/lit/ - Literature

Was at a tech conference today in Los Angeles for work. It was cool and everything, a little self-congratulatory as you'd expect with any business-tech bullshit.

Stuck up a conversation with one of the servers there handing out drinks. I asked him how his day's going and everything, and he did the same. Right away he said "there's no way you're from LA" cause of my voice, and I told him I grew up in Boston. He liked my ""accent"" (it's subtle), as he had never heard one in real life, so we started joking around and talking about our lives and backgrounds. He told me he's trying to straighten himself out after having dropped out of college years ago due to heavy drug use, including heroin, which fucked up the majority of his 20s. Said he's 29 now, mostly clean, and just trying to make some money until he figure things out. It was funny how quick he was to open up about himself, as if he wanted to tell someone, anyone, about what he's been going through. It was honestly really nice to listen to a guy as interesting as him, and I hope he enjoyed talking to someone that wasn't a "here's your drink sir" even if it were for a few minutes to a younger guy like me.

It was fitting how into Boston he was despite never having visited because he himself looked and acted like stereotypical city kid, almost like Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting - talked loosely, cracked jokes, seemed down-to-earth. The complete opposite of some fancy server you might see at an expensive convention in LA. Imagine pic related dishing out sodas to start-up CEOs and 30 year old coders wearing graphic tee shirts.