Happy End of 2013!

Where has the year gone?! I can't believe it's already the end of 2013. In fact, where'd the last 1.5 months go since my last post? December FLEW by and then, to cap it, I was all confused when Christmas was and kept thinking things were a week closer than they were. No clue why. At any rate, I can't believe this year has flown by. I went to the chiropractor yesterday and he said it's been 11 months since he last saw me. My first thought was, "I was here in January!" and then went, "Oh, wait, January is next month...Yeah, that was 11 months ago. What...?" I can't believe it's 2014 in a few days! In fact, I must be really excited for 2014 because I keep wanting to write it instead of 2013. I can't say 2013 was a terrible year, but it was certainly an uneventful one for me. Not to say that's a bad thing because, goodness knows, it could have been "bad" eventful and there was none of that. So, I'm thankful for my year just to be able to say I made it another year and I've got a home, have a good standard of living, a job (albeit, I wanted to quit it several times the past year), and my family and friends are doing well. As a friend posted on FB when it was my birthday, "Congratulations on existing another year!" Made me laugh. Might be a little dire, but it's true too.

At any rate, looking forward to 2014. My middle brother and his family will be back in the States so I get to see them and a nephew I've never met! I, hopefully, will be able to attend the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita on November 1st. Get to see the rest of the family and friends through the year and hope them all the best in health and happiness. I've got several (and I do mean SEVERAL) friends who are having kids in 2014 so that'll be fun to see. Some are also getting married. Chris, hopefully, will be bought out from the tempt agency he's with and hired full-time at his company (if not, he'll be looking for a new job). I, hopefully, will be getting a new job (where ever that may be). I might even work on getting my driver's license! Don't hold me to that because it has been 28 years in the making, but it's time. We'll see how that goes, though (i.e., the family members who read this, don't even mention to me I wrote this LoL). I've got some new books coming out next year I'm looking forward to and, of course, new movies to watch. I'd mention new nail polish, but I think that's a given. In addition, I plan to go on a super limited nail polish buy for 3-6 months (not a no buy because there are a few things I want, but super limited). I won't say the specific AMOUNT of polish I have acquired (gifts or personal purchases) the last 2 months, but I think it amounted to more polish than I bought the 10 months preceding it combined...To say the least, I need to clean out my polishes to make room for next year and limit my purchasing...Haven't figured out the clean out method yet, but I do plan to try and make it through a chunk of my "untrieds" next year. I also plan to save more next year. I don't have a contract with the Aquarium next year so I need to be more diligent about saving next year, especially at my salary and if I plan to go to the Breeders' Cup next year. I'm not buying a new hat next year (or very unlikely buying a new one, I do really like mine), but will get a new dress. And, lastly, I am also going to try to be better about exercising. I start and stop far too much...Granted, I stopped this last time because I injured my back. I actually worked out through the pain for 1.5 weeks and then finally it got too bad. Probably didn't help my back... :P At any rate, I'm looking forward to 2014! I do like how this started with what I was looking forward to and then dissolved to quasi-resolutions. I don't really do resolutions at the start of a new year because any time of the year should be the time to do a resolution or a change, but the new year definitely makes it nice and "neat."

The past 1.5 months has been pretty uneventful on the grand scheme of things. I did injure my back from exercising. I tell you, my back on the right side (hip bone area) does not like me and exercising. It's twice now that I've injured the same area by way of shifting something really far out of alignment. This time it was a slow move and continual pain for weeks (almost 3 weeks before I went in and only because I overdid it last week and the pain got really severe). The other time it was a sharp movement (I couldn't move or sit for a few days), but my body adjusted to it fairly quickly and was pain free (I did immediately stop exercising, though...). The chiropractic adjustment was really painful (my worst one ever), but I was pretty much okay right after it. This adjustment was painful, but I must have aggravated the tissue and ligamanets around the area much worse because I still have pretty uncomfortable pain. Two different type of exercises and different results/pain, but in the same area. Gosh dang it. I have to be more careful! I am glad I don't have the same pain level, though, and I'm off for 4-days so hopefully I'll give my back a rest. I've been working through the pain and just limiting my movements. Other than my back, my co-worker fell off a ladder trying to get his cat off his roof and fractured his foot. And then another co-worker had a family emergency for two days and then another one wasn't feeling well. I tell you, it's not been a good December for our store. Other than that, I guess it's been semi-okay (small flare-ups here-and-there) from the work angle. Personal life is pretty uneventful, except that Chris's Christmas present STILL hasn't arrived. I ordered it 20 days ago...*sigh* It didn't ship out till the 15th and it's coming from Canada...Still waiting! This Christmas, in fact, was a terrible on-line shopping experience. Not all of it to do with shipping (I do feel a little sorry for UPS/FedEx, but they should have increased hours (overtime?) if they saw the volume increased the week before Christmas), but it was crazy.

Chris and I have been watching Game of Thrones (season 1 and 2) since my boss owns the first two seasons on DVD. I've read a great deal of information about the books and know a lot of people who have read them so I knew, generally, what to expect. They've also been on my "to read" pile and actually own the first 3 or 4 (got them from a friend - haven't read them, but Chris has read at least the first one), but haven't gotten to them. So, to say the least, I knew what to expect, but I just didn't know the details. I only have 2 episodes of season 2 left to watch and I'm not sure about it...My two biggest complaints about the TV show:

1) Where is this all going? What's the purpose of everything? I'm not opposed to the meandering paths where you don't have a clear objective (e.g., Harry vanquishing Voldemort; Frodo destroying the ring; following someone's life as it unfolds; etc), but this one is a real big "what's my objective?!" In other words, what will my payoff be after I finish this series? Reading about someone's life or the people around them (e.g., Les Miserables) I can read, but there's usually a payoff at the end. This one I can't see where it's going at all and makes me sort of want to quit.

2) There's no clear protagonist or antagonist. Again, I can deal with ensemble books with lots of characters, but this one gives everyone such a flaw that you dislike them or kills off anyone remotely likeable that it makes me want to give up because I'm either scared to like someone because they might get killed or they're so stupid or mean that I just can't like them. I'm actually dreading to watch season 3 because I know 2 of the characters I like now die in season 3. I'm actually reading character synopsizes to try and find someone I can "grab hold" of for the series to keep me going. I'm sorry, but I am one of those people who DOES need a protagonist to keep me going or, again, what's my payoff at the end?

For me, those two issues are pretty big. I will say that the shows are pretty violent, but I can't say they're really any more violent then some other movies or TV shows I've watched. The nudity in the shows, though, are pretty unnecessary. They could give the impression or angle it or whatever. On the other hand, there are several prostitutes that are major characters and one character owns a brothel. Also, apparently, the books do have an abundance of sex in them so, one could say they're being "faithful" to the series. At this point, I've gotten used to the nudity. I also think HBO is doing a pretty amazing job with the sets, costumes, production, etc. They're magnificent to watch. They did not spare a penny on the show. I think the casting is pretty good too. It's hard to really say if someone is really bad given I haven't read the series, though. I do think, though, Peter Dinklage has the best character of them all. He's the only one that I can really say I like in the series and he's, technically, on the protagonist side (sort of). See, there's the problem with the characters! Chris and I have started a saying with the show, "Honor gets you killed." Because, truly, that's what happens to a lot of the characters. It may not be an immediate death, but eventually it does. Also, there are a lot of stupid characters...At any rate, I at first went, "Oh, I really need to read the series now to get more out of the characters," but now I don't know if I even want to...If there's no payoff and I go through all that reading for nothing, I will be angry. So, I might wait. We'll see. I am curious to read the first book, but I may stop after the 3rd or something (which I've been told is a good place to stop even though there are 5 books and more to come (yes, George R. R. Martin hasn't finished the series, yet)). Any way, it's definitely a perplexing series for me...I sort of want to give up because of my issues, but it's well-done....

