welcome to beautiful los angeles

we went to los angeles, to scope it out, see the sights, maybe find a place to live. instead, someone broke into my rental car. stole my computer, amalia's books and CDs (including a zora neale hurston voodoo book she just bought). i had a backup CD with all my files on it. in case my computer crashed, you know. better safe than sorry. well, i kept that backup in the same computer bag. for being smart, i'm not so smart sometimes.

the computer was a compaq presario 2104US. it was likely stolen by these guys Amalia and Lamar saw, outside a pawn shop, 3100 block of santa monica blvd. so if you're checking out LA pawn shops and see a presario, send me an email. god knows the LAPD doesn't care. they wouldn't even send a car out, i had to drive to the police station to get a copy of the report for my insurance. and LA detectives don't work weekends (budget cuts), so i would've had to wait a few extra days to even get them to investigate (not that they would seriously do so).

my computer was valuable, at least to me ($2000!). for LA, though, i might be white, but i'm very poor and easy to ignore.

other than that, the trip was fine. saw a vincent valdez show, and we were supposed to see a willie perdomo reading. but the taco shop poets filled in at the last minute. ni modo. our amiga Ana was an excellent host. so many things to do, it'll all have to wait. i gotta re-type my master's thesis from a paper copy. how exciting.

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