sbukophile

Eeeeewwwwwwww!

I can't even come up with words to describe how I feel about this. At the moment, EEEWWWWWWW! is what springs to mind. Why would this ever get created? Craig Smith's blog is where I found out about this.

Annoyance

Today I went into my favorite coffee shop in downtown Santa Barbara.  My favorite spot, the leather loveseat couch in front of the fireplace was available, so guiltily (since I was only one person, and I know how my husband and I get annoyed when that couch is taken up by just one person), I sat down and put my backpack and handbag on it next to me.

After about 20 minutes I was drinking my coffee and reading through The Independent, when I'm suddenly interrupted by a man loudly asking, "Is someone sitting there?" At first, I just looked at him quizzically, feeling guilty about being one person on the couch, but not understanding where his question is coming from... it took me a little bit of a delay to answer, still unsure of what he was getting at... (I mean, was he going to yell at me for being one person taking up the two-seater, because he and his wife wanted to sit there?)...

Now, how to explain what he looked like--maybe in his late 50's, balding but getting long grey hair and rotund.  Not exactly the type of guy who seemed to have social graces, in fact, from the rest of the story, you will see he clearly did not have a concept of social etiquette.  He was like a dorky Dennis Franz (and yes, Dennis Franz is grey-haired now because we saw him last week walking in downtown Santa Barbara).

I finally answer "no" to his question of someone sitting there. He then says, "Is that your stuff or someone else's?" I say it's mine, still not understanding what he's getting at, so not moving it or anything.  He says, "Oh, because I wanted to sit on the couch." Now mind you, this is a LOVESEAT couch--i.e. for people who want to sit right NEXT to each other--NOT for 2 complete strangers--one of whom appears to be a FREAK!

So I start to pull my stuff towards me and he starts to sit down already!  So I get up immediately saying, "I'll just find another table."  He's saying at this point, "No, I just wanted to sit on the couch."  But I again repeat, "Well, I'll just find another table."

Luckily, the cloudy day seemed to be clearing up a bit, so I went outside to a table out on the sidewalk, which I had debated about anyway when I first got to the coffee shop.  But still, how annoying?  There were tons of tables available all over the coffee shop both inside and out.  No, the two leather chairs were not available, and obviously I was on the couch.  But he did NOT HAVE to sit there!  Does he really think that a woman on her own wants to share a couch with a complete strange man?  I got up that fast because I also had the feeling he was the weirdo type who would probably try to start talking to me too.  What a freak.

Mmmmm... Avocadoes

Saturday was all planned out to be a lovely California day.  The husband and I were going to get up early and go get coffee to sit and drink on the wall at Butterfly Beach, as we often do on weekend mornings.  Then he had a meeting with someone from work for a few hours, while I was going to sit in a coffee shop and play with my new cell phone and bluetooth headset.  Then I had a haircut at 11am and we'd meet for lunch before he had to go off and volunteer at a booth for the 20th Annual California Avocado Festival. A friend of my was going to be doing henna tattooing at the festival so I went along in a separate car since I wasn't planning on staying all day.  I mean, heck, I love avocadoes!

Sounds like a lovely Saturday doesn't it?

Well, this is what really happened, in typical fashion for us:

We got a late start, and since he had to meet this guy at 9am, we decided we would just go to the Starbucks downtown and skip sitting at the beach.  The guy ends up being late anyway though, so we could've had time to go to the beach.

After the husband leaves for his meeting, I sit and play with my phone happily, waiting until 11am to go to my haircut which is just around the corner from the Starbucks.  10 minutes before I'm supposed to go upstairs, a friend walks in and we try to catch up quickly but I have to run because of my appointment.

I walk into the hairstylist's, and she tells me my appointment was at 10am, not 11am!  I'm embarrassed, but annoyed too, because I'd been just around the corner since 8:30am!  And she tells me she almost went to grab herself a coffee in that very Starbucks while she was waiting for me!

Then husband's meeting is running overtime, so I'm getting antsy by this time.  We then go to lunch, and then drive in separate cars to Carpinteria which is about 15 miles south of Santa Barbara.  We arrive to find that it's a zoo for parking due to the festival and we're both driving around trying to find parking and swearing back and forth on our new bluetooth headsets.

We finally find each other in the festival, I never find my friend, husband goes to the booth he's helping at, and I walk around and quickly get bored and annoyed with the crowds.  So I tell husband I'm going home.  On the way out, I have to buy some guacamole of course.

I spot the "Holy Guaca-Moly" booth which doesn't seem to be too crowded, and says it's a contest winner for so many years in a row. Then as is usually the case at these kinds of things, it's $6 for a single serving of chips and guacamole.  I shell out the money anyway--hey, it's gotta be good, right?  And at least I'm heartened to see that the scoop of guacamole on top is huge, so they're not being skimpy.  It looks promising too!  I have a few bites as I weave my way through the crowds, and yes, it's quite tasty!  I think that it would be typical for me to get bumped right now and end up with $6 worth of guacamole all over my shirt.  I thought about whether the person who would do this to me would offer to buy me another $6 worth of chips and guacamole.  But, no, luckily, nobody bumped into me so I didn't have to see what would happen.

