The upside of being down with a cold…

This week I was ambushed by a very speedy, evil virus of some sort. For the last few days, I have only ventured out of the house for Nyquil and the gay rights rally (one must have one’s priorities straight* you know).

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, being sick doesn’t mean I haven’t been able to work, which is nice, or will be nice when the mortgage is due next month. But it has had some side benefits that I have been able to appreciate. So, I give you 6 Degrees’ top 10 list of the advantages of being sick…

1. Food Network/Iron Chef marathon: No guilt.

2. Bacon for breakfast every day.

3. Nyquil buzz. Woo hoo!

4. Unlimited nap time.

5. Excuse to take multiple bubble baths (you know, for the decongestant effects).

6. Much laying on the couch and reading crappy novels (oh, and by the way, I read “Twilight”–and all I can say is Jeeeezzzzussss, they made a movie out of that piece of crap?)

7. Caught up on my 30 Rock DVDs and started in on the Flight of the Conchords.

8. Yay, Tater left his puppy here to snuggle with me. Extra super benefit.

9. Scratchy voice = easy excuse for getting off the phone quickly (or not answering at all).

10. Uncontrollable coughing at door scares away the Jehovah’s Witnesses (bonus!).

* yes, pun intended

Snapshots from today’s rally

(Update: The official CHP count of event attendance is 5,000.)

I don’t know how many people showed up for the rally today, but it looked like about 3,000 to me. I hope it was more, actually. The tone of the event was very positive, peaceful, and upbeat. Here are a few shots to show the extent of the crowd and some of the humorous signs.

(Note: Joe Sac has a bunch of photos over at http://www.joesacramento.com/)

That was all I got before my battery died. I stayed for the speechifyin’ (Gloria Allred, Darrell Steinberg, Margaret Cho, and several clergy members whose names I did not catch), and then ducked out when the march started. Steinberg delivered the best speech of the day–very impassioned and sincere. Margaret Cho’s very naughty and funny (if you’re not Mormon) song is worth a listen–I’m going to assume that someone out there captured the moment and is uploading it to YouTube right now.

My only complaint? Every stinkin’ rally, march, protest, demonstration, whatever that I’ve ever been to has people shouting the same damn chants. (“What do we want?!?!?!” Fill in cause here. “When do we want it?!?!!! Now!!! ) People. C’mon. You’re killing me here.

Gay rights rally: This weekend…

More details over at the inimitable Hahn at Home: http://hahnathome.com/?p=1454

Thoughts on Customer Service in a Slow Economy

I have been a small business owner and a public servant at different times in my career. I have always taken pride in at least trying to provide excellent quality service in whatever I happened to be doing. In fact, right now, all of my business comes from word of mouth. I don’t have to advertise (yet, at least) because my clients recommend me. I realized early on that it’s the cheapest, most effective way of getting new business. And there’s also that little side benefit of having clients actually come back and give you more business ’cause they got their money’s worth the first time around.

What just baffles me, especially right now, is when I do business with someone and get utter crapola in terms of customer service. Are these people nuts? Or just plain stupid?

Two friends and I recently went to a local brewpub that shall remain nameless (although I’m tempted to say which one it was). At the door, the snippy hostess told us she’d “try to find us a table” (we could see several empty ones from the doorway) but that it would be 30 minutes or so. We asked if we could order food at the bar, and she looked off into the distance and huffed “If you want to…” Finally, not wanting to cause her to exert herself in any way, we opted to sit at the bar. Our little hostess friend couldn’t be bothered to bring us menus–perhaps she was busy texting or something. So, I walked up to the front and got them from her. An eon later, our server showed up. Although she was friendly and well intentioned, she also was disorganized and inattentive. All three of our meals came out with something missing or something wrong (remember, pub food…not complicated). Wrong side dish for one of us, wrong toppings on a burger, another burger ordered rare that showed up cooked to oblivion. Then the bill came, complete with overcharges. Seriously, other than perhaps throwing us out, this place could not have done more to convince us that they didn’t want us to come back.