Lots of movies since my last movie update 2 months ago -- 22 to be exact. These will mostly be short opinions because it's been a while for some and there's just a lot of them! I'll elaborate on a few that I have strong opinions about or saw recently (Lone Ranger I saw today so it's, clearly, got the longest review).

Thor: The Dark World (Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman) - Not a bad film, but not great. I don't think I liked this one as much as the first, but it's pretty on par. There's really only one scene that I REALLY liked and it involved Loki. It's a hilarious scene and everyone that I know who has seen it has also liked it too. The credit scenes at the end were okay. The first one was better and supposedly leads up to the Guardians of the Galaxy, but the 2nd and last one was just…mostly stupid. I just don't like Thor as much as Captain America. Grade: B-

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth) - This one was FAR better than the first. Much, much better. I liked the whole movie and liked it enough that I knew I wanted to own it on DVD; therefore, I went out and bought, on Black Friday, the first one. LoL You can't own the 2nd one and not the first! At any rate, it was much better. Peeta is pretty much continuously weak in the films (not the actor, the character), but whatever. The extra money for this film, I suppose, worked for the film rather than making it "over-the-top" and gratuitous. Or maybe everyone was just better situated in their roles…? Who knows. It's much better. Grade: A

The Colony (Kevin Zegers, Laurence Fishburne) - What a terribly depressing film! Definitely not what I expected. I thought it would be more about the colony trying to find others or surviving. It is about surviving, but it's much more of a survival movie from a neighboring colony. On top of it, it's a little more gruesome than I expected and it's got a rather depressing, open-ended ending! Don't recommend it… Grade: D

The Croods (Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, etc) - Not a bad 20th Century Fox animation. Not that they've had a real dud. It's cute. It's a cute film about family and the craziness that can be family. It has good animation too. Not entirely memorable as an "Animation of the Year" film, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's up for the category this year. My prediction: Monster University, The Croods, Turbo, Frozen, and a foreign animation film. Solid family film, but maybe for an older younger age. Grade: B-/C+

White House Down (Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx) - What are the odds that two similar-ish movies would come out in the same year with the White House has been taken by force? At any rate, between the two (Olympus Has Fallen) and this one, I liked this one better. It was less "serious" and pure action. Olympus Has Fallen is a little more serious and has a stricter plot line. This one is a little tongue-and-cheek so it's a little more fun to watch. Plus, it's purely about the White House and not the surrounding DC area so you don't get any "accidental" funny scenes of people running from guns…Still, not great. Grade: C 

The Hangover Part III (Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ed Helms, etc) - You always go into these knowing they're going to be over-the-top and silly. This was definitely silly. This one revolves more around Galifianakis's character (each one kind of revolves around one of them and the rest get dragged into it). I didn't like it as much as the first two, to be honest. I felt like this one was just overly silly…? I don't prefer Galifianakis's character in any of the films and since he's highlighted in this one, it just made it worse for me. Wouldn't recommend this. Grade: D

The Heat (Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy) - Take Miss Congeniality and smash it with McCarthy's character (or feel) from Bridesmaids and what you get is The Heat. I described this to someone who hadn't seen it yet and it makes you go, "Wha…?" at first, but then she watched it and totally agreed with me afterwards. It's an okay film. Wasn't bad. It had some funny moments, but I don't necessarily think it was better than the individual films I had just described. It's okay. Grade: C+

The Internship (Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson) - Surprisingly better than I thought it was going to be. It's not as silly or crude as you'd expect from a Vaughn/Wilson film. There's actually kind of a "nice" moment in the film and a kind of nice message about not giving up, misfits, and so forth. Still wasn't fantastic, but wasn't bad either. Grade: C

R.I.P.D. (Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds) - Just about on the edge of being a terrible movie. No wonder I had no desire to watch it in theaters and definitely no wonder it didn't do well. It was an interesting idea, but was poorly executed. Doesn't help that I'm not a huge fan of Reynolds either, but Bridges couldn't even salvage the movie. Definitely near the bottom of my least favorite films of the year. Grade: D/D-

Red 2 (Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren) - I liked the first RED movie enough that I wanted to watch the 2nd one. I liked this one too. It's about the same. It's kind of funny seeing all the characters in their "older" stages going out and kicking butt and wrecking havoc. Can't say it's really better or worse than the first since I don't remember the first all that well, but I enjoyed this enough. Grade: C

The Way, Way Back (Steve Carell, Liam James) - This is another coming of age movie and it's a decent one. I thought the acting was really good and, honestly, the poor kid! His mother seriously needs a brain and I'm glad she gets it at the end. It's a cute film. I don't think it's as good as The Kings of Summer, but it's also a little different. It's kind of weird seeing Carell as the non-family man and being a jerk. Grade: B-

2 Guns (Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg) - Not a bad film, but also predictable and kind of "crazy." I thought Wahlberg and Washington were well paired and the script worked for the both of them well. It's a little violent, but nothing too much that you wouldn't expect from an action film like this. The mystery of where the money was interesting. I will say, I refuse to watch any film Paula Patton is in anymore because I have seen her nude twice this year and that's 2 times too many! Can't she keep her clothes on?! Also explains why the Miley Cyrus/Rob Thicke thing didn't really make her comment too… Grade: C

Planes (Dane Cook, Stacy Keach, etc) - Cute. Can't say it was great, but it was cute. I enjoyed it. Decent animation. Not to the Cars standards of Pixar, but Disney did an okay job with it. Good, solid family film for almost any age. Grade: C+

Turbo (Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Michael Peña, Samuel L. Jackson, etc) - Another good, decent animation. I thought it was cute. I can't say it was great and whole snail thing was different, but it worked the way it was. My only complaint is I didn't like Reynolds voicing the movie…It was distracting for me for whatever reason. Kind of funny given he didn't bother me in The Croods…It's a cute family film. Not as good as Monster University (I think that or Frozen will win Best Animation), but not bad. Grade: C+/B-

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, etc) - I was REALLY torn about seeing this as I've heard the stories about the author and plagiarism and such. I haven't read the books because of it, but the movie got the best of me. Not a great movie. I was rather bored through most of it, but you do see the main character grow through the film. It's maybe too long as a movie, though…I don't know. There was something "off" about the movie. Movies like this and Divergent and such, which are based off of Young Adult novels, aren't doing well this year even though they were popular in book sales. I guess not everything can be a Hunger Games and Harry Potter. Grade: D+/C-

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, etc) - Honestly, I was disappointed in 'Smaug. There were many scenes in it that weren't in the book (not a big deal), but they, unfortunately, felt like fillers to me. With that said, though I did actually think through the movie, "Filler, filler, filler…" the movie was really well-paced. For a 2:40 hour long movie, you didn't feel like you'd been sitting there that long. So, it was kind of weird to both think "filler" and, yet, enjoy the movie enough that the fillers didn't make me feel like the movie was long. With that said, this one isn't as good as the first, which isn't surprising. Also, this film made me definitely think 3 films is too much for such a short book and I haven't even seen the third movie. I'll own this and I'll watch it again, but it could have been either shorter or the series made into 2 movies. Also, for whatever reason, the special effects in this movie bothered me. They didn't feel as crisp as you'd come to expect from Peter Jackson. There were a lot of obvious green screens too. I'm not sure if it's because I saw it in 2D instead of 3D or whatever, but that was also disappointing. Grade: B

