Is There Something Going On?

Strange. That is the only word that can describe some of the trends I have been hearing about and witnessing in the service sector of late.

First, my boyfriend's practice has seen a noticeable slow down in recent weeks. One would think that a medical practice is relatively inelastic and would not respond that negatively to bad economic news. However, my boyfriend's practice is a niche practice and, although we do not like to admit it, is not a "must have" medical service.

Second, several people in my boyfriend's circle of medical friends have seen slow downs in their practices as well. He has heard this from accupuncturists, psychiatrists, and others.

Third, I went to drop my Lexus off for service this morning. The dealership opens at 7:30 AM and usually when I get there, cars are lined up into the street for drop off. Today no one - not a single car in line. The guy that checked me in said he had "never seen it so slow."

It is very odd - especially in services that are, for the most part, essential. I mean you can defer medical treatment or car maintenance for a time period, but cannot eradicate it completely. Are we witnessing a horrible backlash to the free-spending ways of the last 5 years?

Craaaaaack!

I keep visualizing what the current economic news "looks" like - I think the visual that most often pops in my head is the breaking away of a huge iceberg off the polar ice shelf. It has been cracking for some time now and it is now giving way. God help us all. The other visual is a roller coaster at the peak and now begins the downward plunge.

Why all the doom and gloom on my part? The recent news is scary. Consumer confidence has the biggest drop since 1990, credit card delinquencies spike to their highest levels since 1974, gas prices still high, home sales drop and inventories rise...... Where is the good news?

Of course, the writing has been on the wall for quite some time. The recession post the bursting of the internet bubble was just not that bad. I think the Fed overreacted when they lowered rates so significantly (as a result of the bursting internet bubble and then the horrific events of 9/11). Perhaps we should have taken a little more of the harsh economic medicine back then. Instead, the American consumer became the work horse of the US economy. My economics professor at UCLA, Ed Leamer, kept noting two years ago (when I was taking his course) that the recovery from the 2001 recession was like no other recovery in US history. Instead of business spending pulling us out of recession, it was the American consumer who did the heavy lifting. Of course, this was enabled by the low interest rate environment.

The live for today and spend it if you have it (or even if you do not have it in many cases) is not sustainable over the long term and it is beginning to show.

The Great Move

This weekend my anxiety level over moving in with my boyfriend increased after a long period where it was relativately low. Just to recap for everyone - I live and work in Orange County and my boyfriend lives and works in LA. With no traffic at all, we are roughly 45 minutes door to door. However, the only time there is no traffic is at 5 AM on Monday when I drive back home after a weekend at his place. With traffic, we are talking anywhere from an hour to two hours.

I value my personal time way too much to make that kind of sacrifice (i.e., move to LA with him and commute to OC). Obviously, a better choice is to find a job in LA and move. However, that is more difficult than it sounds. I actually looked quite hard for a job about a year ago and even had a few decent offers. However, when you are looking for a job change and you have the luxury of not having to find a new job, you tend to be very selective. Additionally, my employer is aware of my situation (the bf up north) and is very supportive. That is probably why they keep throwing some incentives at me to keep me around (work until x date and you will receive x additional dollars).

Every time this happens, I discuss the economics with my boyfriend and we ultimately decide that it makes sense for me to stick around and collect the money (maybe one day it can used toward the downpayment of a house). So, almost two years into the relationship, we continue to be a weekend couple.

Every once in a while it bothers the heck out of me. I see couples who have been together a shorter time than us buying homes together and that whole "keeping up with the Jonses" attitude starts to kick in. I start to question my relationship. If we love each other so much, why do we just not make this happen? Of course, when I take a step back, I realize what we have is good and we are making smart decisions and some sacrifice, which will hopefully only benefit us in the future.

I can only hope that our strategy is correct. I will collect a decent amount of extra cash at work, pursue a new job in LA sometime next year, watch the housing market drop (hopefully), and buy a nice little home in LA (from some poor soul that overextended himself during the great credit binge of 2004). All of this while ideally holding on to my condo in OC as a rental. It all sounds so simple on paper.....

Monday Blues and Light Post

I seem to be in a Monday funk today. Not much going on at work and a little tired from another active weekend. It is almost better when work is busy on Mondays as it requires you to immediately jump in an get motivated - versus thinking about the past weekend and how far away the next one is.

