Just returned from an almost week-long business trip to the west coast. I was able to spend some good Hollywood cruise time with "Winners Only" Nick, and with our other good LA friend Jay.

Had some sushi with Nick and Jay one night in Santa Monica, just near the water at the edge of the continent, and among much hilarity mostly relating to relationships and non-relationships, Jay opined of sushi: "I like it, but not when it's fishy". Yo, Jay, it's raw fish, ffs, it might taste a little fishy. Next day they took me to a dive Mex joint I'd have never stepped into alone and enjoyed the best burrito I've ever had. The burrito itself was bigger than my head, and the waiter (burrito boy?) was impressed at how much I was able to put away. I was quite famished though, and I must say again it was the best damn burrito ever.

Nick and Jay play their soccer in Malibu, and I got to see their home field, a place of knee-buckling beauty high above the Pacific ocean across the street from Pepperdine University. The ocean winds no doubt play a factor in the games, but with a setting like that who could ever possibly care?

Spent some time where we have an office, way inland in the desert, and the hotel I stayed at bizarrely had a New England nautical theme: lighthouses, lobster traps, etc. I'm not kidding, the whole New England nautical theme in a hotel in the southern California desert. Wishful thinking, I guess.

I'm glad I got to finally visit southern California, however briefly and however much the trip focused on work. I don't think I could live there though. I'd miss autumn too much...