September 2008 Archives

I know the new TV season is barely under way, but I have found two new shows I like so far. The first is True Blood on HBO. I wasn’t sure about this show after the first episode, but it is growing on me. It’s a modern vampire tale. Vampires have revealed their presence to the world after the invention of synthetic blood that they can eat instead of preying on humans. True Blood is set in a small town in Louisiana. It’s all very Southern and tangled and mysterious. Everyone seems to be filled with longings of one sort or another – to fit in, to get out of town, to find love – and my goodness do they have lots and lots of sex. Everyone that is, except for Sookie, the main character who is a waitress at a bar/restaurant in town. She can hear people’s thoughts, which puts her off intimate relationships. But then a vampire named Bill comes to town and she’s intrigued, particularly because she can’t hear his thoughts. He’s a former resident from the mid-1800’s who came back to claim some property after his last living descendant died. I personally prefer her boss, who is totally in love with her and also potentially a werewolf (in my opinion). He’s way cuter than the vampire guy. I’m pretty sure she’ll end up with Bill though.

There’s a serial killer on the loose and anti-Vampire tensions and vampires who’d really rather keep eating human blood stirring up trouble. The characters are interesting and the writing is pretty good. I’m sticking with it for now.

The second show is Sons of Anarchy on FX. I still miss Deadwood, and this show is filling part of the hole it left behind. And it has the guy who played Charlie Udder on Deadwood too! In fact, it is packed with good actors. It’s the story of a motorcycle gang in a small town in California. The main character is a guy named Jax whose dad (now dead) was one of the founders of the gang. The other founder and current leader is married to Jax’s mom, played by Katey Segal clearly relishing her role as a woman who will stop at nothing to protect her family. Jax’s junkie ex-wife just gave birth to their son prematurely, and he’s trying to figure out how to make his way in the world as a dad. Plus, he’s just found a cache of his dad’s old writings about what he hoped to accomplish by founding the Sons of Anarchy, which are leading him to re-evaluate the way he’s living his life. On top of that, his ex-girlfriend, Maggie Siff, who I loved on Mad Men has just come back to town and is one of the doctors treating his son. Oh, and the junkie ex-wife is played by Drea de Mateo. Really good actors all around.

I’m sure this show is not for everyone. It is incredibly violent. The bikers deal drugs and run guns and hijack trucks. They don’t hesitate to start fights with anyone, and are embroiled in nasty feuds with two other gangs. The way they treat women is flat out appalling, although there seem to be plenty of women interested in being with them and being “part of the life.” Even so, I have been totally sucked in to this show. I’m interested in the characters even when I don’t like them or what they are doing. I totally recommend it.

What shows are you excited about this fall?

I have a new job. Same company, new role, blah blah, leaving the details vague because I like my job and I want to keep it.

However -- and I think I can share this without crossing any work boundaries -- I realized the other day that I now have virtually the same title and even some of the same job functions as Don Draper from Mad Men. Minus the chain smoking, constant boozing and womanizing, of course. Now I just have to figure out how to fit a small wet bar in to my cube. And get a fedora. Don Draper always wears hats.

To the two people who are still reading after seeing that title: Hi!

This may surprise you, given my socialist pinko-hippie leanings, but I really don’t think this bailout is a good idea. That’s right, I’m against government intervention into private enterprise – in this instance.

I am all for stricter regulation of all Wall Street firms and banks and I certainly hope that comes out of all of this mess. Back when the completely useless and corporation-favoring Housing Rescue bill was passed at the end of July, lots of people spoke out against helping individuals who “recklessly borrowed more than they could afford” and were “irresponsible and deserved to lose their houses” which I found particularly offensive. When we bought our house, just before the peak of all the flexible loan craziness, the mortgage guy pushed us to get an interest-only 3/1 adjustable rate mortgage. And he pushed hard. The DC area housing market is an expensive one, so of course all that extra cash was tempting, but I did my research and ultimately decided that a traditional 30 year fixed loan was the way to go for us. We were lucky enough to have enough cash to put down 10% plus closing costs (which I still think are a total scam in many ways, but that’s a rant for another day) so we still benefited from the creative loan packaging in that we were able to finance 80% of our loan plus a second trust of another 10% to help us avoid PMI.

