Road Trip

I'm on my way back from a quick road trip to Detroit. (I am not driving and texting so no worries there. My sister is behind the wheel.) This trip was to attend  a party for the daughter of one of my cousins who graduated from college. It's always nice to come back home for something good. So much seems to change every time I return to the Detroit area. 

Book Sale

My publisher JMS Books is having a one-day sale. Check out www.jms-books.com for more info. Support independent publishers!

Monday Moaning

I've been working for a number of months on a new book and it's been difficult. I'm a slow writer. Sorry, but I am. I'm about 130+ pages into this new work, and now I'm thinking I need to overhaul it or put it aside and work on another thing I recently started. For the time being, I'm working on both projects, but I'm not good at working on two things at once so I know I'll have to focus on one or the other.

In other news, I read about the nail salon workers being severely underpaid (when they were paid at all) in New York. Sad. When I lived in Brooklyn, there was a cheap place near my apartment where I went for pedicures. I hate to say it, but I just assumed the nail salon in my neighborhood was a front for something else like prostitution. Given the cheap prices the salon charged, it's a wonder how they even kept the doors open. You'd have to have a steady stream of clients coming and going just to pay the rent. And the place I went to wasn't the only one on the block either. There were a couple of other places within walking distance and how any of them managed to get by legally is a mystery to me.

Last night's episode of Mad Men was a little slow, but to hell with Matthew Weiner for making Betty end up with dying from cancer while Megan's waste of space ass rides into the sunset with $1 million. That ain't right, Weiner. Betty wasn't my favorite person on the show by any means, but Weiner seemed to have it out for her.

The D-Train

I saw the movie The D-Train with Jack Black and James Marsden earlier today. (Spoilers here--you've been warned.) The basic plot is that Jack is trying to get James to return to their hometown for their 20-year high school reunion. Jack is married to his high-school sweetheart, works a boring desk job, and has two kids. James, who's really a struggling actor in Hollywood, is a celebrity back in his hometown because he's been in a  TV commercial and if Jack can convince him to return for the reunion, he'll look like a hero to his former classmates. Jack finds a way to finagle a trip to LA and he meets up with James and the reunion pitch goes into full swing. Jack and James hang out together and they end up in bed together. (In other words, Jack takes a ride on the D-Train.) Jack returns home with conflicted feelings about his homosexual hookup with James and the whole situation comes to a head when James returns for the reunion and the two men are forced to deal with the consequences of their actions.

This is not a comedy. In fact, I'm surprised it's being billed as one. It's a dark movie about the disappointment many of us face when our lives just haven't turned out the way we thought they would. It's also about people who are, sadly, still tormented by their high school years. It's a fascinating movie, but it's also hard to take at times. Yes, it ends on an uplifting note, but the journey is a difficult one. Jack Black and James Marsden are really great in the film and it would be nice to see them get the praise they deserve for their roles (although I have a feeling they won't).

Seasha

Since I finally got the basket installed on my bike, I decided it was ready for prime time. (See below.) A friend suggested I give my bike a name and she also suggested I go with a name that was almost my own: Seasha. When I was born or shortly before then, my father had the no-so-great idea that my name should be Seasha. Seasha is the acronym for the Southeast Alabama Self-Help Association, a social service agency that one of my father's sisters worked for back in the 60s. It sounds like a great organization that helped a lot of people but does that mean you name your child after this group? Thankfully my mother overruled him on that and I was named Kim. However, in honor of my father, I'm naming my bike Seasha. 

Stepping Out of the Box

I work with a guy who seems to keep hiring different variations of his daughter for one particular position. Surrogate Daughter (SD) #4 was just hired recently and I had to laugh. Since about 2009 or 2010, this position has been filled by similar young white women, none of whom have stayed in the job for very long. Yet, when the job is posted, the hiring manager can't seem to think outside of the box and hire someone who isn't a young white woman. I'm not saying these women who were hired weren't qualified for the job, but I keep getting the feeling the manager just prefers someone who fits a certain mold (i.e. a young white woman like his daughter). Every time an SD is hired, she leaves within a few years. The last SD didn't even make it through one year. There are various reasons why each SD leaves, but they all do. Maybe if the manager considered someone for the job who is over the age of 30 or someone of a different ethnicity, he'd have more success in finding a worker who would actually remain in the position for more than a couple of years. But, he keeps hiring one SD after another. It's this kind of narrow mind set that really holds people back from getting jobs. Too many hiring managers disregard candidates because they're different from themselves. Bros often want other bros working with them because they figure they'll fit in better. People who aren't SDs or bros often don't have a fighting chance to penetrate the wall of sameness they come up against.

Bad Advice

The Internet is full of bad advice but I had to laugh at a list I read recently about things women over 30 shouldn't wear. The list included some no-brainers like tube tops and mismatched socks, but also some ridiculous items like hoop earrings and blue eye shadow. Huh? What's wrong with wearing hoop earrings and blue eye shadow when you're past the age of 30? Here's my unwanted advice: wear what you want, ladies!

In other news, I'm so glad the final episodes of Mad Men have been entertaining. Why is Don still looking for Diana (aka Schleprock)? I'm starting to believe she's the angel of death and that Don will keel over and bite the big one if he does ever meet up with her again.