The World's End (Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, etc) - I watched 97% of Sean of the Dead, but I didn't watch Hot Fuzz. So, in some way, I may have missed some nuances and inside jokes, but I liked this enough. I did feel, unfortunately, that it was Stepford Wives…That was disappointing. It was funny at times and the end was kind of weird/funny, but it was okay. I'm glad I watched it and it was fun seeing the boys reminiscence about the past. Grade: B

Elysium (Matt Damon) - Kind of a depressing end, but I guess its was one of those "for the greater good" stories. Special effects weren't bad. The story was pretty predictable, but not bad. It was okay. Grade: C+/C

Paranoia (Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman, Harrison Ford, Amber Heard) - Uh. What? I actually spent more time trying to identify the cars in the movie than actually watching the movie, I think. What could have been really interesting, it was severely bland. Oldman and Ford did decent acting, but I didn't really like Hemsworth character. And it was a fight between wealthy men and one of them trying to be a wealthy man. I don't know…it was pretty stupid. Grade: D

American Hustle (Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence) - I really enjoyed American Hustle. I liked the script, acting, story, and direction. It was all well-done and pulled a fast one on you at the end if you weren't paying attention. I liked that. At its core, it is a con movie through-and-through and not just a movie about cons being caught and used to catch corrupt politicians. I also liked watching Renner's character devolve and the depths of the rest come to light. At first, everyone seems like "bad" people and you're glad they get caught, but, as the movie goes on, you get to know the reasons why and you figure out truly who is the "bad" guy and who isn't. It's got a similar flavor to Silver Linings Playbook so you could tell this was a Russell film. I'd probably own this on DVD eventually. If anything, needs a rewatch to see if you can pick up any clues for the end. Grade: A/A-

Frozen (Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, etc) - I liked Frozen! It might have been my favorite animation of the year. Disney has definitely gotten back its animation movie mojo or whatever. It was another solid effort by them. The musical numbers, I must admit, felt a little weird to me. It felt a little less like the characters singing and more like I was watching a live theater play…? I don't know. The singing in animations just feels weird to me in the recent Disney films (the love song in Tangled took me 2 or 3 views for me to feel "solid" about it), but maybe I just need to see it again. With that said, I did like most of the musical numbers. I liked the two princesses and I liked Olaf. The end was rather sappy and predictable. I kind of felt like you went on this grand adventure and then the end wrapped up SO neatly, cleanly, and quickly that it was a little bit jarring. Still like the film, though. Grade: A

Lone Ranger (Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer) - On its own, the movie isn't too bad, but as a remake, it's absolutely terrible. I will say, the trailer portrayed a cheesier movie, in my opinion. The movie actually wasn't too bad on its own if you removed yourself from every perspective of The Lone Ranger you have in your head (kind of hard to do). There were some things I really didn't like (the slaughtering (and that's what it really was in a "family movie" appropriate manner) of the Comanche, for one), but the fight scenes were okay. The acting wasn't too bad. The comedy wasn't too bad and actually made me chuckle. Unfortunately, the script was rather bad. Hammer wasn't a terrible John Reid, but he came off more "silly" and "green" than Tonto. And the movie is quasi from Tonto's perspective, but, truly, he's just the story-teller. My BIGGEST complaint, there was NOT enough Silver in the movie! And where Silver was doing cool stuff, it was CG (not surprising). It needed more Silver...My other complaint is you could 100% tell this was an attempt to gain the Pirates of the Caribbean glory days. Gore Verbinski directed PotC and he directed this. Not to mention Jerry Bruckheimer (PotC producer) and Hans Zimmer (composer for PotC 2 and 3) were also involved. In fact, one song in Lone Ranger reminded me a little of PotC and there are two characters that rob the civilians and are caught in women dresses or with umbrellas (remind you of a certain pair from PotC? Though, not same actors). So, that was a little weird. I will say, I really like the soundtrack. It's not what you'd expect from Zimmer or for the movie, but it all works. The Finale song based on William Tell's overture is amazing. I don't think it's purely William Tell. I do think Zimmer adds his own into it to work better with the movie, but it's great and a lot of the classic. Besides the "Finale," "Silver" is my favorite song. The end of the song is so beautiful and emotional. In all, if you ignore the fact it's a remake and don't mind the terrible script, it's an okay movie (i.e., thank you action scenes for saving it!). If you factor in the remake, it's absolutely terrible. Grade: C (I liked the action scenes and soundtrack or C-/D+ for remake)

With those 22 movies, I have watched 109 movies this year! I might see one more this weekend given I've got Sat/Sun off with Chris, but we'll see. I will say it was kind of a dud movie year, but I'll go through everything on my movie recap of 2013.

With 4 days left of the year, I'm going to try and read 2 more books. I'm 2 books away from matching last year's 68 count. Granted, I count rereads, but only rereads if I read the ENTIRE book again. Still, for whatever reason, I've been sluggish the end of this year (especially December). I've got books I want to read, but I just can't get myself to actually READ them. Ugh. I have been watching a lot of stuff, but I always take time to read and...I don't know. Weird. Hoping next year is better for the reading, but I should get going to trying to finish 2 books in 4 days. :)

Hope everyone has a good start to the new year!

Where I start ranting about politics...

Last post before SoCal, most likely! Races in a week. Sweet! Unfortunately, this will be one VERY long politically based post...First part will be about Monterey Downs. The second part will be about the Affordable Care Act (ACA or "Obamacare").  

Who'd of thought my horse racing knowledge would actually come in handy for voting? I certainly never did. I thought, at most, it'd open up interesting conversations with people, but for voting? Nope. Never.

I briefly touched on it in my last post, but Monterey has a ballot measure in November's election for rejecting Monterey Downs. Monterey Downs would be an almost 550 acre project right on the border of CSU-Monterey Bay and the Fort Ord National Monument (aka BLM lands). If you check out the link, it's a really intensive project that would take years and years to be completed. It's basically creating a mini-town in the middle of Fort Ord. Rumor has it (I haven't thoroughly checked this out) that the developer for Monterey Downs is actually from Malibu, which says a little about the project. It'll have housing, shopping (a movie theater?), a throwback "downtown," tennis courts and an Olympic size pool, huge indoor arena (apparently future site of CSUMB graduations), horse park (complete with Grand Prix arena), training horse track, hotels, offices, and some land that'll be utilized as a "gateway" to the BLM lands (i.e., leave your dog, horse, or bike there while you go off and enjoy "downtown" or a trail head). The tag for Monterey Downs is "Balancing nature with everyday living." Catchy, eh?

The campaign materials are clever...So clever, in fact, I actually got the measures backwards when discussing them with a co-worker. When reading them on a ballot, I get it, but discussing them I got them backwards! Measure K supporters (pro-Monterey Downs) is using the "K" to highlight phrases like "keeping promises." Good hook phrase and with the "k" and Measure K, you get that subtle hook in to vote FOR Measure K because of keeping promises. However, the proponents to Measure K who want you to vote for Measure M (against Monterey Downs) is solely highlighting the racetrack (Monterey Downs calls it a "training facility" in its literature) and gambling. They don't mention absolutely anything else about Monterey Downs. Well, they do mention destroying thousands of coast live oaks, but that's always a sub-point after the horse track. The racetrack is a good hook too since most people are adverse to gambling and horse racing (I always think of the "noise" when I see the literature against it). Little do most citizens know that getting Thoroughbred racing at Monterey Downs is not a guarantee. So, propaganda material is pretty good on both sides and since K is voting FOR Monterey Downs and M is voting AGAINST Monterey Downs, the ballot is kind of confusing on top of it all (which, according to Measure M supporters, was Monterey Downs point to put Measure K on the ballot -- to confuse the voters).

