R e - P e t e

What’s the deal with… pick-up lines?!

What’s the deal with pick-up lines? This is not so much of a gripe, but more of an amused interest. Have any of you used a pick up line? Or been the victim of a good/horrible one?

So I was at the gym yesterday and this girl was stretching next to me. And she asked me, “Do I know you from somewhere?” Blah blah and so on. I really just wanted to laugh. Is this ever a genuine line?

The funny this is that twice in the past the girl has actually known me! The first time was in a different gym. I had met the girl earlier through a friend of a friend at some little get together several years prior. I know she wasn’t trying to pick up on me because as we talked more she mentioned how she was sick of working abroad because she couldn’t be here with her bf. I did find myself amused that she actually knew me. That was easy to put together because she remembered where it was from.

The second time was also funny. I was at the airport waiting for my flight from OAK to LAX. This girl sitting a couple seats down from me says, “Do I know you?” I couldn’t help myself from grinning and laughing internally. But, hey, she did know who I was! Pooh!! It turns out we used to go to church together we were really little kids. It gets more funny because it turns out she’s several years older. At the time she was seeing my older brother’s friend who I know. They actually just got married about a year ago.

So what is up with that? Quit.. quit telling the truth! You do know me! hahahaha

In other news, I saw The Notebook. Man, was this movie overrated! I had heard it was a good chick-flick from the ladies, but it so wasn’t. If I were to give it an entertainment rating, I’d give it a “yo-yo.” I was mildly entertained but glad it wasn’t any longer.

What’s the deal with…People!

This blog enty is really two stories. One is a story that took place in Walmart 2 weeks ago and the second is a general gripe about humanity and how it annoys me. Whoever can stand reading my whole rant needs more help than I do. 

Part 1: Walmart Manners

2 weeks ago I was at Walmart buying a couple items during my lunch hour (my work is close to a Walmart). I was picking up a couple items, mostly toiletries. After I gathered about 10 items, I walked by the food aisles and saw some cereal on sale. Navigating the shopping cart was annoying me so I left it in the middle of an aisle while I walked around that aisle to the next and then back. The loop must’ve taken me a minute at most but when I came back I couldn’t find my cart. I realized that a lady was EMPTYING my cart. There she was with body wash, shampoo, Purell, face wash and a couple of other items in her arms shoving boxes of cereal aside so she could dump the stuff right there!

I said, “Excuse me. That’s mine.” She was caught a bit off guard as I started putting MY items back into MY cart. She THEN says, “Well you left your cart here.” I left MY cart here??? So is there a policy now that when you leave you cart unattended it suddenly becomes open game for anybody to take? She said this in an accusatory way to me. Oh the gall!!

I didn’t say anything because I just saw it exploding into an unnecessary situation. I was content with thinking her an idiot.

Part 2: The nerve of (some) people!

I mean, c’mon people, what is up with some of you?! I’m surprised at the gall of guilty people. I had this same experience at 24 Hour Fitness that most of you know. Basically some woman wouldn’t get off the machine after being on it for over 20 minutes even AFTER I asked kindly. When a staff person helped me get her off, she told ME, “Karma’s a bitch.” C’mon LADY. The staff only announces it 3 times EVERYDAY: “Cardio machines have 20 minute time limit during peak usage hours.”

And while I’m ranting about this, here are some other annoying things I face on a daily basis that prove that so many people in this world are either “lazies” or looking to “get theirs before you get yours.”

1) Freeway Cutters: The 880 to 238 interchange is one lane. If I wait, you wait. Don’t cut. Don’t go all the way up and then literally STOP holding up ALL traffic behind you so you can cut up front ONLY to proceed to let other cutters in front of you. Screw the cutters club.

2) Cardio machine users: 20 mins means 20 mins. It doesn’t mean ‘Cover the time limit with your towel’ or ‘Ignore those that are visibly waiting while you work out an extra 20 minutes’. What is wrong with you people?

3) My mailman. This freaking guy won’t put mail in our mailbox if a car is parked in front of it. His reasoning (and we’ve talked to him about this) is that if a car is there then he can’t drive his mailman car right up to the box without getting out. And since he’s unwilling to get out of his car, he won’t deliver our mail. Just last week I didn’t get mail for a couple days because the neighbor parked in front of my mailbox. SHAME ON YOU MAILMAN! May you step on dog poo.

4) Berkeley Bowl. Love the produce, love the prices of the produce, HATE THE CROWD. It’s impossible to navigate if you have a cart because the aisles are too skinny and people are rarely willing to cooperate unless you aggressively use your shopping cart. I hate HIPPIES!

What’s the deal with… nice cars in handicap spots?

