It's raining outside. Since I've been in L.A., it's rained maybe five times. I welcome the change because -- even though many told me it would happen and I didn't believe them initially -- sunny & 70 degrees does get a little monotonous after a while.

As of a week from Friday, I will have been in Los Angeles for an entire year. It's a little hard to believe given the fact that I hadn't actually ever considered the option of living here until probably about six or nine months before I moved here. It's a little hard to believe that in the space of only a few days, I -- someone who my close friends and relatives never believed would leave the Northeast because they told me I was a person who was resistant to making drastic changes in my life -- packed up everything and moved 3000 miles away from everyone and everything I knew to start a new life. I'm told that Los Angeles is the place where people go to start over, so here I am, I guess.

I still remember coming into town that Thursday night. I had been on the road for hours because I'd begun the day in New Mexico, I was tired and I was on the 10 Freeway because I didn't know any better, so I was sitting in traffic. The world-famous KROQ was blasting through my speakers, and I was inching along as thoughts shot through my head at warp speed about starting my new job, resuming my old career, finding a place to live, meeting people, building a new life. I almost felt nauseous in that excited/scared-halfway-to-death kind of way.

So, here I am. Two separate people who also moved here from Boston independently told me that the first year in Los Angeles is the hardest year to get through, and I am thankful that I had it very easy. I've met some great people (and still continue to do so), I like my job and I'm having fun going and enjoying what L.A. has to offer. Hard to believe that I've come this far in only a year. My friends don't believe it, and I almost don't either.

Come to California
Baby, let it all hang out
Come to California
Tell us what it's all about...
-- Matthew Sweet, "Come to California"