December 5 (thanks to facebook i was able to look up the day on my wall… hahaha) being in LA for a week and having no clue what amazing things were awaiting me, i had an invitation for teatime at a friends house in the afternoon. It was already late morning going towards noon , so i decided to take a hike up to my most favorite places in Los Angeles, the Griffith Observatory, cause that would fit so perfect in that beautiful bright blue skies sunshiney day.
So i went with my rental car , parked at the lot where the Trails Cafe is , at a very nice picnic area surrounded by large trees , green very green grass at that time , cause there was some heavy rain the days before, birds singing , little bridges over a small stream of water, benches and tables to sit at… i got a lemonade at the Trails cafe before walking up and just sat behind it on a hayball , (wearing all white clothes.. how stupid is that ?)
amusing myself with the set up of trimmed bushes in form of a horse all decorated with a blonde wig and a cowboy hat , while thinking hay… i am born in a town with the nickname.. “horseriding town” how funny is that ?
After a while sitting in the sun i grabbed my lemonade , put on my sunglasses, tightened up the large bag with a Shiva decal i was carrying and walked off in my shiny bright white outfit .. white light cotton pants, a white blouse with flower embroidery that looked like a mix of mexican/hungarian whatever … ,white light jacket with brahma decal, a light pink shawl that i wore the whole time of that trip, a beautiful chain of very large Rudraksha pearls and a rhinestone hairclip resembling stars. Now i realize how confusing that must have been for the person i met on my trip up to the Observatory , cause it was a wild mix of so many cultures and times. I think this explains later within the story.
About 2/3 up on the way , there is a kind of overlook place , where its so nice to stop and just watch the city , watched by the visitors of the Observatory up from you, looking towards the mountains or the ocean and like with almost all my hikes up i stopped there that afternoon , just standing there and waiting…
(now it seems like i was waiting, that day i was just standing there for no particular reason and watching the city) until a guy came walking up in a weird way while talking to himself. He was dressed in clothes , that you could tell they were good quality , but most likely purchased a long time ago, like a very nice tweed jacket and also one of his front teeth missing . (like Lord Ganesha .. the elephant headed indian God , who broke off one of his tusks for a friend in need…) He sat down on one of the benches , me still standing there i think trying to take some pictures , all of a sudden the guy started talking to me … ” Hey you know where the <i think he said.. theatre ?>… building is ? this or the other side ? ” while pointing out to the hills. I didnt have a clue what he was talking about and admit i thought at first … ” oh great , now i have that strange guy trying to get me in a conversation….. how do i get outta that ? ”
… little did i know at that point. …
He went on and then mentioned in a side note that he was walking since the early morning just to get up there and his knee is hurting , cause he injured it . He got up and came over to me asking politely where i am from and we started a litte friendly small talk though and i asked what happened to his knee. I forgot what actually happened, but he started telling me , why he walks in such a weird way and said , usually people would walk in like 4 digits.. tap tap tap tap. .. tap tap tap tap…. but to protect his knee he walks in like 3 digits.. tap tap tap and then a little across tap tap tap .. across.. tap tap tap… and was explaining it with music .(btw a day later i tried this out .. it feels like waltzing and it really makes it easier ) Now he got my attention. He also learned to play piano in such a different way after he broke his hand and it was not working in the old way anymore. I got really interested in what he was telling me and obviously Rick (with that name he introduced himself to me at some time.. ) enjoyed the conversation too. Something in the very detailed intense way he was seing things totally fascinated me. He noticed my indian/mexican style and was drawing similaries between mexican music / hungarian polka and german music and said mexicans and germans are very much alike with their joy how they experience their countries music. I never saw germans as that jolly in characters as mexicans , but he be right though. Then the sun must have set a glow on the hairpin i was wearing that day ,
Ricks face lit up ..
” oh how beautiful , did you notice the way it breaks the light just perfectly ? Did you ever go into the exhibition inside the Observatory ?
There are 2200 pieces of jewelry that have the topic planets, stars and universe.
They are all donated by a collector, a very sweet elder Lady. ” Me ” oh no , never been inside ! ” Rick asked me if he could take me there and show where they are and i thought.. why not ? So we went up further the hills and kept on chatting.
I got to know Ricks roots are german in the area close to Cologne and he was talking about his family and a great aunt of his and mentioned her name a few times and that he loves to see a picture of her on the Internet. I wrote down her name and later found out who she is : Maria Helena Stollenwerk A nun who was declared a saint .
We entered the Observatory Building and Rick made me go to the Information desk and ask for the Jewelry exhibit and told the person sitting there ,he found me outside on the hiking trail and was mesmerized by my hairpin, while pointing out to it. The clerk smiled at us and sent us to the right place, The jewelry was amazing ,but what totally rocked was the fact Rick could tell something to almost every piece ! Like the period when it was made , the style , material … amazing. 
There was one brooch that i liked very much and learned the shell in the middle is poisionig when you work with it. Time just flew by ! and with a look on my watch i realized we had to leave soon , cause i didnt want to be late with my afternoon appointment at Wolfs Head Haven.
And since i had the feeling it would be nice to invite Rick for a coffee or something to eat i suggested we step into the ” Cafe at the end of the Universe” to grab something to drink or eat and i was delighted to find out he didnt know about that place and got the Douglas Adams reference. hehe. So we packed some sandwich and lemonade and starting walking down the hills back to the parking place at the Trails cafe , where my rental car was parked. Rick ponted out so many details and structures of our surroundings, it was just mind blowing . Btw, did you ever notice how perfectly structured those little plastic nets around fruits are ? I now pay attention to those too. My new friend taught me that.
Rick loved the picnic area at the parking place , obviously he never had been there before and i was happy that i knew something to show him. We sat down and shared the rest of the lemonade , while still being very busy chatting along . Rick mentioned he didnt talk like that to anyone since months, which made me quite sad. It would be too much to write everything down , but this was the start of many great conversations with strangers in Los Angeles !
I truly enjoyed this and if someone of the locals knows Rick the Starman , please tell him i wish he had a great time in Santa Barbara , where he wanted to go by bike a few days later and
THANK YOU ! 🙂
Average Life 