Another Thursday, another list.

I will try not to make this weird listing thing a regular occurrance, but I don't know that I have much coherent to say what with this time of year making a person anxious, and broke, and also I may not be writing much between now and New Year's. Then again, every time I say that I'm going to be off living a real life instead of writing my life away, I start posting forty-two entries a day. Paging Dr. Freud for reverse psychology class! But bring your gloves because... it's COLD. The brain shrinks when it's cold.

1) And "cold" is a relative term.
Today I came into work wearing the following: One knee-length wool peacoat over a sweater, a long-sleeved shirt and a tank top. Gloves, scarf, pants, thick socks, suede boots. It was FORTY-FOUR DEGREES outside. In California! I know that somewhere someone is thinking that 44 degrees sounds like a springtime warm spell, but in Los Angeles it's the near-end of the world. Someone in the elevator asked if it was cold enough to snow. "Well," I said, "If by 'snow' you mean 'sunshine all day' ... then yes. Yes it is." Since it was only 7 a.m., this person did not hit me.

2) Speaking of violence
People have lost the ability to drive. It happens every year, as the holidays get closer and closer, people get crazier. They're REALLY IN A HURRY, plus they are LATE FOR SOMETHING, plus they are maybe pissed off or tired or stressed out. And there are people on the road who do not normally drive and, for example, do not know how to merge or turn left or use their car at all. It's weird, this collective holiday stress all over the city. And there is a LOT of honking. Today there was a five-car pileup ON THE ONRAMP. How on earth do five cars tangle on an on-ramp at rush hour? When you are moving 0.03 miles per hour at a metered light? Someone explain this to me. Please.

3) Could I have some e. coli with that?
Is it really wrong and weird that with all this news about Onterliole I suddenly, really want to eat there? I know I should be appalled by the lack of apparent food safety but instead all I think when I hear another news story is... enchirito! Nachos bellgrande!

4) But I haven't eaten there.
(Yet.)

5) The right Survivor won!
Most of the time I think the wrong person wins Survivor. But I pegged Yul Kwon from Day One as a winner... and he actually won! I know a lot of folks were really freaked out by the race hype before the show, but in the end the final four were: one Latino guy who was pretty much the most amazing athelete ever, two Asian-Americans, and an African-American woman who was the most serene female player ever to go that far in a whole season of Survivor. By playing the race-tribes up in the beginning, they had a WAY more diverse cast, and for the first time you saw a whole spectrum of people from each race instead of the token black guy, or the token Latina like they usually do. I hope they keep up this way with a more mixed cast every season!

6) Strange things you never get used to.
Prior to moving to Los Angeles, I had never seen a police helicopter except on the TV. But out here they fly overhead at night regularly, circling overhead with the eye-in-the-sky, a hugely powerful spotlight that can illuminate all sorts of crime on the ground. I don't live in a real bad neighborhood, much, but I am thisclose to a bad neighborhood (this is Los Angeles ... everyone is close to a very bad neighborhood.) Last night the ghetto bird hovered and circled around my neighborhood forEVER. And they are loud, and sometimes the light goes into your windows which freaks a person out, because you wonder if forty-eight carjacking suspects will be running through your backyard any moment. But the noise! I felt like I was in the opening scene of M.A.S.H. for about an hour and a half. That is just not something about big city life I will ever get used to.

7) Yes I bought the felines a Christmas gift.
They are, after all, the entire sum of my divorce settlement and I want to keep them happy. I really splurged and spent a whole $9.98 on this thing called a "crinkle cave" which is a little nylon tent and the floor of it makes a crinkle sound, the same sound my cats make when they tear apart the Sunday paper and sleep on it. Surprisingly enough, the cats love the new cave. Roy loves it most of all and has spent almost every waking/sleeping moment huddled up inside the tent since I gave it to them on Saturday. I took pictures of Bob annoying Roy in the new toy, but of course I forgot to bring my camera today. Whoops.

* edit: I got this crinkle cave thingy at Target but they don't have it pictured online. They do, however, have the cube version pictured here. Except the description does not specifically say "crinkle" so I don't know if it is just a boring silent cube. The cave is shaped more like a little tent, it's longer than a single cube looks like a miniature camping tent. With a cat inside. I'll post pics tomorrow.

8) Really, I need a break.
So if the diary-keeping becomes sporadic in the next few days you know why. I am probably stuck in traffic, or bemoaning my enchirito, or watching the exciting Cat Cave Smackdown that's happening in my living room while Survivor is on hiatus. I didn't say this was an exciting life, the life I'm living, but it is certainly not without it's fair share of risk ... especially if I drive to the Taco Bell tonight after work. IN THE COLD. People! It's just edge-of-your-seat excitement here at Chez Nuttier Than A Fruitcake! Alert the police helicopters!