Odds & Ends

Bad weeks for posts. As I have noted before, my company is in the process of acquired. The big deal closes Monday night, so, this week was incredibly busy with the all the preparations that come along with the close of the deal. Unfortunately, next week will be just as - if not more - busy.

Whatever the case, I do get a nice break in the action by stealing away to San Francisco for a few days - we leave tonight. I always enjoy San Francisco (did a post on it quite a while back - at some point, I need to learn how to embed links to prior posts in the text of the current post). So, it should be a good weekend and will be interesting to see what Halloween related activities are going on up there.

Anyway, not much to write today (or not much time to write) as I have to prepare for the trip. However, was working my way through Friday's Wall Street Journal this morning and came across the Washington Wire section - I always enjoy these little blurbs of the goings on of Washington. Anyway, at the very end they had a blurb about an obituary that was in the Chicago Tribune. The obituary stated, "In lieu of flowers, please send acerbic letters to Republicans." I could not stop laughing when I read it.

2,000

2,000 deaths and significantly more wounded so far in Iraq - it is hard to believe. Seriously, when you think of how many people 2,000 really is, it is hard to imagine. I think about my whole high school getting wiped out as that is about how many we were.

Of course, what gets me the most is reading the individual stories and seeing the pictures of these young men and women. They were just starting their lives and had hopes and dreams for a long future. When they were growing up did they ever think they would end up dying at such a young age in a hostile foreign land? I am sure they did not.

As I read the stories, I feel an intense guilt. The war in Iraq has not impacted my life. I still go about my business as I did before the war started and obsess over the same stupid things that I always have. These poor kids and that is what they generally are - poor. They come from the lower part of the economic spectrum. The military promises them an "out." Of course, that out is fraught with risk.

It all seems so unjust - the young and poor are the ones dying for a war started by the old and rich. Of course, this is how it has been for thousands of years. However, that does not make it right. Ugh.

Wanderlust

The escapist fantasy. How I love it. When things are not going 100%, it is so easy to think about leaving it all behind....

Of course, I actually did do this once - back in 2000 when the opportunity to move to California literally landed in my lap. I guess that is what is so amazing about the escapist fantasy - it can actually happen.

As I had noted in my prior post, the new owners of my division were sniffing around pretty seriously in regard to my mobility. Well, in day 2 of our meetings, they were a little more direct (but not absolutely direct) and indicated there were two positions that I might find interesting.

Position one is located in Dayton, Ohio. No way in hell. I have been to that infamous red state once and really do not want to ever go back. Position two is in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Cold, but from what I have heard a neat city.

So, I naturally found myself reading up on the city, searching realtor.com, and even browsing the local men on match.com (yes, I love the boyfriend, but I am a realist). What I have discovered is homes are beautiful and extremely cheap (by California standards). I found the greatest house (per the pictures) for only $399k - that does not even get you a condo out here. The men.....not so good. They all looked so....... midwestern. I guess that is one good thing about California.

Whatever the case, I kind of like knowing that I have made some preliminary in roads with the new owners and they seem to want me to move up in the organization. However, at the end of the day, I think I am going to steer that moving up toward LA.

When traffic is bad or I have a fight with the boyfriend, Minneapolis sure does seem attractive though......

The Question

I once read somewhere that coming out is a process you will repeat over and over again in your life. Obviously, this is true as each new person you meet ideally will stumble across this component of your life. I was just faced with it today.

My company is being acquired - the deal closes in just a few days. As we prepare to be absorbed by the behemoth (and it is one of the biggest), the preliminary integration meetings are taking place. The CFO of the division that we will report into flew out today to meet with myself and our controller. I have met the guy before and he seems like a good guy. In fact, he sings the praises of the company he works for and has indicated the world is your oyster with this company if you are willing to work hard, be open-minded, and, most importantly, be mobile.

Anyway, he asked me if I would like to join him for a cup of coffee. It was actually a brief interview disguised as a coffee run. While walking to the coffee place, he asked for a brief overview of my background. When he heard that I had previously done an international rotation with a prior employer and had moved to Southern California for my current job, he seemed intrigued. He then asked the question - "what does your wife do?" Several answers flashed through my head before I blurted out "I am not married." He seemed even happier after that answer (i.e., I am more mobile than a married man).

