With each passing 11-12 hour work day, I am having less and less success in finding – or more accurately wanting to find – fun things to do. So, for today\’s posting, I will list the things that I like about sunny southern California. Stayed tuned for a future posting about what I don\’t like about SoCal.

• Energy – There is a palpable energy here that I find only in places like New York City and Las Vegas. Even in the craphole OC, you can feel the energy.
• Mountains – I love mountains. I love being able to look out and see mountains instead of water towers on the horizon. Even though they aren\’t beautiful snowcapped mountains, they are still comforting to me.
• Donuts and Hamburgers – For a place known for frisée salad and passion fruit iced tea, it is lousy with donut and hamburger joints. There\’s not a single strip mall lacking a donut and hamburger place claiming to have the best of each in all of SoCal. On top of that, there are a ton of fast food chains here. So much for the healthy LA diet.
• Morning Drive with my Leader – Even though my commute from the hotel to my work site is only 10 minutes long, it\’s nice to catch Adam Carolla in his non-podcasted form. Although the rest of the day on his station is virtually unlistenable. On a similar not, I finally got to watch one of Carolla\’s favorite targets – Huell Howser.
• Booze Everywhere – When I went to see the Stars play the Ducks at the Honda Center I was surprised and delighted to see that you could get mixed drinks throughout the barn, not just in their \”Platinum\” areas. In fact Californians are not confused and tormented by vague and confusing alcohol laws like we have in Texas. They just don\’t have the situation where you can\’t buy beer at this 7-11 but you can at the one two blocks away in the same goddamn town. Also, the laws here don\’t suppress the microbrew industry as they do in Texas. And thus we get masterpieces like Stone\’s Vertical Epic 08.08.08.