Every summer DeLand hosts “Tropical Nights” in downtown.  They shut down Indiana Ave. and create a street party, complete with live music, food vendors, and (most importantly) snow-cones.  All of the businesses downtown stay open late and have different sales and activities at their establishments to attract customers.  They sell drinks outdoors – in fact, you can walk around with your beverage.  It’s like our own Mardi Gras!   It’s a big success, and I was here for one of them last year.

Last night was the first one this year and I headed down with a friend.  I was shocked, like last time, at the crowd on the sidewalks and street.  It was like being in DC or Boston again; people on the streets!  The night was really fun – we grabbed hot dogs at Casey’s on the Corner (YUM), we took in some music at Da Vinci’s (best outdoor venue for music), we went dancing at Aces of Spades (upstairs in the Artisan Hotel, which changes ownership like twice a year – but good dancing none the less).  We then ended up at Brickhouse, which on a normal night is filled with DeLand residents of all ages, enjoying food/drink and watching sports at the bar.  Unfortunately, we didn’t take into account that Stetson (my alma mater) was in Summer Session and so many college students would be there (it’s the #1 spot for Stetson students to go out drinking).

Things were quite lovely at first.  I was there with my girl friend and two boys and we were all having fun people watching.  Stetson is known for their “pretty boys;” right out of the pages of A&F or J. Crew, they are nice to look/drool at (the girls are very attractive as well, in case you were wondering).  We were sitting at a side table, chatting, when one particularly drunk kid (he couldn’t have been over 19), starts “backing it up” to me.  Booty dancing.  Like a white boy.  A 5’10, 120lb, incoherant, white boy.  It was funny, at first.  We laughed, at first.  But then it continued, and went past the point of being funny, to being annoying and obnoxious.

Now,  having been a college student myself, ages and ages ago, I understand the need to get out there and act the fool every once in awhile.  Especially during the summer, when classes are few and your are probably a freshman who’s enjoying your first weeks of real freedom.

That’s great for you.

However, there comes a point when you eventually cross a line.  Or 12.  We all do it.  And this little boy had crossed his.  I wasn’t even that bothered by him, to tell you the truth.   I was more annoyed that no one had his back.  He was surrounded by other students, who knew him I’m sure, and no one stepped in and pulled him off of me; a stranger, an older women who was clearly done with his attention.  I was really embarassed for my alma mater.

See, Stetson has a reputation among the residents of DeLand of being filled with over-privledged white kids, who come from Connecticut (sorry Conn, you were the first NE state I thought of), and act arrogant and snobby to the town folks.  In contract, DeLand has a reputation (among the students) of being filled with redneck “townies,” who are uneducated and missing some of the teeth.  As you can see, we love our stereotypes around here.

I have defended both sides to each other, as I know for a fact that the stereotypes are (mostly) incorrect.  So when I see a group of students fulfilling that stereotype, boosting it even, it pisses me off.   I’m an alumnae of the University AND its Greek system.  I stress the greek part because they have an even stronger rep for being princesses and douchebags.  So when some 18 y.0. tool and his friends are out there giving my college a bad name, I’m gonna do something.

After repeatedly telling the boy to move on and stop sitting on my lap and grinding in my face, I then show him my drink and demonstrate how I am going to pour it down his pants if he doesn’t move.  He was completely drunk, to the point of not being able to communicate with words, only using his hands (and ass moving) to try and speak to me.  Awesome.  I warn him about three times that I’m going to dump the drink.  Hey, I’m not going to kill you without a warning shot.  He is obviously not understanding me, so when he comes up again I follow-thru with my promise and dump the drink down his back.  He reacted a bit, to the cold I’m sure, and backed off.  He actually tried coming up again, but I think one of his friends finally came up and pulled him back.

Speaking of which, let me go back to being in the friends.  I don’t even care if he was a freshman, someone should have been decent enough to help him out.  It’s one thing for you to act like a fool to other college students/people you know, and quite another to harrass a stranger.  That’s not cool with me and that truly is what set me off.

Had I thought it through, I would have dragged his ass over to his friends and tore them a new one for representing our campus in such a negative light.  No one puts my alma mater in the corner!  Or something like that.

I’ve decided that next time I catch them harrassing “townies,” I will deliver them to the President’s front porch (located about two blocks down), with a note attached to their shirt, and ring the doorbell.

This aggression will not stand!

