Farewell, My Lovely

I finally got around to watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang last night, and in addition to it being completely fucking hilarious and having lots of great Raymond Chandler references, it had a really fantastic quote in it that spoke to something that I've been feeling/thinking about lately.

Given the events of the past month, I've been reflecting a lot about people and relationships, and specifically what it is about this area, and why there are so many people my age in this same situation, even though we're all ostensibly looking and trying to find relationships and make them work. Someone asked me the other day what I thought the differences were between people here and people back east, and when I'd been asked that question in the past, I didn't have a concrete answer, other than people in general seeming a little more superficial and image-oriented out here. But in thinking about it recently, I just wonder if the fact that a lot of people born and raised in Southern California - with the perfect weather and everything being sunshine and happiness - just are missing a level or sadness, for lack of a better word. Not meaning being depressed, but just the sadness or at least understanding that you get with like having to go through a cold, dark winter every year - or any changes in season for that matter. It just seems like things are a little bit...less out here, and I think that maybe there's just an experience or experiences that are missing that kind of shape how people are out here. I know that I'm not very eloquent when I try and relate this type of thing, and I know that there are a lot of people out here that have been through and are going through really hard times and struggle a lot on a day to day basis.

Anyway, back to KKBB - there's a point when Robert Downey Jr. is at a party, and after an encounter with a random woman, he says "I swear to God, it's like somebody took America by the East Coast, and shook it, and all the normal girls managed to hang on."

Maybe his theory makes more sense.