Sherman Oaks Oooohs

I started my drafting class yesterday at UCLA (heres a pic from my iPhone of the building I meet in) and the class has a size of about 16 students so not too big. The professor walks in and starts going over the syllabus and after awhile ask the question “So who drove the farthest, where did everyone come from?” He asked first “did anyone drive from Orange County?” No one raised their hands. One classmate then said “I drove from Sherman Oaks.” It got a few of Ooohs. I then said “I drove from Long Beach.” “Long Beach? Said another class mate. “Oh my gosh you drove all the way from Long Beach?” It felt like I just told the class that I came from Beirut and had a long lay-over so I thought I would swing by the class before I caught the red eye. Why couldn’t I get the Sherman Oaks Ooooh, or even a Woodland Hills Aaaah? I proceeded to say “well a little known fact about Long Beach, is it’s in the same county as UCLA and has a population of 462,000 we even have our own airport.” (wink) No one was impressed; apparently you’re not a local if you don’t live near campus or the Valley. Since when does the Valley get more respect than Long Beach?

It reminded me of a time when Brent and I were talking to a guy at a party who lived in Hollywood and he was gabbing on about how much he loved In-N-Out. He talked about it like it was the new Zagat rated Bottega Louie on Wilshire. Then he said “well you guys know what In-N-Out is right, don’t they have them in Long Beach?” (cricket…cricket…cricket) I wanted to say, Out-In the –N? N-with-Out? I’m sorry what did you say??? Ohhhhh…. In-N-Out. No we don’t, but I was just telling Brent the other day that I wanted to come up to the big L.A. and eat in one of them purty restaurants you got. In-N-Out Shure does sound special like.

Maybe I shouldn’t blame them. Perhaps they all saw the movie Freedom Writers, which I feel that that production has damaged Long Beach forever. Damn you Hilary Swank! Even the preview to the movie has this girl narrating “If your living in Long Beach, you have to fight to survive.” Yea right….maybe driving the 710. Have you been on that freeway during rush hour? The car is the minority, Semi is king! Anyway I’m going to go to all the local Blockbusters around campus and rent Freedom Writers and not return them. Then my classmates won’t be persuaded by the evil influential Hilary Swank anymore. Long Beach will rule over the Valley once again, and in class I’ll start getting the Long Beach Ooooooohs. Bwa ha ha ha ha.