50 Miles of Tears

The finale of season 2 of "Laguna Beach" was surprisingly uneventful. Lots of goodbyes and lots of tears. Even the Ice Princess herself, Kristin, got emotional. But what was up with that stalker dyke-in-training Alex H.? She kept giving Jessica dirty looks every time Kristin told her she'd miss her. I can't wait till that whole thing blows up in Kristin's face when she and Alex become roommates and Alex starts hinting around about going to see the Indigo Girls together and not giving Kristin her phone messages from guys, OK?

My friend Jay mentioned how he can remember feeling the same anxiety that the Laguna kids felt about their impending futures — "you want it, you've dreamed about it and you can't imagine anything else but you also know that things are changing and they'll never be the same so it's kind of scary." But he also astutely pointed out that the majority of them are either staying in Laguna or are moving to L.A., which is about 50 miles or less than an hour away! Don't all of you have new BMWs you can drive to visit each other? It hardly seemed worth all of the tears.

This season we learned that Talan and Stephen were way dorkier than we'd originally thought; that Jason isn't as hot as we'd thought; and, based on the sneak preview of season 3, that next year's guys are way hotter (did you get a load of those boys?).

I don't know how I feel about L.C.'s spinoff, "The Hills" (Hollywood, that is, swimming pools, movie stars ...). She really revealed how boring she was this year, but maybe a change in scenery will do her good. Well, a change that isn't San Francisco, that is. A guest spot by Anna Wintour certainly looks promising.

Did anyone notice the conspicuous absence of Casey?