Beautiful Day

Ah, Valentine's Day. That wonderful day when love is in the air, romance blossoms and spring is just around the corner. The Wild Animal Park would certainly have you believing in all this love and romance. Thanks to the recent abundant rains the whole county is green as can be and so welcoming to the eye. Rhinos and Cape buffalo loll in the grass like dogs, ducks have paired off and begun roaming the grounds for a suitable nest site (FYI, ducks: underneath the trolley shed is not a suitable nest site), weaver birds are furiously building their hanging masterpieces, elephants are giving birth and thousands of people spent their long weekend at the Park.

I was excited to spend this Valentine's day unattached; I had friends over for wine, dessert and Twilight with Rifftracks. And I didn't even go to bed alone: my pretty kitty cuddled with me until I had to get up for work.

Apparently Valentine's day is a gift-giving occasion.

But what I'm even more excited about is the end of jewelry commercials. They've dropped all subtlety. One that aired last week showed a man excitedly giving his woman a teapot. When she got all pissy he tried to justify it by saying all she drinks is tea. So next holiday he gives her another teapot and inside it is a diamond heart-shaped necklace. She says something to the effect of "now this shows me how much you care." So, him paying attention to her habits, knowing she likes tea, and buying a pretty teapot doesn't show he cares as much as a generic necklace every other thick-skulled douche is buying. Sad.

Blue Collar White Collar

Thanks to Netflix, I've been watching season 1 of "Mad Men." Despite all of the male characters being complete assholes, it's an addicting show with a relatively high degree of accuracy in displaying the professional and personal relationships between men and women in the sixties. The main character is Don Draper, an ad executive with one of the biggest marketing firms in New York (and the world). Don and his sweet and beautiful wife Betty have the iconic American Dream: he's an executive, she's a homemaker, they have two kids and a dog, they live in a big house, and he has two girlfriends on the side.

Wait, what?

I've got to hand it to the directors for making arguably the biggest sleezeball on the show be the most likable character. The guy has a devoted wife who tells him about how she can't wait for him to come home so they can have sex and he's turning her down (and onto the washing machine) because he spent lunch with one of his two girlfriends.

Anyway, my point is how the American Dream involves a white collar job. People put up with your blue collar job as long as you aspire to be a lawyer or doctor. A real job requires suits and heels and a desk in an air conditioned office. I wasn't too happy with my "real job." I hated heels, froze in the summer, and stared at a computer screen for 8 hours a day. I'm happy being a worker; I like being active and interacting with people; I loved working in a photo lab, driving buses, stocking organic groceries, and now driving the photo caravan. I will wear my horrible tans with pride this summer as I once again realize that happiness in work and life is worth just as much as (if not more than) a fat paycheck. I love loving my job.

Jumping The Shark

Not since the last episode of Scrubs on NBC was I this disappointed in a season finale. The Office is a great show: it's smart, it's funny, it has good acting, and it has lovable characters with great writing. But I fear season 6 will be the beginning of the end.

***SPOILER ALERT*** DO NOT KEEP READING IF THE MOST RECENT EPISODE IS STILL ON YOUR DVR

The viewer can infer in the last minute of the last episode, through an unrealistic and rushed "routine" ankle sprain check, Pam and Jim find out Pam's pregnant. They don't say it specifically, but there's a lot of shocked then happy faces, then lots of hugging, then a call to Dwight to say they won't be returning to the volley ball game, then more hugging. The nurse had asked Pam if there was "any chance you're pregnant" and she didn't answer, which was a give-away I dismissed as being retarded. Surely a show as good as The Office wouldn't stoop to a pregnancy...

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dude, Pam was engaged to Roy for three years and didn't get pregnant with him. Is it that hard to use birth control? Did she suddenly start forgetting to take the pill? Did they run out of condoms and do it anyway because they're so in love and engaged?  Is it a miracle baby, conceived despite the use of hormonal pills and condoms? There are SO MANY forms of birth control it's crazy the human race has devoted that much thought to avoiding parenthood. And since she had been engaged before to another man and didn't get knocked up we can assume she was using some form of birth control, and now is not using that same, presumably reliable, form with Jim.

So, now that she's pregnant, the show is going to change dramatically. And it will suck. Here's how:

1. When the show comes back on in the fall Pam will be about six months pregnant and dealing with hormones. They'll either open next season with a wedding or they'll have married during the break. 
2. Once Pam has the baby she'll take time off work. Which means she won't be in regular episodes. And it'll just be Jim at work talking to her on the phone about how the baby isn't eating or whatever.
3. Jim will have to move up and become a regional manager in order to support his baby and Pam, or he'll have to find a new job.
4. If it keeps going to season 7 the focus will be off the office and on Jim and Pam's family life. 

They could bring back some old characters for some drama, like Roy or Karen or Holly (Michael drama is usually pretty good), or they could have Toby create some drama with Pam. The writers are going to have to come up with some good stuff for the next season or The Office is a dead duck. 

Ballet

For 3 years during high school I insisted I did NOT dance. Colorguard involved rifles and sabres, I did not do the dancing part. I had friends who did dance in colorguard, but not me. When we had mandatory try outs for dance I didn't sweat it because my goal was to not get it. My senior homecoming was a bust: should have gone to City Walk like some of my friends did. Even prom wasn't the best, considering I passed off my boyfriend to my single friend and had ONE dance with him during the whole night. I didn't dance.

In the years following high school, up till now, I've reconsidered dance. It's really not as bad as I once thought. At Moorpark College I took a swing (dance) class where I switched off partners every two minutes and had a great time whenever I wasn't with the Arab guy who shaved his arm hair (gross). I actually liked that class, I liked moving around with the skilled male dancers, being led around the classroom, being told I was a great dancer. Since then I've more or less romanticized dance, always pestering the boyfriend to go dancing (even though I'm almost always pestering for the sake of pestering, not because I really care), enjoying Bollywood movies and remembering where friends went to salsa lessons. 

Tonight I watched House, M.D. and a ballet dancer ended up in the hospital after being dropped by her fellow dancer/lover.  Her main concern was being able to dance again, and the team ridiculed her (behind her back) for it. But if you are lucky enough to be able to do your passion for money then that seems like a pretty valid concern. The show isn't over yet (yay TiVo!) but they're throwing around words like MRI and syphilis, and House's best friend's girlfriend is personifying House's subconscious, so I can't really draw any conclusions just yet. Also, this is a tipsy post (happy cinco de mayo!), so I may be missing a link or two.

Anyway, the boyfriend said he's about to pass out if we don't go to bed about a minute ago and he's now asleep on the couch, so off to bed for us. First day at my new job in seven hours!