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In Season 1’s episode, “Hard Ball,” Josh is negotiating his contract with TGS, which is Jack’s favorite thing to do.  Liz warns Josh not to be afraid of Jack’s tactics because advertisers love him and he tests well.  Josh then uses this info against TGS during negotiations, even going so far as to call-in “sick” when he’s actually interviewing for “The Daily Show.”  Liz finds this out by running into him during the middle of the interview, which was taking place in the cafe downstairs at 30 Rock Center.

LIZ:  Josh?  [Josh spots Liz]  You stupid turd.

JOSH:  Hey!  Liz, this is —

LIZ:  Yeah, I can guess who this is.  Are you trying to get on another show, behind my back?

JOSH:  Look, Liz, I’m sorry.  It’s just business.

LIZ:  No.  It’s not “business.”  I stood up for you!  You were opening for a puppet show when I found you!  How could you betray me like this?  You know, that’s not even the worst part.  You want to know what the worst part is? [Starts hitting him]  You. Proved. Jack Donaghy.  Right.  Again!  [Starts to walk away, comes back]  And by the way, what kind of moron calls out sick and then comes in to work to have a meeting?

JOSH:  I get a NBC discount here.

LIZ:  Idiot!

There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and The Great Pumpkin.

– Linus, Peanuts

Well Linus, I tackled religion in my last post so it only seems appropriate that I hit politics next.  Much like religion, I’ve been thinking about writing on this for a long time; it’s just such a large and potentially sensitive subject that I never dedicated any time to it.  However, I was prompted (once again) by a discussion I had with a stranger last night:

I mostly debate politics with convervatives/republicans when I’m out; folks who are older and white(r) and male.  I ran into a fellow last night – white, 48 y.o., and a business owner.  He didn’t give off the normal Deep South, southern attitude; he also gave off no redneck vibe.  He said that he was an independent and that he had actually done his research and was well-informed on the constitution (carries it with him!) and politics.  He runs a medical device company in the area and caught my attention when he started going off about healthcare reform and how much he hated it, and Obama.  I naturally wove myself into the conversation and asked him what he felt was terrible about it.  Among other things, he felt that the reform was going to bankrupt the insurance companies and that all of our taxes would go up by 20% in order to cover the insurance.

20%, really?   Seems like a bit much.  Especially since many people pay that, or less, IN TOTAL for their income tax.  I started asking him how in the world our taxes were going to double simply due to the mandate.  He started explaining, but it was so tangental that I had problems keeping up with him.  I think he was quoting research he had done, but I hadn’t heard that high tax mentioned until this point and was unsure what his sources were.

He explained to me that, as a business owner who works in medical devices, he spends a lot of his time reading and hearing about healthcare news.  Fine, this sounds promising – I’m interested to know what he’s found out.  He then went back to the idea that the insurance companies will soon be bankrupt, which I had to press the pause button on.  Knowing what I know about insurance companies and their high profits and their countless lobbyists, I was finding it hard to believe that they would collapse anytime soon.

And then he told me that all the banks were going to collapse.

And that Obama was an idiot and a criminal and should be impeached.

And that a Saudi Arabian Prince paid for Obama’s Harvard education (“look it up!”  I did.  And I found no legitimate support for it.)

And that Obama has no “American Values” because he was raised in Indonesia and Hawaii(not the US?) and that only people born in the US of A could have “American Values.”  “Why does Romney have Amerian Values?” I asked.  “Because he was born here!” he exclaimed.  I brought up the absurdity of Obama’s mother having created this “conspiracy” of his birthplace since day one because, you know, she KNEW he would be running for Prez one day.  “It’s a certifciate of live birth!  That means nothing!” he exclaimed.  I also brought up the stupidity of saying that someone has American Values SIMPLY because they are born on our soil (genetic?).

And that we might as well vote for Romney because things can’t get any worse than they are.  “But things can alwasy get worse, no?”  I asked. How was he so certain that Romney would be a positive change?  And he was quick to say that he didn’t know, that he was just going with the idea that anything is better than what we have.  Sure.  Ok.

But it gets better/weirder!

He then goes on to say that there’s NOTHING we can do to stop the demise of the United States.

“Nothing?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he repeats.

Well now, that it quite the defeatest attitude.  You’re saying that the country is going to self-destruct but but there’s nothing we can do about it.  Not even voting for Romney (which we should still do, simply because they can’t get worse.  but wait, he already said they can, and will).  We’re effectively a trainwreck with no breaks to fix.

So what’s your political view again?

