Friday, July 31, 2009

Creative Writing 101: There She Was

It was an uncommonly chilly morning when the clicking of her hard soled heels commanded my attention. Tall and somewhat sinewy, I saw her walking towards me with no sweater on, no jewelry and her nipples somewhat erect showing through her top. Her hair was long to the middle of her back and black with bangs in the front, combed but slightly wet as if she quickly took a shower and then had to be somewhere else. She wore what could well have been the same clothes she wore the night before at the local bar. A white cottony tank top with embroidery at the neckline. A black pencil-slim skirt. Stiletto stacked black patten leather heels with an open toe and a tiny strap around each ankle. Her skin was olive and her face was drawn from too many years of being in the sun and smoking. Her eyes searched for the one thing that could make her day a little better at sometime before seven AM in the morning: the local Starbucks.

Creative Writing 101: A Passive Voice

Hi J.
How are you doing today
Is this a bad time for you
Because if it is, I can go
We can talk some other time
When it's convenient for you
You seem like you're busy
I'm so sorry-
I don't want to be in the way
You can call me later
If you want (or not)
Whatever. Have a good day.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

I went shopping

I went shopping on Saturday specifically for a new black leather purse and then to Costco. I went to Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Tuesday Mornings and Ross and couldn't find any one purse that I liked. My inability to find something I liked made me feel like fashion is passing me by and made me feel old at 43.

Going shopping at Costco when you have a two person household for me is like me shopping at Lane Bryants - everything is way too big. I ended up getting a 3 pack of led lights for my closet, a 4 pack of toothpaste, a double package of tortellini and a carton of pulled pork sans BBQ sauce.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Friday night = Date night

I decided that in life, I've finally come to the conclusion that you've got 50/50 odds of things either turning out well or not when you date. I found a guy online that seemed to be on the same page as me for a change. We chit-chatted online a bit for a week or so and things seemed to go well, so I asked him to meet me in a public place and he agreed. I previously participated in a sing-along under the same 'Active Arts' program and found out there was to be this public dance to learn the New York hustle at the Music Center Plaza in downtown Los Angeles on Friday night and the event was at a time that did not conflict with me schedule, it sounded fun and I really didn't want to go alone, so I asked him. And he said 'yes'. The dance turned out to be a dud. Too many single women on the designated roped off dance area and the band wasn't that good, so while we were talking, I saw there was a bar and grill off to the side at the same location and suggested we go there to sit and talk. I ordered the fish and he wasn't so hungry and ordered the chicken satay and we both ordered a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale to drink. The beer was heavier than I like, but the fish dish was O.K. He ordered the chicken satay, but it was spicier than he liked. He's a really funny guy and he's got a lot going on as he's in the process of taking back his life and learning a new job. But somehow I don't think I'll be seeing him again soon because of his impending divorce and due to the fact that he said he's interested in moving back to Pasadena instead of staying where he is now. And both places are, in all honesty, geographically undesirable to me. We'll see.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Why did the housing market colapse?

Q: "Why did the housing market collapse?"

I was on Yahoo! Answers when I saw this question and started to answer it, but I decided to make it into a blog entry instead.

I have a unique insider's perspective on my ability to answer this question because I've worked within the secondary mortgage market industry as a professional document custodian since 1992. What happens to your loan after the investment banks buy it? Well, its separated into two distinct file folders and each part sits in one of many loan vaults across the country. And that's how I make my bread and butter. I am a caretaker of that part of your loan file with the note, among other documents, inside.

A: The housing market collapsed because the secondary mortgage market got greedy and took on too much risk buying overvalued sub-prime mortgage loans. When those borrower's defaulted, the property values fell and borrowers who got their mortgages at the height of the market or those who used their homes as if they were ATM's and took out all of the equity became 'underwater' owing more than their property was worth and couldn't refinance. Credit became unavailable to make more loans for those homeowners because there was no equity left and if they lost their jobs in the process, due to the trickle-down economy, they lost their homes, too, continuing to drive down prices the housing market.

Since a home is probably the biggest single purchase anyone makes in their lifetime, many goods and services are tied to this asset. And if people can't buy or maintain this asset, people who have jobs associated to the housing market get laid off. We go into an economic recession and that's where we are now.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Recipe code cracked?

Read: Don’t tell the colonel! KFC recipe may be out

Now if I only had a pressure cooker...

Healthcare Reform

Dear President Obama,

Please make sure that your campaign promise for health care reform gets passed this year. All of the citizens of the United States are counting on you. Many, many people who are currently out of work can't afford to pay COBRA and go without health care and the one's who are underemployed can't afford it either. I also feel so very sorry for those of us who have a pre-existing condition designated as a chronic illness that get locked into an employers insurance and cannot leave the job for a better one because of these health facts. I, personally, am working on contract and when my recruiting agency invited me to join the health plan they offered temps, the ratio split was 60/40 and I was liable for the 60% fee which was a higher amount than I ever had to pay when I had regular employment. Because of the high cost, I had to decline. I rather pay cash for the doctors appointments and the associated lab work I have to have each year (female, eyes, dentist) and for my medications directly because in doing so it's cheaper than paying for the insurance monthly. I also get to deduct 100% of these fees on my taxes because the money is coming out of my pocket. I wouldn't even mind if I had to pay a small fee each time I saw a doctor or got a prescription, just so long as I don't have to shell out a significant chunk of my paycheck to have quality health care again.

