In praise of . . .

. . . becoming Californian. I think, after about 3 years on and off living here, that being a Los Angelino has started to set in.

Not, of course, in that I've become dippy and vacuous or started yakking on my cell phone with a yippy dog on my lap while I hold up traffic.

Two examples:

The last time we had rain was in December. It rained for two days. At lunch on the second day, I felt like I was going to cry. It was just so . . . depressing. Now, forget that I spent 5 years in the UK where when you get two consecutive days of sun and rejoice because of it, or that I lived in Canada. Somehow, two whole days of rain was just too much.

Second. I drive a convertible. I always have. Well apart from that 1988 Honda Civic in Toronto. And up until last night, it took rain to keep me from driving with the roof down. I mean, it could be "cold" and I would still do it, with the heat blasting. People always said that you can tell an import to California by the fact they always have the roof down, hot or cold.

Only last night, as I left my office, it was cool, and I thought, no, I'm going to drive with the roof up.

And then it hit me.