Love Is Proud Anthology

The Love Is Proud anthology is now for sale. (See the sidebar for the link.) Thanks to JM Snyder for pulling this book together in such a short time frame. Proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to Equality Florida to benefit the victims and family members of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. I have a short story included in the anthology titled "Paper Anniversary" that features characters from my short work "There Will Be Cake." Many other JMS Books authors have their work featured in the anthology also. Check it out. I'm currently reading it myself so I can see what my fellow JMS Books authors have contributed.

Bicycle, Bicycle

When Citibikes first came to New York, I was still living there and I predicted the whole bike sharing thing would die an easy death. I kept thinking, Who, in their right mind, would ride a bike through the streets of New York? Bicycle messengers aside, I thought it was crazy to think a regular person would get a bike at, say 50th and Broadway and ride down to Penn Station. Boy, was I wrong! When I was in New York last week, I was shocked at how many Citibikes I saw in the city and how many people I saw riding those bikes in the city. I fear for my life trying to cross the street in New York. I can't imagine how I'd feel trying to navigate a bike through the city streets, yet I saw one person after another doing just that. Granted, most of the people I saw were young (well, younger than I am) so maybe they had less fear about riding a bike in Manhattan traffic. I was scared just watching these folks.

Here in the Chicago area, we have Divvy bikes that people can rent. It's the same concept as the NY Citibikes. A Divvy bike station was recently placed about a block away from where I live and I was angry because the station took up two street parking places. Street parking in my neighborhood isn't exactly plentiful and there's a lot of multi-family housing in the area. Not everyone has a parking lot or a driveway to park in. I'm in favor of people riding bikes, but I'm against penalizing drivers to accommodate bike riders.

Patriotic Music

While I'm not a flag waver, I do enjoy some patriotic music. For example, The Battle Hymn of the Republic is a favorite of mine. If performed well, it can sound amazing. I heard some choir performing the song yesterday at the opening of the Democratic Convention and I wasn't thrilled with the delivery. It wasn't working for me. Now let me just state that I'm not watching any conventions (Republican or Democratic), but I happened to be in the pantry of my workplace yesterday and CNN was on the television there so that's how I saw and heard the choir's rendition of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. One version of the song that I enjoyed was performed at President Obama's last inauguration by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. It's on You Tube so you can check it out for yourself. There's also a Whitney Houston version on You Tube that's great. Speaking of Whitney, her version of the Star Spangled Banner is absolutely wonderful. It brings tears to my eyes and I was never a huge Whitney fan. There's just something about her performance of that song that chokes me up. And every time I watch it (available on You Tube also), I'm just amazed with how effortlessly she seems to belt the song out. Now maybe she rehearsed and prepared for weeks prior to that performance, but she's so smooth and relaxed during the performance that it seems like she just got on stage, banged it out, and went to have a chicken dinner afterwards.

Turn My Back on You

The title of today's blog post isn't in reference to the great Sade song from the Stronger Than Pride album, it's in reference to something that happened to me today during my visit to a fast-food establishment (that shall go unnamed) for lunch. I went to get lunch from a fast food place (mistake #1 because I really need to start eating better). The restaurant was crowded, so crowded that I chose to go inside and get my lunch to go rather than wait in the drive-thru line (mistake #2). The restaurant was crowded inside also, but they had three people working the cash registers: an older white woman, a young black woman, and a young black man. The restaurant is situated in such a way that everyone forms a single-file line and the cashiers just pull from that one line. So when I finally got to the head of the line, the young black woman finished up with her previous customer and I expected to have my order taken next. (The older white woman and the young black man each had customers they were serving.) Well, the young black woman turned her back on me and decided to tidy up the area behind the registers instead of taking my order. And I wasn't the only person in line either. There were people waiting behind me. The young black man finished with his customer and took my order and then, only then, did the young black woman turn her attention back to the register and start taking orders again. Clearly, she didn't want to provide me with any customer service, but she was happy to provide service to the folks behind me. Was I pissed? You bet I was. Did I complain to a manager? You bet I did. Did I, as a black person, feel slightly bad for complaining about this young black woman's behavior to her white manager? Yes, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat because some people need to learn the hard way that you can't treat people like garbage. I don't care if you're black, white, Latino, Asian, whatever. If you're rude to me and you're supposed to be providing service to me as a customer, I'm complaining. I didn't deserve to have that woman turn her back on me. I was there to purchase food just like everyone else in the restaurant and customers like myself help that young woman to remain employed. I did tell the manager when I complained that I'm happy to see young black people working but, clearly, some additional customer service training was needed for the back turner. As tempted as I was to let the Detroit out and go off on the cashier, I didn't. I wasn't there to embarrass her or anyone else. I just wanted to make my complaint, get my grub, and be on my way with the hope that the cashier would get it together and not treat any other customers the way she treated me today.

