Happy Constitution Day (an email invite to happy hour)

It's Constitution / Citizenship Day which of course means one thing, we got to celebrate. So let's wrap ourself in the American flag and sing songs of freedom.  I'm going to stop before this turns into a Bob Marley sign along or Tea Party rally.

It's been a while since we paid tribute to our favorite but obscure holidays and we have some making up to do. I mean, pretty soon it will be election season and "we are political animals", if I can paraphrase Aristotle (Nicapedia, 2012!)  By the way, Please donate to Nicapedia, you can now pay in booze via paypal. But we should celebrate by drinking our whisky rations. Or tequila, I mean, I'm not going to judge.

Help me pick a spot on dtla for this Friday, because we love democracy, and we'll see how high we can score on our citizenship test; the elementary kind not the USCIS kind. See you there, fellow American! 

And then I give a deadline and contact info.  And that is how I write a happy email. .

Never the 710

I grew up in a city north of Los Angeles. No, not the Valley, never the Valley. I grew up in a beach city not in a forsaken valley. Eventually I moved to LA for school and I lived in the Westside. My sister and I became roommates and she heavily subsidized my rent. I got a job in freaking Montrose, that's in Northeast LA, three freeways! No, four freeways. I needed a job, I couldn't complaint.

Then I got a job in LA right outside downtown LA. It would take less than thirty minutes to get to work. But then my sister got a job in Pasadena and started bitching about the commute. Only two freeways. And she relocated and since she subsidized my rent and offer me the same deal, I moved too.  I was only a bit resentful. We left the Westside with its cut throat parking, and its many malls, and its lovely temperate weather, and, yeah, I'm not quite over the move.

We moved to South Pasadena. No, not Pasadena. Never Pasadena, South Pasadena.  Kidding. Pasadena is not bad, just the Valley. This little slice of perfection calls itself, Mayberry. They're very confident about their community. You know that kid that banned cursing for one day or something. Yeah, he's a tiger from South Pas. High School. The city also prides itself on having great school district. It does. I'll vouch for them.

So I'm living in this amazing community paying one hundred dollars to park on the street over night. Yup, one hundred to park on the street, that's how you pay for city services there. And it turns out that the city votes. Aside from being a perfect city, South Pas. is also well known for its opposition to the expansion of the 710 freeway. Yes. The 710. That's how we say freeways down in So. Cal. In one of the greatest showings of nimby-ism, the city's voters consistently coalesced to keep their beautiful craftsman homes intack. The houses are really pretty. They're always filming around the neighborhood.  Good looking houses. If you want to run for office in South Pas. and even think about contemplating the expansion of the 710 they will vote you out of office. They will also vote you out of office if you mismanaged the capital improvements to the city's only middle school. This is all true, by the way. It is the only place where I've had to stand in line, IN LINE, for a local election.  I stood in line to vote people out of office for "thinking" about the 710 and for mismanaging the capital improvements to SPMS.

I eventually moved out of South Pas. My sister got married and my subsidy disappeared. And I moved to LA, mostly because I got a nice discount because I rent from my brother-in-law. Alto Mundo is his rental property. It's not the high life one would expect with a name like Alto Mundo. It's my fault. The name is based on geography not "the life."

I've lived in this area about 7 years now. And after so many years of living in Northeast LA, the 710 expansion has once again invaded my place of residence. One of the alternative routes being proposed, because the South Pas. route is a non-starter, goes right smack through my neighborhood and the lawn sides have sprouted yet again. The 710 is coalescing my community yet again. And as always the message is very clear, never the 710. Never.

During this election cycle, I'm voting by mail.

Things I meant to remember

Do you remember Queer Eye for the Straight Guy?  Well, the one thing I took away from it is that you should keep a wine diary so that you note what wine you like drinking when you're drinking and make appropriate decision in the future based on those notes.  Such entries would say, I like the 2007 Zinfandel because it is “jammy” and has little tannins just like I like it.  I'm guessing that entries like, "All good, especially the whites," aren't helpful when you're trying to pick a wine to give to a friend and you realize that you didn't keep the tasting notes, and don't really remember if the white was aged in French oaks and is buttery or in steel vats and cold and distant like your soul.

Well, I am finding myself in such similar dilemma.  That example about the whites, yeah, that's on my notes, as are a series of really happy to really sad faces, :D - :'(  that weren't put to proper use in the assessment of the wineries I visited.  To be even more honest, I only wrote notes on two of the nine places we visited.  We did not visit all of them on the first day, either; so do not judge me cruelly. It makes my wine diary inadequate, but when judge in the light of other people's wine tasting experience, I am at least a step ahead of the people who don't even keep a diary, those philistines.

I am currently looking through my wine collection after a very productive wine tasting outing.  I bought a lot of white wine and I am planning to give one to a friend who mentioned that they like sweet white wine.  Crap, I do not.  Based on my tasting notes, I do not know if I bought sweet white wine.  Based on my preferences for white wine, the ones I probably have are of the cold and distant variety due to their harsh upbringing in the steel vats.  However, I wrote a clever note on the card that is going to accompany this wine and hopefully my words will move the drinker to enjoy it.  The second option is for my friend to drink this wine only after having drunk one or two other bottles of wine that they like.  By then, the wine will be superfluous and the experience will be regrettable but not traceable to the wine not being sweet.  Maybe I will add that recommendation to the note.  

I am currently looking, or supposed to be looking, for a wine that I did buy that is jammy.  A jammy zinfandel.  I know I bought one.  But I bought it on the second day after we had a bunch of generous pouring and second tastings, and by the way, I'm a member so HOOK IT UP.  Yeah, it was a great vacation.  But back to my search, I'm going to have to guess which was the jammy wine that I bought because I said, "Yum, jammy," to the person who gave us a our tasting.  I remember saying that but I do not remember to whom I said it.  More importantly, I do not remember what winery I was at.  So, I'm going to have to write a note saying that I think this is the jammy zinfandel that I mentioned to them, but in case it is not, I recommend this as the second bottle of wine they drink.  And I don't think it's a good idea to write a note like that.  It leaves itself open to interpretation and judgment.  Why doesn't she remember whether this was the jammy one?  Was she drunk?  And down a slippery slope of judgements and accusations and paranoia.  

Maybe I should buy a wine diary or not offer to give people wine.