Next, I called a plumber for a bid on a few-thousand dollar project. Small, but nothing to sneeze at as the building industry slows down and winter approaches. I waited a couple of weeks for the bid, but didn’t hear anything. Then I called the office and the receptionist, rather than be bothered to take a message, asked me to call back later because she was busy with another customer. Um, thanks but no.

And I could go on. It seems particularly bad in retail and restaurants. I dunno, but if I were running one of these businesses right now, I would make darned sure to train my employees so that they’re bringing customers back–not driving them away.

However, I’ve also seen the flip side: I was recently in the co-op making a complicated purchase, and the checker figured out a fabulous way to solve the issue, using better deductive reasoning than I’ve seen *anywhere* lately. I was so impressed, I ran home to tell Tater about it. And then I told anyone who’d listen. And everyone agreed that (1) that checker is probably going to have a great career in something not a grocery store, and (2) wouldn’t it be freakin’ nice if everyone would pay that much attention when someone’s trying to give you money?

The other cool thing was when I needed to arrange a casual dinner party for a group and ended up going to a cafe that normally doesn’t take reservations. I spoke with the manager and told her what I needed. She was quick to realize, again, that I was trying really hard to bring her a big group of customers, but we needed to be assured of having a big enough space when we showed up. She agreed to hold a large table for my group…a simple thing, really, but if you consider that many other cafes have said no to this type of request, it’s pretty outstanding. And that is how you get business coming through your door instead of your competition’s.

It’s like being a really old teenager…

I come from a family of very large people. Not so much height as width, though. My mom’s side of the family has taught me such terms as “morbidly obese” and “stomach stapling.” I think I’ve been lucky because my father’s side consists of lean and wiry, whippet-like peoples, so I’ve got a balance.

But, I have always had a tendency to gain weight very easily. That combined with a, shall we say, rather cavalier attitude toward regular exercise has been a perilous combo for me. I’ve always managed to keep things under control, though. While never exactly rail-thin, I’ve always been active enough and a healthy eater to keep myself at a respectable (even adorable?) weight.

Recently, though, several complications have occurred. First, I’m pushing the outer limits of my thirties and it appears the old metabolism has decided to take life at a slower pace. Second, every single one of my friends is an excellent cook, and Tater is one of the best (certainly the best cook-boyfriend I’ve ever had). Tater is also big on the red meat eating. Finally, my red wine intake has increased in the last few years–never have I appreciated empty calories more.

So, now, a few pairs of my favorite jeans apparently shrunk in the wash or something. I’m having visions of waddling around like some of my family members, resigned to wearing large, shapeless polyester clothing. The horror! It’s clear that 15 pounds must go…and stat.

All of which means I just joined a gym for the first time since 1988.

It’s a great gym, actually. I like it way better than the crappy, stinky pickup scene that was my last gym. Still, there are all these Really Fit Athletic People running around flexing their muscles in my general direction. I am pretty sure one of the women who works out about the same time I do is a King’s dancer. There are large, extremely buff men in the free weight room. All of which tends to be a little intimidating. So, there I am, feeling extraordinarily lame and self-conscious, wandering around…not sure how to use all the fancy machines. In other words, I feel like a total dork. A total somewhat-flabby dork.

While I was doing free weights the other day (mind you, the 3-pounder “free weights”), I happened to glance in the mirror and see my underarm flab wobbling. I was outraged. I Do Not Have Flabby Underarms! I don’t! Those are for fat, old people. (Yes, my feet are wet and I think I do see a pyramid in the distance.)

To top it off, all this sweating has made me break out for the first time since, like, high school. (Don’t say it–I do shower after every workout.) I am walking around, feeling like a dork, with a gigantic zit right under my left nostril. Complete humiliation. Now I have to go buy acne cream or something. What are the kids using these days, anyway?

But, we do looovvveeesss the steam room. Aah!

Looking forward to more of this in the days to come!

A great bit from Alex Kopplman over at Salon.com today:

 Meanwhile, Paul Waldman’s latest column for the American Prospect is the first entry I’m aware of in what will no doubt be a canonical body of “booting George W. Bush out the door” commentaries going to print between now and Jan. 20. Other than a small, offsides penalty assessed for rushing to beat everyone else to that space, Waldman is flawless…:

    This presidency is finally over. We can say goodbye to an administration whose misdeeds have piled so high that the size of the mountain no longer shocks us. In our lifetimes, we will see administrations of varying degrees of competence and integrity, some we’ll agree with and some we won’t. But we will probably never see another quite like the one now finally reaching its end, so mind-boggling a parade of incompetence and malice, dishonesty, and immorality. So at last — at long, long last — we can say goodbye. And good riddance.  

