As alluded to previously, I spent much of the past week in L.A. interviewing and renewing my acquiantance with several of my favorite restaurants, including stopping in at Papa Cristo's sadly not for a meal, but for a Limonata and one of those unbelievable baklava/custard thingys. I only ate at the hotel once, and it was this weird spinach/onion omelette, after which I decided to seek out less pretentious food. That said, I knew I was getting back into the L.A. mindset at two distinct moments: (1) Thursday night on the Santa Monica Promenade, when I walked down the street next to someone dressed as a Devo guy and didn't flinch, and (2) when I had a pomegranate smoothie for breakfast on Friday.

The practical upshot of the trip is that of my five interviews, I can now say there are two serious contenders, two longshots, and one that's just out. Of those I only have one offer in hand, but it's from a contender, so yay! I won't get more specific, because who knows who's reading, but I hope to sort things out in the next two weeks or so.

Like my last trip I came back on a red-eye this time, but with no home game/tailgate to get to, I was able to spend most of Saturday sleeping and/or sitting around recovering, which was outstanding. Now all I have to do is catch up in my classes, figure out a note topic, deal with ongoing emotional issues (don't ask--I'm coping), and try to start writing again. I guess this is a start.