Toddler Flop

I'm back home from my trip and it's as hot and humid here in suburban Chicago as it was in New York. While I was waiting at my gate at Newark Airport yesterday morning, I watched a kid do a toddler flop right in front of the escalator. The kid wanted to ride the escalator but when his request was refused by his mother, he threw himself on the floor and started wailing (aka the toddler flop). Normally, I can't stand seeing kids flop out on their patents, but this time I found the whole scene hilarious and other people waiting at the gate were amused also. I did feel sort for the kid's parents. The mother had a baby in her arms and the father was forced to drag the kid up from the floor and away from the escalator so people could get by. The kid was probably cranky from having to get up and fly early and just had a meltdown as a result.

Anyway, here's another shot of Central Park that I took on Friday while I was there.

Outta Here

I'm heading home after my brief visit to New York. This was a good trip. I did everything I had planned. I didn't make it to Brooklyn and I wish I'd had time to do that. I need to come for a longer visit that isn't work-related so I have more time to hang out. People kept asking me if I was interested in coming back to New York to live here again and I told them if the circumstances were right, I might. But New York is just so expensive. When I was on the train coming into the city from Jersey, there was an advertisement in the Secaucus station about new apartments built there and the rents started "in the low $2,000s. For Secaucus? Huh? Ridiculous. When I lived in Brooklyn and worked in New York, I always feared that if I lost my day job, I wouldn't be able to pay my rent or anything beyond a month or two if I didn't get another job immediately. At least in Evanston, I feel like I could get by if, God forbid, I ended up unemployed. 

So, I'm bidding farewell to New York once again until my next visit.

Bare Feet

When I was at the airport Wednesday, I was shocked to see so many people wearing sandals. When you go through security, most of us have to take out shoes off. Why, then, would you wear sandals and have to put your bare feet onto the nasty airport floor where thousands of bare feet have gone before? Gross. I always have socks on when I fly. There's no way my bare feet are touching the airport floor. 

I'm still in New York for another day and having a great time but every time I return to the city, I realize you really can't go home again. This isn't my home anymore. I'm a tourist now. 

Ivan Lins

I'm back in New York for another quick work trip, but I did squeeze in some time to see one of my favorite Brazilian singers, Ivan Lins, at the Blue Note last night. The show was great. I saw him perform years ago at a jazz festival in Detroit and I hadn't seen him live since then. 

Baggage Deal of the Day

My book, Baggage, is on sale at the JMS Books website (www.jms-books.com/) for .99 cents today. Check it out!

Swim, Swam, Swum

I had my last swimming lesson tonight. I feel like I learned a lot but can I swim? Not really. Can I save my life if I'm suddenly thrown into a pool of water? Possibly provided I remain calm. I do intend to take another slew of lessons maybe later this summer or in the fall. I do want to retain the little knowledge I did pick up in the classes this time around. I also want to be able to utilize the pool at the Y. I enjoyed being in the water and I'm not afraid of it. I'm just afraid of drowning. A lot of swimming for me is mind over matter. Once I can relax and concentrate on what I'm doing, I'm fine. Even when I panicked, I didn't go off the deep end (no pun intended) and freak totally out. Still, I wish I had learned to swim when I was a child. Watching the kids at the Y learning made me see just how fearless they are about jumping into the pool and learning to swim. Ah, youth. Another reason I have to continue swimming is because I bought two new bathing suits that I paid good money for. I searched, and found, some great "modest" one-piece suits for the "older" woman like myself. I don't exactly have the body of a supermodel, so I need a suit that works for me and, luckily, I found some under the Dolphin label that are great. I've got to get my money's worth out of these suits so onward and upward I'll go to the next phase.

