My pet peeve--plastic bags and how to load them

All hail the LA City Council for becoming the largest city in the US to ban plastic grocery bags! Californians use 12 billion plastic bags a year and only 5% are recycled. I believe a contributing factor is that check-out clerks are trained improperly in loading bags. At Target a few weeks ago, I bought wine, crackers, and toothpaste, among other things. The trainee clerk was told to put my wine in one bag and the toiletries in another, and the food in another. I told the trainer clerk I only wanted one bag. She was very nice but still tried to put the wine in a separate bag. I had to repeat that I only wanted one bag--I only had a few items that were lightweight and easily fit into one bag. And last I checked, the crackers are inside a sealed bag, inside a sealed box. The wine is corked and the cork is sealed. The toothpaste is in a sealed tube inside a sealed box. I'm fine with sealed boxes touching each other for the ride home from the store. I went to Target again today. I bought milk, bandaids and vitamins. The clerk put the milk in a separate bag. I said "This is a waste of bags" and I put the bandaids and vitamins in with the milk. She said "Oh but they'll get wet." Seriously, lady??!! The bandaids are wrapped up inside a box, the vitamins are in a jar inside a box. The condensation from the milk carton won't hurt anything on my 5-minute drive home. And you know what? I got home and nothing was wet. Shocking! This inordinate amount of waste is why we need these bag ban laws on the books. If you've ever participated in a beach clean-up or trash pick-up event, you know that you collect tons of plastic bags. Even if you don't mean to pollute, when you toss them in the trash or a dumpster, they are so light, any amount of wind picks them up and carries them on the breeze until they get stuck in brush or trees or power lines. A car driving by moves them to a new location. They only stop blowing in the wind when they land in some body of water and pollute our lakes and oceans, or end up in the gutter only to be washed into the sewer and out to sea, therefore threatening the fragile ecosystems that sustain life. So I applaud the LA City Council and hope it starts the ball rolling to make this ban statewide. And once that happens, California can lead the way for the rest of the nation to follow in our bag-free footsteps!

What does a stolen car mean?

For as long as I can remember, or at least as long as I have lived in California, I have had a recurring dream that my car gets stolen. It's happened with different cars (but always my real car at the time), in different places, under different circumstances, with different people involved, but always the same theme. I had another one of these dreams last night. My car was stolen in 'downtown LA'--although the place certainly wasn't downtown LA. And all the dreams end the same: Whether friends, aquaintances or strangers are around, no one offers assistance, no one seems to care, and I am left trying to contact the police by myself. In last night's dream, in "downtown LA", I was going to give a ride home to a neighbor. In real life, this guy doesn't exist. I guess he was just a figment of my imagination. In the dream, when the car was gone, this 'neighbor" found another way home and left. Then I ran into a friend's brother, who does exist in real life. He was going to give me a ride home, but I had to keep arguing with him that I had to go to the police station. He finally understood and let me out of the car so I could report the crime to the cops. And then he was on his way. Then the dream ended--like they always do. I've never gotten to the point in the dream when the police come, or the car is recovered, or have any kind of conclusion. It just ends. I don't like it--it's very unsettling. So, today I researched dream interpretations on the internet. The few sites that had "car being stolen" listed, had the same interpretation. They said that dreaming about your car being stolen represents yourself and your ability to control your life, and that your personality is being taken away either through the loss of employment, a relationship, or other circumstance in which your sense of self plays a role. None of that applies to my life right now. At least I don't think it does. But I was telling a friend the other day that I am bored with everything in life and if I want to make it different, I need to do something different. Maybe the dream is telling me to go for it, that I do need to change my personality, my life, my sense of self. Now I just need to figure out who I am supposed to be. In the meantime, I'll keep locking my car doors.

$2 Billion dollars!

The big news here in Southern California, which you've all heard by now, is that the Dodgers sold for $2.15 billion dollars!! That is an unfathomable amount of moola. Just to comprehend that amount of money, divide $2 billion by your yearly salary. I know everyone reading my blog lives a relatively comfortable life, but how many THOUSANDS of years would it take you to make that kind of cash? Even if you make great money, you're probably looking at a 5-figure answer. It's shocking! I'm an Angels fan, but I have nothing against the Dodgers. I'm glad that Magic Johnson is part of the new ownership team. If my Angels don't win, I don't really mind if the Dodgers do--I'm happy with someone representing Southern California. And yes, my Angels spent a boatload of money too, on just one player, who I can't wait to see on opening night, but that's the problem--way too much money is spent in professional sports! Nearly a billion people on earth don't have access to clean, safe water and 3.5 million die every year of water-related disease. One in seven people on this planet don't know where their next meal is coming from, and some of them are probably your neighbors. Close to 600,000 people died of cancer in 2011 in the Untied States alone, and AIDS took over 1.5 million souls worldwide. What could we do with $2 billion dollars? We could provide water to the thirsty, food to the hungry, shelter for the homeless. We could shore up infrastructure in order to prevent another Katrina, we could work harder to find and implement alternative souces of energy and save our environment. We could educate the masses, cure disease. Hell, we could save the world! Instead, $2 billion bought a baseball team. Our priorities might be a little off, but this is our world, our reality. And we all have the ability to balance it out. Get out there and work at a soup kitchen, volunteer for a beach clean-up, teach an illiterate adult to read. Get involved in your community, pay attention to what is going on in the world, and for God's sake, vote! Just do something! Two billion is a lot of money for baseball, and Opening Day is next week. Go Angels!

