An Incongruous Christmas
I ended up listening to a contemporary christian radio station the other morning. Not because I listen to contemporary christian music, but I wanted to sing along to christmas tunes and contemporary christian radio stations are gold mines this time of year.
“Silver Bells” came to an end and it was time for a commercial break. Before the commercials, there was a PSA-type announcement from the radio station saying something to the effect of: Christmas is a special holiday because jesus christ, our lord and savior was born. It’s not about the presents or materialism, but about rejoicing and celebrating jesus and this glorious day. So let’s make it a point to think about jesus alot and spend lots of time worshipping with our christian family and friends, because Christmas is about jesus, not presents!
Immediately following this PSA was a commercial for Fred Meyer, Jared Jewlers and a slew of additional retailers promoting last minute Christmas sales and extended store hours for last minute shoppers “to get those final presents for everyone on your list!”.
Anyone else find this a bit incongruous?
The Last Few Weeks
Driving through town the other day I came across this complete random and out of place ugly sweater sidewalk sale. Aside from the general weirdness I thought was so great, I most appreciated the unnaturally massive stuffed barney advertising the sale.
I really love reading. However, with so many life distractions, I’ve unfortunately put reading on the back burner more often than I’d like to admit. However, I’ve made it a goal to spend more time reading. Actually I’ve made it a goal to spend more time doing stuff sans technology. I will be the first to say how much I do love my technology…but I do love my IRL hobbies as well. I’m in the midst of reading 4 Hour Workweek. Perhaps this book will give me tips so I can be more efficient both on and offline.
Only in Texas. Need I say more?
When I worked at Old Navy 4 years ago, I could fit into a size small. I am more or less the same size now; however, now I can’t fit into any women’s sizes as sizing has increased so drastically. The small, medium and large tags stayed the same…the clothes are just bigger now. I’d say an Old Navy small today is probably the size of an Old Navy large cerca 2008.
Aside from the feeling of annoyance for having to shop in the kids section if I want to shop at Old Navy…I really just feel sad. If you gain weight, you get bigger clothes, if you lose weight, you get smaller clothes. Clothing companies shouldn’t make clothes bigger without changing the label. I presume this is done so people will have false hope that the bathroom scale is wrong and they actually didn’t gain those extra 20 pounds…impossible if they haven’t gone up a size at Old Navy!
Lame.
I tried this dress on at Old Navy. It’s a size small but it looked like I had tried on a garbage bag with head and arm cutouts. I put the hanger in the pic for size reference. Fail.
So speaking of gaining weight, I made some sweet treats that WON’T make you gain wait, if consumed in moderation. 85% dark chocolate topped with either banana, peanut butter, or died cranberries.
The end.
A Note Of Thanks
I woke up this morning to find this message waiting for me. I’ll be honest – it made my morning. And now I am off to write my own letter.
So I found your senior pic you gave to me! while i was cleaning my car and I just wanted to drop in and say
1) you are a fantastic person!
2) I am so grateful for your friendship (even though we have not really talked in forever)
3) I feel like I owe you so much because you were one of the best friends ever at writing me on my mission and you will never really know how much I appreciated that and loved getting every single one
4) You are seriously so great! so dedicated! and just one of those people that is not afraid to go for it!
5) I look up to your determination and hard work at doing things, it always seems like you just got the whole world figured out, and what you want from life, and how your going to get it.
6) because of these great qualities you are one of those people that when I think about how to make my life and self better i think about you. and try and be just a little bit more like you!
7) today someone from Brazil wrote me a letter thanking me for my work and stuff down there and it made me feel so great that I wanted to pay it forward, and I hope this made you feel great too! because you are! the end!
Reno
I travel quite a bit, but am never quite sure how to write about my experiences. Perhaps it’s because during my trips, I usually see only a handful of places – airports, hotels, long stretches of highway, and schools. It’s challenging for me to completely reflect upon a place I’ve only experienced a small part of.
By the same token, this is my blog and these are my experiences. There’s nothing that says I must experience something to it’s entirety before writing about it. Plus, the task of experiencing something to it’s entirety is quite subjective.
With that said, my Reno experience:
The first thing I saw when stepping off the airplane was a bunch of slot machines. What wonderful foreshadowing for the rest of my Reno trip.
Our hotel/casino: The Nugget. My first Nugget impressions? 1980s, smoke, smoke, smoke, flashing lights, sensory overload, smoke, smoke, smoke.
I must say, I saw far too many elderly people with blank stares parked in front of slot machines, chips in one hand, oxygen tanks in the other. It made me sad to think these people were gambling away money they probably should be spending on medication, decent food and really any activity that isn’t addicting and/or mindless.
However, back to the note of subjectivity – I am judging these people’s lifestyles by my standards/perspective rather than simply appreciating the fact that just maybe this is what makes them happy.
At the hotel/casino, we were on the non-smonking floor. And yes, I said smonking. I could not quite figure out what “smonking” was; however, as the floor was filled with cigarette smoke, I figured “smoNking” and “smoking” were not synonymous.
Here’s a view from the hotel. This was taken from the side with the pretty view.
This machine will NOT accept half dollars.
One evening, we had dinner at a restaurant just off casino grounds. As we were walking back through the casino, we came across a bit of evening entertainment. Please enjoy a snippit of the “Steppen Stonz”
Our last night in Reno was spent in a different hotel, as every last room at The Nug was supposedly booked. We took a cab from one casino/hotel to the other – THAT was an experience.
It seemed our cab driver was hot boxing the cab with his cigarette smoke. He told us he moved to Reno from Mass. to get away from the cold weather and because he is a gambler. He also told us the other cab companies in town were all a bunch of “arrogant bastards”. Perfect.