Of course, after the answer I wanted to say that I had a long-term boyfriend in LA, who has his own medical practice, is not really mobile, and the only relocation I would really be interested in was LA. However, I said none of this and the conversation continued. Filling him in on my life story was too much too soon - I have learned a few things in my decade plus of the business world.

However, I had to wonder, if the boyfriend was a girlfriend would I have responded differently? Would I have said, "I am not married, but I have a girlfriend?"

Rain in Southern California

I think there is an old 70's song that says something about it never raining in Southern California - well, the song is wrong - it is raining today. I love it.

While the eternal sunshine of this place is sometimes welcome. I always appreciate a nice gloomy day here and there. It reminds me of home (the Midwest) and always cleans the place up. Think about it - Southern California gets virtually no rain at all from May - September. Accordingly, things get a little dusty and grimy. So, a good rain at the end of this long dry spell is much appreciated.

Additionally, the rain cleans all the crap (i.e., smog) out of the air. My favorite Southern California days are those crisp (crisp being 50 degrees or so) winter mornings after a night time rain. The sky is so blue, you can see forever, and, if you are lucky, the mountains (which you cannot normally see) have snow on the peaks. One day like that and you forget all the hot smoggy days. Of course, it is made all the better by the fact that this day occurs in January when all of my friends and family back east are freezing to death.

So, it rained last night and the rain continues today. A good Monday. To make it even better, my employees brought me cookies and a Corner Bakery gift card as it is boss's day (a fact I did not even know). Little things like this make me appreciate life so much more.....

Thirty Something

Remember the show Thirty Something from the late 80's? I loved the show - never missed an episode. I find it kind of funny to think that, as a 17 year old, I was obsessed with a show about people in their 30's.

For whatever reason, the show popped into my head today and I did a Google search. Of course, I came across the official Thirty Something website and explored for a while. What shocked the hell out of me was the realization that most of the actors in the show were actually younger (in 1987) than I am now! Sexy Ken Olin was only 33 when the show started.

As I read the summaries of the episodes I could not help but think, "this actually sounds boring to me now." I guess when you are 17 in podunk Central Illinois, these educated folks, living in the city (I think it was Philadelphia), and dealing with all the problems of being thirty something was fascinating. At the time, I so wanted to be like them - now I just want to go back. Well, maybe not back to 17, but 20 something would be ok (with my current salary and wisdom of course).....

Voyeurs Beware!

A few friends of mine have recently alerted me to a disturbing new addition to Friendster. Apparently, a feature called "who's viewed me" or something like that has been added. This feature allows you to see exactly who has viewed you.

My one friend was a little freaked about it as he did not discover it until AFTER he had clicked on the page of a guy he used to date. How horrifying - this guy now knows that my friend is still thinking about him and checking up on him.

I had to check it out. I use Friendster very sparingly. For some reason, I feel it is a tool for 20 somethings and I have never been that "into it." A few years ago I did set up a page for myself, loaded some pictures and have a handful of friends linked to me. However, after the initial fun of looking at some folks and finding old lost friends, my interest waned, and now only log in once a quarter or so.

I have toyed with deleting my profile entirely as one of my "friends" is the ex who has provided me with so much mental grief. Of course, back in the day when I was actively concerned with his comings and goings it provided me a way to "spy" on him. However, as I have noted here in the past, I have stopped doing this and life has been much much better as a result.

Anyway, I went out to Friendster this AM to check out the new feature. Of course, only one person had viewed my home page - the ex. I am sure he is wondering why I am not returning phone calls or emails and probably checked the Friendster page to make sure I was still alive or had not moved far away. I found it interesting that he checked, but was not disturbed or upset in any way. Of course, I did not click on his home page as he would be alerted that I did so.

I am curious to see if Friendster will retain this new feature OR provide folks with some way to disable it. One of the primary draws of the internet is the ability to cloak yourself in anonymity and this feature removes that entirely. I know the few friends that I have talked about it with hate it.

The bright side is it will help all of us who are having a hard time getting over a certain someone from our past as it removes one method of keeping up with them. It took me some time to realize how damaging it is to keep rehashing a past relationship and wondering "what is he doing?" Once you release that, you can move forward.