A few exciting things from the weekend:

We booked tickets to Brazil for Thanksgiving. This will be our second trip to this fascinating place - we went in February for Carnivale. We are fortunate to have two friends that live there and they do an excellent job of hosting while we are there. This time, we are flying into Sao Paulo and then heading north to a coastal area called Paratay. We are both in dire need of a break, so, we were very excited to actually purchase the tickets and put the dates in our calendars.

I downloaded a great album - Nouvelle Vague (by Nouvelle Vague) off iTunes. If you get a chance you should check it out - they do great covers of 80's classics with a Brazilian Bossa Nova twist (we have been addicted to Bossa Nova ever since returning from Brazil). The cover of "I Melt with You" - a song I never really cared for - is fantastic.

Finally, I thought the attached is a good read - covers the American saving issue:

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4418328

So, a bit of a cop out in regard to a post today, but my energy levels seem to be low......

Neat Freak

I just got in from an hour clean-up exercise in my boyfriend's small garden. It was a mess - much to my dismay. As I was trimming back unruly hedges and digging ancient dead leaves out of flower beds, I thought about my desire for order in my immediate universe. Yes, I am a bit of a neat freak.

Similar to other items in my life, this is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing as I always know where things are and my place and surroundings generally look great. A curse as I find it hard to relax if things are not in order. In fact, I will generally spend a good half hour each night cleaning up before I can even think about sitting down to watch a bit of TV or read a book. Ugh - frustrating.

It was tough when I was dating. I can think of a few guys who got the boot once I saw their apartments. Then I found my boyfriend and his slight sloppiness (he does a pretty good job) was outweighed by his personality, intelligence, and adorable smile. So, I find myself cleaning his place up on the weekends before I can settle down and get comfortable (he works on Saturday and I have the place to myself). I get a little frustrated sometimes at the little things he does: he never wipes up crumbs in the kitchen, he lets newspapers accumulate for a week or more before taking them to recycling, and he never ever makes his bed. However, it could be much worse and I need to work harder at letting these little things go.

Whatever the case, it can be annoying (both for him and me).

Success?

Personally, life has been good as of late. Work is starting to pick back up (after a period where I was totally not engaged), things are humming along with the boyfriend, and most friendships are doing just fine. So, given this background, it comes as no surprise that a few days ago a disruption happened.

I have the new Outlook at work where new messages "float" up in the lower right hand corner of the screen and then slowly fade away. I was working away on something, feeling really good about life when a message floated up. It read:

"Just thought I'd shoot you an email and check in. Wasn't sure which email was best....

Hope you're well!"

Yep, it was from the ex from four years ago that has caused me so much mental anguish. I saw the name and immediately got that queasy feeling in my stomach. I quickly read the note and then forwarded it to two friends for their input.

My immediate reaction was to ignore it, however, I started to think perhaps I should explain to him why I am ignoring him. He had called me on my birthday back in March and I had never returned the call. Perhaps if he knew how I felt he could understand and appreciate why I no longer want to maintain contact. Anyway, I noted this in the emails to my friends.

Of course, they both responded with the same answer - do not email him back. My friend Jeff summed it up best - "no reason to make Hurricane Eric (the ex) into a category 5 storm." He was right. What good will it do for me to email him, dredge up all those old memories and take me right back to where I had started (after making so much progress over the past few months)?

So I deleted the email. It felt good. I felt strong. In fact, I still feel strong. He has his life and I have mine. We dated a long time ago and it did not work out. Of course, we did "connect", however, that does not mean we have to try and continue to be friends. The reality of the situation was - I wanted more and he did not. I was weak and agreed to be friends hoping that he would come around. Big mistake on my part.

Suprisingly, this was a small blip. My personal life bounced right back on the track it was on. I have a smile on my face while I type this.......

Amazing

I watched a good part of the Jet Blue drama play out while at the gym yesterday. As I am sure you all know, the front landing gear of a Jet Blue flight from Burbank to JFK got stuck in an odd position after take off. Obviously, this was an issue, so they prepared for an emergency landing at LAX. However, the plane had to lose the bulk of all the fuel it had on board. So, it circled for almost two hours.

