Good/Bad

Good: I'm at the airport, ready to go back to normal life.

Bad: I'm at the airport.


Good: It's named "John Wayne Airport". Y'asm.

Bad: No one believes me when I tell them this, unless they're from Southern California.


Good: I caught up with a few college and high school friends over break doing typical Orange County things like eating at chain restaurants and brew pubs with generic "Californian" cuisine, while shopping at big box stores and strip malls.

Bad: I keep overhearing people refer to Orange County as "L.A." while on the phone to others, as they describe their travel itinerary. This was necessary perhaps ten years ago, when out-of-staters referred to anything south of Sacramento as "Los Angeles," from Santa Barbara through Orange County to San Diego. You have to speak slowly to such people. This ignorance was perhaps permissible back in the day, but what with Christopher Cox (Republican, 48th) becoming chair of the S.E.C., Orange County asserting itself as a bastion of libertarianish conservatism with tinges of megachurch evangelism, and the unrealistic-and-so-I-never-watched-it show "The O.C." (really, everyone swings and snorts while wearing tacky Roberto Cavalli!) with its idiotic use of the definite article, you'd think people would just cop to being 45 miles south aof Los Angeles. Do people from Poughkeepsie say that they're from Manhattan, just to make it easier on others? No. Or I hope not. Because that's just as stupid.


Good: I'll be home by nightfall.

Bad: As soon as I come home, my roomate and I have to talk to The Creepy Landlord about letting us break our lease by reassigning it to new tenants rather than merely subletting the apartment. He is willing to let us out as long as we find suitable tenants to replace us, but wants to sublet rather than reassign. Consent must be given in writing w/r/t assignment and subletting. I must persuade him that assignation is the way to go and that it's better to make a clean break of things and reassign rights and responsibilities to the new tenants for the remainder of the lease (7 months) and allow them to renew as periodic tenants in common. I want this, of course, because I want my security deposit back and so that I'm not responsible for the subletees' obligations to maintain the apartment and pay rent. This will involve a bit of wheedling and subtle lawyering with heavy doses of emotional appeal. I am not sure about my potential for success on this. Any tips for this would be greatly appreciated, but needed within the next 4 hours, whatever time zone you're in.


Good: I'm going to make a "coming home" dinner tonight, cooking for the first time in two weeks, as my mother has shooed me out of the kitchen in her motherliness every time I even tried to fry an egg or make toast.

Bad: this will involve shopping, prepping, and cooking, and must be done somehow between getting home from the airport, which takes about an hour and the long, excruciating talk with The Creepy Landlord, which will take another hour, and eating before bedtime. Hmmm. Makes me want to order a pizza rather than making beef stew or coq au vin.


Good: I'm flying out again on Monday to D.C. for a week. Contact me if you want to meet up.

Bad: I'm flying out again on Monday. Man...