Chris Isaak

I went to see Chris Isaak in concert last night and he and his band put on a great show. I've been a Chris Issak fan for a long time. I like his music and I used to watch his show, The Chris Isaak Show, on cable. I'd never seen him in concert before though until last night. He wears some impressive suits and I hope you can see the disco ball suit he wore for his encore at last night's performance in the picture below. He performed a lot of his hits, "Wicked Game," "Somebody's Crying," "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing." I was particularly impressed with his versions of "Pretty Girls Don't Cry" complete with an accordion backup and his version of "Wicked Game." I've never been a big fan of "Wicked Game" maybe because it was played too much on the radio back in the day, but I enjoyed Chris's performance of the song last night. Chris looks great also. I'm sure he's had some work done (he turned 60 last month), but you wouldn't know it from looking at him, hearing him, and watching him on stage.

Bad Business

When I got home from my day job yesterday, I had received a letter in the mail and a check from my car insurer telling me my policy had been canceled and the check was a refund for the canceled policy. Huh? I didn't cancel my auto policy. It turns out my old policy was changed by the insurer (without my knowledge) to a different policy, yet I wasn't notified of this change. When I went to talk to the agent today and found out what had happened, I was livid. I told the guy, "This is a bad way to do business!" The guy didn't even seem to care. He was so blase about the whole thing and that just made me angrier than I already was. I'm seriously considering changing my insurer and going with someone else just because of this. I almost told the agent, "This is why people go to the gecko!" (meaning GEICO), but I didn't. My insurance carrier claims in their ads that they're on my side and they may be, but they're lousy communicators. Who makes a policy change and doesn't notify the policy holder? That's ridiculous.

There's one insurance company that I won't deal with at all because they totally tried to screw my family out of money after a claim. You pay your insurance faithfully and then when you file a claim in your time of need, they deny you. We had to hire an attorney and fight just to get what we were entitled to. Sad.

Learning to Swim

As my weekly swimming lessons are drawing to a close, I'll have to decide what to do next. While I feel good about the progress I've made, there's still more work to be done. But before I sign up for another batch of classes, I've got to make an effort to go to the pool when I'm not taking a class. My sister suggested a water aerobics class or something like that. A class would be nice, but I need some free time in the water to work on the stuff I've learned so far. My swim teacher praised me for breathing correctly when I put my face in the water and I was tempted to tell her that my breathing technique is totally driven by fear. I'm just trying to relax and not drown!

I'm still psyched from the Duran Duran concert. My $50 "vintage" logo T-shirt is featured below. Highway robbery, I know. I hate I never saw Duran Duran while I was younger, but better late than never.

Duran Duran

After a week filled with such awfulness and bad news, it was nice to get away from all of that and see Duran Duran and Chic in concert last night at Ravinia Park. Chic was the opening act. They were great. Nile Rodgers and the group performed a number of their hits (Good Times, I Want Your Love, Le Freak). I had to laugh when the lead singer, Kimberly Davis, was introduced. I'm not a Kimberly, but it was still funny. 

Duran Duran's show was great also even though Nick Rhodes wasn't there. Simon, John, Roger and the band threw down. They performed some

Songs from their new album, Paper Gods, but they did a lot of oldies too like my favorites Notorious and Girls on Film. 

