The ghost of Sacramento

Fresh off yesterday’s rant, I stopped at the gas station on Alhambra & P and met a ghost.

Not a real ghost, of course, but one of those crazed homeless guys that we’re seeing more of these days. It was hard to tell his age, but he didn’t look all that old. I guessed late 20s, early 30s, but some rough ones. Reddish hair, blue eyes, and skinny. He had an old blanket wrapped around him and that look that tells you something’s just not wired right. He was aggressively panhandling every driver at the station.

He headed toward me. Usually, I don’t give handouts on the street, but I sometimes waver. It’s not a hard and fast rule. If they get in my space, it pisses me off and I’ll usually tell them no. Other times, I give because I just want them to go away and stop bothering me. Sometimes, I’m just in a mood and I give because it just feels so shitty to be standing there in clean clothes with a shiny car and a cozy home. You know?

I pulled a dollar out of my wallet, and then stashed my purse out of sight under my car seat. I got out of the car to start pumping gas, the driver’s side door between me and him. He rapped on the window, holding out his other hand to show me a quarter. And then he just whimpered. I think he may have been trying to speak, but it just came out as wordless whimpering. It killed me. Just killed me.

Someone so lost that they can’t even make words any more?

I handed him a buck, which he took with filthy hands, and I noticed his very long, black-with-filth fingernails. He reeked. He immediately set off for the next car. I pumped gas and watched him do the rounds. Some people gave him change. One woman shouted, quite firmly, ”No. Now go away!”  He was a little threatening, invasive. Feral.

 What can you do for someone like that? It was hard to tell if it was mental illness, a serious drug problem, maybe even just an act. I don’t know. I grabbed a $10 bill out of my wallet. I’m not sure why. A song came out a few years ago, with a guy telling a story about meeting a beggar and not wanting to give him money because he’d just blow it on booze and smokes; then the singer says he realized he’d just blow it on booze and smokes himself, so he gave the guy the money after all. It was kind of like that.

He disappeared before I could give it to him. I circled the block, looking for the guy but didn’t find him. Honestly, I don’t think I’d have had the courage to step out of the car to hand it to him anyway.

What can you do for people like this? Are they beyond all hope? I have no idea. Sometimes I think so, but I don’t like that answer.

Why can’t we have a Stupidity Recession?

**Pottymouth Warning** Read at your own risk.

Seriously. There’s really quite an abundance of stupidity around, in good economic times and bad. So why is it that stupidity never seems to flag, lag, cease, or at least ease off a bit?

I received a “forwarded email” (read: chainletter spam freakout) from a “friend” (read: paranoid person). This chain email was filled with alarming and badly misused language about how “women in Sacramento” are being targeted for robberies by, get this, two “black women.” The perps are apparently packing knives and causing their own little crime wave throughout the city. The letter exclaims that it’s “TRUE!!!” and even KCRA reported it!!!

I hate shit like this. I really do. It seems like I get a forwarded email like this from a well-intentioned friend every six months or so. These emails are all the same: The message is that women need to be fearful. We need to fear going out in broad daylight as much as at night. We need to fear strangers. We need to fear other races. We need to fear each other.

These “claims” of truth are backed up by a link to a single robbery at the Downtown Plaza. None of the other claims in the letter are backed up by any news source. Not one.

Whoever wrote this letter had way too much zoloft that day and is in dire need of remedial English lessons. I’m also pissed at the people who keep circulating this crapola.

If I learned anything in Women’s Studies 101, it’s that we need to reject these faux warnings about what “women should fear” because they’re ultimately intended to “put us in our places”–which apparently for some is still hovering about in the kitchen, safely cooking up brisket for hubby.

I call bullshit.

Some fine examples:

If you don’t have money in your wallet, they still can disrupt your life by stealing your drivers licenses, social security cards, credit cards, and other important info that most women carry in there purses. And your Gucci or coach, or fendi, or other expensive purses that most women have.

Really? Gucci, Coach, Fendi? MOST women have these? Good lord, please don’t take my FENDI! Here, you can take my firstborn, but leave the designer handbag…

Here’s another screamer:

These women have been spotted at Target on Power Inn Road, Wal Mart on Florin, Elk Grove and Natomas, Dee Dee’s on Mack Road and the one on Stockton Blvd. Various food chains and grocery stores. Places that all women like to shop at.

Places that “all women” like to “shop at”? Yes, I consider shopping at Wal Mart a real treat. I usually take my Fendi handbag, stuffed full of my credit cards and spare cash. It’s hard to balance all that weight on my little bound feet, but somehow I manage.

And a personal favorite:

We are living in desperate times, and all kinds of desperate crimes are happening right under our noises.

Well, at least we’re not being quiet about it, apparently.

In the words of Jon Stewart, f**k you, whoever wrote this crap. The biggest crime here  is your felony abuse of spelling, grammar, and common sense.

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!