No, instead, as I walked, I scooped another good looking chunk of guac onto a chip, and as it went towards my mouth, plop!  Right onto my white t-shirt of course.  Nice bright green color on white t-shirt.

I get to the car in the lot. There are cars circling like vultures. I won't be able to sit in the car and eat the guac in piece with all these people waiting.  So, cleverly, put the chips and guac on the rubber floor mat, so if it does spill, it won't get all over the seats.  It seems pretty steady where it is.  I drive carefully on the roads to the freeway, and sure enough, the guac is keeping steady!  This was a good plan!  Everytime the traffic slowed down on the freeway I kept thinking I might try to lean over and grab another bite, but no, I could wait until I got home--it wasn't worth the risk!  Oh but it was torture to keep seeing that lovely green guac with great chunks of avocado in it... mmmm...

20 minutes later I reach the freeway exit to our house, and since I'm in the car my husband usually drives, I forget that it takes longer to break.  So I kind of just slow down to rolling stop at the stop sign at the end of the exit.  Well, you guessed it, even though I didn't stop completely, I was still hitting the brakes too hard, and yes, the chips and guac go flying all over the floor mat--guac side down.

I'm not worried about the floor mat or the car since the mat is rubber.  Of course it hasn't been cleaned in a while and there is sand all over it.  And, it's a floor mat--the underside of shoes that have been god-knows-where live on top of it whenever someone sits in the passenger seat!  For the 1/2 mile to the house I wonder if I can salvage any of it.  This is all I get back:

[click to enlarge]

This is what was still on the floor mat:

A few bites for $6.

Computer not working

My hard drive is failing, and in fact this is the 3rd time I've tried to write this post. I will post more once it's fixed...

Need a new job

I need a new job. My current one is driving me crazy!

Saddam and no connection to 9/11

I commented on Citizen of the Month's blog yesterday about the photos he had posted, and feel I was taking up valuable space as a commenter, so should instead have a diatribe on my own blog.  I also don't think I did a very coherent job of explaining where I was coming from in my comment.  So here goes...

I can't stand Bush. I think he frenzied up and fear-mongered the U.S. and misled Tony Blair all for his personal gain and the financial gains/protection of his cronies.  I think there are so many other injustices and travesties in the world, why pick this one?  My theory is, because it suited Bush, not because it was the worst injustice at the time on our planet.

I like the images that Neil posted and think they were very poignant and was not trying to imply that the images did not work for me.  I was just commenting that I personally find it weird that a lot of people still equate 9/11 with the reason we invaded Iraq the second time.  It really was kind of non-sequitor to what Neil was posting. I wasn't finding it weird that Neil had put them up.  We did also invade Afghanistan after 9/11, and I think invading Iraq took resources away from Afghanistan (not military, but more humanitarian).  It was trying to do too much at once.  So, from the images Neil posted, I admit I was automatically assuming that he was equating 9/11 with Iraq, but I don't really know that for sure as we are still in BOTH Afghanistan and Iraq 5 years after 9/11.  I don't really know how I feel about the fact that we did invade Afghanistan after 9/11.  Part of me thinks that it's wrong to blame the country of Afghanistan for Al-Quaeda, and I don't know what the other part of me thinks--I'm not well-enough versed on the subject.

I mentioned a story on NPR that I heard, and then topically there was another one today that discussed how many Americans still think Saddam and 9/11 are connected.

And just to be clear again lest someone think I'm trying to minimize what happened during 9/11, I do think that 9/11 was an absolute tragedy.  I had family and friends living in NYC at the time, I was in Santa Barbara at the time, and had myself flown the very same flight from Boston to LAX quite a few times before the tragedy.  I count myself EXTREMELY lucky that nobody I knew personally was killed that day, because it was very likely.  I knew of plenty of cases of people missing or assumed dead that were only 1-degree of separation from me.  I was really shaken and emotional and stressed out for a while after 9/11.  It definitely affected my own psyche.  However, I only ever blamed the terrorists Al-Quaeda, and never the whole country of Afghanistan, and certainly never Saddam Hussein (even though I think he IS a despicable and evil human being) or the country of Iraq.

Another point I'd like to make, if anyone is wondering (and well, it's my blog so I can say whatever I want!) is that although I will not ever see the reason why the U.S. and UK went into Iraq and do not think war is ever the answer, I do believe that once we were/are there, we have to be supportive of the actual people there.  The Ruggedly Handsome Husband is after all an ex-Royal Naval officer!  I would NEVER want what happened to Vietnam Vets to happen to Iraq War vets--the blaming of the war on the poor puppets fighting it.

