On the other hand

I know I bitched and moaned about L.A. not more than a couple days ago. And there really are some things I'll be only too glad to leave behind (see below).

But I've also lived in Santa Monica longer than anywhere else in my adult life. The last seven years have been some of the best of my life, and I'm only leaving for Virginia because the best thing of those years is there (yeah, that was tremendously shmoopy. I apologize for nothing). So there are certainly things I'll miss. To wit:

Random celebrity sightings. I think my two favorites are my first-ever, when I was in town for a friend's wedding -- Fletch co-star Larry "Flash" Jenkins at Jerry's Deli by the Beverly Center, and the time a couple years ago when Donald Sutherland walked into the mailbox place up the street from my apartment to pick up a package.



The tremendous burgers this town has to offer. I had me a double-double, animal style, the other day, and also love Fatburger, Big Tomy's on Pico and Sawtelle and the fancy ones at Father's Office and The Counter. If you haven't spent time here, chances are you don't know that for all the hippy-dippy stuff that filters back to the rest of the country, this here is a burger town.

This guy.

Average February temperature: 57.6 degrees.

I can walk to the beach, and to get there I descend a cliff and walk over (or under, if I go a little out of the way) one of the iconic roads in America. That is pretty cool.

And, of course -- and here comes the shmoop again -- the tremendous friends I have here, both ones that were already here and those I managed to make after I arrived. Five months after I moved here the job I moved here for evaporated. Had it not been for the likes of them, who took me to my first Comic-Con and got me the job I'm taking east and hung out at Jumbo's Clown Room that one time, I'm not sure I would've lasted this long. So thanks.

(A version of this post, along with the one below it, also appears on Big Action!)