Venice in Southern Cal

I looked the other way when we left the house this afternoon, past the black garbage-bagged foam sheets on my porch. I looked to the west.

Venice!

The canals!

It was a glorious day in southern California. I know many of you are suffering through wind and rain and snow and sleet and hail and all manner of wicked November weather. You really should reconsider and come on out to visit us.

Who knew Italy was in my back yard?

Last night, my dear friend D showed me the canals of Venice. Despite having visited them a thousand years ago in Italy, I had not done so for the fourteen years I've lived in Los Angeles. It was quiet and pretty, a tad shabby but utterly charming -- not unlike Venice in some ways and profoundly unlike Venice in most -- but I declared that if I couldn't ever live there, I would have to visit a lover there before I died, and hopefully he'd take me out in the yellow gondola.