But let’s say that you are not a skeptical pain in the ass like I am. Let’s say you don’t have a job connected to the financial industry like I do. Let’s say you regard your mortgage broker as the expert who is supposed to help you, but what he does instead is steer you toward the option that will make him the most money instead of the option that is best for you. It happened over and over again. Sure, some people were greedy and intentionally overextended themselves, but most people who took those loans just wanted their piece of the American dream. Instead, they got screwed. But the people who fell for those loans are heaped with scorn and deemed deserving of their misfortune.

The so-called financial pros on Wall Street, however, made insane profits for years because of these loans and repackaging mortgage backed securities. They knew what they were doing. They knew what the risks were. They actively resisted attempts to provide relief to consumers who found themselves with loan payments that tripled when their mortgages adjusted up, to people who found themselves with houses worth less than what they owed on them as the real estate market crashed. But now, now when these giant corporations which made obscene amounts of money over the last few years while getting tax break after tax break from the Bush administration run in to trouble, we’re supposed to bail them out? Hey Republicans, your laissez-faire policies got us in to this mess, and now you're abandoning your principles and sticking the taxpayer with the bill! That's...awfully hypocritical of you.

I understand, to a certain extent, the thinking behind the bailout plan. Get the bad loans off of balance sheets and get banks and financial institutions loaning money again. That will theoretically help get home sales moving again, and will help businesses keep capital moving and will hopefully stave off trouble in the commercial real estate and retail sectors. I just don’t think that your proposed bailout is the way to go. Let the companies that need to fail, fail. Shore up the protections that you offer your tax paying citizens, like FDIC and SIPC and unemployment and allow foreclosure relief where the terms of a loan can be renegotiated. Find other ways to encourage the companies that are left to make loans. Instead of spending $700 billion on a bailout, ease restrictions and make it easier for companies on the brink to be acquired or to go through mergers. Any company that does get any sort of bailout should have to pay the government back once they are making profits again.

For once the House and Senate are pushing back instead of just rolling over and giving the Bush administration what it wants. I hope they stick to their guns on this one and actually come up with a plan that can help our economy and our stocks find their balance that makes sense.

I've never made any secret of the fact that I am an indifferent housekeeper at best. I put off cleaning the bathrooms for as long as I can possibly justify delaying. I don't vacuum as much as I should. I don't dust until I can actually see the dust piling up on the top of the bookcase and the back of the desk. I have an ingrained ability to ignore clutter. I've lived in this house for over three years, and I've never washed the windows. So I'd never claim to keep a scrupulously clean house, nor would I say that I have really high standards.

However, after this weekend I will never feel bad about my housekeeping skills or lack thereof again. Allow me to explain. My mom has discovered the joys of freecycling and is on some list exchange that delivers approximately 8 gajillion emails per day with one free thing after another. While I fully support freecycling, I find the stuff that people try to recycle sometimes borders on the ridiculous. No, you don't need to post each 25 cent plastic report cover that you're trying to get rid of separately. However, my mom got some nice stools for her breakfast bar through this exchange, and she's forwarded other offers to me that looked pretty good. This time, she'd scored two bookcases from Scan, a furniture store she's always liked. This guy was moving to a smaller place and was downsizing, so he was giving away a six foot and seven foot bookcase. He even lived conveniently close to her house. Even though I had no idea where my mom was going to squeeze two bookcases in to her very crowded house, I agreed to help her pick them up.

