Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Weather Woes

The sub-zero temperatures we had here in Chi-beria for the past few days finally gave way to warmer temps today (if you count temperatures in the 20s as warm). Unfortunately, snow is coming tomorrow and over the weekend. We can't catch a break this winter. The news in the South is also depressing with the snow and ice there trapping people on the roads and kids at their schools. Being from Michigan, I find it hard to believe that a mere two inches of snow could paralyze a city the way it did in places like Atlanta and Birmingham, but there was also a layer of ice on the roads and those cities don't have salt on hand for the roads like we do here. The situation in states like Alabama and Georgia was just awful. When people were encouraged to leave their jobs and kids were dismissed from schools all at the same time, it was just a recipe for disaster. My father told me my uncle, who lives outside of Birmingham, had to leave his car by the side of the road and walk home yesterday because he couldn't get his car up a hill that leads to the subdivision where he lives. The road was too icy. But, to try and put some sunshine on this rain cloud, at least we gained another minute of daylight.  Woo hoo! Spring is coming!

Monday, January 27, 2014

Food 4 Less

There are a lot of grocery stores in and around Evanston, but I have to admit I'm partial to Food 4 Less because of the cheap prices and the diverse clientele. Food 4 Less is really the great equalizer of grocery stores. Not stuffy like Whole Foods or hipster-ish like Trader Joe's or as square as Jewel, Food 4 Less brings people of all backgrounds and economic conditions together in the search for affordable foodstuffs. And they also have cheap gas. Rock on, Food 4 Less!

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Passive-Aggressive

I got an e-mail this morning from my boss that was sent from one of our HR people. The e-mail from the HR rep stated that someone who reports to my boss (the person was unnamed) keeps parking in a space that is reserved for two-hour visitors. Apparently, this parking violator has been warned multiple times before about this offense, yet it keeps happening, so the HR rep contacted my boss to, in turn, put the heat on this employee. My question is why was I copied on this? Rather than dealing with the person who is creating the problem, my boss chose to contact all of his direct reports with this nonsense. Hey, I'm not the one parking in the visitors' space, everyone knows who the offender is, so why isn't the offender being contacted directly? We're not children. We don't need to be admonished as a group because of the sins of one person. This passive-aggressive approach to discipline is ridiculous. If I messed up, tell me. Don't send some vague message to everyone in an effort to shield one person's feelings. State the problem to the person who's causing it, tell that person to correct his or her behavior so this problem can be avoided in the future, and keep it moving.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Weather Channeling and Looking

I find it funny that Direct TV has dropped the Weather Channel (WC) from its lineup and the WC folks are going crazy. Let's be honest. The Weather Channel is a joke and has been for some time now. I remember the good old days when the WC reported on the actual weather. Now it's a side show filled with infotainment and named winter storms. (Janus anyone??) Give it up, folks! If my cable provider decided to drop them tomorrow, I would shed no tears over the loss. I can't believe Sam Champion jumped from Good Morning America to board that sinking ship.

In other non-weather-related news, I was able to see the first episode of HBO's new show "Looking" and, sadly, I was underwhelmed. I don't have HBO (because I pay enough for cable already), but the first episode of Looking was available for free on line so I watched it. I was really glad to see Murray Bartlett starring as the older man Dom on the show. He's very good in a movie called August that I saw recently. However, I wasn't thrilled with the porn-stash they gave him on HBO. What's up with that? A perfectly handsome man was transformed into a Tom Selleck reject. Still, I enjoyed watching him as an older gay man dealing with the reality that he's not as hot as he used to be and the relationship he had with his female roommate (ex-girlfriend?) seemed interesting. The other two main characters were dry. The blond guy, who's supposed to be the cute one, did nothing for me. Watching him try and hook up (and then whine about his love life or lack thereof) was like watching paint dry. And the bearded guy only got brownie points for having a good looking minority boyfriend (who I realized was black far later than I, as a person of color, should have). My suggestion would be to drop the two younger guys, have Dom hook up with the good looking black guy and focus on their interracial/May-December relationship, and keep the story line dealing with him and his female roommate (but not in a Will & Grace kind of way). Now that's a show I would watch. But blond whiners and hipster threesomes? I'll pass.

I've read a lot of reviews of Looking lately and most of them were not encouraging. It's a shame because I want this show to find an audience and succeed. I watched Queer as Folk (QAF) for many seasons until it went off the rails and enjoyed a lot of the episodes mainly because of the relationship between Brian (Gale Harold) and Justin (Randy Harrison). What made QAF work was that a lot of women watched it. As one reviewer I read recently said about Looking, it can't survive with only a gay audience and, sadly, I believe that.

