As of this very moment, the Great Santa Barbara Trip is offically in limbo. Flooding on the highway has closed the 101 between LA and SB until God-knows-when, so Jewel might not be able to come up. Also, Amtrak is currently not running down south, and they don't know if they will or not until Saturday morning. Even if they don't run and I end up just driving down there, the Gaviota Pass has been closed off-and-on every other day or so because of mudslides or, as was the case this morning, an overturned semi-truck, so even that's not reliable right now. Gah! This is all so frustrating, and annoying, and just gah!

  And, yes, I know I'm being a selfish little bitch for being upset about my weekend plans being screwed up, when several people caught in that horrible mudslide are already confirmed dead, and many more are still missing. And, yes, I'm also being a selfish little bitch in saying that if I can still make it to SB, I'm going, even if Jewel can't meet me there.

  That last part made her a bit snippy via e-mail, but that's to be expected. If the situations were reversed, I guarantee I would be grumpy that I couldn't go, and I'd be envious as hell of my friend who could. But, I wouldn't deny her the opportunity. Still, I guess I should've kept my mouth shut. On the other hand, I have been wanting to go to SB for some time now, and while it would be more fun with Jewel there, I don't see why I should let her not going stop me from going.

  Forget it. I'm PMSing way too much today to think or care about this anymore. Bottom line: if I can go, I'm going. If Jewel can make it, awesome. If she can't, bummer. We've established that I'm a selfish bitch; so let's move on.

  I did do one nice thing today, and that was to not take a girl's photograph. It was a perfect photojournalistic shot, too; the kind you see on TV or the front page of the local newspaper. You see, there was an accident on the freeway that slowed us commuters down to a snail's pace. As I made my way past the scene, the girl (I don't know which car she was with, but she was nearer the red one with the smashed-n front and shattered windshield, so I'm guessing that was hers) was leaning against the concrete median, cell phone against her ear, looking off to her right with that sort-of vacant, slightly shocky look on her face, and fresh, bright red blood splattered on her white jacket. Awesome, incredible shot! Yes, I'm a bitch for even thinking that, but hopefully I will redeem myself in a few eyes when I say I couldn't take the shot. It just didn't feel right to take a picture of her when she'd just been through a major trauma. So I didn't.