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| The Thomas Guide - 1993 Edition |
When I was living in Los Angeles about 20 years ago there was no Internet, no smartphones, no Metro. It was high tech enough for me to be able to fax a resume straight from my PowerBook. Getting around the city required purchasing a Thomas Guide map the size of a phone book. My job provided me with a cellular flip phone that was only to be used for emergencies (because calls were pretty expensive) and a pager that received texts, although the caller didn't actually text, they spoke to the number they dialed, which an operator then texted to the pager. It seems so archaic now.
Today I navigated the city with Google maps on my iPhone, and I'm texting people at no cost, and keeping friends back in Tokyo abreast of my whereabouts and goings on (status updates in modern day lingo). Parking meters take credit cards here, and I was worried about not having enough quarters! I lived in Studio City, in the Valley, where the ocean air never reaches. My roommate used to joke that we were living on Mars because there was a constant haze we got used to breathing. Roommate is a bit of a stretch. He had the bedroom. I had the living room. It was a living arrangement that I can't even fathom of putting up with now, but somehow I did for three years. Slept on a futon, the kind that folds into a couch. I guess I didn't really need much privacy. I was always going out.