First and foremost let me say that I have a few reservations over writing about this. I have a feeling in the back of my mind that this is being, in some ways, discriminatory.

But what is the deal with nice cars in handicap spots??? I was at the client site today and in the parking lot I noticed thiis sweet Audi TT with a rear fin and nice trim that was parked in the handicap spot. My initial response was wonderment. I tried to imagine a person in a wheelchair squeezing into this tiny TT and then putting their wheelchair.. putting their wheelchair where?! There’s no more room.

Now I know that not every handicap person is paraplegic, but what sort of other handicap does this person suffer from? Is it something mental? Do I want mental people on the road? Imagine the road rage in that person.

I suppose it’s wrong to expect every handicap person to drive a minivan, but I’m always weirded out when I see people in really nice cars (like nice benzes) with handicap signs. Maybe it’s conflicting meanings in status that are historically prevalent: nice cars == rich and upper crust, handicap == physically lame, weak, low.

I think the thing that gets me is the one time I saw a person in a nice car with a handicap card, but they didn’t look handicap whatsoever. I have a hard time remember exactly where, when and what the situation was.

Randomly Weirded Out

WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH… RESTROOM HABITS?!

Having some sort of hint at a persons bathroom/restroom habits gives you some sort of insight into a person. Well.. maybe it doens’t give you insight, but it surely leaves an impression on you. A lasting impression.

It’s like that one time I was doing a #2 at a previous workplace. One of my bosses came in and took a piss. I recognized him by his shoes. And then he proceeds to walk out of the bathroom without washing his hands. Sick. And THIS is the guy who always has a bottle of Purell around. Weird. After that incident I made sure never to shake hands with him.

Anyway, today’s rant is brought about by an experience I just had not 5 minutes ago:

I just went to the building restroom. In this restroom there is one urinal and one stall. Right as I entered in, a guy was just leaving the urinal. Clearly he had PEED in it and didn’t flush. Apparently he didn’t see the sign that said, “GENTLEMAN ALWAYS DO’T (sic) FORGET TO FLUSH” So I was a bit grossed out putting my pee on top of this stranger’s pee, but part of the advantage of peeing standing up is that it grosses you out less (well, at least I think so).

So I’m there, having a jolly good time peeing my brains out when I hear the door open. It strikes me as kind of odd since I’m used to taking care of business on my own that there are now 3 people in here. I half expect to hear the door to the stall open since I’m using the only available urinal. It doesn’t open. After 10 seconds of silence I look over my shoulder, whilst peeing, to see if the guy is waiting for me or what. I see no one. I shrug it off thinking this guy stealthily made his way into the stall. Odd that I didn’t hear it lock. All this time the water is running from the sink next to me (there’s a barrrier in between) and I’m thinking, “Jeez.. this guy is washign his hands for a REALLY long time! How anal.”

I finish peeing and to my surprise there’s no one there. It’s just an abandoned bathroom sink gushing water and no man. I realize then that the door opening was that guy leaving, not another person entering. Wtf?!

Can someone explain some things to me? 1) Already weirded out by him not flushing. 2) Why did he leave the water running? 3) Why are people so weird?!

I just thought it was so bizarre. I don’t have an obsession with bathroom habits, but I’m sure all of us have come across them. And often we are left scarred from such experiences.

Dog poo

I’m currently at home in LA on my last day of a 4-day. I’ve been down here attending the Microsoft PDC (Professional Developers Conference) which was interesting.

My parents live in a townhome community of about 20 or 30 homes gated into our own little bubble. The houses here are nice but one thing that lacks are yards (front and back) from any home. It’s not a big deal since we still have our concrete walkways.

I was walking around this morning when I was started by a huge rottweiler (i think) that seemed to be confined to someone’s 8×10 porch space (?). First of all, the barking almost made me crap my pants. Secondly, I don’t see what these people are thinking having a dog that 1) lives in such a confined space, 2) doens’t have a yard to run in (it was sitting on concrete steps) and 3) has a dog that obviously barks in an area where homes are fairly close together. What were these people thinking?? I hope they were dog sitting for the day.

What finally prompted me to write about this were the 2 or 3 piles of dog POO I saw on the said walkways!! What is up with THAT?! First they have a dog in an environment that I think is not fair for a dog (AND the neighbors) and now there’s dog POO right smack in the middle of the walkways?! Granted, the said poo may not have beloned to the said dog.. said..sed..zed… but these two events, which happened directly on the same walk, really annoys me. Don’t people think?!

While we’re talking about poo, here’s an amusing link from last week when Bush made a surprise appearance at the UN to talk about a terrorism issues. Apparently he doesn’t really know how their protocol works:

US President snapped requesting ‘bathroom break’