I was supposed to have New Year's Eve day off from work. So it was with a bit of minor annoyance that I went into work not once, but twice because of some breaking news stories. But it was rewarding in that I'm proving how valuable I am, so they'll think twice about laying me off if they need to lay off more people.

On my way into the office, I actually saw something incredible. The traffic lights were out at a major intersection on Wilshire Boulevard, and my Boston instincts prepared me to sit there for a while because I thought everyone would just be trying to crowd through the intersection without being courteous to anyone else, and I was cursing myself for taking this way to work. Except people were letting each other go. One car from each lane going in one direction would go, then the next cars would wait for the people in the crossing direction would go. It was amazing. I was fully expecting major major gridlock, but it turned out to be passable because everyone was being nice. It blew my mind.

They may not be able to drive in the rain, but at least Southern Californians can drive pretty well during the 350 sunny days of the year.