Saturday, July 25, 2009

Oxymoron of the Moment: Quiet Moring in the City

Do you know that feeling, when you wake up and maybe the most you're hearing are the birds outside but everything else is very much the opening scenes of "Abre los Ojos" or maybe some zombie flick where the absence of noise is the loudest thing you hear?

Moving down to South Lake Union has me missing that time of the morning.

There is always noise.

And seagulls? So not the same as the little birds that peeped out the window in Gas Works. The random car going down the freeway? Is a constant muffled drone here, no matter what time of day, I think it's the tunnel...or the HVAC systems maybe? People are having, um, moments 17 (okay, 16 as we found out there is no 13th floor) stories down and letting the entire neighborhood know.

Somehow I think it'd be quieter if we did live smack downtown just because it would be 99% abandoned after 5PM once everyone started heading home.

It makes me wonder, is this why my parents surrounded themselves with chickens and dogs (now cats) and pheasants and doves and gardens and trees? Their little oasis in the middle of 10 minutes East of downtown LA? It's not quite suburbia...that's further East. It's the last mix of houses and businesses...Given the proximity of the fire station? Not the quietest area in the world either. Which makes my new apartment not something I'm unused to (in the distant past), but um, it is amazing what 15 years of living in various small towns, pueblos, anchorages, and suburbs will influence that whole definition of quiet that I was becoming accustomed to.

I will miss that.

And yet, it is oddly comforting to hear the roaring of the bus at omg-thirty in the AM. At least I know the zombie Apocalypse hasn't begun.

2 comments:

Bezzie said...

Hee hee. Yes sometimes silence is deafening. Pheasants? Aren't those reallllly loud? I seem to remember them having a blood curdling scream. Or maybe I'm thinking of a different bird??

tana said...

No, pheasants are loud too. You're right Bezzie. :)