Well, we got to this guy's house, and I was astounded at the horror that greeted us. He opened the door, and the stench practically knocked me back on to the porch. The whole house reeked of cat piss. I didn't actually see any cats, but he must have had 10 of them stashed somewhere to raise that level of stink. The carpet was totally trashed. Where it wasn't stained, it was coated in fur. It barely even looked like carpet anymore. There was stuff piled on every surface, and all the stuff had inches of dust on it. I was only in two of the rooms, but they were truly the two filthiest, smelliest, nastiest rooms I have ever been seen. My mom said the only time she'd ever seen worse was when she was a public health nurse in DC, when she visited a house that had been infested with roaches. The bookcases were not contaminated by the smell, thank goodness. Two very tall and very helpful German guys who had shown up for the entertainment unit the guy was giving away helped us get them down the stairs. Actually, they helped with the first one, and then tactfully suggested that they bring the second one down without my assistance. I think maybe I was in the way. As you might imagine, I had no objection to them doing the work. It wasn't that the bookcases were heavy - it's just that they were hard to maneuver in the crowded house and down the twisty stairs, and stinky cat guy was kind of clueless. We'd left John back at my mom's to save room in the car for the bookcases, and my mom has no upper body strength, so I was pretty much on my own until the Germans rode to the rescue.

The place is on the market, and I feel so bad for his real estate agent. On top of the dirt and the stench, there was sticker on the door leading to the deck saying it had been condemned and couldn't be used. Who is going to want a house that needs to be gutted, fumigated and have the deck rebuilt? Hey, it's just crying out for Jeff Lewis from Flipping Out! Except I don't think he's interested in crappy real estate in suburban Maryland.

I can tell you one thing for sure. I will not be beating myself up over my standards of cleanliness anymore.

I've been trying to think of something positive to say about my day, and this is what I have come up with so far:

I had a surprisingly good hair day today.
Kick boxing class was excellent. Talk about a stress reliever!
Becky and John have a way of helping me see good in every situation.
I wrote some decent work-related copy.
In good news/bad news, the newish sweater I wore today was a little too big. That means than I'm less of a cow than I thought I was when I bought it. But now I have a recently purchased sweater that doesn't really fit. Here's hoping it shrinks in the wash.

...and that's pretty much all I've got.

I've had an oppressive sinus headache off and on for the last week or so. Describing this beast as a sinus headache doesn't really do it justice though. It's more like, grinding pain and pressure on the right side of my face, with stabbing pain behind my right eye, combined with a sore neck and very tense shoulders. Sudafed and Advil can sometimes put a dent in it. Caffeine appears to help somewhat. Excedrin PM does the best job of beating it into submission, but that's Tylenol plus Benadryl, so I get one good hour and then I'm out cold. Not really practical for daytime use. Exercise also helps for a while, but it can be hard to motivate when you feel like crap. I have been motivating though. See above: feeling like a cow.

On Sunday it was about 1 million degrees out with 9,000% humidity, and between that and the headache, I came home from running errands in tears. Target didn't have the dog food I wanted, Giant didn't have the bread I wanted and I had two slots at the pump the gas station stolen from me (one deliberately and one unintentionally) and I just couldn't take it anymore. This stupid headache is wearing me out, and sucking all of the creativity and fun out of my days. It needs to go away.

On top of that, the stock market and attendant financial troubles is making me and everyone I work with nuts. It's great to have a business giving stock advice in a week where the markets go absolutely insane. If you're wondering about the stock market, by the way, here's the short version which pretty much all of our experts seem to agree on: It's going to get worse before it gets better. Don't panic. It will eventually get better. Eventually.

That actually seems like a good philosophy which could apply to many parts of my life right now. I think I'll give it a whirl.

What was good about your day today?

So my mom and I went to Portland to visit my brother. I tried very hard to stay on East Coast time, but all I really seem to have accomplished is to make myself tired in two time zones. So you'll have to make up your own clever title.

I did, however, have a wonderful time. I love the Pacific Northwest. It is just so different from the East Coast and everything that I grew up with. I miss my brother quite a bit, so it was wonderful to see him. And I like his girlfriend, so I was pleased to get to spend time with her.

Three things I learned about Portland:
1) The people are really nice and helpful. Almost creepily so, although they seemed sincere about it. It started at the airport when a guy insisted on helping me find the correct baggage claim, and continued for the whole trip.

2) Oregonians don't speed. They are all very law abiding, possibly because the roads around Portland are confusing. I was going to a place on Tualatin Rd (or possibly Tualatin Drive) and I kept having to turn right to stay on the same road.