Open invitation to Tina Fey

I would like to say, just for the record, that I was a fan of Tina Fey’s before this whole stupid doppelganger thing.

Dear Tina –

Your comment about leaving Earth if John McCain (or, more specifically, She Who Might Eat Puppies) is elected really resonated with me. Everyone else always threatens to move to Canada or Mexico or France. But you…you raised the bar. I always leaned toward Mexico myself, since it has nicer beaches than Canada and better margaritas.

But, if you leave EARTH, I mean…where does one go? The audacity! Of course, if you’re a Trekkie, you have virtually hundreds of planets, theoretically, to choose from. But, I’m not a Trekkie (even though I know what they mean when they say M Class planet).

Your idea, though, has stuck with me…It’s unique. It’s oddly appealing. It’s a strange, quirky twist on old ideas. Why, it’s much like you, yourself, isn’t it?

And, now, apparently, it’s possible. I give you Gliese 381c.

Tina…if they win, please contact me. I would like to come with you. In fact, I believe we could easily populate this new, slightly larger-than-Earth planet with millions of the best people who no longer want to occupy this one.

We’ll need to re-name it something more appropriate, of course. But you’re creative, so I think you’d come up with something really good. I mean, we could call it something like Tinath and I’d be content.

I mean, hopefully, it won’t come to that…but if it does, it’s really comforting to have a back-up plan.

Terrorist fist bumps,

6

Humble pie for Table 6!

One of my first blog posts started off “Call me a Pollyanna, but I tend to think of Sacramento as a fairly well run city.” (Hey, you try living in Miami for a few years and you’d feel the same way.)

Since those rosy days, I’ve spent the last few months questioning many things about our city government and our mayoral candidates. Back in the primaries, I voted for Heather Fargo, noting my concerns about her, but also feeling that the scale was still tipping in her direction. But tonight, I publicly dine on humble pie, help myself to a serving of crow, or (as Cal Worthington used to say) eat my shorts.

6 Degrees made the adventurous trek across Highway 50 tonight, to the Coloma Community Center on T Street, to hear Kevin Johnson speak at his townhall meeting. And…I was impressed. I was won over. I was freaking convinced.

KJ fielded some tough questions from the audience–on neighborhood pollution issues, the city budget deficit, crime and policing, homeless issues, the St. Hope investigation, economics, and education. And he answered those questions well. I wanted to ask him about his environmental agenda, but I was actually just too interested in the other questions and time ran out. (Apparently, under Mr. Johnson’s watch, meetings will begin and end on time. Gotta like that.)

But the clincher for me? The man simply has energy and enthusiasm for this city. And that shone through. He demonstrated that he was obviously well informed–citing crime stats and budget stats easily (and as he should be able to do by this point in the game). He has fresh ideas, and good ideas. Do I agree with him 100%? No. I don’t think he’s perfect. I think his inexperience will be an obstacle for him; but I came away believing that he has the personal strength and drive to overcome that inexperience. I’m still concerned that he may end up just installing a new cadre/personality cult in City Hall. I’m still worried that his emphasis on economic growth may blind him to other neighborhood and sustainability issues. I’m still wondering what in the heck he liked so much about freakin’ Phoenix (but in the interest of being halfway mature, I will stop bringing it up).

Mr. Johnson, you have my vote. I hope you will make a great mayor of this city that I love.

6 Degrees

Oh, yeah, Sarah Palin–you complete me.

Every time I hear the voice of Sarah Palin, I am seized with the desire to run to the Sacramento for Obama office and immediately start placing phone calls. And it’s not just that godawful I-wish-I-were-midwestern accent (WTF).

I won’t go in to the fear and loathing I’ve felt over the past few years. But I’ve actually been heard to say (prior to the past couple of weeks), that I wouldn’t feel like dying inside if John McCain were elected. But now? Yeah, fear and loathing, part deux.

Do I want to see a woman in the White House in my lifetime? Hey, it wouldn’t suck, now, would it? But that one? I’d rather be skewered alive and roasted over the flames of Satan’s own barbecue. Seriously, I am not so enamored of “woman power” that I am stupid enough to vote for someone just because she’s female.

Subliminal message.

Let’s take stock: So far, as I understand it, Sarah Palin is opposed to pretty much everything I believe in. She opposes sex education and birth control. Frankly, it’s…uh…showing, dear. Look, I don’t care what your politics are, I simply cannot fathom a world where young women are denied the information they need about their bodies and their sexuality. I got basic sex ed in something like 6th grade, and you know what: the message was that our bodies are normal, here’s what they do, here are some of your options. It didn’t seem all that controversial to me at the time (I remember lots of giggling in the room), but good information is preferable to ignorance in any situation, I’d wager.

