(insert your favorite LA song title/lyric here)

Since there's so many that I can't pick just one, I'll leave it up to everyone else to come up with suggestions.

Jen came to LA for the weekend. Surprise, it was non-stop. First, a drive up the PCH and then happy hour at Duke's, on the water in Malibu. Her friends on Friday night. My college buddies in Newport on Saturday. High school friends in Seal Beach on Sunday (happy birthday Hogan, ye olde bastarde) and back to Hermosa on Sunday to hang with Sari for a bit on Sunday before she left. Luckily, I had been there drunk before with Lefever and Pritts, so we made our way to Yankee Doodle (after the Santa Monica pier, which apparently has replaced Tijuana as the immigration port of choice on the Pacific coast) after chilling out on the bluffs over PCH in Santa monica, see the pics Jen posted about the sunset for what you missed. (washers champion, March 2005, same grassy knoll, where I wiped up the aforementioned Cornell homos)

Anyways, we did have our "moment" - I've been travelling a ton, 5 of the last 6 weeks out of town, and it takes a small toll on our relationship when we're apart for a week at a time, several times in a row. So as we walk out onto 3rd st. or whatever that place is with the bars and sidewalk freaks... the guy at the keyboard starts playing "Just the Way You Are" - our wedding song. It was a great way to close a long weekend, and a long time apart. LA - we had a blast, and there was plenty of great things to see, and friends to meet up with, but we'll take south FL any time, and invite you all to stay.

Other random stuff...

• Facebook is Multi Level Marketing at a social level. And it's one of the most popular things in America right now. No wonder we're in a complete recession. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to update my status mobily and see what new friends I might have throught the "Friends you might know".
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9zItgB9PrA&NR=1 I could watch Jay and Silent Bob all day.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvcTsOEFQgk start at 4:00 if you want the whole intro to Dogma, or just hit 9:10 and look for the guy with the horns, CMU's finest and my own little brother Gio. Always great work, my friend.
• I think you can watch Dogma through the entire clip in 10 minute intervals... here goes nothing...
  

Life in LA

Out in LA for two weeks for work. The West Coast is definitely... different. It's only been a few days, so it's not like I have a huge sample here (especially since I spend my time mostly at trash companies), but for every + for the wesssside, there seems to be a corresponding minus. Fantastic views of mountains and hills and ocean? Check. Miserable traffic and construction? Counter-check. Cool beach atmosphere? Check. 30-year-old roads with potholes every 20 feet? Counter-check. Lots of people I know out here? Check. Lots and LOTS of people I don't know, everywhere. Counter-check. In-N-Out Burger? Check. Rapidly expanding waistline? Counter-check.

The craziest thing to me was that I got to dine in Compton, CA, this afternoon. OK, "dine" isn't the right description - "head through the drive through and get the heck out of there" is more accurate. Bizarelly, though, what I saw of Compton wasn't anything like what Ice Cube used to write about. If you showed me pictures and asked me to name the city, there's no way in HELL I would have ever come up with "Compton, CA". Granted, it's not like I did a lot of sightseeing, but the part I did see had new strip malls, a Starbucks, houses in decent shape with yards and fences and all the rest of what you'd expect to see in Suburbia. There's quite a few places in the Fort Lauderdale area that at least appear to be in much worse shape. Bizarre.

The good thing I'm able to see some friends out here - last night it was a pitcher (or a few) with Barnicle and his wife Brenda. Later on this weekend, it'll be Goldi, Avi, Dirty Ray, Pat Hogan, Carmen, Schmitko... the list goes on. And Jen - who is about to land at LAX, so time to wrap this up - also has a list of people to make sure we get in touch with. We'll get some pics from the trip down to "the OC" this weekend.