San Francisco, a city you never get tired of coming home to. This photo (it's pretty large, if you click on it!) shows the weird fog effects sometimes caused by the Golden Gate Bridge - a long, narrow, perfectly formed coridoor of fog snaking all the way over to Berkeley.

On monday evening, Cecilia and I rolled back into San Francisco after our seven hour drive north from LA, tired, but happy to be home. The main casualties: my new car (now covered with dust, bird droppings and dead insects), and my nose (rubbed raw from paper tissues). I still felt pretty lousy - congested, tired, sniffly. Yet I had another hard day ahead of me on tuesday - a long, complicated work day, then my film class in the evening.

The film class is more or less what I expected. It's interactive enough to keep me from falling asleep (which is the main risk I run whenever I take any class). Our teacher is a part-time standup comedian/part-time short-film director - she's bright, funny, unaffected and kind of cute, really. It's a small class - about three lesbians, and four or five gay men. There is one cutie - a slender guy named Rich in his late twenties, with large sensitive eyes.

This Tuesday we had to present our story synopsis to the class, and it was very interesting how nakedly it exposed people's inner selves, in most cases. Rich's story, in particular, touched me, with its unexpected, poignant ending which sounded like it came from true experience. (I'm a bit of a sucker for tragedy). One guy, though, chilled everyone with his story, which had two characters: one was an angel (presumably this is the character the guy identified with), and the other was an unnamed woman whose sole role in the film was to exist as a sex object for the angel. I think everyone felt a little creeped out at how ignorant this guy was of how this story made him look.

I think my story was probably one of the least personal, since it was a scene from my screenplay that, on its own, was not really a complete story. It is, though, a kind of funny scene I think, with good dialogue. Can't wait to film it. Hope my friend Cecilia is ready for her three-to-five minutes of fame.

After class, I got home feeling completely exhausted, yet knowing I had to catch up with bills and some paperwork, and also pack my bags for my early morning flight back to LA. Ugh. By the time I was packed, it was already almost 1.00 a.m., and my 7.00 a.m. flight meant I'd have to get up at 5.00. Feeling only a little guilty, I decided not to set my alarm clock, and just miss my flight, trusting to the lovely (oh sure) airline people to do me right in the morning.

And those lovely United Airline people did, in fact, do me right, next morning, fitting me at no charge into a 9.30 flight. My late arrival into LAX meant that I couldn't spend the morning at my company's enormous User Group conference, like I was supposed to, so I just headed over to the hotel where we were to spend the next day and a half in a "retreat" for Western Region consultants.

Now, you know that I'm not particularly keen on the business world. But this session actually wasn't too bad. Of course, I've a vested interest in saying this since I played a large role in planning this session :) I was roped into it by my boss, and it's been, for the last few weeks, just one more complication in my life. I used the opportunity somewhat shamelessly to push some of my own hobby horses, so a large part of the agenda this time round is devoted to discussion sessions where we address some of the obstacles we face in doing our jobs well. And that's about all I'm going to say about the meeting, since I'm sure you find the business world as boring as I do. Or at least those aspects of the business world which involve people standing up and asking you what were your "key takeaways."

By Wednesday evening my congestion and sneeziness had totally (and mysteriously) lifted, and I was able to work out for the first time in almost a week. I even had plans to go running afterwards. Fortunately, both the treadmills in the hotel gym were occupied :) And the air quality in smokey Orange County was far too poor to chance a run outside.

I woke up to the second day of our business meeting once more choked up. This really confirmed to me that it was allergies I was suffering from, and not a cold. It's the first time since I was a kid that environmental allergies have hit me in this sneezeful, powerful way. I was miserable all day on Thursday - not only congested, headachy, and full of phleghm (ugh), but also with the uncomfortable feeling that there was a red hot poker up my sinuses. So, rather than spend a long weekend in LA like I'd planned, I just put my tail between my legs, and flew a standbye ticket home on Thursday evening, a trail of phlegm following me home. Okay, I exaggerate a little there :)

Friday morning - and I'm right as rain! I can see that these new allergies are going to be a toughie.