How many ways can you say “Today I walked in a circle for three and a half hours”?

Thankfully, after 50-odd posts, 100+ days, a 2.5 billion blow to the local economy, and 217 donuts eaten by me, you can finally close the book on “The Writers Strike of ‘07”.

Last night, the WGA announced that its members had voted “overwhelmingly” to ratify the new MBA contract. With over 4,000 votes cast, Guild members confirmed the new deal by a margin of 93.8 percent.

The news might seem slightly anti-climactic after the mania that accompanied the end of picketing over two weeks ago, but it does officially bring the WGA/AMPTP labor dispute to an end.

After the huge rally a few weeks back, and the subsequent vote to call off the strike, it was pretty much a given that the MBA contract would be ratified with little friction. In fact, only 258 writers voted against the ratification, and less than 20 people showed up for a meeting held Monday night at the Guild to discuss the deal.

In a letter to its members, the WGA also announced that it would be extending health benefits so that no writers would lose their health insurance as a result of the strike.

The last few months have been very surreal. It was not an easy time by any stretch of the imagination, but I met a lot of incredible people, and have lots of wonderful memories to balance everything out.

With the strike behind us, I can now put my energy into enjoying Los Angeles, and seeing how many different ways I can say "I love downtown!", “The new Robert Pollard record is great!” or “The LA Kings are disappointing!”

photo by HeathBiter for LAist