I moved to England in May 2002.  Ruggedly Handsome Husband was in the Royal Navy.  The Western world was still reeling from 9/11.  Fear mongering was rampant in the U.S. by both Bush and the press.  I felt the British press was much more balanced and not as sensationalized. But as an American living abroad, I had to endure what every American living abroad can relate to, that a lot of people think that because you are an American, you automatically support the views of your president and other politicians.

I endured many instances of people assuming first and me then explaining otherwise.  I endured all kinds of other stereotypes about Americans as well, that I had to dispel.  It was not always fun, and it was not always from the people I expected it to be from (some being quite well-educated and/or quite nice people).

I was with Ashbloem on the first anniversary of 9/11 when we went to a chapel in central London.  We also witnessed people blatently not observing the moment of silence on the streets of London.  Around those days, we also went to bookshops where we heard authors speak about "Why the World Hates America" and I was confused as to whether I was offended or not--because I wasn't sure if they were attacking Americans or just attacking the politics and actions of the country as a whole.  It was a weird time for my expat friends and me--sometimes needing to defend our Americanism, other times agreeing with the criticisms, other times not sure if the person was attacking us personally or not.

I think we need to have a plan for getting out, because frankly this is turning into another Vietnam and we should be learning from history.

Anyway, I hope that explains what I meant in yesterday's comment on Citizen of the Month, and I apologize to Neil if it came out differently than I intended!  Thanks for the topic, Neil!

I Hate LA

This weekend the Ruggedly Handsome Husband did the LA Triathlon. He finished well into the top half of his age group which is quite an accomplishment. You can see full details of his stats including a video of his finish here if you know his name.

Here he is, second row, the pole of the banner looks like it's pointing into his shoulder (oh, and he's wearing a red cap):

We saw Steve Carell in our hotel as well, dressed as one of the triathletes, but didn't see his name in the stats.  Either we were wrong about it being him, or he ran under a pseudonym.

Meanwhile, I had to deal with driving and parking all weekend just to be the good "Triathlete's Wife".  It sucked.  LA drivers are obnoxious.  I mean, this from a girl who learned to drive on the streets of Boston... LA drivers are worse I think!

Recently someone was telling me that there is a newer term for the type of driving seen--it's not aggressive driving, it's "competitive".  I would have to say that is so true, especially in LA.  Makes sense when you think about the fact that LA is full of all the people who are in the "business" so always trying to one-up someone else.  I've been in driving situations where even though you have nowhere else to go, and you are legitimately merging onto the freeway, cars would NOT let us in!  They just could NOT let one single car get ahead of them!

So on the way back up to beautiful Santa Barbara on a gorgeous afternoon driving up the PCH through Malibu, we decide to have lunch at the Paradise Cove Cafe and pull into a very full parking lot with many cars circling.  We spot a family getting into their minivan.  They are taking their time, brushing sand off the kids etc, but yes, they look like they are leaving not arriving. Score!  So we sit and wait, and suddenly there is this guy standing there in front of the minivan holding his cell phone.  After a couple minutes, he tells us "They are not leaving." Ruggedly Handsome Husband is suspicious and as I slowly start to drive away he's saying to me that the guy is lying. I pause, as the father of the family is clearly getting into the driver's seat to go, this other random guy just standing there.  So I back up to reclaim my waiting spot for the parking spot.

This time the random guy tells me "They are saving this spot for me".  I am quite perturbed and hungry after a very early morning of being the Triathlete's Wife so doesn't take much to irritate me at this point.  I say, "You said they were leaving!"

And he says, "They are saving the spot for me."

I say, "You can't do that!"

He says, "They're family!"

I say, "So what?! Why did you say they were leaving you f@$#%*ing @$#&hole! What the f#$@#$@%?! It's a PARKING lot! You piece of sh@#$!%#!"

Ruggedly Handsome Husband from the passenger seat is also swearing at the guy as well.  Of course we are making quite a scene at this point, with families with their children in the parking lot unloading from their minivans. I had a bit of tunnel vision so don't know what their real reactions were, but I'd like to think that they were on my side, looking on to support me.  Although with my potty mouth, it's likely they were probably thinking more about the bad words their children were hearing than that I was in the right!  I mean, it was a real Curb Your Enthusiasm moment--we were in the right, regardless!

So, then we do a few more laps around and are seething of course, wondering if this is the type of person who would then key our car.  (We do have a unique "England" sticker on the back corner window of the car, which might have helped to ID it).  We find a spot finally, and I'm confident that there are too many people around and it's in full view of the restaurant and outside tables that nobody would dare key the car.

We go in and the place is packed!  45-60 minute wait for a table.  We're hungry, we're pissed off, this is not fun. We leave. LA sucks.*

Oh, and randomly, in other weird animal and man news... see this.

*Apologies to my friends who live in LA.  I love you, and you are not the obnoxious ones I'm talking about!  It's everyone else in LA I hate!