So Much Stupid

Today is one of those days that should have been spent at home in bed watching television because going out brought me nothing but misery. The day started off well enough, but just disintegrated into one annoying episode after another.

Annoying Episode #1: I went to the bank on my lunch hour to get some cash from the ATM. The ATM is a drive-thru and there's an armored car parked behind the machine with its flashers on, but not in front of the ATM itself. I wait for a few seconds and I don't see anyone in the armored car or at the machine, so I drive around the car and go to get some cash. As soon as I do this, someone inside of the armored car starts blowing at me. Then one of the armored car guys comes out of nowhere to start berating me for going around his vehicle to get to the ATM. I told him I didn't realize there was anyone in the car or working on the ATM. I pull away from the ATM to park and go inside the bank to get money and the armored car guy walks over to my car, all five feet of him, to bitch at me some more. I bitched right back telling the guy he should pull up to the ATM is he's working on it. The conversation ends with him telling me to "have a nice day" but I knew what he really meant was "fuck you, bitch." Then I go into the bank to get cash and complain and while I'm filling out my withdrawal slip, I realize I've left my wallet in the car (because I had it out to go to the ATM), so I have to go back out to the parking lot where the armored car guys are still there, although now they've pulled the car around so that it's blocking my car. They took off when they saw me come out of the bank. I don't know what that was about. I suspect the whole thing was just their attempt to try and intimidate me. They picked on the wrong woman for that today.

Annoying Episode #2: When I get back to the office after the bank incident, I find out one of my coworkers has gotten in the middle of a situation that didn't involve her, so I have to set her straight on what her role is and what my role is. I had to be the bitch again, but how will people learn if you don't school them?

Annoying Episode #3: I'm driving home from work and I'm almost home when some asshole in a BMW SUV pulls out of a business in front of me, nearly hitting me. I blow at the guy and I can see he's talking on a cell phone the whole time. He's got the phone in his hand! After he pulls out in front of me, he puts his signal on because he wants to get in the left lane, but no one will let him, so he just stops in the middle of the lane. I keep blowing at him and he sits there being a total dick for several seconds before finally moving on.

There's so much stupid in the world.

Shut Up and Go Eat a Sandwich!

To Guiliana Rancic: Shut up and go eat a sandwich!

It had to be said.

In other news, yes, the Oscars sucked and I'm glad I missed most of the show. I didn't see many of the movies anyway. I am glad JK Simmons won for Whiplash. He was great in that film and deserves every bit of praise that's thrown his way.

NY Times=Beagle Haters

So after Miss P, the 15" beagle, won Best in Show last week at the Westminster Dog Show, the NY Times article published the next day basically trashed the dog, claiming she wasn't as charismatic as Uno, the beagle that won in 2008 and describing her win as an upset. In today's paper, the beagle hate continued with an article about a former beagle owner basically complaining about how her pet beagle ate her bra and peed in her bed. Okay, NY Times. I get it. You hate beagles. Hey, your new Sunday magazine sucks. How's that? The paper is too thick and do we really need three Ethicists? I don't think so.

Camry Crazy

Is it just me or are there a lot of bad drivers driving Toyota Camrys? I swear, I see more Camry drivers thundering down the streets in and around Chicago and, often, their Camrys look like they've been to hell and back. Dented side panels, cracked bumpers, missing hubcaps. What's up with that? Maybe I see so many Camry drivers because the Camry is largely considered to be an affordable and reliable car. It's also a popular car and people seem to keep them for years.

Now that I'm a driver again after living a car-free life in Brooklyn for close to four years, I've noticed a lot of bad drivers on the road. I'm not the greatest driver myself and, after not driving for a few years, I find that I don't enjoy it now as much as I used to. I was born and raised in Detroit. I got my driver's license when I was 16 years old. I used to love driving, but once I got away from it, I found I didn't miss it. Driving is stressful. I often have to put on some soothing music just to make it to and from my destination.

The Beagle Wins!

I can't believe the 15" beagle won Best in Show last night, but she did! Go Miss P! I thought for sure the sheepdog would reign supreme, but I was wrong. Now the haters will come out and say the beagle didn't deserve it. I've already read articles stating that this was an upset. Whatever. Haters gotta hate.

The Hound Group

The 15" beagle has won first place in the hound group at the Westminster Dog Show. Woo hoo! I am a huge beagle fan and quite excited to see a win for this breed. It would be nice to see another beagle go all the way to Best in Show again, but I have a feeling the haters won't let it happen. Go Miss Pea!

Don't Tickle Me, Elmo

My sister saw a clip of Michael Buble on Sesame Street and, knowing I'm a fan of Buble, she showed the clip to me. Michael sang a song about being yourself (or something in that vein) along with the help of three Muppets. One of them was, unfortunately, Elmo. I am not a fan of Elmo. The voice of that character is like nails on a blackboard to me. I just can't stand baby talk (unless it's coming from an actual baby) and that is what I hear whenever Elmo opens his mouth. Speaking of Elmo, whatever happened to disgraced puppeteer Kevin Clash who used to be the voice of Elmo? His career crashed and burned after the allegations young men brought against him. Maybe he'll end up on one of those "where are they now" specials.

