Hello again from sunny California! I know that our (at this point, probably two or three, and those are probably folks we are related to) faithful readers have missed the Left Coast perspective on the insanity of modern life, so here I am back to supply it. I sort of dropped off the map for a couple of weeks due to a nasty and pernicious combination of unexpected health problems, the final rehearsals for the opera I'm in right now, and my desire to simply curl up on my boyfriend's couch and watch "The West Wing" when confronted with the aforementioned situations.

By the by, happy Summer Solstice, everyone...I would post a link to the Wikipedia article on the summer solstice, except that Blogger doesn't reeaaaally support Safari and, well, I'm one of those diehard Mac users...who also happens to be too lazy to download Firefox. Hopefully tomorrow I'll *actually* get around to doing that, and then this post will be all pretty and linked and the writing will be in blue and all of that good stuff...

To comment on Lauren's "Law and Order"esque experience...first of all, YUCK! Second of all, there's no shortage of casual encounters with law enforcement events in the greater Los Angeles area. As one might guess, here in car culture-obsessed LAlaland, many of these events are related to automobiles. Although I've yet to witness one myself, high-speed car chases are fairly common here and even something of a spectator sport. There was a wonderful article in The New Yorker about two years ago about the high-speed car chase phenomenon. If I can find even part of the article online, I'll link to it. If not, well, you know, um, it's good. I promise. Anyhoosies. An integral part of these high-speed chases is a police helicopter. This past weekend my bf and our good friend MB had a chance to examine one of these police helicopters up close at this street fair dealie thing. The helicopter has a $250,000 infared camera and everything. Glad to see my tax dollars at work :P Ahh yes, so high speed chases. They happen. Seeing cars pulled over on the side of the road and being searched is something I see with great frequency, but I suppose that's sort of everywhere...sadly enough, I see a lot of car accidents involving police, fire, paramedics etc. What else? Hmmm. Well, not that long ago the bf saw a car explode on a freeway offramp. Scary scary! Also, my friend NA's girlfriend works part-time for the FBI. Do I get points for that?

One thing I certainly get points for- and am very pleased to share with y'all- is that Meredith's got a new day job! A very adult and exciting day job, at that. I received a verbal offer on Tuesday and am now waiting to get my official offer in the mail. I don't want to share all of the details before I actually sign the papers, but I will share that it is with a very well respected healthcare non-profit and I'll be working in the development division (for those of you who aren't familiar with this term, it's a really nice way to say "fundraising"). As I understand it, some of the primary responsiblities of the job will include writing grants and schmoozing with donors. Yay! I'm really excited to have a 9-5 job that flexes my mental muscle and also makes me feel all warm and fuzzy at the end of the day. Yay for non profits. And yay for improving my grant-writing skills...it's one of those really great skills to have for anyone in an artistic field, and I'm looking forward to have a chance to hone this useful skill. So huzzah, new job!

Mmmk, there's quite a bit more I'd like to babble on about..but tomorrow is my final dress rehearsal for the opera I'm in, and the show is this weekend...my sister Annie will be visiting and much fun and frolicking will be had. So 10-4, I'm out for tonight...signing off for tonight from the West Coast.