Ah, I am so wise.... Too bad it took so long to figure it out. : )

WSJ Opinion

75% of the time I do not agree with the Wall Street Journal's opinion pieces. While fiscally conservative, I often have a hard time digesting their unwavering support for Bush (as it is probably apparent, I am liberal in regard to social issues). However, I actually agreed with today's piece on the Mier's appointment (see my other post of the day). I hope that the business minded Republicans continue to realize just how bad many of the religious right wing's goals are for business (i.e., stem cell research, teaching of creationism, etc.). Anyway, here is the piece:

Religion and the Court
October 11, 2005; Page A16

The world will learn a lot more about Harriet Miers in coming weeks, so we're not going to join the pack already chasing her back to Texas. But one strategy that the White House would be wise to drop is its not-too-subtle promotion of both her religion and her personal views on abortion.

In case you haven't heard, Ms. Miers is an evangelical Christian who is personally opposed to abortion. A main White House talking point is that she fought to reverse the American Bar Association's position supporting abortion rights. We are supposed to believe -- wink, wink -- that this means Ms. Miers is a judicial conservative who would oppose the likes of Roe v. Wade. The National Right to Life Committee has already endorsed Ms. Miers. And James Dobson of Focus on the Family has endorsed her because, he says, "I know the individual who brought her to the Lord" and because "I do know things that I am not prepared to talk about here [on TV]."

We'll concede that Mr. Dobson's sources upstairs are better than ours. But whatever he knows, if it concerns Ms. Miers's religion it doesn't tell us anything about how she'll rule on the Supreme Court. Allow us to recall the case of Anthony Kennedy.

In 1987, following the defeat of Robert Bork and the withdrawal of Douglas Ginsburg, President Reagan was contemplating his next appointment. On the short list leaked to the media were Laurence Silberman and Mr. Kennedy, both then appellate court judges. Mr. Silberman was a well-known judicial conservative, but some right-to-life activists worried that he might be personally pro-choice on abortion.

Mr. Kennedy, on the other hand, was something of a blank judicial slate. But he was a Roman Catholic who let everyone know he was personally opposed to abortion. "The right-to-life people were solid behind Kennedy," the San Francisco Chronicle quoted one conservative as saying at the time. "They were gung-ho for him."

Conservative Senator Jesse Helms had doubts, however, so Mr. Kennedy met him in a private room at the White House that November. According to columnist Cal Thomas, Mr. Helms said to Judge Kennedy, "I think you know where I stand on abortion." Mr. Kennedy "smiled and answered, 'Indeed I do and I admire it. I am a practicing Catholic.'"

Mr. Thomas recounted that "Judge Kennedy did not elaborate, but Mr. Helms interpreted the response to mean that Judge Kennedy is opposed to abortion and would look favorably on any case in which the Court's earlier decision striking down the abortion laws of all 50 states might be overturned." Reagan nominated Mr. Kennedy, who dodged the abortion issue at his confirmation hearings. Mr. Helms voted for him.

And we know how that turned out. Justice Kennedy continues to be a devout Catholic, as most recently described in a profile in The New Yorker. But he was also one of the three Republican-appointed Justices who fortified Roe in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992. More important for the future, he has been a leader on the Court in citing foreign precedents to justify overturning American laws (e.g., the juvenile death penalty), and he has expanded the "right to privacy" to overrule just about any state law he doesn't like.

Meanwhile, whatever Judge Silberman's personal views on abortion are, no one familiar with his judicial record doubts that he would have voted to overturn Roe in a New York minute. To put it bluntly, the right-to-lifers let religion and personal views on abortion color their judgment about Mr. Kennedy, and they bamboozled themselves.

In recounting this history, we aren't equating Ms. Miers with Justice Kennedy. We have no idea what Ms. Miers thinks about Casey, or any other Constitutional issue. The point is that what matters aren't Ms. Miers's personal views on abortion or what church she attends. What matters is what she thinks about the judiciary, and specifically whether she believes it has the limited, Constitutional role that the Founders intended. The White House could help its credibility if it focused on that question and stopped touting her religious beliefs.

Best Governor Ever?

Not sure if anyone caught the article on CNN.com about Ms. Harriet Mier's gushing admiration for George W. Bush. It makes me think she may be in love with him....

The comments almost made me lose my breakfast this AM (these were all dug out of past correspondence that she had with W):

In a birthday card to him, she noted that he was "the best governor ever!"

In another document she hoped that the infamous Bush twins realized how "cool" their parents are.

While reading the article, I was really shocked at how gushing and school girl like some of the quotes were. Poor, poor Harriet, if she had only gotten to W before that awful librarian, Laura.....

