OK, Los Angeles....hold still. Hooooooooold still...perfect!

I can't help but love this weather. Cool, cloudy, chance of rain? Sign me up.

In the past few days, I think I've seen more rain here than I did the entire month I was in Chicago, and for a city that's prone to getting soaked enough for fish to actually occasionally inhabit the street, that's saying something.

So, yes, I did have an interview with a production company in Chicago. However, I got a job offer out here in Los Angeles, and since the Chicago production company didn't seem to be pushing little old ladies out of the way in a rush to offer me the gig, I figured I'd capitalize on the momentum I already gots and come back and do some stuff out here.

But, man, it would have been cool to stay in Chicago. The work was somewhat interesting sounding and similar to what I do here, but the pay was just a touch less...though not by much. That wouldn't have mattered much, though, as the city seems to have found itself in a bit of a housing glut, and apartments are super cheap right now. Every other listing in the Reader was 'Two months rent free! Free digital camera when you sign the lease! (yes, really) Move-in special! Please, people, for the love of God rent my apartment!'

I experienced a lot of 'Damn, I could live there for what I make?' moments that I would not have experienced just a few years ago.

All those cheap rents haven't stopped the developers, though. They're throwing up $600,000 condos into any space that looks wide enough for a human body and opening new Starbucks inside other Starbucks. It's madness, I tells you. If this construction bubble bursts, there are going to be a lot of poor college kids and wage slaves living in buildings once designed for ad execs and media types.

The good stuff always happens after you leave a place.

The show I'm working on now is new enough so that I can't find any Google results or an IMDB page for it, so I'm going to restrain from mentioning it by name for now. All I'll say is that it involves sending real people out on a three hour tour, a three hour tour...

The weird thing is that I'm working nights, which I've never done before. My schedule is 430pm to 230am. I get home, go immediately to sleep, and wake up around 1030 or 11. It's basically the same amount of free time I'd have if I got off at 630 and went to bed around midnight, just at a different place in the day. The bonus is that the commute home takes minutes, and I can actually get shit done, like that trip to Target and laundry I've been planning all week and haven't bothered to do.

So, really, there isn't much difference.

My flight back to Los Angeles would have been great but for Mr. Flatulence.

I had a two seat row all to myself, and I was pimpin' it in the aisle seat, feeling pretty good. It was the only empty seat on the plane. It was also the emergency row, which somehow made it even more spacious. If the plane went down, I was more than willing to perform my emergency row duties, as I pictured a situation much like "Terrible business, this plane crash, eh? Well, it is America West...c'est la vie, I suppose. Do you feel quite ready to jump, Linda? It is Linda, isn't it? Very good. Yes, you can hand that brandy snifter back to me, I'll see to it. Well, try to settle down by those trees over there, and we'll chat a bit more while we wait for rescue," as opposed to a "your high heels are digging into my skull' situation.

So I was all by myself, until right before takeoff, a gauntly tall man with improbably long legs moved back into the seat next to me, explaining that his knees were bumping against a bulkhead up cabin and he was uncomofortable. Pissed, I patronized his apologetic giggle with a smile and went back to my book.

And that's when the farting began.

This guy dropped his fucking odor bombs like a nervous dog for the entire goddamn flight. Just when I thought one salvo was over, the next wave began. Carrying that many lethal gasses, he never should have made it past security.

And no, the little air knob didn't help.

I also had a fantastic time during my month long visit home. Good Lord, I needed that. I'll scan the memory banks and see if I can dig up a decent anecdote.