Not Again

Once again, I'm doing a blog post about gun violence in the country. Has it even been a month since the slaughter in Orlando? Now it's trigger-happy cops in Louisiana and Minnesota and a psycho killer in Texas. Add that on top of the on-going weekly double digit killings in Chicago and what do you have? A mess. A national disaster. I don't understand the anger or whatever it is inside of these guys that makes them just pop off and start shooting. How did pulling a gun on someone become the new normal? I hate to even say "the new normal" but that's what gun violence is right now in the United States. It's out of control. Everyone wants to blame someone or something for this problem, but I blame the individuals. I don't blame one group for the actions of one person. We all have free will and someone makes a conscious decision to pull a trigger and take a life.

Another Birthday

Well, another birthday has come and is almost gone for me. It wasn't a bad day. I worked, I did some laundry, I picked up my new glasses (with progressive lenses--see below), my sister took me out to dinner (that was nice). But back to the glasses. How ironic that as I gain another year, I pick up glasses that truly signify how my eyesight is aging along with the rest of my body. Oy!

Well, what can you do? I'm glad to have another year walking, talking, living, and surviving. The struggle is real, folks.

In other news, I've been reading about the ex-Fox News anchor, Gretchen Carlson, who's suing her former employer, Roger Ailes, for sexual harassment, etc. Now I believe Carlson probably was harassed and treated poorly by some men at Fox during her tenure there, but she sucked on the Fox News teat for eleven years. She carried their water, served as their conduit, and cosigned on their bullshit for eleven years, so I don't really feel sorry for her. Yes, if she was harassed, she should sue and win. But, as far as I'm concerned, she and Ailes can both go pound sand because they're both awful. There are no winners here.

A Listening Ear

Sometimes I think maybe I have the kind of face that makes people talk to me (whether I want to hear what they have to say or not). I remember when I lived in New Jersey, I had a rental car from Enterprise because my car was in the shop or something. Anyway, an Enterprise employee gave me a ride home after I dropped the rental off and during the drive back to my apartment, he told me about his second job as a drag performer. I don't even know how the conversation started, but I learned a lot about the driver's second career. I doubt he shared that information with everyone he gave a ride to, but maybe he did. Tonight I went to get my hair cut and my usual stylist wasn't able to make it, so I had my hair done by another stylist in the shop. She proceeded to tell me about problems in her life and I tried to be a sympathetic ear. I could offer her no real advice for the problems she's going through (problems with her 14-year-old son, problems with herself), but she thanked me for listening. Then, on the way out of the shop, I was stopped by a guy who was waiting for his wife/girlfriend/whatever who was having her hair done. This guy wanted to tell me all about the benefits of detoxifying tea and how many overweight people need to lose weight or they'll be taking a dirt nap by age 76. (His words, not mine.) When I lived in New York, people often stopped me to ask for directions I guess because I appeared to look like I knew where I was going. (A friend also told me it was because I wear glasses and people thought I looked smart and non-threatening.) Now, I don't get stopped for directions, but I seem to have turned into the Listening Lady. No, I probably can't help you with your problems, but I can listen to them. And, if they're good, maybe I'll use the material in one of my books! (Just kidding. Not really.)

Gay Talese, Take a Seat

I've been reading about Gay Talese's new book on some guy who peeped on people who stayed in a hotel he ran/owned. Apparently, the peeping tom lied about some things in telling his tale to Talese and those lies are in Talese's book that's about to come out. In this day and age, it's hard to believe that Talese and his publisher wouldn't have done some fact-checking prior to publication. Maybe back in the days before the internet you could get away with "creative" non-fiction where no one would call you on made-up quotes or incorrect time lines, but not now. If you're going to publish a "true" story, you'd better have all your facts verified because, if you don't, someone's going to let you (and the rest of the world) know about it. Talese should know better especially since his wife Nan was the literary agent for Oprah Book Club liar James Frey. (Remember A Million Little Pieces? I do, unfortunately.)  Maybe it's time for Gay (and Nan) to both take a seat and retire from publishing. Then again, maybe this whole peeping tom debacle is just a publicity stunt to try and sell more books. That wouldn't surprise me.