Here's to a long life and a merry one A quick death and an easy one A pretty girl and an honest one A cold drink -- and another one. -- Classic Irish toast

After a grueling day where I drove from New York to Boston, drove around Boston and somehow managed to find my way around despite the fact that they've changed half the roads in the city thanks to the Big Dig, then got on a plane and sat on the tarmac in Boston for three hours while being told my flight from Chicago to Los Angeles was cancelled, then getting to Chicago and managing to cram myself and my luggage onto the last flight to L.A., then being stuck on a hot plane for four hours two rows away from a baby who screamed the entire way home... I got through my front door at 3am last night. It was incredibly odd going back to Connecticut and seeing the house I grew up in having been sold to someone else and changed, the high school I went to having been remodeled and changed, and there I was, standing there like David Byrne of the Talking Heads, saying, "This is not my beautiful house... this is not my beautiful school..." As my old high school English teacher reaffirmed, Thomas Wolfe says you can't go home again. And damn, is he right. But you can go back to your new home. And once I was tired and worn out from my trip and wanting to go back to my home and my life, I knew... Los Angeles has become home.

I'm still not back in the sunny and thankfully un-humid land of Los Angeles... but here's a small clue as to where I've been hiding out for the past few days. While here, I also managed to fall in love with a nice Jewish girl from Queens with a singing voice that blew me away -- I always was a sucker for a woman who can sing. She may be green, and she may be married, but she will be mine... oh yes, she will be mine. I'll return to the left side of the country soon enough...

you know, keith asked me to update his blog while he was away doing whatever the heck he was doing (last i heard, it involved sheep and candles. don't ask.), and i have been neglecting my duties because of Real Life. in the meantime, take a gander at this: if you like wearing tights - and you just happen to be french - you better not be this dude: Policeman Arrested Driving in Fishnet Tights

He told me not to be evil - but it is just so tempting while he is away.

For the second time in a week, I'm going to wing my way back across the country. Next stop: New York, Center of the Universe. I'll be gone for a week. So while I'm gone, I've turned over the keys of the blog to the charming, witty and ... well, he lives in Cincinnati, so I can't call him urbane, but anyways, say hi to Sledge. (Hi Sledge!) Please don't give him too much trouble, or I'll ground you when I get home.

A few snapshots of my trip... This is what I have to deal with in Los Angeles as far as gas prices go. The people in Boston were bitching about their measly $1.80 per gallon. Sunrise over the wing as I headed East... My first apartment building after college. It was the first time I'd ever really lived on my own, since I lived on campus during college. I thought I'd live in this building forever. Coolidge Corner in Brookline... the neighborhood I lived in. Here's only one corner of it, but I was dismayed to find that a good portion of the mom-and-pop stores that gave Coolidge Corner its flavor have now been replaced by megachains. In this picture, you can see the AT&T Wireless store and the Quizno's. My first college dorm building. The Rockies from the air. Hard to believe that while I'm sweltering out here in 100-degree heat, there's still places in this country that have snow on the ground. Has a bit of a different look from 38,000 feet...

36 hours later, and I've crossed the country twice. Since 8am Friday Pacific Time, I've had 5 hours' sleep, and that includes the 2 1/2 hours I got on the plane on the way home this morning. Going back to Boston was like seeing an ex-girlfriend. First, the excitement at seeing the city again. Then driving around the city to see all the places I used to live and hang out in -- it was like remembering all the good times you had with your ex without remembering all the reasons why you broke up. Then seeing the changes, most of them good things (like the fact that I was told you can now buy liquor in Massachusetts on Sundays and the new buildings put up in the city and at my alma mater) -- it was like seeing all those things that make you jealous that you're not still together. I'm so glad I went though. Seeing my friends and singing again with my old singing group is something that I wouldn't have missed for the world. A few pictures will be up soon.