Over-Traveled

After a trip involving delayed flights (for maintenance, weather, crew rest, and heat), a nearly missed connection, and lost luggage, I think Steve and I are both a bit a bit road weary from traveling. Him even more so. We did have a nice time in Texas, eating and drinking way too much and enjoying Wendy's baby shower. We're very excited about our new nephew!

Last week was one of those weeks when the world was too much with us...the horrible metro accident; the Sanford affair; the deaths of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett; and most shockingly of Michael Jackson. Thriller was the first record I remember...the music, the moonwalk, the style, the King of Pop. It was very defining of the 1980s. The only other artist of such resonance for me at 8ish was Madonna. Through the years, I've certainly grown to appreciate others, but in terms of the cultural significance of that time, MJ was it. His later years and quirkiness/oddness/peculiarity or whatever words you'd use to describe his eccentricity defined him, but circa 1983 or 1984, he was the man. RIP.

Republicans Are Morons

UGH.

From tragic to idiotic. The Fix column pretty much says it all: dishonest with constituents and staff, an ongoing affair, possible misuse of state funds, "the cover-up is worse than the crime," etc. etc. Republicans can't get it together. Ensign is having an affair. Governor Sanford is screwing around and lying about it, and it gets worse. And his wife and father-in-law knew? I mean, come on. What the hell are you thinking???

Well, at least Ensign can breathe the sigh of relief, that he isn't the latest Republican who is having an affair.

Maybe this should be a new feature. What the hell??

Horrible

Horrific tragedy today, with at least six dead in a metro crash near Fort Tottem/Takoma Park. Red line, which is "my" line on the metro, though I would never go that far.

I read a remark, at how sad it is, that people were waiting at home for these commuters. Families waiting for their mom or dad to come home, their roommate to come home. And they never made it home.

Prayers for all affected, and hopes that this is nothing more than a tragic accident. After living through 9/11 here, you never know.

Good Run

I had a glorious 6+ mile run last night. It was the perfect combination of nice weather, a little bit of rainy mist, a 2pm coffee, and just general energy. I could probably repeat those conditions and maybe have that same run. But days without high humidity are getting rarer in DC, so I will appreciate those fantastic workouts when I can have them. I'm sure I'd be lucky to knock out a 5K today.

But DC is a fantastic place to run. I went down Maryland to 6th to North Carolina, to Penn and then around the capitol all the way down the mall to 14th Street. Running home into the wind, there is nothing like seeing the capitol to give you some energy.

I guess S's comment about how much tougher it is to run at 25 as opposed to 21 or 22 also propelled me. Poor thing. When you're only competing your marathon in 3 1/2 hours, I'll be really feeling bad for you!!

Better than Ezra

For the first time in eons, I went to a concert last night. Better than Ezra was playing with Tyrone Wells at the 9:30 Club. I've definitely lost track of how many times I've seen them--five? Maybe six?

It was a great show. We started at Vinoteca for some malbec and some sliders, than on to the Club. I forgot what it was like to be on the floor and how packed/crazy it gets. Tyrone Wells was good--his song More is in the trailer for My Brother's Keeper. BTE of course rocked it. I am negligent in getting their new CD, though I've listed to Absolutely Still at least a dozen times. They played most of my faves...Lifetime, Good, In The Blood, Desperately Wanting, Sincerely Me, Porcelain, At the Stars, Rosealia, Extra Ordinary, Misunderstood, King of New Orleans, Porcelain, Juicy. New stuff too. I think that's all...closing with the Blur Song 2 and In The Blood completed the show for me. Good stuff. I would have preferred a few other oldies but goodies...maybe Daylight or Rewind or WWOZ or Allison Foley or Under You or Live Again or Happy Day Mama. But no complaints. It was a solid show, as always. Not the best I've seen them--the first time was best, still--but very enjoyable.

But I need to go to more concerts!

Michigan & the Knowledge Economy

Great piece in the WSJ today about Michigan & the knowledge economy.

At a groundbreaking ceremony for a road project in Kalamazoo, Mich., on Friday, Mr. Biden joined Democratic leaders from Gov. Jennifer Granholm to Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow in suggesting that prosperity is around the corner. The federal government, he said, was doing all it could to help Michigan "lead us into the 21st century like you did in the 20th century."

Doesn't this say it all? Hey, maybe Steve is right and there is a role for government in stimulating the economy, or at least in promoting innovation. But I somehow don't think this is the same thing. Honestly, the federal government's solution is to throw money at a problem and hope that it gets spent wisely. Manufacturing and its 20th century model isn't going to help the state create jobs like it did even twenty years ago. College grads leave the state or search for opportunities that spur growth, both in the economy and in their careers.

