Random thoughts of the day

1.  Nerds that are flavored something "coated" something look strange.  They are oddly matte and the top coat is a little translucent, but it does not seem to affect their taste.

 

2.  I do not know if the non-passage of the buyout is a good thing or a bad thing.  I do know that Warren Buffet felt it was very important.  I also know that Jimmy Buffet sings Margaritaville and Warren Buffet is the guy from Nebraska who seems to have a really good grasp of economic markets.

 

3.  The good thing about being the cheapest person in you office is, if things get bad, it would make more sense for them to fire a lot of people before you.  Two since you are the one who can work the simple things and handle the annoying shit jobs and you aren't expensive, they will keep you around pretty long to make the lives of the people who's jobs got harder during layoffs not *quite* that bad.  Not that my workplace seems to be hurting, we seem fine.  But, my bank failed last week and I needed to think through a contingency plan.

 

4.  My new roommate Azar seems never to have assembled a bed or seen a bed assembled before last night.

 

5.  She also thinks it weird that last spring Johnny B, Chris and I decided that we should have some sort of emergency phone tree/meeting place in case something really awful happened.  Like flooding or tornado or earthquake or terrorist attack or something.  Since here in the city none of us have family except eachother.  This is also why I have my roomie's parents contact info as well as Sam's parents' contact info.  When my roomie went to the emergency room like a year ago, I realized I needed that.  Because what if something bad happens and they can't use their phone or I can't get to their phone to get the numbers?  It sort of put me in a panic.  Azar thinks I am insane.  She also thinks that John, Chris, and I would be a very hysterical group to be making plans.

 

6.  I put about 65 episodes of "This American Life" the radio show on my old nano and let my boss take it on her round trip train trip to Minneapolis.  She was looking forward to it while she was stuck on the train with her 13 year old (who came up with the train travel idea), but the 13 year old listened to it the entire way both ways.  She is very greatful.

 

7.  Letting the big head boss play in ping pong tournaments seriously impacts the ability to finish tournaments.  Unless the only thing that they have to do is play tournaments, but that seems not to be the case in the instance to which I refer.

 

8.  I kind of like laffy taffy jokes if only because I like trying to reason out what the "punchline" would be.

 

9.  I think Sam and I on the Amazing Race would be hilariously good TV because he is fairly travel savvy but completely untechnical and city boy.  I am not so good with the travel savvy BUT I can put things together and will try to do stupid stuff to win.  Also Sam only pretends not to be competitive.  He really likes to win stuff.

Bathroom Musings

Today I was thinking while getting ready.  When do you tip?  I mean really.  Sit down restaurants where you have a server fetch and carry for you?  Heck yes.  Cab drivers?  Sure, but not at the same rate.  Hair stylists?  OK but because I go to a nice salon, also you kind of should, shouldn't you?  Movers and furniture deliverymen?  Yes, but only because I was told you should, and I try to give them water and pop if it is hot and coffee if it is cold.  Pizza and food delivery guys?  Yes, but it depends on the delivery fee for me.  If they have an exorbitant delivery fee, then the delivery guy gets a smaller tip (even though I know it is not his fault), so somewhere between a buck or two and five bucks.  Baristas?  Mostly no.  Maybe a quarter, but mostly no.  Not quite fast food places that kind of are fast food but like nicer quality fast food?  Not if I stand in a line and am herded cattle like quickly through my choices (Yes, I am looking at you Chipotle) and maybe if it is a little mom and pop shop that remembers my name and my favorites (Hi there Hueys Hot Dogs in A-Ville).

 

And then I wondered, am I wrong?  I mean I try to give a good tip to servers and bartenders, but in both cases their effort and diligence and skill complete my dining experience.  I want my hairstylist not to aaccidentally shave my head.  But is a barista at your local Starbucks the same as a bartender?  Should they get tips?  And where is the line?  Because in part servers get tips because it is assumed to be part of their wage which is why they aren't paid a ton hourly.  And it behooves both the restaurant and the server to angle for things that will return big tips--good service, big ticket items, more drinks.  It is mutally beneficial and rewards success and good behavior (well it should).  But Chipotle?  Starbucks?  I don't know.  What do you guys think?  And what would cause you to not tip or under tip in a situation where you normally would?  How crazy would that cabby have to be?  How bad a haircut?  What constitutes tip docking worthy poor restaurant service?

 

For me, if they come get my order reasonably well, if the food comes out in a usual amount of time, and if I get drinks they get a regular tip (if there was some wait or some delay but not a crazy amount then they maybe get 15% instead of 20%).  They basically can only go up. If they give me a good reccomendation, they get some more dough.  Same if they are attentive or bring me something extra.  If I have crazy requests and they do them they get at least 20% no matter how awful they may otherwise behave.  If they do all of this and pretend it was easy they can find themselves at 25% and up.  Also, if I have a little tab, I always way over tip.  Like if it is summer and I get like a few tacos and some water for lunch or a sandwich and water (because of dehydration, let's face it probably it would be alcohol but in case of not), and my bill comes to like $6-8.  I might drop only $10 for the $6 tab and maybe add a buck or two extra, but I am going to drop $15 for the $8.  I mean with a tiny tab, the fact that they would treat me just the same as that table having appetizers and guac and entrees and dessert and lots of alcoholic drinks when clearly they are going to get a way smaller return on their investment, they deserve at least a 50% tip and probably closer to a 100%.  If you can't afford to tip on what you eat, go to McDonalds.