He hates Obama; he hated Bush.  He thinks all government is corrupt, but has no solution on what to do.  None.  In the half-hour we spoke, I came up with quite a few ways to work backwards to get rid of some of the corruption.  Although, like him, I  had to agree that I didn’t know how we could unite as a people to fight the corporations and lobbyists with unlimited funds who ultimately control our government.  He seemed to agree with some thoughts I had, which made it all the stranger to me that he had never spent time focusing on a solution.  Just focused on complaining.   Loudly.

At least I try, people!  At least I realize that there is corruption on both sides and that it’s going to take a lot of unraveling to correct it.  It was really disheartening to see someone so negative and defeated regarding the future.  I mean, if you’re not even going to try to come up with a solution, stop bitching about the problems.

In another spin in the debate, he told me that there are five groups of people that are liberal.  This I gotta hear.

1.  Minorities (Bingo!  You can stop there, I told him. I’m done!)

2.  Students (those educated asses)

3.  Professors (those asses trying to futher educate the other asses)

4.  Artists (I’ll cover that in a minute – entirely another topic!)

5.  Gays

Now, he was quite hesitant to tell me that last group because he “didn’t want to be politically incorrect.”  I literally laughed out loud (not the first time in our discussion) and let him know that he crossed that line ages ago.  I then went on to guess the final group – only took two tries.

Ahem.  This is quite the group of folks these crazy liberals are, ain’t it?  I was completely intrigued by this man’s views; I mean, like, write a whole disseration on his madness, intrigued.

Going back to artists and art, we gotta rewind.

This fellow was originally talking to my friend – gay male, hair dresser, and “mayor” of DeLand.  I say this because he knew every.single.person that walked into the bar.  They all came up, hugged him, shared a laugh.  So the fellow brings up the idea of art to my gay friend, telling him that “all art could be wiped from existence and we would continue to function with no issues.”

Yes.  He said it.

My friend had a quizzical look on his face and brought up the fact that language itself began with cave drawings…you know, ART.  The fellow continues talking, saying that artists contribute nothing real to society.  “What I do is real!  I make decisions that affect people and families!  All an artists has to decide is how to mold their next sculpture!”

THIS was in the point in the conversation when I started laughing.  It was more like a hoot.

My friend then brings up the fact that he himself is an artist and also has to make “real” decisions.  All the time.  The fellow brings up the point that he does photography as a side job, takes pics of the Orlando ballet, and is just all too familiar with artists.  I mean, why else would he make a statement like that?  He’s an artists himself!

So back to wiping art of the face of the earth.  My friend, wisely, gets up and moves to a different part of the bar, wanting nothing to do with our debate (we’d gone political at that point).  I wanted to yell, “Come back!  This affects YOU.  He’s talking about THE GAYS!!  And THE ARTISTS!!”

Yeah, I tend to get a little worked up when it comes to discussions.  And I just couldn’t understand why you couldn’t want to argue about something that directly speaks about you and who you are.  However, I then realized that some people don’t want to discuss politics – ever – and it doesn’t matter if it’s about slandering who they are.  That’s fine, I’m ok with that.  To each their own.  I’ve got a loud enough voice for us all 🙂

The fellow believes that the first thing to go in a failing society should be the arts.  I then brought up the fact that during The Great Depression, and other periods of economic depression, more people actually went to the movies – to escape!  Arts and entertainment had a very important function during these times; they lifted the spirits of the people.  People who needed something to look forward to when the rest of their lives were pretty miserable.  So even though he might want to get rid of the arts first, that certainly isn’t what happens.  What actually happens?  We get rid of our public services – teachers, police, fireman.

He agreed with me.

Furthermore, the wealthy love the arts!  Who’s sitting up front at the opera, who’s paying millions for an original Van Gough?  The rich!  So even as the rest of us are living out a recession – and the rich stay rich or get richer – the wealthy continue to spend on luxeries, like arts and entertainment.

He agreed with me.

In the end, we decided to end the debate because it wasn’t good conversation (for those suffering beside us).  We were actually very friendly during the whole debate – I, laughing at the ridiculous mess coming out of his mouth – and he, just stating the things he believes.  I felt it was a pretty healthy debate, in that I was able to find out where he was coming from (mostly) and put some new ideas in front of him.

Ok, so this whole post was one big tangent and really didn’t hit all the points I wanted.  That’s ok, I just really needed to get that conversation off my chest.  I can just write another post on politics in general – or a million, since, you know, I OWN THIS.