Anyway, watching the whole nomination play out has been so frustrating. The religious right is in an uproar as it is not 100% clear where Ms. Miers stands on issues critical to the functioning of the country - i.e., abortion and gay marriage. With the absence of any written documentation regarding her views, they take hope in the fact that she "found the Lord Jesus" many years ago and became an evangelical Christian. Since when does religious background make someone qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice?

My boyfriend always reminds me that the vast majority of Americans are in the "center" in regard to politics and the past few years a minority has tipped the pendulum to the far right. He seems confident that someday, the pendulum will move back to the center. We can only hope he is right.....

PS - I guess my "groveling" in regard to comments paid off, as I received my first a few days ago! : )

20 Miles

This past Saturday I rolled out of bed at 6 AM, put on my running clothes, applied the always important sun screen, ate a bowl of cereal, kissed the boyfriend good bye and headed out to meet my marathon training group. Our goal that day - 20 miles. Just saying it hurts.

It had been over three years since I had run that far. My distance running career started in 1999. I started with a 5 mile race in the spring of that year and ended the year with the Chicago marathon (26.2 miles) in October. I can honestly say distance running changed my life - it gave me the confidence and ability to make some critical changes to the life I was living (including coming out of the closet and moving to California).

I did a good job of continuing my distance running after that first marathon and would go on to complete Chicago two more times (2000 and 2002) and added LA in 2001 and 2002. However, grad school started in 2002 and all bets were off. I continued to run, but it was significantly less. My Saturday "long" runs fell back to 8 miles. I began to run alone and did not even realize how much I missed the bond of the long distance runners.

So, after completion of school in 2004, I decided to do yet another marathon. I picked the Honolulu Marathon and tied it in with the AIDS Marathon fund raising effort. They provide the training, transportation to Hawaii, and lodging in Hawaii -all I had to do was raise $3,000 and run the race. Thanks to very generous friends and family the fundraising was not even an issue (I even had extra I was able to "credit" to other runners who were having a hard time making the goal).

The race is December 11 and we are now starting to get up there in regard mileage. I feel some of the old excitement and awe I used to have when I would think about what I had just accomplished. Going out to dinner with friends the night after the run, everyone was amazed that I had run 20 miles that morning and was still peppy enough to enjoy a few margaritas and some great Mexican food.

However, the best part is running with others. There are about 10 folks in my "pace" group (we all run about the same pace). Once we get out about 7 miles we seem to break into twos - each week it is a different mix up and I get to know quite a bit about a new person. When you have nothing else to do but run and talk, you tend to share quite a bit about yourself.

So, I had a new running companion this week and thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. We only have two more long runs left - 23 miles and 26 miles and then, of course, the marathon itself. What a great experience it has been - I know I will miss it once it is all over.

Wanderings

My mind is all over the place today. What was supposed to be a meeting filled fast paced day at work has actually been a slow, creeping, mind fog kind of day. I did have a few meetings this AM, and some work resulted from such, but nothing that I needed to do right away. So, I have done a whole lot of nothing - lots of internet surfing, which, unfortunately resulted in my anxiety level increasing significantly. Where is all the good news?

About an hour ago, I realized I should probably pick up the 36 page single spaced draft of my boyfriend's book. He emailed it to me last week and I printed it out right away. However, it has sat - untouched - since. I enjoy reading so you would think I would dive into his book. However, it is a "self-help" kind of book, which I can never seem to really get into. I am not sure why, but any book that deals with health, psychology, becoming a better person, etc. bores the hell out of me and I have to force myself to read them.

Well, I did pick up his book and started reading. It is good. He uses lots of actual examples, which helps keep me interested. Of course he called right when I started reading (he is working today and will sometimes call in between patients). I told him I had started reading his book draft. Of course, now every time he calls he asks which chapter I am on. When he last called and I told him I was only on chapter 3 he seemed a little shocked at how slow I was going. Of course, I told him "I do have work to do here too." A total lie - when I need a break from the world of health and medicine, I go out to the web for a little bit.

Of course, this is a break. Guess I need to pick it back up.......

PS - I have been reading many blogs today and cannot help but wonder when or if I will ever receive an actual comment on my blog. Not that it really matters as I am writing the blog for me, but it would seem that someone would have come across this and posted a thought or two.

Magical Thinking?

So I never did get around to making that second post on Monday.... I will still try to get around to it, but wanted to discuss another topic today. Of course, it is one of my favorite topics: the housing bubble.