3) Nothing is pronounced the way I think I should be. See Willamette and Tualatin for starters.

As for touristy stuff, well, Powell's City of Books is one of the coolest places I have ever been. It really does cover a full block! I could have spent an entire day there, I think, wandering the aisles in some sort of book-induced ecstasy. Alas, I didn't have a whole day, but I had a good time while I was there.

We also visited the traditional Japanese garden. If I lived in Portland, I think I would buy an annual pass to this place. It was so lovely and tranquil and peaceful. I actually felt more connected to the rhythms of nature while I was there. The breeze blows, the trees sway, the water drips and pools and flows. Here are some Koi who live in the garden:

Also, if you ever visit Portland I highly recommend you take an afternoon and go up the old Columbia River Scenic Highway. It runs along the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge, and it is spectacular. There's one beautiful waterfall after another every couple of miles. We drove up to the top of Larch Mountain, and my mom very bravely hiked up to a scenic point at the very top. She has bad knees, so it was a struggle for her. It was totally worth it, because you could see for miles - Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens, even Mount Rainier, way off in the distance. We finished up at Multnomah Falls, which is the most spectacular falls of them all. Then we went up past Bonneville Dam and over the very high Bridge of the Gods at Cascade Locks. My brother was NOT a fan of the bridge, but I thought it was very cool.

A view of the river from Vista House:

As I read up on the city before my trip, I kept reading that Portland was a city of restaurants, and we certainly ate at some good ones. I think Mother's Bistro downtown was my favorite. I also discovered a new favorite drink - strawberry lemonade. Experiments at recreating this drink will begin this weekend. Mostly though, it was just nice to hang out with my brother, and even to spend a good chunk of time with my mom. By yesterday she'd had enough of me and my quirks, and I'd had enough of her and her quirks, but it was a good trip.

On Saturday night post-wedding we headed out for an evening of bar hopping. Mike, aka the groom, worked in the restaurant business in Boston for years so he knows everyone. He’s also a great guy, so everyone is happy to see him. They were playing one of my favorite songs as we walked in to the first bar, which I took to be a good sign. And we had a really great group of people – smart, funny, good conversationalists – including a couple of people I hadn’t spoken to in 15 years or so.

I was tired, and my feet hurt, and after a while I didn’t care how interesting the conversations I was having were. The bar got hot and noisy and more and more crowded. So we went down the street to another bar. This time I snagged a barstool, so at least I was off my feet. The sparkling conversation continued, but I was seriously flagging. I may have started babbling about nothing. I wasn’t drunk, but I was tipsy. At one point I tottered over to Mike on my sore feet and told him, possibly at length, just how happy I was that he and Jules are together. I meant it, but perhaps not quite as emphatically as it came across.

By then it was after midnight and the group was ready to move on to the third bar, which was also a nightclub. I really wasn’t up for dancing. And I think I’d been up for almost 21 hours at that point. So I took a cab back to the hotel, washed my face and collapsed into bed. Ok, first I wasted some time trying to take a photo of myself in my outfit to show John and Becky (Becky being the person who suggested the store where I got my top) like they would never see it in person. It wasn’t a magical Cinderella-style disappearing top. Except, you know, I’d had a few drinks and I kept either blocking myself in the mirror by holding the camera in the wrong place or by forgetting to turn off the flash. I wonder if that is easier sober.

Back in college I was a hit multiple bars, close down whatever bar I was in, find an after hours club or party and then go get pizza or IHOP and roll in as the birds started to chirp kind of girl. Even when we stayed in the dorms or at someone’s house, I was up and in the thick of things all night long. I guess with being in Boston and being with some of my old crowd, I expected to feel the same way. But even though Saturday was a fun evening with people I really like and in cool bars where we were getting high quality food and drinks at a discount, I could have had just as good a time sitting on the couch with John, watching cheesy British sci-fi TV shows.

Just one more sign of my advancing age. I think I’m ok with this one though. I like my life a lot more now than I did when I was 22.