All I could think about was how those poor folks on the plane must be feeling. It was especially odd to hear (post landing) that Jet Blue actually kept the direct TV sets on up until 1/2 hour before landing. So, these poor folks could watch their situation play out on TV. Horrifying.

Anyway, as I noted I was at the gym, sharing this drama with maybe 50 folks or so in the cardio area. Watching the plane land was so intense - my heart was pounding and I could hardly look. The pilot did an excellent job and the landing was virtually flawless. The whole gym broke into applause - it was a neat moment.

I was just so happy that we did not have another disaster - it seems like we have had too much bad news lately and this was a nice little patch of happiness (for the positive outcome).

The End of an Era

Marshall Field's is going to be rebranded to Macy's. This Chicago institution is undergoing a rebranding after 150 years in business (due to the acquisition of the May Company by Federated). While I can understand and appreciate some of the business decisions behind this, I think Federated may be underestimating the brand loyalty of the Mid-western base behind Marshall Field's.

Marshall Field's is as much a part of Chicago as the Cubs, the Watertower, and the Art Institute. Almost every single time I visit the city, I stop in the flagship State Street Marshall Field's to just browse or purchase some of those famous Frango mints to take back home with me. Now, I realize the State Street store is not going anywhere, but Macy's?????

I deplore Macy's. The stores are always a mess and the service is horrible. I rarely shop there as a result. Obviously, living on the West Coast, I do not shop at Marshall Field's either, but this is due to the fact that there are none here. If I had to choose between Macy's and Marshall Field's, I would always pick Marshall Field's.

Once again, "market research" has won out (see my recent post on the Saturday Wall Street Journal). However, this time I think the experts may be wrong. When the Federated deal closed, I was sad to hear of the rebranding of Famous Barr - the storied St. Louis department store chain (I lived in St. Louis for eight years). However, I realized that Famous Barr did not have a presence outside of a limited region and did not hold such a place of endearment to the population of St. Louis as Marshall Field's does for Chicago. People are very very upset about the rebranding of Marshall Field's - I include myself in this camp.

I realize change is constant and over the years, many brands I once held dear are gone - either to mergers or bankruptcy. However, this one is hard to stomach. So, if you have a moment, add your name to the attached petition. Who knows, maybe it will do some good.....

http://www.keepitfields.org/share.htm

Saturday Journal

I woke up this Saturday (a rare Saturday in the OC) and upon opening my garage door to go drive and buy a LA Times (as I am rarely in the OC on Saturdays, I have no need for weekend delivery), found the very first Saturday issue of the Wall Street Journal waiting for me. Needless to say, this resulted in me forgoing the trip to purchase a LA Times and I went back inside to drink my coffee and read this debut issue.

As I worked my way through the Saturday WSJ, I could not help but wonder why Dow Jones & Company is making this move. As a very devoted WSJ reader (for almost a decade), I can honestly say that the fact that I do not receive a WSJ on Saturdays is really not a big issue for me. It is the weekend, and I am generally not at work, so, I like to read something non-business. Plus, I love the Weekend Journal section of the Friday WSJ and usually hold that out on Friday to be read over the weekend.

So, I am a little perplexed at the reasoning here. As far as I can tell, there has not been an increase in pricing (of course this may come later), and I imagine the cost to create, print, and distribute a whole extra paper is substantial. Additionally, I am not sure if the addition of a Saturday paper will draw new subscribers. I mean seriously, if you never subscribed to the WSJ, would the addition of a Saturday paper be the driver in your decision to finally subscribe? I am thinking no - however, I could be wrong. I seem to recall receiving a survey or two regarding the subject - obviously, the folks at Dow Jones & Company were doing their market research. Based on the result, it looks like the feedback must have been positive in regard to a Saturday paper.

Finally, it has to be a bit of a logistical nightmare for the paper and all of the companies it works with to distribute the paper. How many people have the WSJ delivered to their office and need to have it delivered to a different location on Saturday? I have my weekday copy delivered at home (after having one to many papers stolen at the office before I arrived), however, I am generally at my boyfriend's house on Saturdays. So, today, I called the WSJ and had them change the Saturday delivery address to his house.

So, the armchair MBA in me is a little confused. If you are not going to grab larger market share, why bother with the addition of a Saturday addition? Of course, the market research probably indicated otherwise and time will tell as to whether this experiment will work or not. In the meantime, I am going to double my newspaper reading time on Saturdays.....