Monday, January 20, 2014

The Wolf of Wall Street

I saw The Wolf of Wall Street today. Yes, that's how I spent my MLK holiday. (Don't judge me.) Anyway, the movie was entertaining, but far too long. Like three hours long. Leonardo DiCaprio is starting to look like Jack Nicholson. What surprised me was how funny the film was. Who knew Leo could be so funny? I sure didn't. The scene where he has to get home from the country club after taking a bunch of pills is hilarious. There's a lot of sex and a lot of drugs here and I'm not sure exactly what the point of the movie was, but I enjoyed it. I doubt that Leo scores an Oscar for his performance just because it's not the kind of role that normally wins one an Academy Award. The whole Wall Street bro-culture thing is fascinating to watch because of its sheer ridiculousness. Throughout the entire film, the mantra "bros before hos" kept running through my mind. Maybe I did understand the point of the film after all.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

One Hot Mess

I went to see Too Hot to Handel last night at the Auditorium Theater and the show just didn't do it for me. It's supposed to be a combination of jazz, gospel, and classical music all rolled into one, but it ended up being one big mess of a show. This is no criticism of the performers themselves. The musicians and singers were all very good, but the mix of the musical styles just didn't work. Having someone do an Ella Fitzgerald-like scat through Handel's Messiah is a mistake. Having jazzy interludes with a gospel choir and then adding some classical music into the mix just creates confusion. Too Hot to Handel? More like one hot mess.


Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Loitering

My sister sent me a link to a story about several elderly Asian men spending many hours (pretty much all day) sitting in a McDonald's in Queens and the restaurant's attempts to get rid of the men because they're taking up valuable real estate for customers. The men, many of whom don't speak English well and are widowed, gather at the McDonald's to chat in their native tongue and have some companionship outside of their homes. However, they're taking up space for customers who come to the restaurant. Sure, the men may buy a cup of coffee or split a small order of fries, but they primarily do not purchase food at the restaurant. The police have been called to remove the men from the restaurant, but they come right back after the cops leave. I don't think it's fair that other paying customers can't even sit and eat the food they buy because these men are taking up space socializing. As someone in the article said, McDonald's is not a senior day-care facility. I feel the same way about people who go to Starbucks and sit there hogging up space while ordering one cup of coffee. These folks, as well as the men at McDonald's, need to keep it moving. No one should be loitering (and, really, that's what these folks are doing) in a public space like this.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

F-You E-bay

I bid on a .99 cent book on eBay yesterday and woke up this morning to find my bid canceled by the seller because my identity could not be verified, whatever that means. I have a valid eBay account and a valid PayPal account, so I'm not sure what the problem is. Maybe the seller isn't really interested in selling. I haven't bought anything on eBay in years and my recent bid to buy an out of print book (not the one I bid on yesterday) was outbid. However, after this negative experience, I'm considering shutting my account down for good. I should have just purchased the book I wanted from an Amazon seller, but the eBay seller was cheaper, so I went that route. Big mistake. I'll stick to Amazon from now on. I've never had a problem with any purchases there.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

American Studies

I just finished reading a great book called American Studies by Mark Merlis and I felt I needed to do a blog post about it since my Goodreads review didn't really do it justice. American Studies begins with the narrator, Reeve, a gay man in his 60s, who looks back on his life while he's hospitalized after a trick assaults and robs him. In reviewing his own life, Reeve also looks back on the life of his former professor and mentor Tom. The book discusses the paranoia in the 1950s over homosexuality, Communism, manhood, class. It's a compelling look at the lives of two gay men during a time when they really couldn't be themselves openly and how each man dealt with his sexuality. It's a fascinating book and I commend Merlis for putting his characters through such an emotional wringer. You get the good, the bad, and the ugly with Reeve and Tom and the people around them. This is not a book that is filled with loving relationships, sunshine, and rainbows. It's often sad and sometimes depressing, but it's always real and very interesting. Merlis's character Tom reminded me a lot of the writer John Horne Burns, the subject of David Margolick's excellent biography Dreadful. Both Tom and Burns, gay men of the same era, suffered internally and externally because of their sexuality.

I read a lot of romance books because I write romance books and I enjoy reading them. But, from time to time, I'll take a break from that genre and read something like American Studies that gives me a realistic shot in the arm and opens my eyes to lives I might not have seen otherwise.


