Author: lux

Blah

For the second time in 2 weeks I’ve had to fight off a rather high fever (IOW, over 102 degrees F). That’s generally not a lot of fun, but what’s worse is that despite my having a job with benefits that include paid sick time, acutally using said sick time is not as easy as it sounds.

My company has several hundred, maybe even a thousand, employees. However, only a few of them work in my particular location, so if I wake up sick and have to open the store that day, I suck it up and shamble into work until my relief arrives. My employer doesn’t get the best sales performance out of me, and I worry about infecting the customers, but it’s just not feasible to have “floater” employees for the Bay Area who can cover for people in situations like that.

It would be nice if there were though…..

Now What?

Best line on election after-shock come from Tim Goodman, the TV critic of the San Francisco Chronicle:

This can-you-believe-it-happened moment coalesced with Jay Leno, host of “The Tonight Show” — where Schwarzenegger announced he was running — introducing the governor-elect for his acceptance speech in a move that was simultaneously ludicrous and embarrassing, a shill-fest that gave the rest of the country and political reporters in Sacramento a taste of life ahead.

All I can say is, Ugh.

I hope for California’s sake that Governor Schwarzenegger does a good job. But I fear the growing pains as he adjusts to the realities of politics are going to be ugly.

Oh, and Orrin Hatch has introduced a resolution to amend the Constitution’s ban on non-American-born presidents by allowing people who have been U.S. citizens for at least 20 years to be elected to the White House.

Joy.

Schroedinger’s Cat

Election Days always remind me of the famous paradox of physics, Schroedinger’s cat. The election results are already out there, we just don’t know what they will be until we open the ballot boxes and find out.

And yes, I voted. No on the Recall, Yes on Camejo.

I know he won’t win but he’s the only one I feel OK about voting for. The actual act of voting was somewhat surreal. The volume of names on the ballot was a little overwhelming and it wasn’t easy to find the candidate I wanted on the list. And actually holding that long list of names in my hand, after all the hue and cry in the press, was a strange feeling. Almost dizzying. A part of me still doesn’t accept that this recall is an actual event, even though I’ve now voted in it. Hopefully tonight after the polls close it will all be just a bad dream.

Hubby & I are going over to Berkeley tonight to see some old friends and watch the election results. I hope it’s not too depressing.

Not Your Mother’s Yom Kippur

This Yom Kippur, I am not, as I should be, in synagogue. One of the things that makes me miss New York is the lack of a significant Jewish community here in the Bay Area. Of the 3 or 4 non-Orthodox synagogues here in San Francisco, there’s none that we feel comfortable with, so we haven’t joined one. I know there’s other options in the East Bay and Marin, but I just don’t like having to drive to shul.

I did read an interesting op-ed in the New York Times about the Yom Kippur War (which began 30 years ago today). I was 7 at the time, and I remember the shock of finding out that Israel was at war, the scared faces of my parents and their friends at synagogue that night, and the angry words. I think if they’d known that at the time, Moshe Dayan was seriously considering using nuclear weapons against the Egyptians, they’d have been even more worried. Golda Meir was right to turn him down flat.

At any rate, I feel guilty using the computer today, so I’d better post this and get offline.

Car Thoughts

It’s funny the wandering lines of thought you follow while driving. I had one today that started with my idly trying to remember the chorus of a pop song playing on the CD at work. Eventually it brought me to the realization that a show tune I’ve loved for about 25 years is about many things, and one of them is my husband Scott, whom I’ve been with for almost a decade. And yet it took me this long to put it together.

Something Wonderful
“The King And I”
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein

This is a man who thinks with his heart,
His heart is not always wise.
This is a man who stumbles and falls,
But this is a man who tries.
This is a man you’ll forgive and forgive,
And help protect, as long as you live…
He will not always say
What you would have him say,
But now and then he’ll say
Something Wonderful.
The thoughtless things he’ll do
Will hurt and worry you
But now and then he’ll do
Something Wonderful.
He has a thousand dreams
That won’t come true,
You know that he believes in them
And that’s enough for you.
You’ll always go along,
Defend him where he’s wrong
And tell him when he’s strong
He is wonderful
He’ll always need your love,
And so he’ll get your love.
A man who needs your love
Can be
Wonderful.

In reading this over, I wonder, does this sound like a back-handed compliment? I don’t see it that way.