At any rate, I at first thought Monterey Downs was JUST the racetrack since that was all that was highlighted, but when I started to look into it, it's a HUGE project that's far more reaching than just the track. I think they plan like 1,000 new homes/apartments too. It's about 550 acres, which isn't monsterly huge, but it's not small either. It's always been in the works that Fort Ord would, eventually, create a state-of-the-art equestrian center. It's been in the works forever in the Fort Ord Reuse Plan. I did NOT see the racetrack (it's a racetrack, people, not a "training facility") or the housing or pool or anything else in there! Because I'm a horse racing fan and like my horses, I HAD to look it all up in detail.

The Monterey Horse Park really isn't that big of a deal (check the link for a detailed plan). It's pretty straight forward and, as I said, is not really a surprise to anyone who has remotely paid any attention to Fort Ord's future when it was decomissioned. It will be a nice facility -- if it ever gets made -- and having a Grand Prix (GP) level arena will be really cool! Pebble Beach actually holds some GP level dressage events, but their arena is absolutely horrible. I was reading one year that some of the better horses were withdrawn because the arena was so terrible. I'm sorry; I'm not sure which is sadder: The fact that a GP level event can be held at a terrible arena OR the fact Pebble Beach would ALLOW a GP level event to held on a terrible arena. Sure, fixing it wouldn't be cheap, but making a good arena would make it so the good competitors wouldn't withdraw or skip the event. Having good competitors compete would only help with notoriety and, in the future, more money! At any rate, the Peninsula is due for an upgrade of some sort. Plus, with the history of Fort Ord and all the BLM lands, it just makes sense it needs a better horse facility. Goodness knows Marina Equestrian Center could also use an upgrade. So, anyway, horse park...whatever. I do wish they'd put some seating around the GP arena...Come on. If you're going to have GP arena, you need seating!

The "training facility," though, is really interesting. It is mentioned that it could be used for future horse racing, but mostly mentions training. I guess since it's so small, it really wouldn't need a lot of stables, but it's not a dinky race track! It's going to a mile long oval, which is the same size as Santa Anita (if you do not include the grass downhill shoot). Technically, I think they're going to emulate Golden Gate Fields (GGF), which is a mile oval too. It has infield shoots to make the grass races longer, which is what the track looks like it'll have too. Del Mar has a similar looking track. Del Mar is wider than it is longer, whereas GGF is longer than it is wider (so the distance to the finish line is longer at GGF than Del Mar). The grandstand, supposedly, will only seat around 1,500 (from what I could find), which is pretty small. The arena they want to create near the track will seat almost 4xs more than that. I don't know what Del Mar or GGF seats, but I know Del Mar seats more than that by a lot and I've never been to GGF so I'm not sure. In comparison to Santa Anita, Santa Anita's grandstand is more than 10xs bigger than that. Obviously, it's a precaution in case they never DO get live racing so they don't have a huge grandstand for no reason. I'm sure if live racing was approved, they could redo the grandstand and make it bigger (Churchill redid their grandstands in the last decade to add in new "sky boxes") with any added revenue from the gambling. So, that's the track comparisons. It's not a dinky "training track."

Here's some random thoughts the general public don't know about horse racing. Horse racing at various tracks is approved yearly by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB). They meet yearly and divvy up the racing dates amongst all the tracks/regions. They also approve tracks, date changes, training facilities, and so forth. It's quite the bureaucratic process. Thoroughbred (TB) racing, harness racing, quarter horse racing, and fairs all get different race dates. TB racing, though, is typically GGF is open almost all year (seriously, it runs in thirds through the year with 1 or 2 months closure between the meets) and SoCal tracks (Hollywood, Del Mar, and Santa Anita) get split up (order: Santa Anita, Hollywood, Del Mar, Santa Anita, Hollywood). With the closing of Hollywood Park at the end of this year, the future years will be Santa Anita, Del Mar, Fairplex, Santa Anita, Del Mar. (As a random note, Santa Anita closes out the year and opens the year so they run Dec 26-well into the new year.) So, in actuality, the opening of Monterey Downs would have no impact upon the SoCal circuit. The only thing it would do is make a potential new track to run horses at. With that said, GGF would lose some of their days to allow racing at Monterey. I think the plan is the late summer to early fall and would have 45-days of live racing ("live racing" is always used to say when there are actual races there because most tracks stay open for simulcasting). Those 45 days would have to come from GGF. Not to say GGF has really any say in it, other than petitioning, but it'd be kind of weird to open a new TB track and take some of its days away.

In addition, horse racing is not at a great moment in its popularity. I can't see how suddenly adding a new horse track is going to help things in the industry. In addition, two major tracks in California in the last 5-ish years were sold off and have been (or will be) bulldozed for housing (good bye Hollywood this year and Bay Meadows has been closed for a while). Gambling isn't even the "focus" of Monterey Downs (says interviews). Monterey Downs' thing is to promote some "fun" for the students. Really? Okay. Maybe. I find it fun! Horse racing is a new experience and cheap (I suspect a LOT of $1 beer days...it's practically a track tradition) and gambling, let's face it, will be a draw. Though, it is mostly done on-line these days (I stood next to a lady at last year's BC where she was on her iPad placing her bets at the rail). Besides, if you were going to be a horse racing fan and wanted to gamble, the Monterey County Fairgrounds is an OTB (off track betting) site and even has all the stuff you'd want (simulcasting, DRF, etc, other than a live race). I guess it will be a new temptation for people to start gambling since it'll be "there" for them. On the flip side, I enjoy it just fine and I haven't dropped a dime on a bet (or a penny, since you CAN bet a penny). It might be nice to corrupt (hehehe) youngin's to racing (sans gambling) and they do plan to add internships and stuff so you never know who might fall in love with racing, but still...I just don't see how this will really do anything for the industry or CA racing. I guess, locally, it might do something (if I'm around and you can't find me, check the track), but the big picture just makes me go, "What...?" I guess it is also a new area to take in new gambling profits, but if gambling made a track...New York's Racing Association (NYRA) wouldn't be in a constant state of struggle (though, the new thing is slot machines) nor would Hollywood have closed. GGF is near Berkeley and Hollywood was in Inglewood (close to UCLA, 20 minute drive south). Sure, it's not in the backyard of a college campus, but you can't say CSUMB is a "big" campus either (yet). It's random and with the location the track is in, it's likely to never be a BIG track location. So, in actuality, the track could end up being nothing and, instead, you have a nice big oval for car shows (I'm channeling Del Mar in that reference, even though we've got Laguna Seca nearby)!

So, basically, I don't get the necessity or interest in the "training facility." Honestly, I'd keep Monterey Downs for just the Horse Park and skip the "training facility." I don't see the need in the project at all and, seriously, who thinks of creating horse racing as "something for college students to do"?! That's just weird! And this coming from a horse racing fan...who would love to live at Santa Anita. LoL So, anyway, Horse Park, yes; training facility, no. Though, I admit that I am curious to see a race track be put in...

