Winter '06-'07, Bye-Bye-O

Whoever (or is it "whomever"? Sometimes it's "who!") said people in L.A. miss out on the "changing of the seasons" were proven dead wrong over the last week. After the weekdays were consistently chilly and windy with highs in the 50's, Friday marked the unofficial first day of spring. It's been in the 70's every day since then, finally enabling me once again to take advantage of my beautiful surroundings by shopping and brunching on 3rd Street and going for a couple long runs down to Venice.

Even though I've lived in Santa Monica for a half year now, it still sometimes amazes me how close I live to 3rd St. Promenade, the beach, and the famed boardwalk of Venice. I remember back when I was in high school, and my parents and I were looking at beach houses, and they instantaneously rejected a nice place near the Huntington Beach boardwalk due to the noise, crowds, etc. As a hormonal 16-year old, I was obviously disappointed, making the safe assumption that I'd never be remotely successful enough to buy/rent a place that close to the beach on my own. Well, whaddya know? Here I am, 5 blocks from the beach, and a short jog away from the Santa Monica Pier and the Venice boardwalk. Sure, it's loan checks paying the rent, but hey, I couldn't get loan checks unless I proved myself capable of paying them back someday, right? Rising subprime defaults my ass...