 

The article (here) also includes the suggestion that Al Gore might make a good Secretary of State. Ah…bliss. Is it too much to hope for?

Group therapy, anyone?

It’s been about a week now, and I’m starting to get my emotions under control…finally. The first few days after the election were punctuated by my bursting into tears every time I heard someone say “President Obama.” Tater is convinced I’ve lost my mind. I’m doing a little better now, but figured some of you out there might also be suffering from the affliction and would want to form a support group or something.

Let it just be said, though, even though I do think Obama is going to make a great president, my bursting-into-tears thing is more about how proud of my country I am. Finally. For so many reasons. I am proud that so much of middle America has finally become fed up (or wised up) to the direction that we’ve been going since, arguably, the Reagan years.

I’m fed up with divisive politics. I’m fed up with “right wing” and “left wing” labels. I’m fed up with special interest groups on either side of the fence driving the agenda for all of us. I’m fed up with political rhetoric that obscures the truth and hurts our society. I’m fed up with the suggestion that “conservatives” are all Nazis (although certainly some of them seem like it) and the accusation that all liberals are nanny-government fascists (although certainly some of them seem like it).

Although I didn’t agree with much of Reagan’s politics, he was the “great uniter”–something that we haven’t seen since he left office. (And just imagine how far McCain could have run with that platform–I’m baffled that he didn’t work that angle harder.) However, we should not overlook that Reagan also left us the largest national debt in history prior to W., but he was instrumental in bringing the cold war to an end. Obama ran on a platform of unifying Americans, and although he’s got a long way to go, the resonance of his words throughout the country is clear. People do want unity…and a government that leads by not sidelining or deriding a substantial portion of the population. It’s clear that neither party in our unfortunately two-party system has all the answers, but if they stop hurling epithets at each other for a little while, they might actually do some good.

Here’s hopin’.

More work to be done…

I’m having a little crying jag this morning, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. And I have given in to the temptation to do a little tushy dance a few times. I believe that many of us here in the newly pro-America portions of the country have earned our right to rejoice and look forward with great optimism.

However.

The news today is not all good. I’m deeply disturbed by the race on Prop 8. Although it hasn’t officially been called, the numbers are not looking good, my fellow Californians. I really thought we’d pull through on defeating this proposition, but it looks like it is going to pass. We successfully liberated the chickens, but did not manage to reaffirm the basic right of a significant population.  I scratch my head in bafflement, as I look out at my street: four homes on this block are the homes of long-time gay couples. Nurses, real estate agents, architects, and awesome neighbors. I can’t imagine how they’re feeling today. For now, the only thing I can say is “Your marriage is still valid to me.” No matter what happens, those of us who are not members of the gay and lesbian community can–and must–continue to show our support for our fellow Californians whose fight isn’t over yet.

We collectively took a huge step forward yesterday, but that next step will be just as important. Someday, we will get there, too. I thought we were there. I really did.

How I Voted for McCain and Palin Today

Today I cast a vote to protect what John McCain and Sarah Palin have been talking about on the campaign trail. Freedom. Justice. The economy. Jobs. Over the course of this election, I’ve come to realize that what they want is what I want. I agree with them that it is time for the U.S. to improve its foreign policy and to once again demonstrate its ability to be a leader among nations. It’s time we restored our country to a strong path, and get us out of the handbasket we’ve been in. And it will take nothing short of a true visionary and a true maverick to get us there.

So, you see, I voted for the candidate who I believe will get us to those goals. I voted for Obama–and I did it for you, John and Sarah. I voted to protect your freedoms, to help strengthen this country, and to put a leader in office who shows the world the best of what we have to offer.

All sarcasm aside, today was a humbling and amazing day. I am proud to say I voted. I voted with a sense of gratitude like never before. It does feel like there’s a righteous wind at our backs.

Si se puede!