, and I’ll be imagining what it would be like to wander the interchange on foot after something has rendered all cars immobile*. Let me watch the sun rise above the desert and paint the sagebrush golden and the mountains purple, and I will muse on what it would be like to ride a horse at a gallop there in the cool of morning, and why you might do such a thing.

Some of this, I am sure, can be attributed to growing up on The Lord of the Rings and the Peter Jackson adaptations. Between Tolkien’s descriptions and so many hours of footage filmed in New Zealand, it was bound to happen. But I don’t think it’s the only reason. I suspect most people find inspiration of one sort or another while looking at the world around them. Some of us will be driven to create with our hands or our words. Others will have our souls filled in different ways.

For me, I’m not sure if there’s a setting that doesn’t spark my imagination in this way. Mountains, cities, rolling hills: every place has its own sort of story. All we have to do is find them.

Speaking of stories, I apologize for the terrible lateness of the one that was supposed to go up last week. It’s on its way, but it’s coming slowly, Hopefully, I’ll be able to post it and the next Tanner and Miranda story next week.

 

* Well, more immobile than they already are at 5pm on a workday.