One Thursday in Los Angeles: A Type-in near LAX

We've been hurriedly planning this get-together, hastily come about due to serious work requiring travel by one and desire for wanton escape from a new dreary work for the other.

But it happened and here is the story.

Peter was working probably until past 5 so we decided to meet at his hotel lobby around 7:30ish.

Since i had about 3 hours to kill before then, i checked yelp and made some calls to nearby antique shops if they had any typewriters in - sure enough i found one in nearby Hermosa Beach, which has a reputation to be full of "cool LA people" unlike the trendy ass plastic people in Hollywood, especially West Hollywood.

I located Stars Antique Market and i decided to have a go because it looks like a big red barn and its on the street where the pier is.
























Well, the lady lied. She said they had a bunch of typewriters, all over the place, she said. I get there and there is one space with typewriters.

I toured the whole place and half near scared myself to death a couple times because this place was indeed eerie! Observe:


























And here are the typewriters i saw:

Nothing good enough to buy. Most without cases and all of them completely overpriced. I left exasperated and disappointed. That did not last long since I was meeting up with my first typospherian!
Peter luckily was able to escape work and our type-in occurred inside the Crown Pointe Plaza LAX's dining area - in the cafe area of the coffee shop and just outside of its Sushi Bar (this is LA) and Jazz Bar (This is LA).

We got along like old friends. Conversation was easy. It is easy when the center of the conversation is typewriters. I brought my Consul and my Corona Speedline. Of course, once we warmed to each other, we got to know each other better than just our machines. He's an interesting fellow. Defintely passionate about typewriters. And quite knowledgeable as well.
For me, it being my first type-in, it was awkward at first. Usually, writing is a private affair for me. Late at night. Everyone's asleep. Only the moonlight sort of thing.
Only now, we were in the middle of the hustle and bustle. Lots of people getting coffee. Winding down. Staring.
The first real person who dared to engage us was this younger african-american lady with a giant tattoo down her left arm that read "DADDY'S GIRL". She also had all her boobs out to see. If i had to compare her to someone, I'd say Meagan Good during the most recent season of Californication (my favorite show, btw). Our lady wasn't as hot,obviously, but she certainly could have been a rapper's girlfriend or mistress.

She kinda opened the floodgates. After that, we had steady visitors, almost always with very positive things to say. After awhile, you kinda forget about all the people and just want to type.

To close this abbreviated blog (it deserved a lot more attention but i'm tired), it was great fun to meet Peter and participate in my first type-in. Next time, hopefully we get more typospherians involved!