Los Angeles, I'm yours

I'm really learning to love this city. Sure it's crazy expensive and the traffic is awful and parking is impossible and there's pollution and sometimes you see a car in the mall parking lot whose license plate reads "THE HOFF"...

But all in all, I love it here. And Andy does too, I think. The city isn't afraid to have character, and everybody here is interesting, and there are (often free) adventures just waiting to be had. And the weather, I actually really like the weather now. And most of all, it's been a growing place for me. I've changed a lot. I didn't think I would ever love LA, but then I also didn't think I would ever see a professional counselor, be able to drive by myself on a seven-lane freeway without sobbing, be a runner*, or eat a gluten-free diet**.

*I read the other day that walking burns more calories than jogging. I just don't see how that can be true. Are they measuring it by distance or by time? That could make a difference. Also, is there a difference between jogging and running? Anyway, I've been running (not very fast or gracefully, and usually with a double stroller) just over a mile for six mornings a week for the past month or so, and I can't believe how much I like it now. It doesn't feel awful anymore. Well, sometimes it does, but only in the first half mile-ish, then after a while I feel like I could go forever, and when I go home I feel taller. Physically taller, like I walk up to my front door and I'm like, "Oh hey doorknob, what are you doing all the way down there?" And then I have energy and a good mood for the rest of the day. Best free, natural, healthy prozac in the world.

**I will probably post someday about my adventures with my health and include many horrible and intimate details about my gastrointestinal system, but for now suffice it to say that I believe that I am mildly gluten-intolerant (not celiac), that I have been for some time but it was intensified (and thus I noticed it) after Corryn was born, and I've been eating gluten-free for the past four or five days and already I feel so much better. I've also been eating much less sugar. I think I'm mostly posting this here so I feel some sort of accountability...to my adoring public.

P.S. In a fit of antioxidantal spontaneity, we bought a flat of pomegranates at Costco. Turns out the seeds are kinda nasty when you put them in a blender (texture-wise, not flavor-wise), but eating them plain is good. The children LOVE them. So much so that Elliot stuck one up his left nostril tonight, and this made him very sad.

That's all I have to say.