1.  As this post is just after our Presidential election and I know so many of us were disappointed, I thought I would start with this quote.  I saw a video clip of Ellen DeGeneres trying to help people feel better.  Ellen said her job is to be hopeful and to make everybody feel good.  I like that job 🙂   She reminded us of a quote by one of my favorite women who ever lived:
“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

2. Halloween was fun at City Hall.  We don’t always dress up, but when we do, we go all out.  This year the Transportation crew dressed up as Fast Food Mascots. We won “Best Group Ensemble.”  My co-worker, Derek, summed it up best when he posted on FB, “Food has always been the key to this team.”  Did you see my Fast Food Challenge I posted a few years ago?  (See Post)

The photo at the top shows Rick as the Meat Distributor guy (horse meat that is, it’s Halloween after all!), Sergio as Bob’s Big Boy, Derek as Burger King, me as Wendy’s, Frank as Colonel Sanders, Tom as the Pizza Pizza guy from Little Caesar’s Pizza, and Jeff as Long John Silver’s Fish and Chips.
I love that the so many of the team were so committed to their costumes!

3. There were a couple of incidents when I was growing up where I thought for sure I was going to be in the doghouse but my parents ended up laughing at me, like when I had to confess to my mother when she got up one Saturday morning that I had tried to help by ironing some clothes including her pantyhose.
Of course as soon as the hot iron hit the hosiery, it melted immediately onto the face and there’s no way you’re ever going to clean that off.
She looked at the iron, then the look of shame and resignation on my face that I would be in trouble, but she just laughed and gave me a hug

The other time I was about 8 years old; I was so angry and frustrated with my dad that I felt compelled to covertly display how I was feeling, so I gave him the finger, albeit behind his back…but he turned around just in time to see me flipping him the bird.  He just looked at me with shock, but then he tried to suppress a smile, gave up and laughed.  I’m sure he realized that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

It never truly made sense to me until I became a parent myself.  Sydney Rose was always a hoot.

4. Happy Veterans Day!
My father was drafted, never saw any action…but he still served his country.

5. Did you know the Grizzly Bear is the State of California symbol?  It’s on our state flag.  Did you also know that the only place you’ll find a Grizzly bear in the State of California is in the San Francisco zoo? And that the last one to be found in the wild was shot dead way back in the early 1920s?

I’ve read articles on how to defend oneself from a bear attack and I’d always be worried that I would forget which way to behave because you defend yourself differently with a Black Bear than you would with a Grizzly Bear.

It’s silly because I don’t spend a whole lot of time in the wild, but there are black bears in Ventura County and I have been known to take hikes and bike on trails off the beaten path from time to time.  Now I just have to remember, to carry bear pepper spray, stand my ground and make lots of noise, don’t climb a tree, and fight back.

6. In case you’re wondering, I haven’t killed it. It’s actually thriving!  My romaine lettuce experiment continues.  It still has a ways to go, it looks like the leaves would be bitter (undergrown) at this point.

7. I have one of those tracking devices you wear on your wrist to track the number of steps you take daily. The other day I was out running errands when I looked down and I saw that it was gone.  Dammit!  There’s $75 out the window. I decided to backtrack and went back through the different stores I had shopped at the mall but to no avail.  I was even checking out people to see if anyone had found it and they were trying to figure out how it worked. I gave up defeated and retreated to my car to find it in my purse next to my keys.  Yay for me!

8. Have you ever been disappointed when you find (what you conceive to be) a flaw in someone’s character?  And I clearly understand that when this happens, I know it is from my own point of view.  I’ve struggled with this. I try to understand and see their point of view.  I struggle because I don’t want to feel “superior” and if it’s a friend, I don’t want to think less of them.
I’ll be honest, sometimes I have more of a tough time with the justifications, than the original “infraction.”  Case in point, “It was only locker-room talk!”

9. Pudgy dad vs ripped bods
A local morning news crew ran a story about a new book by Yale professor, Richard Bribiescus titled, “How Men Age”.  He states, women prefer bigger bellies and flabby arms to “six pack abs” and bulging biceps.
I did some online research and found from on Gawker that their survey results showed that men still prefer ripped bods over “dad bod.”

Personally, I don’t mind a little pudge; they just have to keep up with me 😉

And by the way, you should get your mind out of the gutter!!!

10. Now that I’ve delved into binge watching, my good friend Linda recommended an original series to me and having now gotten through the first season (I’m waiting with bated breath for season 2), I too recommend “Good Girls Revolt” from Amazon.  The series is based on (but takes lots of artistic license on) the 1970 sexual discrimination class action lawsuit against Newsweek Magazine.

There were a couple of scenes that struck a nerve such as when one of the supervisors told one of the women to smile, or when one of the women wore pants for the first time to work and was given a warning; or having to make the coffee, or when they discovered the salaries their male counter-parts were making.  It’s a great reminder just how far we’ve come, and a must watch for younger generations (but not too young, there’s a lot of sex, drugs, and rock & roll) to see as they may not realize it wasn’t so long ago that women had to fight for the same basic rights as men.

11. I confess that I got chocked up the day before the elections when I realized how close we were to electing a woman for president. I felt a profound sense of equality. Alas, it did not come to pass.

12.  In closing, as much as I am all for human rights and equality for all, I understand that in the end, our election process is not about whether we have a female president or not; it’s about selecting the right person for the job that our nation will get behind.

I’m not convinced we did that this year, but I do want our nation to succeed and be prosperous and so I will first hope that our divided nation will heal and will work together, not slack off, and help to make our government accountable; but more importantly, I hope that those who surround and work closely with Trump will help him to be a better man, and for all the love in the world, CLOSE HIS TWITTER ACCOUNT!

I concede that this quote is outdated as it’s becoming mainstream that women have wives too (again I get to mention Ellen DeGeneres), but I love this man, and so I share from my favorite quotes file: “Women will never be as successful as men because they have no wives to advise them.” – Dick Van Dyke

“The times they are a changin” – Bob Dylan

Thank God.