Am I sick or am I just a mess?

That has been the question lately.  It has been a season of not wanting to climb out of the covers in the morning (and by season I mean like two weeks).  At first, it was easy to blame it on Sam being in Iceland, but he has been back for a week and well.  That makes it not work as an excuse.

 

But I just feel like I don't like it.  I have no idea what it is, but I no like it.  Maybe I need to devote some more time to things that make me happy.  And more walking/jogging.  That could perk me up a bit.  I don't know.  It is just plehhhhhh.  Or something.

 

Anyone want to send me a hug or a smile, please go right ahead I might need it.  Either that or I am sneaking some of Sam's happy meds.

Sam seems to be the one responsible for me getting to work vaguely on time

Because I can't seem to do it myself. Well and the main problem is that there is no consequence, and it isn't like I come in whenever I want I just don't get there until like 15 after 8 instead of 8 which. . .whatever no one calls then, hardly anyone bothers to come in then. Big deal. I just would be catastrophically late (or close to it) if Sam weren't there to nudge me along and get me out of the house. That is what he does most days. Without him this week things have been a little more rocky. This is what I have been working on avoiding.

Fall has shown up, but. . .

I wasn't tired of summer yet.  Usually there have been a couple of heat waves, and I kind of want to die and coolish weather and even rain are welcome.  Maybe not my favorites yet, but still good-ish.  Appreciated.  This year there was no freaking heat wave.  Nothing.  I mean it got kind of toasty for a few weeks, but not really.  And we had like 4 total days of Spring spread out between March and June which is totally a rip off.  I need some spring, not never ending winter.  And now they just glaze over and by summer after two and a half months?  Not OK!  Fall better freaking linger, but sadly it seems we are in for a winter that is just as hard as last years.  And it is already cooling way off.  It was very cold last night, a fact that was hammered home as I crawled into bed all alone since Sam is in Iceland.  Also, Steve McQueen is not a cooperative bedfellow.

 

Although the good thing about Sam being gone is that I can snuggle into his couch and have the TV and the Tivo and the whole place to myself.  It is wonderful, refreshing, and just what I needed.  And I really don't mind until he doesn't come home for bed.  Plus it is very odd to not get any text messages or IMs from him at all for days at a time.  That never happens, even when I am with him.  He will IM me from the other end of the couch.  He did send me an email though, telling me he missed me which is very nice.

Coming Soon

Yesterday I did possibly the most hardcore nerd thing I have ever done.  I sat in the rain for two and a half hours to watch a live taping of the National Public Radio show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me: The NPR News Quiz Show."  And when I say rain, I am not fucking around.  It was a freaking torrential downpour.  This was not happy soft misty Pacific Northwest Seattle ass rain.  This was pounding, driving, big, fat drops rain RAIN!  I am talking Noah here.  It was however tons of fun.  The show was great.  These people are hilarious, and you can download it free from itunes starting on Sunday (I think).

 

I stayed relatively dry by covering my seat in the Frank Gehry designed Pritzker Band Shell with an entire volume of our free weekly undergroundy paper The Reader, and I wore a windbreaker and a bright green hooded rain poncho.  My two friends (Chris and Branson) had large umbrellas that helped keep some rain off me.  Basically above the knees I stayed dry excepting my face. 

 

Anyway, more about it this weekend.  Including some digital camera video and a pic or two!

Remember when AIDS was the WORST thing that could happen to you instead of just a sucky but very often survivable disease?

That is my hypothesis on one of the reasons teen pregnancy (and STD rates and STI rates) are growing rather than shrinking like they have been for 15 years.  Kids in the 90's were terrified to death of AIDS.  If you had sex, you would get AIDS, and no one would let you swim in the city pool, and then you would die in a terrible shrinking manner that would be awful and painful and involve lesions on your face.  This was a basic truth everyone knew.  And even nice kids who had never even had sex--like Ryan White--could get AIDS.  I went to Catholic school, so I knew that sex before marriage would obviously come with Biblical repurcussions of the huge and horrifying proportions that brought us the Plagues of Egypt and other awful things.  And even if you didn't go to Catholic school, I think the prevailing message of the 90's was unsafe sex is deadly.  I feel like most of us had to be vaguely aware that condoms were necessary for sex not to kill you, and I feel a lot more of us (than the kids of today) were likely to wrap it up.  I mean, remember when TLC wore condoms on their clothing.  It was a totally big deal.  Now I think condoms are thought of as unecessary, especially as lots of teen girls are on birth control to fix their acne/regulate their periods all in one swoop.  Basically, they need a little more fear of a great big sex induced disease pandemic those kids today.  They need it.

Oh Weekend of Drinking

I went to Howl at the Moon three nights in a row. On Friday I preceeded it with drinking at a cubs game and at Jamie's house and followed it up with drinking at another bar. Which explains why I spent Saturday doing a whole lot of nothing except recovering. It took many naps, and then we went to go pick something up and decided we must hit the bar again because well. . . Sam really, really, really likes it, and we now no longer have to pay cover.

And I really have not gotten a whole lot more done. I might watch some on demand Netflix and that is all.