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A little background on this 30 Rock quote.  In Season 2, staunch Republican Jack Donaghy dates C.C. Cunningham (played by the fantastic Edie Falco), a Democratic Congresswoman from Vermont.   They keep it a secret at first, because C.C. is part of a suit against a division of NBC Universal, where Jack is a VP.  And while they have polar opposite views on politics, they can’t help the phyiscal attraction they feel for one another.

Jack:  What are you doing in Harlem?

C.C.:  Oh, I’m working out of the Clinton offices for a few weeks.  I’m helping Hillary retool her universal healthcare platform.

Jack:  God, I want to kiss you on the mouth to stop you from saying such ridiculous things.

I went to Tampa and Naples last weekend to visit some high school and college friends.  Hard to believe, this was the furthest I’ve travelled since returning to Florida almost a year ago.  While in Naples, I stayed with one of my best friends, who decided to host a group of us for some weekend fun.  Being the awesome nerds that we are, we decided to have a game night, with some adult beverages – which was really a lot of fun.

Towards the end of the night, I went to the bathroom to change into my PJs.  I could still hear the conversation going on in the living room.  They had switched the topic to religion and were discussing agnostics vs. atheists and those of faith in general.  Someone stated that they couldn’t understand why anyone was agnostic.  It seemed cut and dry to them – you either believed in the existence of a god or you didn’t.  How could you be on the fence?  To them, it just didn’t make sense that anyone would be waivering on this topic.

Perhaps they viewed it as a sign of laziness, an inability to commit?  I’m not sure, since I didn’t have the opportunity to really delve into it with them once I returned to the living room (blame the lack of concentration on the adult beverages).  However, it really struck a chord in me because I am one of those people – someone who just doesn’t….know.  Can’t tell you for sure whether a god exists, and in which form they exist, and therefore choose to be open to either possibility (meaning that I don’t strike down those on either side).  I guess many would consider that agnosticism.

I wanted to find a superb definition, but since I’m lazy (and researching would have led to a tangent and not completing this post), here’s what Wiki has to say:

In the popular sense, an agnostic is someone who neither believes nor disbelieves in the existence of a deity or deities, whereas a theist and an atheist believe and disbelieve, respectively.  In the strict sense, however, agnosticism is the view that human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify the belief that deities either do or do not exist.

I’m happy with the popular sense, in the context of my post (going into my thoughts on the strict definition would take too much time and tangents).

I’ve struggled with the idea of faith, and my faith in particular, for a number of years.  I’ve been exposed to a number of religions, read up on others, and have plenty of religious family and friends.  I’ve attended services, chatted with believers, and made myself open to the idea of faith and a specific religion.  And you know what I’ve discovered after 32 years?  Nothing has stuck.  Nothing has touched me or moved me in a way that would lead me to want to subscribe to that particular religion/faith/belief.

This used to really bother me.  I wondered if I was missing the faith gene (if such a thing exists – see I won’t even say whether I believe it does or doesn’t, lol).  Or that I was just incapable of making a decision and sticking to it.  See, I think it would be really wonderful to be a believer.  To have faith in something bigger than me.  Faith and religion bring comfort to so many, support and strength to them when they need it, and I found myself longing for the same feeling.

Now,  I’m not putting that out there as a cry for help – please don’t feel the need to evangelize to me.  Seriously.  I just wanted to be honest about the appeal of faith.  I think it’s a wonderful thing, for those that have it.  However, I am not one of those people, and I’m ok with that.  I’m still open to the possibility that it could happen to me in my lifetime, but I’m also comfortable with the idea that it won’t.  That I’m simply not wired in that way.  And that makes me neither a good nor bad person.

An extension of faith/religion in society is the set of morals you have and the way in which you conduct your life.  This, this I understand.  While I don’t care whether you have faith, or what your particular religion is, I do care about your values and morals.  Your actions, they affect me and the rest of society.  For me, being a good person is completely independent of your faith.  Now, this isn’t to say that religion isn’t a platform for communicating values and morals, it most certainly is, I’m just putting in the disclaimer that people don’t always follow their rules set out by their religion.

So where was I going with this?  I’m not entirely sure.  I have been wanting to broach this subject on my blog and the conversation last weekend prompted me.  I really was offended by this person’s statement.  Thinking about it more, I think they were indicating a lack of strength in being unable to “choose a side.”  And I honestly believe there’s no weakness in my position – that being agnostic means I don’t have the balls to decide what I believe (for lack of a better phrase).  In fact, I think being rooted in certain beliefs, unable to open your mind to other possibilities, is a barrier in creating good change and advancing our society.

