I've finally reached the bottom of the massive pile of papers I've been grading for two weeks now. Only one left to go, and it's in my boss's office, and my boss is in Paris.

Today I was walking down Craig Street behind a group of three people. One of them pointed up at a smokestack just visible over top of the Carnegie Museum. "Look at all the smoke coming out of that smokestack," he said. "That's disgusting."

Now, I'm no fan of smokestacks, but this particular one really wasn't that much of an offender. Honestly, I've seen more smoke come out of a bus at a stoplight.

They moved on to another topic of conversation: the weather, which was high 30s - low 40s, and a little drizzly.

"Maybe it is snowing!" one of them posited.

Yeah. How to smell a West Coaster from 200 feet, lesson 1. Alright, maybe you thought it was cold enough to be snowing, but have you never even seen pictures of snow? Because if you had, you'd know it looks different from rain.

They proceeded to crowd around the walk button at the next intersection without actually pressing it, forcing me to sprint across the street to beat traffic.

It's not that I have anything against people from the West Coast, inherently. It's only when they come here and do nothing but complain. Honestly, if everything is so much better in L.A., why'd you leave?