Gay Priests????

I had to chuckle when I saw this article in the New York Times:

Vatican to Check U.S. Seminaries on Gay Presence

I even forwarded the link to some friends with the comment, "the church is going to lose half of its priests." Ok, a little heavy on the sarcasm, but my personal philosophy is the Catholic church is a natural attraction for closet cases. If you are gay and cannot come to terms with it, you have a few options: 1) Marry a woman and live a lie, 2) Remain a bachelor your whole life (and have people constantly question your sexuality) or 3) Become a priest (where no one will question your sexuality. Accordingly, the church is a magnet to the guy who views this as the solution to their "problem."

I remember the priest of my parish back in St. Louis. The guy was queer as a three dollar bill. He would open his mouth and literally his purse, tiara, and heels would all fall out. Of course, the parish faithful just found him to be a very "gentle" man. My brother's partner (as you may recall my brother is gay also) loves to tell the story of how he dated a priest. His favorite line is how the guy would ask him to "not pick him up at the rectory."

Let's face it the church is full of homo's. Unfortunately, I think one of the sad outgrowths of this is the sexual abuse situations that have come to light. These guys are messed up in the head to begin with and repressing their entire sexual being, so, they do some horrible horrible things. Of course, I am not linking gay and sex offender here (as every gay man I know has no interest in little boys). Probably a more likely scenario is the church is also a magnet for sex offenders as well (especially in the past when they knew the church would cover it all up for them).

Whatever the case, I did find the article humorous. I converted to Catholicism
10 years ago, but have since wandered away from the faith (for obvious reasons). I love many aspects of the church, but cannot participate in a faith where we have some pretty fundamental disagreements regarding who I am and who I choose to sleep with.

John Roberts

Why do I like this guy? For some reason, I find him kind of attractive even. He just looks like a nice guy - hopefully, looks are not deceiving....

Here is one reason to like this guy (from today's WSJ):

"In addition to his comments on privacy, Judge Roberts may have stirred some unease on the right when he talked about helping gay-rights advocates preparing for arguments before the Supreme Court, as a favor to a law partner who was working on the case. When pressed, Judge Roberts said that he wouldn't have done so had he considered it morally objectionable."

Hey, he is already way ahead of Scalia.

$617,000

Yep, that was the headline in the business section of today's Orange County Register. The median home price for a home in Orange County has risen to $617,000. Is this madness ever going to stop?

A quote from the article: "Prices for the typical O.C. house or condo are up on average $74,000 in the past year - $132,000 in the past 15 months." $132k in 15 months - that is an incredible amount of appreciation in a very short period of time. No wonder everyone and their brother is becoming a real estate investor. However, how sustainable is this?

I mean, come on people, your salaries have not increased tremendously in the last few years and gas prices are very high (which translates to higher prices in other areas). How do you think you are going to do this? The answer, of course, lies in creative financing and stretching yourself to the absolute limit.

I am beginning to think that folks are walking away from the whole concept of retirement, because the debt loads that I see people taking on are pretty much ensuring them that they will be working forever. We are a "live for the moment" society. Why do I feel like such an outsider with my 15 year mortgage, stashing away every penny I can into various investment vehicles, and living a relatively frugal lifestyle?

Somedays I almost want to give up my fiscal conservatism and join in the fray. Buy the obnoxious house, the plasma TV, the new car. However, at the end of the day, I realize those are only temporary fulfillments. While I cannot share my net worth figure with people (unlike a new house, new toys, etc.), I can take satisfaction in knowing it is there, it is growing, and I will be out of this rat race in my 50's).

Hopefully, some sanity will eventually creep back into American society and others will start to think this way as well.

Weekend

Only one post last week - bad me.... I did have an excuse though - I only worked 3 days last week. Obviously, Monday was Labor Day and I was in Chicago. On Friday, my best friend from college came out from Chicago to spend the weekend and participate in the LA Triathlon. So, I managed to squeak out one post mid-week and then headed into the long weekend.

