Misc thoughts about the city...

I wanted to add these comments to my previous post about heading into the city to see a foreign film. Nothing really of interest, just a couple little things I wanted to throw up on this ol' blog. While in the city, I had to park in a near by parking garage as the street parking is a mess (no spots available.) We parked, I got my ticket stub, and walked down to the theatre (only about a block and a half away). While standing in line, I was looking at the marquee trying to determine how much the tickets were. I looked, and I was totally confused... The film we were there to see, was more expensive than the others! It was 10:00, and all the others were slighty cheaper... 9:40, 9:45, etc... I mentioned this to my friend and he just looked at me... what? I said... He said, "Those are the SHOWTIMES!" - DOH! I admit, that was pretty stupid of me :)
After the film, we started heading back to the truck to go home, when I suggested we walk down to a local art gallery. It's a gallery that shows (sells) what is hard to describe, but i guess is considered "undreground" art. I've only just recently discovered this underground art world. I WISH I had discovered it sooner! There is a magazine that I subscribed to called Juxtapoz that features all of these artists. Some amazing artists! For what its worth... one of my new favorite artists is named Jeremy Fish!
On the walk to the gallery (which was closed, but looked like a cool place, I'm going to HAVE to get my butt over there sometime!) We walked about 3 blocks through a really hopping part of the city. Mind you it was about 12:30am and the streets (or sidewalks) were packed! People out eating at all the tables set up outside the restaurants, lots of loud music coming from the night clubs, lots of people milling about the night clubs waiting to get in, etc... I just walked through the crowds of people thinking "this is a whole other world I'm not into". One of the things that struck me was how there was a consistent "style" to how these people dressed. (not one was wearing shorts, T-shirt, and sneakers like I was. These were the "hip, young crowd". It was clear that I was/am so far removed from that lifestyle. I thought how fun it would be to be a fly on the wall for one night just to see what that lifestyle was like. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy with my lifestyle. I just like to see how other people live is all.
After making our way back to the truck, I was leaving the parking garage and was stopped at the driveway (on a hill) waiting for a break in the traffic and people walkin on the sidewalk. I pulled up and pretty much blocked the sidewalk (making people walk behind my truck), and was waiting for a gap in the traffic on this one way street. Finally a break... I left off the break to take off, and looked up at the same time, only to see a guy walking right in front of me, with his hands on the hood of the truck! I immediately hit the brakes of course! Another guy walking buy yelled out "Damn! You almost hit that guy! and RIGHT in front of the COPS!" Sure, enough, there was a police car parked at one of the night clubs right to my right.
The guy was fine, I was lucky, but, at that point... I was DONE visiting the big city and just wanted to get home.