normal here vs normal there; or, a lesson from batman

I work part-time at a hardware store located near the heart of the entertainment industry. Located within a few blocks are a number of television and film studios, and many people who work in various capacities in the creative world live nearby. I work in the paint department, and often we'll have people come in and place orders such as, "I need ten gallons of flat black paint for a stage" or "I need the cheapest off-white I can get because it only needs to last on the set for today's shoot." Overall it's still mostly your young professionals re-painting their apartment before they move or professional painters who come in every week, but we get enough entertainment industry figures that it's by no means unusual.

Those aren't the only entertainment industry figures who come in - we do have the occasional celebrity sighting. Most recently I was at the paint desk and saw a man looking at the batteries directly across from where I was standing. I was busy cleaning my work area, but I recognized his face, though I couldn't place from where. I ran through the possibilities: "Is he a regular customer? Did we go to school together? Is he a member of my church?"

Then it clicked: He's Batman.

My reaction was this: "Oh hey, look, it's Christian Bale. Cool." I then returned to wiping up the paint stains on my work space.

In retrospect, I was surprised at my response. I remember my first celebrity sighting, which I wrote about on my former blog. I was at a jazz club with a large group of friends when word started to spread through whispers that "Roy from The Office" was at the bar. A friend and I discreetly walked back toward the restaurant entrance and back by the bar, just to see him engaged in conversation with somebody, his back to us. We were beside ourselves.

If you took the time to read my old Xanga post, you may have realized that this post is basically that old post Version 2.0. However, I think the old post more accurately captures my feelings when still relatively new to living in Southern California.

Case in point: A few months after moving to Pasadena, California, the pilot of some television show (no, I don't know what one) was filmed literally down the street from my apartment. My flatmates and I were overwhelmed - here was a REAL TV SHOW filming right next to us! We (or at least I) bragged about it to everyone.

As the week went on, however, the crew continued to camp out by the apartment complex, the street was still down one lane, and police were swarming everywhere, making it difficult to walk to the Target right by us if we wanted to shop there. A few days in, we went from "That's so cool that they're right here!" to "Ugh, when will they freakin' leave?!"

Now when I see film crews blocking streets and sidewalks (which is not an uncommon occurrence), I feel exasperated instead of elated. I'm more concerned with being able to get to my house or my work than to stargaze. And when I see celebrities in my store, I still brag about it to select friends and family, but overall it's not the exciting in the moment. They're just people working on their houses.

It's interesting how quickly the definition of "normal" shifts depending on where one lives. Where I grew up in Houston, "normal" meant people who worked in the chemical plants and refineries. "Normal" also included NASA engineers, mission control personnel, and astronauts. One of my best friends from high school works at NASA; this is a pretty unexciting tidbit in Houston, but in Los Angeles I can drop it in conversation and people perk up and start asking questions. Similarly, when I tell my friends back in Texas that I saw Christian Bale at my store they get excited, while my friends in California reply with stories of their own celebrity sightings.

My first longterm overseas experience (and longest I've had so far) was studying abroad in Malaysia for a semester. One of my Malaysian friends gave me this advice soon after we arrived: "Take a bunch of pictures of ordinary stuff in these first couple of weeks - the stores, the restaurants, the cars, the trees, etc. In a few weeks it'll all become normal to you and when you get home and try to tell people about it, you won't be able to."

That was superb advice, and I've tried to follow it every time I've had a cross-cultural experience since then. It'd be nice to live in that honeymoon stage of being in a new area, when all the people are interesting, all the customs are fascinating, and everything merits a photograph or a story. I know it's unrealistic to maintain that attitude constantly in every situation, but it's nice to let down your guard and look at your current situation with new eyes every once in a while.

So here's your homework: Wherever you are, wherever you live, think as you go through your routine today: "How would I see all this if I lived somewhere where none of this was normal?" I hope it makes you smile.