With that said, it concerns me that with everyone on the Peninsula so in tuned with the water crisis that is the Peninsula that VERY little mention is EVER said about where all the water for the 1,000+ homes, hotels, offices, etc is going to come from. Houses take a lot of water! Hotels do too! I'd be willing to say the horse track, horse park, and offices will take less water and can be "justified" (to a point -- that infield of the race track and the turf course is going to be water intensive, so...again...track, no). In fact, I might vote down Monterey Downs purely because of the water issues. If it was just the track and horse park, I might actually have been for the plan. The businesses might not even bother me that much, but the houses really concern me. What's the point of them? To draw some immediate business? I don't know. There are places that have so much trouble getting water and suddenly this HUGE project is going to get those water rights? How weird and...political...I'm not against growth and, frankly, I agree with the whole "saving 550 acres more is moot when 20,000 plus is already saved" is a valid point, but it needs to be "smart" growth and I don't see this as smart...and it's also so random...Horse track?! Houses?! Whose idea was this? LoL Frankly, I'm likely to vote no on Monterey Downs; however, I want to read Measure M first because I still want the horse park and the veteran's cemetery. If Measure M basically makes either of those impossible in the future, I'm against that more. I do believe in the somewhat promises that were made by FORA. To say the least, the results of this election will be VERY interesting towards the future of Fort Ord.

 

Random cute bunny photo to break-up the dense topics. I have no clue what Lodie is looking for! Those are the grids of their former pen so I'm not sure if she smells them so she's looking for her old home or what, but she's only done this once and she kept looking and looking...There were more grids behind those. No empty space or anything. Weird bunny!

Now, the Affordable Care Act (ACA)...I've given this rant about my situation a few times and thought I'd blog about it. Especially since we just finished our government closure over it and, apparently, some Democrats are now thinking of waiving the fee or pushing back requirements a few weeks or months due to the sign-up issues.

I am one of those people who does not have healthcare. I haven't had healthcare for about 2.5 years now. If I've needed healthcare, I've just paid out of pocket, which, up to this point, has been cheaper than me paying for healthcare monthly. Then again, I'm also avoiding some things I probably should have gone in for also (haven't had a physical in going on 3 years, my heart palpitations (though, those have mostly gone away)). My place of employment DOES offer healthcare, but I can't afford it. With the ACA open now, underneath their stipulations, I do, in fact, qualify for the tax subsidies! So, yay! Right? No. I, unfortunately, fall into the "no man's zone" of the law.

As of right now, I qualify because my company's healthcare costs just a little more than 9.5% of my salary. Underneath ACA, that is not deemed "affordable" and I qualify for the tax subsidies. Unfortunately, with my next raise, I fall just below that 9.5%. According to the ACA, this means that I now have "affordable" healthcare by my place of employment and I no longer qualify for the tax subsidies. This basically means that ACA is pointless for me and I might as well go get healthcare from my place of employment. Unfortunately, if I could AFFORD healthcare in the first place, I would have done it years ago.

On top of all this, my next raise would be next Aug or Sept (can't remember) and the month makes a difference. ACA gives you 3 months of not having health insurance and not get fined. If my raise is in Sept, I'll be okay because I'll be kicked off ACA with my raise, but can wait till Dec to do open enrollment at my company for health insurance. The health insurance would kick in Jan 1st. So, there are my 3 months and not being fined (if you count Sept as not counting); however, if my raise in August, I'll be delinquent. So, yes, I have to figure that out. I, luckily, don't have to worry YET because I'm waiting to hear if my company's insurance will go up or not. If it goes up, I should be okay after my next raise. If not, I'll need to start thinking about the differences in plans of the ACA and whether my company's is really the better plan and just pay the extra amount. Decisions, decisions, and lots of homework...

The problem with the ACA is it doesn't take into count those who are right in that non-poverty area, but don't make enough for their bills/living area. I have a student loan I'm paying back and rent in a costly area of living. I save a little, but if I have to pay health insurance at my place of business, there goes my saving and it takes even more than that away so my standard of living is going to change for the worse. And, before anyone mentions it, I make too much to qualify for MediCal (even with the raising of the maximum to qualify) and I don't fall underneath any of the other stipulations to remove yourself from the program (one being not needing to file taxes -- I guess it's hard to charge people a fee that will be charged when you do your taxes if someone doesn't have to file taxes). Then again, just making $2/hr more would make a HUGE difference.

So, in all, I spent a good deal of time looking through the ACA, looking at the webpage, going to California's webpage, and reading the mandatory handout from my company. I got all this information so it's possible to learn it, but I have people constantly asking me questions about it because I've done my homework. Some of the population is not going to be able to figure this out. It's complicated and takes looking through pages and getting lost on trails of information. A computer is required for the work I did. What happens to those who English isn't a first language? I guess, in many cases, it's pretty straight forward (don't get offered insurance, you qualify), but if you've got a job that does offer insurance, you need to figure out the 9.5% and everything else. I would not be surprised if the fee is waived for 2014 and if it's not waived again in 2015 or at least reduced. If they waive the fee in 2014, I can guarantee people are going to go back to the "Oh, well, I don't care anymore" and stop signing up. This means that in 2015, people are going to be scrambling again and things are going to break again. Or, maybe I'm being super pessimistic about this and maybe the extra year will help work out the kinks and it'll give people a year to trickle in their sign-ups. Who knows. Though, it would be nice if the government can decide quickly. There are many people and perhaps many good things about the ACA, but I am definitely one of those few people who is completely annoyed by the ACA. Sure, it's great if you qualify, but it's the complete pits if you're in my situation.

Randomess: A Little of This and That

Not a whole lot to update, but I want to mention a few things I've found and love in the past few weeks and other random updates.

I have thick hair. It's currently just below my shoulder blades, but I have a lot of hair and THICK hair. Not to mention I'll grow it down to my lower back in a few months. So anything plastic I want to put into my hair I break. It's always been a problem and over the years I've accumulated some metal hair accessories, but they're hard to find without breaking the bank. I like shiny hair things, but don't want to spend more than $10 for them. Well, I recently broke my spending limit for these Flexi 8's. They're shaped in an 8-shape with a pin and they're STURDY. For years I've been looking for something to get my hair up in a up-down twist (like a French Twist, but without the roll) that isn't plastic. I have a super large plastic hair claw (never seen one since I bought that), but I've been slowly breaking the teeth off. I think it's got about half its teeth left now. In addition, it doesn't quite fit all my hair. I found Flexi 8 a while ago, but have been stalling because of the price. The other month, they were having a free shipping deal and I caved. Well, I've now got 5 of them! I've got 2 small sizes for doing my hair half-up (in the information, I should be able to use an extra small, but my hair is too thick or I have too much); one medium for a pony tail (it's a smidgen too big if my hair is dry and super smooth, but it's the only size that'll work for it); and 2 extra large for my up-dos (i.e., up-down twist). It's amazing! They're super strong and the pin has these 3 notches in it to secure the pin so it can't slip out. Not only that, but the extra large gets my hair totally up and it's secure (again, I should have been able to use a large, but it was too small and when my hair is wet, an extra large almost doesn't work depending on where I secure it on the twist). I adore them. They are expensive at around $21 for the extra large, $14 for the smalls, $15 for the mediums, but I'm paying for something I haven't been able to find anywhere else and it'll last for, seemingly, ever. I also like all the styles they have. It's simply amazing finding something that can have my hair up all the way and I don't have to worry about it breaking on me. I'm not the most gentle with my hair so I need metal so I don't break it and I don't worry about these at all. Highly recommend for those with hair issues like me. :P A seller (bought from first): https://www.flexi8.com/ Main page (they do a flexi-of-the-month): http://www.lillarose.biz/ (they don't have exactly the same designs available)