Westminster Dog Show

This time of year always makes me wish I had a dog. The 2012 Westminster Dog Show is in the history books. The Grand Champion was the Pekingese, Malachy. I do like him--he made me laugh. It is impossible to watch that hairy little thing slowly waddle around the ring without laughing. I almost felt sorry for him making the cut to Best in Show because he'd have to make a few extra laps around the ring for the judge. It's a lot of walking for those little legs--and he lagged way behind the German Shepherd, Doberman and Dalmation. My all-time favorites, the Chinese Crested and Irish Wolfhound, never win, but my record was a lot better this year. Eight of the dogs I liked made it to the finals of their groups, and one, the Doberman, won her group! I picked a winner! And she was my overall favorite this year--beautiful dog. But the best part is that her name was Fifi! I mean, who names a vicious Doberman Fifi? I love it! It is so classic! This year I also paid attention to breeds that I thought would be good for me. I really like the Whippet, Manchester Toy Terrier, Canaan Dog, German Pinscher, and Standard Manchester. They are all small-to-medium size with short hair, dogs I could take for a long walk or a short run, who don't shed too much. But I'd need to win the lottery so I could buy a house with a yard before I could think about getting a dog. I guess I can always dream--and wait for Westminster next year.

The Jukebox at the Bar

I miss old fashioned jukeboxes. You know the kind--you hit a button and flip the 'pages' with pictures of album covers. You could play track 4 on side B of the album you bought because you liked the number one hit you heard on the radio, but track 4, side B became your favorite song. Years pass and you forget about that song, but on a jukebox, you could always find it again. The new high-tech jukebox at my favorite Irish bar is digital. Sure, it's pretty, it's fancy, it's new,and it has thousands of songs, but you basically have to know the song or artist you want to play. You can't flip through, see something you'd forgotten about, and think 'Wow, I used to love that song! I'll play it now'. It's just not as much fun, and it's a dollar a song!! So much for nostalgia!

Online Dating

Are you into the online dating thing? I'm not. Did it once maybe 10-12 years ago and went on one date--never again. Not that it was some horrible experience, but the guy was so damn irritating that I'd prefer to take my chances meeting someone randomly. But, sometimes when I'm bored, I'll look at some of the free sites for a laugh. Found a perfect one, NOT! This guy absolutely takes the cake. On this site you have to answer questions by completing sentences. Obviously not an easy task for some people. The sentence starts "I have a weakness for girls who..." He writes "women with intelligent." WTF!!! I almost want to fork over the $25 so I could write him and ask "Women with intelligent what? Pets, kids, what?" Anyhow, I doubt many women with intelligence want to date a moron. And if you are a moron who wants to upgrade to a higher caliber date, at least enlist the help of a friend to proofread your profile so you don't look like an idiot. He must have done that, after the fact, because he changed his answer. It now reads "are honest and wear there heart on there sleeve just like me." Good Lord--he went from bad to worse! Basic English, people! Isn't it 3rd or 4th grade when you learn the difference between there, their, and they're? Maybe he skipped school that year. Thanks for the laughs, guy--and good luck with that dating thing!

Rose Bowl Week and So Cal Weather

It's that time of year again--Rose Bowl Week. The tourists have already started arriving and the weather, as usual, has changed. It has become unseasonably warm. This is NOT normal. Everyone who is freezing in the rest of the country sits in front of the TV and watches the Rose Bowl Parade, the game, the sunshine and the t-shirts in January, and thinks "Let's move to LA!" DON'T DO IT!!! It's a trick! Don't be fooled! This warm weather and sunshine is an anomaly! Sure it's warm and sunny this week, but winter comes back when you aren't watching. No one who lives here actually wears a t-shirt in January--that's insane!! It's cold! My advice to you is to sit in your warm living room on your comfy couch, and watch our nice weather on TV--knowing that next week we'll be freezing and miserable. Happy New Year! And stay warm! ;-)