I’m sure I’ll be exploring this topic more in the future.

TRACY:  Hey, Liz Lemon.  Do you know where I could find a good church?

LIZ:  How good?  Like, Judaism-good, or just, like, Unitarian?

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TRACY:  So, what’s your religion, Liz Lemon?

LIZ:  Hmm, I pretty much just do whatever Oprah tell me.

Long time no see, friends!

This has been The Summer of Kristina, so to speak.  I have been enjoying an extended period of unemployment.  I’m starting grad school next month and needed to switch to a job that had a flexible schedule to allow me enough time for classes.  I let my boss know a few months ahead of time and was able to recruit and train my replacement.  I figured that I would just sign up with a temp agency and work there until I was able to find permanent placement.  You know, because it’s so easy these days to just pick-up and switch jobs.

Ahem.

So yeah, it’s taking a little bit longer than anticipated.  What have I been doing in the meantime, you ask?  Living the good retired life.   Which it turns out, is pretty damn boring.  My main activities have included include:

• Applying to jobs and hounding my temp agency recruiters
• Hiding out at a friend’s house until I told my parents I was unemployed
• Mowing our lawn
• Mowing our elderly neighbor’s yard
• Painting various rooms in the house (for the first time in 25 years)
• Picking out new sofas (for the first time in 20 years)
• Keeping my #1 Customer status at Da Vinci’s
• Celebrating my 32nd Birthday (month-long event)
• Watching documentaries on NetFlix
• Wathching Daily Show and Colbert on Hulu
• Reclining on our new motorized sofas while watching NetFlix and Hulu
• Going on Facebook
• Going on Pinterest
• Scheduling as many doctor visits as possible until my insurance runs out
• Hiding gallons of ice cream from my Dad so he doesn’t go into a diabetic coma
• Ignoring my Mom when she blames me for things that go wrong/missing that are almost always her fault
• Sleeping
• Not writing on this blog

As you can see, I’ve been busy.

Honestly, though, I mostly avoided writing on the blog because I thought I would find a job quickly and be able to start writing again and not really have to focus on the unemployed period.  This is something I’ve never had to deal with before, so I didn’t really want to write about it.  For the nine years directly following my graduation from college, I worked 99% of the time.  Whenever I switched jobs, I was moving to a new city, and I only had a day or so to travel and unpack.  I literally didn’t take a day off in between positions.  And most of my vacations were about a week long.  I haven’t had this much time off….ever.  It’s strange.

At first I was hyper-focused on finding work, scanning Craigslist and Indeed.com several times a day for anything that might fit my experience.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of movement in the Central FL area.  Sometimes days would go by before a suitable position was advertised.  Having an HR background, I’ve learned how to only apply for positions that I have a reasonable shot at getting an interview for; I can’t tell you how much time I wasted as a manager sorting through completely unqualified resumes.

Due to the technology shift of the last 15 years, no one goes door to door looking for jobs anymore.  You sit on your laptop and apply with a few strokes of the keyboard.  It doesn’t take a lot of time.  So you’re left with all these hours of free-time, but not real free-time, because you’re constantly anxious about finding a job.  It’s basically the cruelest type of “vacation” you can take.  Lots of time off, but no money to do anything with it.  A cruel, cruel fate.

So here I am, a week into July, with no real job prospects.  I will admit there is more movement in hiring – a lot of people switch jobs in the summer – but I’m restricted in the location of the job (near my house or school) and the hours of the job.   To say that it’s been a frustrating time would be an understatement.  But I’m drudging though it, knowing that I will have somewhat of a fixed schedule when I start school.  I just hate the lack of stability and permanence in my life right now; not having my own space at home, most of my things being in storage, not having the job situation locked down, not having my school schedule set, and not knowing where I’m going to live when the school year begins.  It’s stressful.

But the summer’s not over yet, so there’s still hope.  There are some potential trips in the works, job leads that I’m following up on, and lots of good books to read.  I’m even getting a tan (yes, I was already tan – but now it’s more like SE Asian tan instead of Chinese tan).

Oh yes, and this blog!  Expect many more posts in the near future (you can thank Mrs. Foster-Gonzalez for pushing me start writing again).

Liz: There’s just four things I want to do this summer: be outdoors, wear shapeless clothing, do some mindless activity like gardening, and learn Spanish.

Dr. Spaceman: There are four things I want to do this summer, but they’re roommates, so it’s tricky.