Looking at Looking

Since I don't have HBO (and refuse to pay for it), I had to wait for the first season of Looking to come out on DVD. Now that it has, I've watched the first four episodes. (I'd actually seen the first episode on line back when the show debuted.) So far, I liked it. I was annoyed with Jonathan Groff's character Patrick in the first episode because I felt his character was the least interesting of the three men featured, but the powers that be at HBO pushed him as the star of the show because he's young, he's cute, and he's white. I still feel that he's promoted unfairly above the others, but he and his character have grown on me a bit. Hearing him on one of the episode commentaries certainly helped to sway my opinion of him. He seems like a nice guy and I think casting him as Patrick was spot on. But Dom is the person I'm most interested in. I'd seen Murray Bartlett in a movie called August and liked him then so seeing him as Dom is a real plus for me. He's great, he and Doris are wonderful, and he and Scott Bakula are very cute together. As for Agustin? Well, what can I say that hasn't already been said in other places? His boyfriend Frank is a doll. (I know they end up breaking up and that's probably for the best.) I'm looking forward (no pun intended) to the rest of Looking, Season 1. (I did see the first episode of Season 2 while I was in New York a few weeks ago because the hotel I was staying in had HBO. Woo hoo!)

Wow!

Lyin' Brian Williams is out of a job for six months (without pay) and Jon Stewart is leaving The Daily Show this year. Wow. I'm glad to hear about the Williams suspension because the guy just annoys me. He's smug. I wish NBC had suspended Matt Lauer with him. Those two are cut from the same ugly cloth. Thankfully, Brian's suspension puts Lester Holt in the anchor's seat and that's good news. I said last week it was Lester's time to shine and it is.


As for Jon Stewart leaving The Daily Show, it's sad but not unexpected. He's seemed bored for a while now and when he took time off to direct a movie, I figured his days were numbered with the show. Colbert's departure probably factored into his decision also. Doing the same thing for many years surely grates on you. Believe me, I know!

Better Call Saul

A friend of mine recommended I check out the Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul, so I did. I thought it was great. What I enjoyed was seeing someone who's a scrapper. Saul (who isn't Saul yet and is going by his given name, Jimmy), is a lawyer just trying to make it. He drives a beater, he takes on public defender cases for low money, and his office is in the utility room of a nail salon. Jimmy/Saul isn't exactly on the fast track to success, but that's what great about the show. Far too many TV shows portray folks who never worry about money and just seem to have endless resources: a great house or apartment, a beautiful spouse, no financial problems, etc. Better Call Saul shows us how the other half lives. I worried that I wouldn't be able to get into the show since I never saw Breaking Bad, but that wasn't an obstacle for me. (I do think I will probably go back and watch Breaking Bad on DVD though at a later date.) And who is this Bob Odenkirk? I'd never even heard of the guy, but I like him and, since he's from the Chicago area, I like him even better.


I blogged last week about it being Lester Holt's time to shine and, lo and behold, he's filling in for Lying Brian Williams on the NBC Nightly News now. Woo hoo!


Also, Alabama has gay marriage now? I don't believe it! Woo hoo again!

Time to Shine

Since the career of Brian Williams seems to be going up in flames, I think it's time for Lester Holt to shine. It's time for Lester to take over the reigns of the NBC Nightly News so Bri Willy can go off and be an actor or a comedian or just do something else other than the nightly news. Lester's been waiting in the wings and working the weekend shift for too long. The time is now for one of the big three networks to get a minority for the evening news. Go Lester!

Updates

So I complained yesterday about my bad experience at a local Whole Foods store last night and I took that complaint to the corporate folks. Today I got an email from a manager at the local store where I had the incident and he apologized for the employees' behavior last night. I told him if the cashier didn't want to accept my money, then she could have just said that and we could've killed the deal rather than humiliating me by scrutinizing my $20 bill like I was a criminal. I should have told the cashier, "I'm not Rick Masters!!!" but she probably wouldn't have known what I was talking about. (That's an inside joke for fans of the great film To Live and Die in LA.)


In other updates, I found out today that Pivot has sold enough copies already to go into a paperback version in another month or so. Yea! Great news. Thanks to everyone for supporting my work. I appreciate it. I'm hard at work on a new book that shouldn't take me as long to churn out as Pivot did! I've already got over 80 pages written, so it's coming along.

Whole Foods...Partial Idiocy

I went to one of the two (and soon to be three) Whole Foods stores in town tonight and the cashier who rang up my groceries have me a hard time because I paid for my items with an older $20 bill. I guess she thought it looked suspect or something so she called another guy over to see it and he proceeded to use use his super counterfeiting skills by running a yellow highlighter over the bill. (A real Einstein here folks! Call MENSA!) Uh, isn't it illegal to deface US currency?But I digress. Eventually, the cashier and boy wonder took my money but only after humiliating me in the process. I complained to Whole Foods too and I asked for a response to this tomfoolery. I'm a law-abiding citizen, damn it!

Blogging the Blizzard

Somewhere under this heap of snow is my car. I figured I should venture outside today just to see how bad the conditions truly are and they're pretty bad. 

White Guy on the Bus

I went to see a play called White Guy on the Bus last night and it was interesting. It was about...wait for it...a white buy...on the bus! Really, it was about more than that. The play mainly focused on white liberals who slowly reveal that they aren't so liberal (at least not when race is involved). An older white man befriends a black woman he meets on a particular bus route, but you find out later in the play that he has ulterior motives for chatting her up. Aside from the discussions with the white guy and the black woman, there are also a of discussions between the white guy, his wife, and a younger white couple the revolve around race. It reminded me a lot of the play Clybourne Park that covered similar issues. It's easy to claim to be open minded and liberal from afar, but when something touches you personally and racial dynamics come into play, people sometimes reveal they aren't as open minded and liberal as they thought they were.