Music is something I like, but I'm not particularly picky about it. I have always liked just about any music, though (techno, dance, ethnic, soundtracks, rock, pop, country, folk, rap, etc). However, I primarily use it as background noise when I'm concentrating on stuff (e.g., writing papers, research, etc). It's background noise so I tend to lean towards soundtracks. I adore soundtracks (will find during a movie I'll concentrate more on the soundtrack than the movie sometimes) and love how instrumental music can invoke certain emotions without having to say any words. I like singing too, don't get me wrong, but I can live without it since I tend to tune out the actual lyrics and tune more towards the singing sound and the music itself. Anyway, at work we're tired of our main radio station we listen to. There's always songs you abhor and then you hear the same songs over and over again. So in the past month we've taken to using a co-workers Spotify account and created a playlist of music we generally all like (you'll never please EVERYONE on staff) and is work appropriate. The co-worker with Spotify started it, but then never got back to it. So I took up the reigns (we use Spotify on my phone at work since I can part with my phone all day and am one of the few phones who can use Spotify on my phone) and added music to it. During this ordeal (I've spent NUMEROUS hours looking for music), I've found I'm mostly an alternative music girl. Specifically, in the alternative/indie rock and indie folk area. So, during this music finding, I stumbled upon a group called Lord Huron. I love them. I've found a lot of music/songs I like that are work appropriate, but Lord Huron is one I have found that I like for myself. It's not quite work appropriate since it's folk-y and it'd drive my co-workers nut and it is a little low-key, but I like it. It's indie folk, but it sort of has a hint of like John Denver-cowboy-country in it. It's hard to describe, but I really like it and it makes you feel like you're out in the middle of nowhere. It's soothing, but has a nice upbeat feel to it. It's now the album I listen to when I'm working and need background noise. I even BOUGHT the CD ("CD" meaning the digital album, of course) because I liked it so much (Spotify is great, but I'm not paying for the subscription). Stranger (YouTube video link - I find the videos a little odd) and Time to Run (YouTube video link) are probably their two more popular ones, but I like the entire Lonesome Dreams album.

Off the topic of new things I love, Zenyatta had her foal a month ago! I realized I never mentioned anything about it! Her new colt was born on April 1st, which is her birthday! He's an absolute cutie, which you can see almost 4 week old photos here (last 3 photos are of her first foal who is over a year old now!). Zenyatta's first colt was recently named Cozmic One too. It was picked for a variety of different reasons (his birthday, being Zenyatta's first foal, his star on his forehead, etc). I'm a little surprised by the name given the Mosses have typically named horses to do with the music industry, but Coz works (the "z" is for Zenyatta, of course). With that, the Kentucky Derby (reason I remembered I never mentioned 13Z earlier!) is in 2 weeks from tomorrow (Sat). It's CRAZY! The field is taking shape too with the new "point" system, but we'll find out the week of the full order and stuff. I don't have a particular favorite right now too. I think I've just learned to wait!

I'm still doing my nails, but I've definitely restarted myself. I'm just painting mostly. I went from heavy glitters to heavy shimmers to light shimmers/cremes with stamps and now I'm just painting, mostly. I think I just got tired of doing all the extravagance! I did do nail art this time around, but it was the first time in 4-5 manis or so. Plus, I had a nail breakage that I've been trying to grow out and reshape for weeks now. It's finally okay, but I had to trim everything down to reshape it. I've done 28 manis since January 1st and it's been 17 weeks from the New Year. About 1.5 manis a week, which is down from what I was doing at the end of last year (2-3 a week, most times 3). Crazy...!

Started watching Law & Order: SVU. It was just "there" to watch on Hulu+. It's okay. You usually think of Law & Order as the "original" procedural crime-drama show since it's been around so long. I think it's okay, but I do prefer my normal ones (CSI, Criminal Minds, Castle, Bones, etc) more because they have an "oomph" to them in one way or another. L&O works for just watching whatever, though.

Watched two movies, this week. One a repeat and one new one.

The Impossible (Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor) - Wow. Okay, I get the nomination for Watts. She is amazing in the film. Actually, everyone is good in the film and it's a good film. It's absolutely intense, though. I can't imagine going through ANY of that. The movie definitely left me feeling tense at the end. It's definitely not a film for everyone, but I'm glad I watched it. It just gives you a small glimpse into what everyone went through during the tsunami. With that said, the real Maria who Watts is based off of had a real hand in everything (was on set, script, etc) so the movie is pretty accurate to what happened and how she felt, which makes it all the more crazy to watch. It was also filmed on location in certain scenes. I do feel like the movie was well paced, which is kind of amazing given the story. Grade: B/B+ (B+ for the sheer fact this was made close to the truth)

Rewatched Les Miserables and it's just as good the 2nd time. Jackman and Hathaway astound me with their singing. Everyone does a good job, but Jackman and Hathaway definitely take the top prizes for it. I do still love Baron Cohen and Bonham Carter as the Thénardiers and Barks as Eponine. The casting in this film is simply spot on. It still moved me through the 2nd watch. No tears (I think I cried through the last half of the film the first time), but it still gave me chills and the singing/music still moves me. I rented the movie for this 2nd watch, but I think I'll buy the movie down the road. It's something I'll want to watch again and, if anything, want to support the sales for.

With that, Iron Man 3 comes out next Friday (May 3rd). I am so excited!! It should be good and officially starts the summer kick off for movies. So far, I've seen 31 new movies this year, which means I'm on track to watch 100 movies this year. We'll see, though.

Anyway, with that, I'm off!

Restored Faith in Humanity...?

Working at Goodwill means I see a lot of "stuff" from others come through. Some of it is really nice and you can't believe someone gave it up. Other stuff is so unique you're not even sure how they found it, what it does, or why someone even bought it in the first place. And there's the last of it where it's complete junk and you're not sure why someone would even think someone else would want it. I can probably categorize something in each of those three. Over the past year I've taken photos of various "oddities" that have come through.

   

How many times have you seen an Oscar "For Your Consideration" DVD (the DVD was actually in there too)? I was pretty excited when this came in. I knew they had Oscar viewing screens, but didn't know they did DVDs too! I forget what the big bat was from, but that sucker was heavy and completely random to come through.

 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle...? For that matter, RRR for both pictures? Both are kind of clever, but definitely make you go, "Why...?"

However, every once in a while you get something that's touching. A handmade baby blanket (can't tell you how many of those we get) or, in this story's case, handwritten notes from your mom.

We get a lot of boxes in and we've learned to always open them in case there's something valuable in them (always check the wallets and purses too!). The other day, I was putting this flower shaped box out and shook it. It rattled. I opened it and saw all these little notes in it. I took them out and put them aside to look at later. I put the box on the sales shelf. Several hours later, I refound the notes (forgot about them) and started looking at them. Turns out they're notes from this girl's mom. There were 29 of them and then 1 from her dad. Based on the notes, she was in either the 2nd or 3rd grade. They were mostly decorated notes just saying she's pretty, nice, her mom loved her, or some other small thing (little stories, songs, talking about the day, etc). They were touching to see that this girl's mom (and dad) took the time to make those little notes for her to find while at school. Obviously, the girl liked them enough to keep them, but, for whatever reason, they were donated. You can't keep everything, I know that, but I was glad I got to read them.

Photo of all the notes. Look how cute some of them are! She clearly was an only child, but they had two cats who she must have adored as the mom mentions them several times.

Seeing things like that or 26 Moments that Restored Our Faith in Humanity This Year are things that we all need to see to remember the good that exists in this world. After last Fridays horrific shooting and all the other violence and horrors we hear on the news and see in person, things like those notes help remind us of the good we can have too.

