Grilled Cheese Truck

So I did something this week wonderfully stamped with LA's mark of approval.  Bethany and I were going to get lunch at a new pita restaurant on Melrose, but on the way, lo and behold, we spotted the gourmet Grilled Cheese Truck parked right across the street!  Now, we both kind of held our breath and looked at each other and were sort of like, there's no way we're just encountering this thing casually. That just doesn't happen.  

I mean, as far as my knowledge goes in regards to the gourmet food trucks of Los Angeles, you have to follow their twitters and know where they're going to be parked at certain times and you find out at the last minute, so you kind of have to be obsessed, really.  Well, apparently, Bethany and I are secretly obsessed, without having done any actual footwork, with the Grilled Cheese Truck.  I could only tell this detail by our respective reactions.  Oh, we'd heard of that thing, all right.  And had obviously both dreamed of finding it one day.  

And then, there we were, both aghast, on our way to energetically support a new spot for shawarma and falafel, when we got distracted by our secret dream.  So, naturally, we pretended to debate which place we should go to for lunch, but we obviously both knew that we'd end up at the Grilled Cheese Truck.  That's like once in a lifetime for the likes of us non-followers.  And so it was written.  And we pulled that car over at the first spot we could find and made our way to the curb and anyone who cared to look would have seen us beaming.  Now, I'm not sure if that is normal behavior for food truck followers, because everyone else in line seemed quite at ease, but, you know what, I think we really didn't care to hide our enthusiasm right then. 

So, I ordered the gruyere and avocado.  I kept it simple and fancy.  I did notice in the topping options something called "fritos" and I just assumed, probably because of my wariness of sketchy mexican food trucks, that it was slang for fried ham or something.  And the next thing I know, Bethany is ordering hers with fritos and I could just tell by the American way she said it that I was wrong.  And I looked at her and said, "chips?" and she said, "yep" and, not to spoil it for those who want to experiment and order fritos on their grilled cheese, but, that was a good idea.

We were so happy to be there, actually, that when an overly friendly stranger walked up to us while we were waiting for our food, we gladly humored him with conversation.  And, when I say we, I guess I really mean Bethany, because I'm definitely the more friendly one with the strange dudes.  Although I will give it to her for being sweetly tolerant of the nonsensical homeless extroverts with shopping carts when I get scared and silent.  She does surprise me there.  But she's the tough one.  

In any case, this guy, well, he was the type that I just tend to feed into, because he was so friendly and chill.  And he'd just moved to LA, and was wondering how to assimilate, and I told him that he was doing well just by being his friendly self.  And then our food was up, and I said that we had to go and get back to work but nice to meet him and he said, "So there's no time for a threesome?"  Yeah.  Ok.  You lost us, there.  Seriously, now you're a creep and I regret saying that you'll manage here on being yourself.  Couldn't he just have been friendly?  Am I too naive? 

But we moved on from that situation and decided to go and sit on a wonderful garden curb by the car and that's when it got good again.  Just sitting side by side on a curb, each with our grilled cheese in a tinfoil bag and tater tots and dipping sauces on the sidewalk between us.  It was perfect.  And the sun was shining extra bright that day.  And we both remarked how in that moment, with those elements surrounding us, we really felt like we were living in a city.  

The food truck, the weirdo guy, the sitting on the curb dining, the sun on the pavement, and a lot of commotion around us.  It seemed like a true and proper city.  And that actually felt really good to us.  Maybe because we both came from small towns and so fully appreciate and desire and love all that being in a city means for us.  Maybe because LA doesn't feel like a city city that often.  It was nice.  We were definitely both reveling in it in our own way.  

And I love reveling in things like that so much.  Like eating a grilled cheese sandwich on the sidewalk with a best friend in the sunshine.  Sometimes, it can get no better.  

I want to always be unabashedly engulfed by those full and overflowing moments.  

Because time does go too fast.  And life here.  I know there is so little of it. I know I don’t get that long and that things will just keep changing even when I don’t want them to. I know that I get to try and be me, this one girl with this one life, for so short a time and I want to do it all and live it so badly and take the things I am handed and love them for being there and keep going, going, pushing forward into this whole experience.

And it's just those moments that do it for me.  When I know I am living it so fully and really taking it in.  Those feel so right.  And I thank that Grilled Cheese Truck for that simple but memorable opportunity to indulge in it all for that short hour.