Thank you.

Read: No time for delay on health care

Monday, July 20, 2009

Sing, Sing A Song

As a frequent user of Yelp.com, I was invited to become an elite member (annazzz.yelp.com), so I go on the site frequently to read a lot of what other people write about to get ideas on stuff to do and places to shop. I read a posting about a Sing-Along at The Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles of Beatles tunes, and I thought it would be fun way to wind down my work week.

I scoped out all the details and got there in time to wait in line for the coveted ticket. The event was free, but you had to obtain a first come, first served ticket in order to be seated in the W.M. Keck Amphitheatre with the band. So I got in line a little after 6:00PM after driving directly from work. It was a good thing, too, since the line was beginning to wrap it's way around the garden area by the time I got to the end. The tickets were handed out at 6:45PM, and then you had to wait again until 7:15PM to be seated.

The handed out lyric sheets on the way in and tore half of your ticket away to evidence your acceptance into the event. I sat in the first section in the middle about four rows up near some hand rails. I could see the band, not get blasted with the sound system and still be surrounded with singers. I ended up sitting between two families with children. One of the children I nicknamed the 'harbinger of rain' because she was wearing a long gray rain hoodie that didn't fit and looked more like a dress on her. The other child I nicknamed the 'harbinger of fall' because she played with a large yellow leaf she found in the courtyard all most all of the time we were singing until she discovered she could turn the hand rails into her personal jungle gym.

So, we sang our hearts our for a solid hour and a half and all the while the harbinger of rain got tired and laid down stretching out upon the laps of her parents. The dad was English and would be classified as what my son would call an 'aging hipster'. He wore a tie-died t-shirt, Birkenstock, cargo shorts and some sort of baseball hat to cover the fact that he gained a bald spot surrounded by his chin length wiry brownish blonde and graying hair. This, to me, wreaked of tourist, which very well might have been the case. The mom's clothing was unremarkable, but her German accent stood out. We chit chatted a bit before the event started. So as the harbinger of rain got comfortable trying to find the sweet spot and fall fast asleep, she kept kicking my purse and me. Nice. The mom did her best to stop it. I'm glad she paid attention to her child. All the while the harbinger of fall between all of the leaf play and the climbing and then taking down off of the hand rails, began to get fussy and start to cry. The mom hustled her out of the amphitheatre as all good mom's should. And the singing went on and we even got to sing an encore of "Twist and Shout" which ended up being a nice way to end the event. Everyone got up and danced as if it were the 7th inning stretch at a baseball game before leaving for the night.

My drive home was kind of strange. By the time I merged into the 5S, it was about 9:30PM and the freeway was dead stopped to watch the fireworks off in the distance. I figure they were either from Knotts or Disneyland.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

7/14/09: MLB All Star Game Opening Pitch



I'm proud to have a president who can get his pitch over home plate while he wears the colors of his favorite baseball team, blue jeans and sneakers to the All Star game. And the AL won it's 7th straight All Star game. Gravy.

I hate Greg Behrendt

I woke up this morning to discover that my left shoulder did not want to function properly with it's normally full range of motion. i.e. I slept wrong. And then my next immediate thought was "I hate Greg Behrendt". I listen to Rawdog comedy on XM 150 quite a lot because shit is just too damn serious in this world sometimes and you've got to lighten up and laugh a bit and I have to sit in the car for 2 hours on my commute driving home, so I need laughter. He does this comedy routine talking about how getting old sucks and you can't do anything about it. And on a part of his routine from "Uncool", he talks about unyielding words that you find you have to add to your vocabulary when you get old. Words like ointment. Why do you need to talk about ointment? Because I needed one. Well, why did you need one? Because when I woke up I was sore. Why were you sore? I slept wrong. How in the hell do you sleep wrong? Is there a right way and a wrong way to sleep? Apparently so because I did it the wrong way and now my shoulder feels like crap.

Ointment

Monday, July 13, 2009

Sunday Plumbing Sunday

Old condos leak from everywhere until you fix them. I had this happen to the maze of pipes underneath my kitchen sink last week and I had to fix it over the weekend. I practically had to rebuild it to make it stop leaking. And then I decided if I have to go through all that trouble, I'm getting a new faucet out of the deal. I found one to my liking for $99. It's got a high arch and a swivle head with three different spray settings and that suits me just fine. I don't need the hose thingie. So after three trips to Lowe's, breaking out every piece of plumbing tools I own plus my Dremel to cut one of the pipes, my kitchen leaks no more. I hope. I'm going to check it again when I get home from work tonight.