The cab fare was ~$12 and I gave him a $20. He did not hand change back. Here was our conversation:
Me: “Could I please get my change?”
Guy: “Oh, uh, I thought you said I could keep it.”
Me: “No, I didn’t. Unfortunately, I’m not authorized to give you a 65% tip for doing your job.”
Ok fine…so I left off the “for doing your job” part. But seriously. I presume he’s used to people not paying attention to him not returning change, or people giving 65% tip because what the hell…they’re on vacay! Unfortunately, I don’t have that monetary luxury. Or that desire to support him and his gambling addiction.
Our next hotel. Slightly less depressing…slightly less smokey…slightly more trashy…slightly more Christmassy.
So, the new casino was promoting the heck out of their Facebook & Twitter. Eventually, my curiosity got the best of me, so I hopped online to check it out. Upon reaching their Twitter page, I saw they were giving away a pair of Wynonna Judd tickets (she was performing that evening at the casino). After a quick search, I confirmed that no one had yet “entered” this contest. So of course I replied and BAM! Wynonna tickets were mine!
I’ve never been a Wynonna Judd type of girl, so we immediately pulled up as many Wynonna YouTube videos as possible, in an attempt to “learn” as many songs as possible. Shows are so much better when you know the words to the songs.
The show was in some sort of a multi-purpose hotel basement room. I think my favorite part of the show was the crowd. I’d say we were about 25 years younger than the average aged person there.
Many people in the crowd felt the necessity to heckle Wynonna. For the entire show. Wynonna ate this up at the heckling buffet. How did she react? Oh, you know, by heckling the crowd back. Between Wynonna’s heckling & liquid courage, I would say about 1/2 the concert involved various audience members screaming complete nonsense at Wynonna. I wouldn’t have asked for anything less.
Casino buffets. I don’t even know where to begin with this. I guess I could best sum it up with 2.5 words: glutton’s paradise. Here’s what I had for breakfast. Ravioli, pasta with red sauce, green beans, rice, eggs, potatoes, bacon, strawberries, watermelon, artichoke, tomatoes and some other meat thing.
Oh wait. I can’t forget my 2nd course of breakfast: ice cream and chocolate cake. So healthy.
Although I look happy in this picture, I really am sad by how horrible buffet restaurant mentality is. I walked by people who were so big they could barely walk, but still had plates jammed packed with bacon, pastries, ham, waffels, fries, rolls, pie with whipped cream and donuts.
I’m just as guilty as the next guy as I was there, therefore technically supporting buffets. …although I like to think I redeemed myself a little because I only ate what I was hungry for, rather than downing as much as was physically possible. Regardless, it made me sad. Womp womp.
By the last day, I had hit my max on sensory load, second hand smoke & breakfast buffets, so we decided to take a walk and get some fresh air:
Y ya. Finalmente, it was time to head home. All in all, the trip was good. I saw alot, I learned alot, but I must admit…I was pretty darn exhausted by the end of the week. Happy to have experienced Reno. Even more happy to be coming home to clean air, fruits & veggies.
Upon arrival to AUS, I took a shuttle to get back to my place. As the shuttle driver dragged my suitcase to the van, he said: “Do you speak any other languages?”. My first reaction was: Hmmm. What a dangerously specific 1st thing to say to someone.
I let him know I speak Spanish. One thing let to another and I ended up learning the following in the time span of about 10 minutes: He is from Cuba. He’s been in Austin for about 10 years. He was given a visa to come to Austin through some sort of visa lottery program. He really likes Austin. He does not know how to salsa dance. He knows how to speak Italian. He knows how to speak Italian because he used to work at a hotel in Cuba where there were alot of Italian guests. He speaks a little French. He likes Thai food. Especially Thai food from Thai Passion. Need more?
Upon arrival to my place, I expected the guy to hand me my suitcase y ya. Donezo. But no. This was not the case. In addition to handing me my suitcase, the guy proceeded to hand me the mix CD we had been listening to in the car…as well as a take out menu from a Thai restaurant. (what?)
I’d like to say I was perplexed by this complete and totally random bearing of gifts…however, based on the festivities of this past week in Reno, it actually seemed to be the perfect conclusion.
You Can Only See The Future With Open Eyes
This morning I was reading an article in ODE about holistic medicine – what it said just makes alot of sense:
“Health care is not a business for stock listed companies. It is about human relationships and the understanding that, given the right circumstances, the body wants to – and can – heal itself.”
Reminds me of a conversation I had with Ashly about the difference she’s seen between health care in Amsterdam vs the U.S. Said when she’s visited the doctor in Amsterdam with flu-like symptoms, the doc. usually does not prescribe medicine and rather says to drink lots of fluids, go home and sleep so the body can fight the flu off naturally.
Kinda threw me at first, but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. As much as I like the idea of getting better as quickly as possible when sick, the idea of letting my body chillax and repair itself the natural way rather than pumping myself with medication sounds alot nicer.
A little more from the article:
” . . . the fight against cancer requires more than the traditional surgery, radiation . . . the lack of breakthrough should lead to modesty and new appraoches from health-care providers.”
“This industry makes money from drug patents, not acupuncture needles. But sometimes needles are better (and cheaper) than pills, love is more effective than drugs and healthy eating has its own healing effect.”
Integrative health care – the combination of Western medicine with holistic treatments. Creating a system to include relationships, education & natural fixes rather than focusing on quick fixes, business & profit.
Our health care system has evolved into short-term fixes rather than focusing on long-term “big picture” stuff. Perhaps it’s working well enough now, but the system we have now won’t work forever.
I think it really can all be summed up in one sentence:
“You can only see the future with open eyes.”