I am waiting for Gary to arrive and having an SMS conversation with Aya about the upcoming election and it got me thinking and actually feeling so I figured I would hop onto/into the computer and get some thoughts out.

I have been having wonderful political conversations as of late. My friends (liberal hollywood lefty souls that everyone seems to love to stereotype) and I have these great debates on who would be better for the country/world and I just laugh and enjoy the fact that we are struggling to figure if we should vote for a woman or a black man. I feel like all got invited to this really great party, like we just ended up going to the wrong house and they let us in anyway, and the music is great, the food is awesome, there's great wine and it's an open bar, and we're just so HAPPY and COMFORTABLE and full of glee...but we keep checking in with each other to make sure, "is this okay? When will we get kicked out?"

I was just texting to Aya (and wow, do I hate that word, but is it not so right, in a way? i send her text, no pictures, no voice, just the ASCII, m'am) how we must accept the fact that it's okay to be kinda excited. Yes, there are problems with the Dems, sure there are, let's just assume that, but still--it's hard to even imagine, but I figured things have to change because balance must be attained. Bush and Corporation came mighty close (or already have, depending on how gloomy your day is) to bringing down this country (and I realize there is time), to truly destroying our standing on this planet, and things just have to change because, well, things cannot continue to suck for this long. Yes, I am an idealist/optimist, but that's my wiring.

I do feel that America, I really do feel this, can inspire the world again. And there's a reason why people are actually excited about this election, because we have a chance to rally around a FIRST, a NEW EVENT, to deliver a president that has never existed before...because no matter who they are now, Hillary or Obama will change, they will be better, I truly think, they will be BETTER at this job, even better than they think they will be, because they will be so conscious of the decisions they make and how they will fill out the history they are already making. And those of us who are so upset, we want this kind of transformation, because we believe that that kind transformation is inherently good, that good will prevail. Not only that, we will feel more ownership, we will hold them more accountable, we will feel this leadership more because we are all living the new era together.

So, I wrote that this weekend and now it's apparently super Tuesday and right now I am sitting in another hospital waiting room, this time waiting for Whit to get out of an endoscopy to check out what's going on with her digestive system. It's been actually kind of a rough couple of days, with Whit experiencing Emergency Room-worthy abdominal pain, but she got a CAT scan yesterday and now the endoscopy should help reveal whether this is an ulcer or something. Preliminary results seem to point to some kind of mild pancreatitis as a result of the internal trauma associated with the surgery, which is a real bummer...but I am confident things are going to be okay once we know exactly what is up and how to alleviate the pain.

It never seems to stop. But I'm still gonna vote today. My friend Christopher is threatening to make a sort of political roundtable podcast that he wants me to be a part of. The last presidential election we were meeting once a week to discuss all that was over drinks at The Shortstop, I guess he's ready to record our m/utterings.

Gotta post this now.

10:40AM...

I'm posting two entries this time around because I got wildly distracted from my last one--it was getting a little too unwieldy and then by the time I got back to it, life got a lot more interesting.

I am currently waiting in the waiting room while Whit recovers in the recovery room. She had her surgery this morning and it all went great, they removed the fibroid, which, for something that is entirely natural, looked really, really unnatural. We got a picture of it but I guess I won't be able to get it bronzed...

Anyway, so the hard part is basically over, now we just let her sleep. I guess she's going to be staying here for a day or two, which is kind of annoying, but it's for the best. I am pleased that the procedure went by so quickly--the surgery was over in basically 2 hours.