The notes also got me thinking about my own childhood. I remember when my parents would go to back-to-school nights (when I had an assigned desk) and they would sit at it that night. The next day I would always sit down and immediately try to find the business card my dad would leave me to find somewhere. It was always a fun little hunt to do, but also reminded me that my parents loved me and took the time to leave a reminder that they had gone and had seen my desk and work. I remember watching John Wayne movies and Columbo episodes with my dad. I remember my mom and I driving around town talking about our days and discussing various things like Harry Potter.

Those were definitely times when I had less to worry about and was more carefree. Not to say I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders or live a harsh life, but, man, life just isn't as easy as it used to be when food somehow stayed stocked in your cupboards and refrigerator and you didn't have to worry about loans and bills. Sometimes I get caught up in the "bad" and the lack of humanity in the world (let's not discuss the seemingly idiotic people too...) and it brings me down. The small things is what keeps you going and random acts of kindness (RAOKs) are important.

In fact, I had a small funny moment today with an older lady at the post office. I was there to pick up a package, which takes maybe 3 minutes to do. There was a long line of people waiting to ship things. The lady in front of me had about a half dozen packages and told me I could go ahead of her. I said, "Oh. Really? Thanks!" Her response, which was rather loud as she glared at the people in front of us, was, "Of course. Why wouldn't I? You just have a pick-up and I'm mailing several packages. It's simple logic." The people in front either shifted uncomfortably on their feet or turned to look at her. It was amusing. Sure, it wasn't in the same vein as the notes or the 26 moments, but it still was an act of kindness that went beyond her thinking of herself and her waiting in line. Plus, it made me smile and brightened my somewhat-not-fun day (never a good day when a customer wants a phone number to talk to your superior...).

So, yes, in the past few days, my faith in humanity has been somewhat restored. Then again, I'm a general sap, but you get the point. ;)

I also seemingly got into the spirit of the season this past Sunday. All with the thanks to my co-workers. We were playing Christmas music (we didn't do Christmas music this year, except when I've wanted it) and I decided we needed a tree in our break room for our Secret Santa gifts. My fellow co-worker decorated the tree and table and I got the idea to print out paper stockings for us all to decorate however we wanted. We hung them on the wall behind the tree. It looks festive and it was a fun bonding moment with my co-workers. That night was also our "work party" so it was a really festive day.

I am getting socialized out, though. Friday afternoon was seeing The Hobbit with some former Borders co-workers and then Friday night was going out to have drinks (or, well, they drank) and some snacks with other former Borders co-workers. Sunday was my work Christmas party (right after work) and we did ours with another store (also did a White Elephant). Then today we had a LP (loss prevention) county-wide meeting and then went to work. Friday is my birthday (not doing anything really special - just seeing Hobbit in HFR 3D and maybe Silver Linings Playbook) and then Saturday is my store's potluck (making meatballs!) that is also an auction day and inventory has to be conducted (that is going to be a CRAZY day). Course, Monday is Christmas Eve and Tuesday is Christmas day. Phew. I am NOT doing ANYTHING for New Year's! I will enjoy my day off and that is all! Then again, maybe I'm so tired because I've felt understaffed 4/5 days I worked...At any rate, I'm hitting my people quota soon. :P

With that...Nail photos and movies updated tomorrow or later this week. I am definitely doing shimmers for a good long while once December is over...I'm not over the Christmas stuff, but I am definitely over GLITTER in general. It's such a pain to remove and a lot of these glitters are mega-chunky so they're hard to remove even WITH the foil-method. Cremes and shimmers for a few times after the New Year...Or at least a less rigorous schedule...

"Happy Holidays!"

Perhaps it's me and the fact I like Christmas and call it "Christmas," but it always bothers me when people say "Happy Holidays" to me. I don't mind it when the corporation or educational institutions require you to say it (Goodwill requires us to say "Happy Holidays," as did Borders) because I can see a small logic to it, but it bothers me when on a one-to-one interaction people say "Happy Holidays." If you truly mean ALL the holidays or don't celebrate Christmas, I'm completely fine with it, but most times people are not saying that because they truly mean it in the context I gave, but because you are being "sensitive" to the fact I may not celebrate the same holiday as you.

We as a "tolerable" country have gone completely the opposite direction of tolerance and gone for boring. How boring is it that we completely remove the individuality of each person by requiring us all to say, "Happy Holidays." I feel like we remove a fundamental part of who we are when the holidays roll around. I like it when people wish me a Happy Hanukkah. I've never been wished a joyous Kwanzaa, but it'd be great if someone did! I have been told a Happy Festivus. With that said, sure, there is individuality, but aren't we being "insensitive" (or presumptuous) to those who don't celebrate the holiday we have wished them? Honestly, that's where our tolerance comes in play. I should be able to accept someone's wishes for a happy whatever without being offended they do not celebrate the same holiday as me. To me...THAT is tolerance and understanding, not this removing of individuality to create a "level playing field." As I said, if you say what you mean, then I'm cool with a "Happy Holidays," but don't skip the Christmas or Hanukkah because you're "protecting my feelings."

This all comes up because I found this thing on Facebook that pretty much is my sentiment about the whole thing:

If you are Jewish, feel free to wish me a "Happy Hanukkah"
If you are Christian, you can wish me a "Merry Christmas"
If you are African American/Canadian, wish me a "Joyous Kwanzaa"
If you have no affiliation, you can still wish me "Happy Holidays"
I promise not to be offended!
I will be thankful that you care enough to wish me well.

How amazing is that? Can I post this everywhere in the world? Because, honestly, this needs to be read by a LOT of people...

On that note, might be seeing Twilight this week. I was going to rent a movie tonight, but thought I'd be too tired to watch it. Turns out I'm not *that* tired, but oh well. It's my Friday! Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Here's my fun customer story of the week (it truly boggled my mind): My co-worker picks up the phone and after a while asks me to take the call. I take the call and this customer explains to me that he doesn't want the piece of furniture he bought earlier today because it won't fit. It was hard to hear, but it was either it wouldn't fit in the truck he was going to haul it in or it wouldn't fit where he wanted to put it (it was a 2 piece dresser). Then he goes on to tell me that he cancelled the credit card transaction and is NOW calling us to let us know he did this and does not want it. Cue me being flabbergasted by this. He then proceeds to tell me that he's 79-years-old and he's gotten in enough arguments that this is his normal procedure: cancel and then call. I explained to him that I would have accepted the return and resold the piece of furniture if he had called or even stopped in at the store before he did this. He explained to me that he knew our store policy (no returns) and figured he'd just cancel and then call, but since we're "so nice" he'll, in the future, call first about it. I explained to him that there was really nothing else we needed to talk about, but I made sure I had his name and number just in case I had to do something else on my end. Turns out, our regional boss hasn't had this happen before and he didn't know what to do either. Yeah, how often do you get a situation like this?! I can also see this man being a problem down the road and doing the same thing, but we'll see. It still boggles my mind. Who takes the time to cancel a credit card transaction to get around store policies?!

Well, with that, I'm going to exercise or read while it's raining out...Well, obviously I won't be IN the rain (I'll be inside LISTENING to the rain), but you get the point. :) I am really enjoying the rain...Living in Santa Barbara meant I didn't get a lot of rain for 2 years and then last winter was a SUPER dry winter that I find I'm liking the rainy days more than the non-rainy days lately. Course, work is a little more hazardous and annoying, but oh well. Will post my latest Christmas mani later this week (after I change to Christmas mani #3).

Human decency?

