The Desert Sun is a Gannett-run daily that also publishes a weekly and three glossy mags in the Coachella Valley alone. It's in an immense building with a bustling, impressive, real-life newsroom they like to call, "The Information Center."

The whole interview took about three hours and I met with no less than five editors. For the most part, they seemed to like me, except for one who made me exceptionally nervous. He was very deadpanned and serious, and asked me questions like, "How do you come up with stories?" and "What makes you a good writer?" and "I see you write a lot about food--can you write about anything else?" and I just blabbed about nothing and squirmed and giggled nervously and acted like a complete idiot. When I finally did get him to crack a smile, I didn't know if it was for good or evil.

Well, whatever. It was good experience anyway. And pretty darn good overall for reinvigorating my self-esteem.

I was ready to return to San Francisco.