Briefly:

1 - MacWorld was actually kind of cool this year, there was a good amount of enthusiasm. the new products, while not groundbreaking, are solid iterations. It's interesting that apple is charging $20 for iPod touch users but giving the AppleTV update for free. both are significant improvements, not sure how they decided on the $20 fee. And I still hate the 24 hour rental window (you have the rented movie for 30 days, but only 24 hours from the moment you press "play"--it is cool that you can move it from device to device, but wow, itunes...it's becoming it's own operating system now)

2- had a terrific audition for a pilot which I guess is not going anywhere. they changed the character around, so when I went in, I was asked to do something completely different. It was a great experience, and I was happy to show the casting director that I could flip the script on the fly, but I am a bit sad that I couldn't go further with it. I really love the show and really loved the character (or, at least, the one I was working on)...who knows. But at least the casting director saw me in the first place. Just need to be brought back.

3 - This week's theme so far is "my friends are totally awesome". I had a great night in San Francisco with the boys and then even saw some of the girls later. It was a really fun night and while I am always sad to leave my SF crew behind, to come back to such a wonderfully supportive army of LA friends has been a very humbling experience. I have been sending out little email updates regarding Whit's morning and everyone has been really keen to help out, etc. And, of course, the NY crew has been more than into it as well (Ravi, you are more than keeping it real from the International angle). Again, my friends are totally awesome.

4 - Last year at time, I was in Japan. Now I'm in a waiting room in a hospital in Beverly Hills. As I live, the future becomes less and less of a mystery and more of a surprise.

more soon.

Tags: Health, general

my cousin Patrick playing jazz at Socha in San Francisco. He's the hep cat with the beard, playing sax.

Oh, man. Merry Christmas.. I am at Socha right now:

where I was last night to see my cousin Patrick Wolff play some jazz with a few folks. I forgot my jacket and scarf last night so I had to come back here and see if they still had them--they did, and I am very happy. Not sure how I forgot it, but I guess that's the way it goes. It was a really great night, Patrick and his friends were really good (I haven't seen Pat play in years, so it was a treat) and it was a nice blend of family and friends. Super fun--I just wish I wasn't so damn sick, I gotta tell you. I am usually good about powering on when feeling ill, but it's hard to heal when you are just basically cold and uncomfortable all the time! I know, I know, what does a guy who spends his days in LA know about cold, but really--I am wearing a jacket, a coat and a scarf! That's gotta mean something, right?

So, I am that guy in the cafe with a small cup of coffee typing away on the computer. Cafe scribbler. I am having a great holiday; Christmas went really well, we had our normal massive family gathering at Toby and Catherine's and it was great to see everyone. It's good to see that everyone's looking healthy and doing well. We used to have these kinds of things all the time when I was a kid, now I basically see my extended family only once or twice, which is kind of depressing. Such is life, I guess.

San Francisco is nice, clear blue skies (quickly growing dark, gonna rain tonight) and I am doing fairly well balancing my time between friends and family, which is the trick. I'm going to be up here for MacWorld in a few weeks anyway. Everyone seems to be doing well...surprised, definitely, that a year has passed. Damn this cafe is cold! What is up with the front door wide open? The cafe is obviously open..it's a funny sight; everyone's in full jackets and hunched over their coffees while some kid pounds away on the piano.

What else? I am supposed to meet up with Oliver for lunch, but I am not sure what the story is. I want to swing by Isotope to hang out with James, then I am going home to my parents' place and just going to read some books and heal up. I woke up with a wicked headache which is retreating, slowly.

I just wanna go to Golden Boy and be warm. I am blowing steam from my mouth.

What else? Not much, I am sort of drifting, here, it's like that when I come to SF, I don't really have a homebase in the city itself, so I tend to bounce from cafe to store to restaurant to store to cafe and to dinner to bar, that kind of thing. I wanted to take a bunch of yoga classes this week but I haven't had the time and I just feel like crap.

Anything else, Mike? You are rambling a bit. Any comments on how everyone seems so young here? No? The seeming resurgence of beards on guys? Rants on traffic and how it's just as bad here as it is in LA and how it's frustrating that the car has been thrust upon us in this here state? how you wanted to see There Will Be Blood but it's not actually playing in San Francisco yet?

maybe later. For now, I will upload this and figure out what the hell is up with Oliver.

Tags: general, cold, sick