Working at any job will have you come face-to-face with difficult people. Most times you bite your lip, hold your attitude, and bear it through as best you can while trying to make the person as happy as possible. Sometimes these "difficult people" come in at bad moments for yourself and are simply high maintenance and require a lot energy to handle (e.g., people who want 2 items in this bag, 3 in this bag, and make sure you double-bag one of the bags). Occasionally, you have a person who doesn't speak English as his/her first language and you have a language barrier and they become difficult because they don't understand. Other times, they generally are difficult to work with and you can't please them no matter what you do (e.g., people who want said items to be bagged in such a way, but you don't do it correctly so they want you to do it again). And then, from time to time, they are sour-minded people who find the world is out to get them and, thus, must treat everyone in a negative manner to make themselves feel better or, in general, they just are rude and intolerable with a chip on their shoulder and feel like they can treat you badly for whatever reason. I'm sure there are more types of difficult people, but mine generally come down to the aforementioned four: 1) I'm tired, 2) language barrier, 3) they're simply picky, or 4) they have a serious attitude issue no matter what.

My questions, though, are why is it that difficult people are the ones who get to act out and get away with it? Why is it deemed "not okay" to be difficult, rude, obnoxious, etc, but we as a society still tip-toe around these people? Why can't we just hit them upside the head and tell them to snap out of it and stop being rude? Why is it when someone sees a portion of a moment with the difficult person (especially if it happens often) does it make you seem like the bad person when you look like you're running out of patience?

I suppose all the answers really come down to confrontation (re: don't like it) and tolerance (re: being the bigger person or accepting it), but they're still fair questions. Why can't I tell a customer to exit the premises without helping them if they're being difficult beyond the realm of tolerance? Okay, so everyone's tolerance levels are different and what is deemed "difficult" is different than someone else's, but, you know, there is a general "level" that most people can agree to. Honestly, where has human decency gone?

I suppose the question to that is: Has there ever been a moment we can say human decency existed on a general level? We as a society do change (e.g., perception of women and African-Americans) and hindsight is 20-20, but you wish there's at least a general level that we can be civil to each other. Unfortunately, apparently that doesn't really exist on a macro-level. Sure, maybe on a micro-level (i.e., person-to-person) it does exist. I'm courteous to my neighbors. I'm helpful to the elderly on the street. Yet, when it comes down to it, how often does it crop up that we question human decency?

This is all mostly just rhetorical thoughts bouncing around my head and you're probably wondering where this all came from. Let's just say that I have had a very (make that a double-underline) trying week (thank goodness tomorrow is my Friday!). What's happening to the world?!

Twice in the last couple of weeks we've had customers come in with a chip on their shoulder from the get-go (difficult person #4 in my earlier list). One lady, for no apparent reason, was really rude to a co-worker (no fault of the co-workers). On top of it, she was a really picky person (difficult person #3). I had to deal with her later and you couldn't even make small talk without her trying to chew my head off and then bagging was difficult nonstop (one in each bag, tie the bag - no, wait, I want to tie it myself - place them gently in the bigger bag, etc). I at least had a heads up about her so I was trying to play it down, but I guess she had a little bit of a cussing episode before I got to her. Then, today, Oh.My.Gosh. The guy threatened a co-worker bodily harm (BEYOND the "normal" realms of difficult person #4)! Who does that?! All over a $20 return! He came in fuming too. The manager got it calmed down (did the return, despite our policy) and then the situation was blown up again. It was like verbal abuse the names he called my co-worker (not the manager) and then threatened us. Yeah, not cool. I hope he never comes back and what are we supposed to do? Act cool and get him out of the store as quickly as possible, while the rest of the shoppers are fidgeting (practically) because of the confrontation (who wants to shop with a guy like that in-store?!). Goodness. Human decency, people, HUMAN DECENCY.

And our favorite difficult person #2 who has been coming in each and every day for the last 1.5 weeks or so. We're pretty much all convinced that she DOES understand English, but plays dumb to try and get us to work around her (to be fair, I KNOW she understood me MUCH better several months ago). At first, we were all nice (she used to come in every few weeks before the recent everyday situation) and she'd come in with her daughter or husband and it wasn't too bad. Lately, it's been bad and VERY bad. Bad to the point of making customers uncomfortable because we sound like we're being mean and/or rude to this older lady who (to them) doesn't understand English. We're not being mean. We're not being rude. Yes, we're being firm with her over our store policies, but it's because she's taken advantage of us enough the past week and we're tired of dealing with it (not to mention we have very long conversations over the same thing everyday...). We've even had customers (a regular) get herself involved because she thought she could help. Yeah, it doesn't. We all basically want to run away when we see her come in, it's that bad. One day she wouldn't leave after I said "no" to her a bazillion times and we threatened to call the cops if she didn't take "no" for an answer and leave (she knows what "no" means for sure and suddenly understood what "calling the cops" meant too). Funny enough, the next customers to come up made a joke of it (it made us all laugh) and they asked how often she came in so they understood why we weren't being nicer or more lenient, but most people don't know the situation. So, in a lot of eyes, I feel like we're seen as the mean guys because we're holding to our policies because this lady keeps taking advantage of us. We're a charity, people, we're nice, but you can't try and take advantage of us everyday and get away with it! Where's the human decency in this situation?!

Truly, no one likes difficult people. I get that. I get that they exist in the world too, but WHY do they need to come around me?! *sigh* As I said, it's been a rough week with difficult people (especially our favorite customer who doesn't speak English...). Ironically enough, I was dealing with the lady who doesn't speak English (another round (after my earlier round) of explaining the same thing that we explain everyday...) and had to go up to the register with her when the whole ordeal of the beyond difficult guy was happening. So the manager and assistant manager were BOTH busy with difficult people, albeit totally different levels. In addition, I had a customer waiting for me to help her, furniture arrived, etc. It was a crazy half hour. After both difficult people left, we had a customer standing in line after the whole thing and I apologized to her profusely and rang her up. Luckily, she was a really nice lady and we actually started talking about Borders, but...man.

I feel so embarrassed to have people like that in-store. It's like you want to tell every customer in-store during the situation that you really are nice people, there aren't these difficult people in-store, generally, and your shopping experience will usually be pleasant! I think the stigma with Goodwill also doesn't help the situation either. Being at a place like Goodwill means people are friendly to you (it's like a neighborhood establishment/family feel with the regulars compared to Borders when you felt all stiff even if they were regulars), but it also means people can think of your store as being "cheap" or "dirty" or has "crazy people" frequent it (won't deny the crazy people, but Borders had crazy people too!). So, yeah.

Difficult people? By far. Human decency? Not so much from them. I'm just glad my week is almost finished. I'm not sure I can take anymore difficult people and the odds of our favorite non-English speaker coming in tomorrow is quite high. Hopefully it's just her and no one else...

In another line of human decency, today I saw a dog get picked up by animal control. It broke my heart. The dog was so friendly that the initial cop on the scene (there were 2 and they were arresting some guy - not sure if the dog was his or not) walked up to it and the dog immediately wanted to be petted and then wanted to play. It was funny because the dog had a crazy minute of running around a nearby tree. I have no clue what led it on, but it was funny. The dog was so happy and really pretty (Shepard-collie mix maybe?). Apparently, it was initially tied up to the tree it was running around because the animal control person (after putting a noose-like leash on the dog) went back and dug around and came up with what looked like a leash (as the cop had the dog). I hope someone didn't tie the dog up and leave it there. I (mostly) hope that the guy who got arrested owned the dog just because at least the dog wasn't abandoned on purpose...It might have been the case too because the animal control person went and talked to the guy through the window of the cop car afterwards. The guy didn't look seriously in trouble, but they did pat him down, cuff him, and went through his belongings and then some other cop showed up in a "community services" truck. No clue. It was weird, but I hope the dog is okay.

With that...

[/rant] ;)