6:30 a.m. in the desert, 26 degrees. I'm sure a lot of the fruit has frozen outside overnight...but fortunately there are three bags of kumquats, lemons, grapefruit and oranges in the kitchen. Back to LA today--with almost all of chapter five of my thesis done. Two to go!

Time for a rant: I am sick and tired of people being more concerned with what is on their mobile electronic devices than the people in front of them. This is yet another way to dehumanize. Yesterday there was a man on his phone at the top of an escalator who was barely moving off at the top because he was so engrossed in "reading" his phone. Other people--at the mall, at the airport--you name the public space--are bumping around because they're not looking. One can only imagine what this does for driving.

Meanwhile, at my nephew's bar mitzvah, TWO, count them, TWO cell phones went off in a house of worship. I wonder if those people had gone into a church if they would've left them on.

Happy New Thesis! Yes, it's 2007 and lest I thought that there was time to finish the thesis, well, I'm looking at the calendar! I worked hard during the summer to do the research and clarify the idea. And I've done much of the writing on the first four chapters! So I'm not completely behind on it, but it'll be nice to feel it is finished. Then in March it's the fun game called HUC Survivor where I get to begin the process of looking for a job.

It's a new year....and May 13th is really right around the corner!