What a weekend it was - one of those weekends you look back and just marvel that you were able to accomplish so much in such a short period of time. As I was relaying my weekend activities to co-workers this AM, they all commented on just how packed it was (of course my energy level is virtually zero today). A portion of some of the weekend events and activities:

- Old Town Pasadena
- Toured the Gamble House (great example of Arts and Crafts Architecture)
- Ran 18 miles with my marathon training group
- Went to the LA Triathlon exposition
- Saw Bebel Gilberto and Pink Martini at the Hollywood Bowl
- Dropped friend off at 6 AM in Venice for the start of the LA Triathlon
- Watched the finish of the LA Triathlon (downtown LA)
- Had small fight with the boyfriend
- Walked along the beach in Santa Monica - a great way to end the weekend

Wow - crazy. I must say I am ready for a relaxing weekend. However, I must say that I very much enjoyed the LA Triathlon stuff. I have been saying I am going to do a triathlon for the past few years. However, I think watching the event actually may have inspired me to try one. Of course, the number of hotties was a big draw as well. I also felt a sense of urgency as participants write their age on their calves (so competitors can see if the person they are running behind is in their age grouping or not) and I saw so many "35's" out there. The numbers definitely thinned as they went up. So, I guess the clock is ticking.

So, a good weekend. Hopefully, tonight I will get a nice long sleep and will be motivated to write about a more serious topic tomorrow. Until then.......

Chicago

It has been a while since my last post, however, I do have an excuse.... I made a long weekend trip to Chicago - the home of my brother, sister, and many friends. What an odd holiday weekend it was. The news continued to be filled with the horrifying images of New Orleans and other devastated areas of the Gulf and then, suddenly, on Saturday, Chief Justice Rehnquist ups and dies. Ok, so maybe it was not that sudden - you have to give the guy credit for hanging on as long as he did.

Anyway, I was in Chicago for four days. It is always odd returning back to the Midwest. For those of you who do not know, I was born and raised roughly 2.5 hours south of Chicago near the booming metropolis of Peoria. This is referred to as "downstate" in a very disparaging way by the folks who live in Chicago.

As I have now lived in California for five years, I am becoming more used to the feelings and thoughts that I have when I return to the Midwest. Whenever I land at O'Hare International, I always think to myself, "it is so clean here and the people seem happy, maybe I should move back to the Midwest." The trend only continues when I open up a Chicago Tribune and notice the real estate section. Let's just say I could certainly upgrade my living arrangements if I were to move to Chicago.

However, as the trip progresses, I start to realize certain things. First, I note that I only visit the city in the late spring and early fall. As I was running along Lake Michigan on Saturday morning, my mind flashed to the same scene in January. The snow would be knee deep and the wind coming off of the lake would be cutting through me like a knife. Not a good thing. Second, I start to really take a look at the people and, more importantly, the food. Let's just say many folks in Chicago do not miss meals regularly and the food is HEAVY. Try as we might, my boyfriend and I could not find good light cuisine - lots of beef, pork, french fries, etc.

Toward the end of the trip, I could not help but notice the "roughness" surrounding Chicago. It is the king of the rust belt and a total survivor. You have to appreciate the titans that built this place and the monuments of Chicago's past and current power are everywhere. They did an excellent job. However, as much as I can appreciate this, there still seems to be a certain element of culture that is missing. I think I have narrowed it down to the fact that Chicago is not "unique" to me. I grew up south of here and visited many times while growing up. The folks who live there remind me of the people that populated my early life.

I think that is what I appreciate so much about Southern California - it is the largest melting pot in the United States. The diversity is what keeps me going - despite all the drawbacks (and there are more than a few) of living here. As I boarded my flight to come home, I realized California is now truly my home - who knows how long this will last, but it seems to be the case right now......

Hell.

How can the situation in New Orleans keep getting worse day after day? I just finished looking at some pictures on the internet and was so shaken by them. Unfortunately, based on the pictures, the refugees fit one of two categories: 1) black and poor or 2) elderly and sick. It breaks my heart to see people in patient gowns stretched out on the blazing asphalt surrounded by garbage.

How did this happen? Where is the full force of the National Guard? Have we stretched ourselves too thin with our President's war in Iraq?

So many questions, however, right now the only thing we can do is give assistance. I found the attached link via the Human Rights Campaign's web site. I figure it is a great way to show how the gay/lesbian community always steps up to the plate to help all (even those that hate us).

http://www.rainbowworldfund.org/