Last night I slept on the couch at house of my friends’ Geoff Schaaf and Dennie Gordon in in the Hollywood Hills L, right where Ozzie Osbourne once sat. The couch has been since cleaned and arranged for an over six foot person and one cat named “Sox” who sleeps with whomever stays overnight. Ozzie and Sharon were recently there to celebrate the success of Dennie’s movie New York Minute, in which Zack Osbourne played a bit part. Ozzie was observed coming back from the patio with one hand on his fly, confessing “I couldn’t find the bathroom.”

But I am here to mentally prepare for my annual trip to Australia to see my family. I’m on my way out of town from Chicago... I stop over in LA because it breaks the trip and helps me believe I can escape from America, just like people do in the movies. Only the Pacific Ocean lies between us--my modern life in America and my lost childhood on the other side of the world.

Tomorrow I fly QANTAS across the blue carpet. How far is it?  Only two valium, they say.

(ABOVE: Sox abandons the couch. BELOW: Early morning (photo of the Griffith Observatory, taken from and Geoff and Dennie’s patio.)