Sidebar: I took my son with me to Lowe's and he thought it was important for me to know the names of the pipe parts inorder to buy them. He was amazed that I could look at the pictures and find what I needed to fix the sink. Maybe I was a plumber in a former life. Or maybe I just hate to pay the fees my regular plumber charges. Yeah, that's more like it. When I was poor, I did stuff like this all the time because I didn't have the money to spend. Now that I do have the money, I don't want to spend it on stuff I'm perfectly capable of doing myself. When my hot water heater when out the day before 9/11, I called a plumber to fix it. When my toilet leaked, I rebuilt it. When my supply value began to leak, I called a plumber and told him no way when I heard the fee, so in my utter disgust at the potentional bill, I called a guy friend for strength and fixed it.

The Fix

I began, and I don't know when, receiving these text messages from 6245 telling me about expired bank accounts and credit cards I do not have. How irritating - text scamming. Not only are these communications unwanted, they are eating into my text message allotment. I called Sprint today and they gave me instructions on how to block the number. And this only works on a Sprint cell phone account. Text 9999 help and then you get a text message back from Sprint saying how to use their text messaging services. Problem solved in a little over three minutes talking to Josh. Why would I want to change my cellular carrier with customer service like that?

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Yelpity Good Bacon Fun!

Bacon? Did I hear bacon? I love bacon. I'm German so when anyone talks about cured meat, my ears perk up. And the folks at Yelp put together a fine VIP bacon themed event at the OC Fair the day before the fair opened to the public on Thursday, July 9th. Our group was at the bar/restaurant in the corner... Blue Bayou. It was located right next to the tent/trailer I don't remember which of the Weird Al Yankovic VIP party for the world preview of his OC Fair exhibition of "Al's Brain" going on at the same time. Being an "Elite" member of Yelp (no lie - it took me 4 years to get to that stage), I was able to bring two invited guests to our little party and I choose my son who's 22 and my co-worker who is new to Yelp. I couldn't give you an official headcount, but it felt like 200 people enjoying all these bacon tinged goodies like chocolate covered bacon, bacon wrapped meatballs covered in bbq sauce, bacon wrapped cocktail weenies (oh, just shove one directly into my heart already), Slaters 50/50 burgers that are made with half bacon (talk about flavor) and the premiere to California of Bakon Vodka. I know, you're thinking "gross", but I'm telling you this stuff makes the best bloody mary's ever. When our community manager Hazel told me in advance about it, we were talking about all of the food pairings... like Bakon Vodka and melon balls, fried green tomatoes, fried green beans, etc. There was more food than I could eat, but you can imagine. It was a biggest and best Yelp event yet.

ref: www.yelp.com or annazzz.yelp.com

Friday, July 3, 2009

A Cautionary Tale

I have a love/hate relationship with my job. I love what I do, but I hate the fact that I have to commute to do it. And because of the commute, any type of social life that I once had has pretty much ceased. I used to be able to go out with my friends in LA after work, but now all I want to do is go home since the drive home is that tedious.

So knowing that there are all of these things to do at any some odd day of the week since I live in Southern California, I decided to eek out a social life once more however tiny it may be. I decided to do that with the help of Yelp!. Yelp! helps get me out of the house because what it is is a website made up of peoples opinions about stuff to do, see and experience and these generally cannot be done at home. And that makes me be more social and have something to write about.

So... this week was the first time I attended an officially sponsored Yelp! event. It was a house err hotel warming of sorts in Huntington Beach. And it was held at about the same time I landed back in OC, which meant I could go! Yippee! So dressed in my work garb, I traipsed over to the hotel and found my way up the stairs to the restaurant's balcony where all the people were. I was there for maybe over two hours talking to all these amazing people who participate on Yelp! just like I do. It was a very cool evening and I was encouraged to go to next weeks event.

So, I got to work the next day and I told my co-worker about what a good time I had out last night with my fellow Yelpers. And he tells me this story. He told me that one of his friends is into Disneyana and joined a group and befriended a man in his 60's. At first, he was fine because he was into the group, but more and more he wanted to hang out and do other stuff to fill up the void his day. The old man had recently retired and basically had no one to socialize with so he placed that burdeon upon my friend's friend. And as time went on, his friend decided that the old man was just plain mean and disgruntled with the world in general and had no friends. So my friend's friend decided he was going to take him on a bus run to Palm Springs or Las Vegas, I don't remember which one, and force this old guy to socialize with other people his age to get him some friends.

And a light bulb went off in my head. AHHH! I don't want that to be me. I don't want to end up a mean old lady alone because people can't tolerate me and/or don't like me. I want to have something to say. I want to get out in the world. I need Yelp! and these outings to get me to be more extroverted and less introverted. And maybe that will lead to other good things in my life.