CaliFALLnia

So, I'm about to enter my third straight year of being completely LA-bound for the entire season of fall.

LA trying to do "fall" is a very strange thing indeed- its kind of like a longtime alcoholic trying to change for the better. LA makes a legitimate effort, and you really think they may pull it off, but the reality of the situation eventually comes crashing to Earth.

Like today....its in the mid-60's, there's a "briskness" in the air, you can got to Starbucks and get a pumpkin spice latte or something, and tonight in Venice b/c of low temps, those with fireplaces will have real fires, giving that amazing 'burning fireplace' smell to the air.

I could go to bed tonight thinking "Hmmm....maybe I'll have a real fall this year. Maybe, California has really changed. Maybe... they're sober".

Then - BAM! - Saturday will roll around with its 80 degree temperatures and you'll look up from the five dead leaves that were meaninglessly raked to see a giant green-leafed palm tree. Oh no, they're falling off the wagon! By Sunday the NFL games from around the country will be coming on at 10am while a gang of vegans does Yoga in your front yard and you realize there's no fall here....there never will be.

LA will go back and forth, but when its November and you still need to bring sunscreen if you're going outside for more than 2 hours you realize fall is just a tease, a hopeless pipe dream that ends in settling for strange hybrids between regular fall and SoCal... like the Pumpkin Blaster Smoothie from Jamba Juice.

Ahhhh, but this year I may be escaping LA-LA just long enough to get a real autumnal feel. I'll be heading back to CHI for a whopping NINE DAYS during the Thanksgiving holiday. By the time I return to Cali this whole "maybe it is / maybe it isn't" fall thing will be over and the region will settle into a nice acceptance of okay, LA winter - slightly rainy and cooler but still mostly sunny state.

Less than a week and a half til the ULTIMATE true fall experience - a college football match-up at Wrigley Field. Cold weather, bare trees, scarves....my God, it will be glorious.