Thursday, October 27, 2011

Book clubs are for losers like me....

I recently decided to take my search for friends to the internet....

I figured,  "I like reading and I like wine... why can't read and drink wine with someone and then talk about what we read...."

So far my craigslist post in the city of Los Angeles had generated 3 responses. Three. I am bummed.

This is a list of books that I desparately would like to read and add to the post to give a sense of what type of books I typically read.

Zone One by Colson Whitehead

The Liquid City by Curtis Hopfenbeck

The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Poetzsch

The Abby by Chris Culver

Black like me by John Howard Griffin.

Some of these book were just added to my list recently, while others have been on there for  a while.

I also started reading a lot of the "classics" as defined by Penguins.

Any other good ones I should know about?



Thursday, October 20, 2011

An open letter the Occupy Wall Street Protesters:

Dear Protesters:

I get it. I really do. You are angry and fed up and unsure of the future.  You showed up on time everyday. You never took a sick day. You missed your kid's violin recital to meet that deadline. You did everything right and where are you now? Nowhere.  Or at the very least not where YOU think you should be.  And on top of everything, it seems like nothing will make the slightest difference in the amount of indifference the world has for you.
I am frustrated too. While I am lucky enough to have a job, there are several people in my family who do not. They were not bad employees or lazy, they were just victims of the financial state of their employers. I am sure that they wish that they could be the ones who kept their jobs, but sometimes staying on is just as difficult.  When the economy started to tank,  many employers did what was necessary to cut costs in the most direct way possible. For most, they got rid of their most costly expense: employees. Some companies had no choice but to severely cut their workforce by half or more. I saw it happen at competing firms.  "Oh did you hear that So-and-so is down from 50 to 22 people?" "Well I heard that they were going to a 4 day work week and taking a 20% pay cut."
And at first, as a surviving member of your company you are thankful for your job, period. You might take a pay cut and you might work more hours but you will be making more than unemployment and you will still feel like a positive member of society.

Monday, October 17, 2011

5 Thoughts...

1) As I approach the ripe old age of 30, I can no longer stay out late, stay up late, or wake up late. My body is less and less capable of changing its routine.

2) Washing my make up off at night (on the rare occasion that I actually wear some) is the most difficult part of may day... because all I want to do is dive into bed and go to sleep.

3) Sharing a bed with your spouse is can be seriously over rated. Yes, its sweet to spoon and whisper I love you's into each other ears just for falling blissfully asleep, but all the other nights when he's hot and I'm cold or he wants to face one way and I want to face the other. Or when I really, really want to sleep diagonially in bed, its a just a hassle.

4) The IPAD is my husband's most seductive mistress... after that comes: the dog, the blackberry, the office, and the golf range....

5) I need a hobby. I need something else to do with myself besides working at the office, working at home, cooking dinner, and taking care of the dog. I am going to go ahead and declare that working out does not count. I don't enjoy it and when I don't do it, I feel guilty. I want to join a wine club where I sit in someone's living room and taste wine and eat good food. I tried to start a supper club of sorts with some friends and no one wanted to actually cook the food as much as they just wanted to eat it.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Again, the thing about working out is....

that you can equate working out, which is considered healthy, to many other things that are equally unhealthy, like drinking for example.

When you first decide what kind of drink you are going to have, it's kind of exciting... there is just so much promise to how good you're going to feel afterward. You'll be able to relax and the rest of the day won't be so stressful. That's how excerise people sell you their drug of choice. Excerise will release all those endorphins and you will feel amazing, I promise.

Then you start drinking/excerising regularly, maybe you go to happy hour or the gym every other day and you socialize and realize all the great things you've missed out on. Man this is awesome, I should have started this years ago!

And then behavior becomes a habit and your bodyjust doesn't respond like it used too. Soon it takes one more Cosmo/ lap to get that good feeling. Before you know it, happy hour has become happy night and you have spent more time at the bar/gym then at home.

You think, Ok I will be fancy and try something new.  Now you've done too much. And usually the result is hurting yourself, because you either drank too much or you tried something that your body was not ready for. You spend all of the next day wishing for someone to have mercy on your sorry behind all while promising never to do that again.

And it you didn't throw yourself over the edge, then you probably have a friend that will. You know THAT friend. The friend that always goes just a little too far and is always egging you on, sure you can another shot.... Why NOT go another 15 mins at warp 9 on the treadmill? It will be fun.

As a sidenote- this is one part of the analogy where the subject in question is actually the same person. The friend that probably is in amazing shape, doing pilates and running 15 times a day, si the same person who drinks a lot and is the first to run to stripper pole at a night club.  The friend that  plays club basketball, golf, soccor, and softball,  is the same one who drinks a lot, wears his sunglasses indoors and ends up getting into a fight with the guy in the Ed Hardy shirt.

Finally, you miss one night of fun/working out. And then you miss another. And another. Hmpf, I guess I don't have to go tonight. There is always tomorrow. And then after soon enough, you are where? Right back where you started. Man I can't believe its been so long....it will feel good to get out there and do it.