Next? Choice. Okay…here we go. I would put this statement forward: Just about no one is “pro” abortion. Think about that one for a minute. Did you ever stop and say to yourself “hey what a great idea”? (Okay, you ZPGers are excused from answering that one.) But really, the idea of women having that choice is, in fact, important to me. Whether it’s in theory or in practice. Nobody wants to have an abortion, but sometimes it is a critical life decision. To have a woman in office who is anti-choice (oh, pro-life, whatever), is to acknowledge that we want to send our young women back to the Dark Ages. Show me a world where women are educated, empowered, and make as much money as their male counterparts; I’ll show you a world where abortion rates drop dramatically. 

On gun control, I disagree with Our Lady of Wasilla yet again. I was raised in a family of hunters. I believe in the right to keep and bear arms. My family believed in gun safety, yet four people I know have taken their own lives–or others’–with guns. Not only that, I believe that while NRA members have the right to carry guns, criminals do not. Yet, how do you reconcile that? From a simply practical standpoint, the right of a citizen to carry an AK-47 does in fact make me raise my eyebrows a bit. The right of a hunter to possess a gun that can bring down a moose that she can then field-dress? Hey, I’m okay with that as long as she doesn’t try to make me help with the gutting. 

On the book banning…well, do I need to say it? I will anyway. It is the first step of the despot, and the narrow-minded. Let us not contaminate our children’s minds with such filth, you say? My response is: hello, parental responsibility (don’t I sound all Republican). Seriously, the first thing the crackpot rulers do is throw out all the artists, thinkers, philosophers, and writers. It’s easy to control illiterate masses…

On the environment and energy…again Palin and I are polar (ha!) opposites. Look, we’ve had at minimum 30 years since our last “energy crisis” to figure out alternative solutions. Yet, we have done almost nil because of lack of political will and political pressure. We the people have been slackin’ a bit. That does not mean it’s time to panic and head for the nearest convenient oil source (which she overstated ridiculously, mind you).  To turn back the long-fought, hard-won protections of our coasts and wildlife refuges is anathema.

My issue with Sarah Palin is not with her as a mother, a woman, or a person. But as a leader, she fills me with dread. She is a slap in the face of the women who came before us. 

But, Sarah has done something I consider quite wonderful. She’s shown me that I have more in common in my soul with a black man who grew up poor and went to an Ivy League school, than I do with a white woman who shares my race, gender, culture, early education, hair color, eyewear preferences, and a whole lotta other demographics that are supposed to count.

Hmmm.

No mas, Natomas.

Normally, I’d just leave the Natomas chat to those who live there, but I found myself (yet again) cruising the magnificent, sweeping boulevards of Sacramento’s red-headed stepchild today. My goal was two-fold: locate Borders and food. Both objectives were completed with great success. But, along the way, I started feeling a little mystified and then a tad empathetic toward Natomasians.

As I drove up Del Paso, I passed numerous stripmalls in varying stages of development, interspersed with wide, flat swaths of cleared land that (I can only assume) is not being built on for economic or FEMA reasons. I passed the “Town Center”–which was truly baffling. It appears to be a gas station. I mean, seriously, who is behind this (non)planning? Natomas seems to have been designed by people who subscribe to the “There’s no there, there” philosophy of suburban layout.  All the shopping centers (and there are quite a few) are identical, as if the building plans were ordered from cookie-cutter-stripmalls-r-us.com. These so-called master-planned developments do not appear to be walkable, bike-friendly, or even remotely inspired. However, you can certainly find any type of fast-food you could possibly want.

Even more baffling is that Borders is on Natomas Drive, right near a huge sign that proclaims “Natomas Park” (I didn’t see a park), but Natomas Park Drive is 5 miles south, off El Camino.

I found myself humming the theme song from “Weeds”–you know the one: “Ticky tacky, little houses..and they all look just the same.”

The saving grace of my venture was the serendipitous discovery that Tuk Tuk restaurant is located in the same sprawling center as Borders. Melly over at Cooking Schmooking had recommended it a while back, and I had forgotten about it until I drove past. The service was a bit slow, considering there were only two occupied tables and it was lunchtime. However, Melly was right–the food was excellent. I tried the green curry with chicken. The curry was medium-hot, full of complex spices, a bit on the watery side, but very flavorful anyway. I am a Thai junkie, so I probably should have asked for the “hot” level, but I’ll know for next time. The veggies, including  perfectly done eggplant, were fresh, as were the generous chunks of chicken.  The restaurant’s decor is filled with lovely, well-polished woods, low-slung tables, and huge wall sculptures. My only complaint is that they somehow determined that their very small restaurant needed not just one but *three* flat screens interspersed around the entry and dining area. Three. Why? Do people really go out to eat so they can watch TV? Call me crazy, but I think TVs in restaurant dining rooms are totally unacceptable.  Sports bars and pubs? Yeah, okay, that’s expected. But don’t these restaurants want you to pay attention to their food and/or your dining companions? Anyway, aside from the TVs,  I was glad to find this little oasis of quite good Thai food in the strange land that is Natomas.

Why do people keep building these disconnected urban barnacles that just end up being festering sinkholes of sameness? Riddle me that, Batman.