Thursday, January 9, 2014

Assumptions

I try not to complain about my day job because it is what it is. However, today I have to make an exception. I was asked this week to attend a meeting at the last minute that's taking place out of state next Friday. I had already requested and been granted next Friday off from work because I have something to do. So when this meeting came up, I told the person in question I couldn't make it due to a prior commitment. The person just assumed I would be able to adjust my schedule to accommodate her own. Guess again! I hate how some people who are married and/or have kids assume that someone who isn't married and doesn't have kids can just drop everything and do something at the spur of the moment. The woman I'm dealing with at work is one of those people. Just because I'm not married and I don't have children doesn't mean I don't have a life! I have things to do, too! I made plans for the holiday weekend and I intend to keep those plans. It's not that I'm not willing to change my schedule if needed, but this entire situation has been such a clusterfuck from the beginning that I'm not in the mood to play nice right now. The woman who expected me to drop everything to help her out had me kicked off of this particular project initially before I was asked several weeks later (this week, in fact) to get back on board. I just hate being taken advantage of because I'm single and childless.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Do It for the Kids

The Chicago Public School system has finally done the right thing and closed the schools for tomorrow due to the freezing temperatures expected tomorrow. It only took them until almost 5:30 tonight to make the decision that so many other schools in and around the city had already made a day or so ago. Why Chicago waited so long is beyond me. Mayor Rahm Emanuel isn't even in the city! This evening's press conference with various city workers was mayor-less. Apparently he's traveling somewhere but is expected back tomorrow. How Bloombergian of him. (I don't believe he's on a private jet in Bermuda, but you get my drift.) The fact that city officials were warning people about how to avoid frostbite and recommending that they stay indoors tomorrow yet the schools were still expected to be open was ridiculous. Basically, Rahm and the rest of the school officials were telling Chicago Public School kids, parents, and teachers, "To hell with you." (On a side note, the school that Rahm's kids attend will be closed tomorrow.) While I'm glad CPS officials finally came to their senses and closed the schools, the lateness of the announcement angers me. If temps are going to be below zero and the wind chill will be something like 40 below, it's time to close the schools. Do it for the kids!!!

Snowzilla: Part Deux

As the snow continues to fall and the winds continue to howl in Chicago, I decided this was a good day to stay home and watch House of Cards. I got through one episode. After hearing such great things about this miniseries, I was bored stiff. I kept waiting for it to end so I could slip the DVD back into its Netflix envelope to be returned to the nearest shipping facility. I enjoy a good political thriller as much as anyone, but this series just didn't hold my interest. I felt the same way about Downton Abbey although I did manage to make it through the entire first season before abandoning it. So, with no Netflix series to occupy my time and nothing on television, I guess I'll be able to get some reading and hopefully some writing done as the temperature falls and winter rages on.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Snowzilla

It's been snowing in the Chicago area since New Year's Eve. NEW YEAR'S EVE! Since the ever increasingly annoying Weather Channel is choosing to refer to this storm as Hercules, I've decided to christen it Snowzilla. Just when you think it's dead and the flakes slack off, they start up again with a vengeance. While the puffy white flakes look great covering the trees and homes, they're treacherous on the streets. I think I've been away from the Midwest too long because the snow is already getting to me. Growing up in Detroit, we just dealt with the snow. It snowed and you shoveled yourself out. Here, it's the same thing, but I'm not used to it yet. I look out the window and can't believe it's snowing...and that the snow is sticking...and that many inches are expected. The high is supposed to minus 8 degrees next Monday. Minus 8.  Great.

This has nothing to do with the weather, but why, New York State, are you forcing the Walgreens pharmacy to contact my doctor in order for me to get the remaining refills on my prescription filled? If I had nine refills left to go in New York, I should have nine refills left in Chicago. For people transferring prescriptions from most other states, this wouldn't be an issue. But when you transfer a prescription from New York, you can only get one refill and your doctor must be contacted for the rest. Huh? What sense does that make? And it's not like I'm refilling a drug that people abuse. New York, why must you continue to screw me from afar? I enjoyed your state while I was there, but it's over. The relationship has come to what I thought was an amicable end, yet you treat me like this? It's so frustrating! I'm really hoping my New York doctor does the right thing and gets Walgreens the info it needs before my meds run out but I have a bad feeling I'll be on the phone trying to work this out next week.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy New Year!

I, for one, am glad to put 2013 in my rear view and move on to 2014. Not that last year was terrible, but I'm ready for a new year that, hopefully, will be a good one. This year, I hope to do more writing, more reading, and some traveling. I haven't been on a real vacation in years (and by a REAL vacation I mean one that doesn't involve going to visit relatives). Maybe I can actually do that this year. I'm keeping hope alive that it will happen.

Happy New Year to everyone!