My former roommate called me yesterday. He has always amazed me in regard to the amount of debt he is willing to take on and is currently in the process of closing on a $800k plus house in Irvine. He has roughed out the financials behind it and based on this I have backed into around $5k a month of housing costs for him and his partner (this includes pretty much the basics - P&I, taxes (which are going to run him $16k a year alone), association (yes, it is a beautiful master planned community in Southern California), and insurance.

$60k a year and you still have to furnish the sucker, buy window treatments and landscape it. Oy vey. I give him credit for financing it with a 30 year mortgage - versus using an exotic mortgage to get him into more house than he can afford. However, I estimate total gross income between the two of them of MAYBE $140k. After taxes, benefits cost, etc. you are talking around $90k net. If they want to max their 401(k)'s you are talking another $28k off of that - getting them to $62k, which gives them $2k to live on. Of course, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that they are probably forgoing the whole retirement saving thing.

The kicker is this - they both work in the real estate sector. One for a home builder and the other for the mighty Irvine Company. So, they have just recently taken what I perceive to be a very risky real estate position AND their very lively hood is tied to the local real estate market! Talk about putting all of your eggs in one basket.

As I listened to my friend talk excitedly about the community he would be moving into, I could not help but cringe. He indicated his property had increased in value by $80k since they had put their deposit down and that he projects it will be worth another $100k more by this time next year. At that point, I had to interject and ask him why he thought prices could continue to appreciate at this rate. He began to relay the stories that he hears at work (he works for the home builder). He indicated that demand is so strong, they are going to develop another phase with starting prices of $1mm AND 85% of the buyers in his current development (his employer is the builder of the development) were 100% cash buyers.

I found the cash buyer statement a little hard to believe. I pushed and asked how can so many people plunk down $800k cash for a house - he told me it was the "Asians." I have not had any time to research the percentage of cash buyers versus financing, but 85%? I really fear that the company is feeding misinformation to its employees in order to keep up this mania. I could see 15% of buyers using the home builder's mortgage company and the remaining 85% using another lender. However, this was not what he was saying.

He finally asked me how I was doing and I indicated I was fine, but had some pretty significant concerns regarding the economy and the potential for recession. He blew that comment off pretty quickly. Ah magical thinking......

So Many Things

Wow - for some reason I have so many things that I want to blog about today. Actually, I think I will break the blog into two separate entries - one just going through some interesting events of the weekend and the other focusing on a really great talk I had with the boyfriend on Friday and the preliminary results of such.

First, the little things.....

The New Kid on the Block
So, we have another new Supreme Court nominee..... I got into my car this morning at the ungodly hour of 5:15 AM (the Monday drive back to Orange County from LA) and flipped on NPR. They were talking about the nomination, which had just been announced. Somewhere in the commentary they noted that Harriet Miers was a workaholic, never married and never had children. In fact they noted that she routinely showed up for work at the White House at 5 AM and left after 10 PM. I thought to myself "sounds like a winner." Of course, when I got home I immediately logged in to see what she looked like. Yikes! Someone call Extreme Makeover....

Hottie Sighting
Last night my boyfriend and I went out for a little Pho at one of our favorite Vietnamese restaurants. After a great meal we went to Borders as there was a book I wanted to pick up (more on the book next). So, we are browsing the titles and in walks Rick Fox (the former NBA basketball player) in total running gear with his iPod earbuds in. He was sweaty as can be and HOT!!!! We were in Westwood and I am guessing he must have a place in Bel Air or Holmby Hills - somewhere within running distance. Whatever the case, he was literally 5 feet away from me and I enjoyed every minute of it.

The Book
In addition to staring at Rick Fox's incredible physique, I did purchase a book - The Lady And The Panda by Vicki Constantine Croke. This is a true story of a Manhattan Socialite in the 1930's who's adventurer husband dies on a expedition to secure a live panda from China to bring back to the US (something that had never been done before). She picks up where he leaves off and eventually does bring home the prize. This book has all the elements I love - one of my favorite eras, adventure, China, etc. From what I can gather there is even a love affair with the dashing young Chinese guide (and the picture of him in the book proves that he is, indeed, dashingly handsome). I could hardly put it down last night and even picked it up this morning once I got in from the drive. Hopefully, it continues to captivate me.

Ok, going to focus on some work right now.......