The larger point is that what the middle class needs more than anything else is an economy where employers have to compete for their labor. The more open a state's economy is to investment and entrepreneurship, the more employers there will be. And the more education a state's citizens have, the more advanced the industries they can support.

Michigan needs to create reasons for its college graduates to stay. Kevin is an exception, and he found one of the few opportunities where technology and innovation is at the forefront. But the federal government isn't doing that. What's going to happen once the federal roads are built? Where do those workers go? Kevin's not hiring them. The stimulus money will be spent, invested in roads and infrastructure. It needs to be invested in workers.

Good Weekend

We had a nice weekend, in town (with the exception of my postponed haircut!). We met up with Adam for a drink on Friday night, followed by dinner at Granville Moore's. Yum, such good beer and frites and mussels!!! Saturday was a good interval workout, Target, pick-up the boy to get his car detailed, bowling!!!, Whole Foods, and then a fun evening with Liz and Mary. And Sunday was brunch with the GMU girls, a bad outdoor workout, and Giada's shrimp fra diavolo. Yum. Not to mention a lot of scrabble! I didn't get everything accomplished, but it was worthwhile. And this week is BTE and some more time with friends. What more can a girl ask for?

OK, so I can think of a few things...I did order the new nine west watermelon purse. I just wanted to buy something. I desperately need work clothes so that will need to be taken care of. Just 4 1/2 more work days til Friday....Sigh.

Write Right

So we are in the middle of junior employee hiring season here, with four vacancies. One was filled about 24 hours after it was opened to a 2009 grad. The decision was swift, smooth, and seamless. I think. Her writing sample was horrid, and if anyone had bothered to read it, should have made this decision a little less seamless. Ugh. Grammatical mistakes throughout, run-on sentences, sentence fragments, the misuse of commas, etc. etc. All of my pet peeves about writing in one ten page document. Not to mention overuse of citations from Time and PBS.

I've ranted somewhere on this page about the Generation Y problem. The cockiness, the arrogance, the "I'm better and smarter than you" issue. And if someone thinks it is acceptable to submit a paper she probably received an A on, promptly received a job offer, and no one seemed the wiser, then you can see how one develops an attitude like this.

Well, I don't want to be one that says "I told you so." And I hope I am wrong. But in this case, I don't think I am. If you can't have a flawless, or at least grammatically coherent, writing sample (and this does not even get into the issue of her thesis, which had no logic or coherence to it), the one thing you use as the primo example of why you should be hired, then what does that say about your abilities, judgment, and skill set???

Fifteen Years Later

On May 22, I celebrated my fifteen-year anniversary of high school graduation. It's funny because I don't remember very much from that day. I do remember wearing the white gown and cap, delivering a speech, that dress I wore, saying good-bye to friends and star girls and being very, very excited to be done with high school. In facebooking, there's this tendency to be very nostalgic and have all sorts of fond memories of school, like everything was wonderful and you were all such tight friends back then and there weren't crappy days or lonely days or days when you just wanted to be on your own, starting over in a new city far, far away from Detroit. Fifteen years later, you are the same person with the same regrets and the same memories but clouded by years of other stuff. You view those days through the lens of a 33 year old, with a bit of nostalgia despite it all. I think it's because you hear about Gossip Girls-esque shows where high school seems so wonderful and glamorous and money and grades and introversion and social sophistication don't seem to mean anything. You weren't terribly lonely or lacking a boyfriend or drawn in some insular world of television and dreams and wondering where life would lead you.

The curiousity about where and what some girls are up to is gone now, for some. I think the same feelings of insecurity, and of not living up to potential, and not being socially sophisticated linger. But other things, good things, happier things exist, and I can't ever wish to go back to being 18. I'm happier being 33, with a job (even this one), and a home and a husband. And friends, real ones, not ghosts on a webpage. I enjoy the here and now so much more.

Food Bloggers

I've spent the better part of my web surfing over the last couple of years checking out my favorite food bloggers. My favorite one is Self's Eat Like Me, which is profiled in the Washington Post today.

The other day, the New York Times discussed abandoned blogs, which is another phenomenon I've been interested in. I started this little project purely for myself, because I missed journaling, and I wanted an outlet to write again. I've always meant to develop it more than I've had, but life gets in the way or I can't think of a good topic or I procrastinate or I don't really want to take the next step to expand the project.

I could never be one of those meticulous, sometimes anal food bloggers who tracks every bite in their mouth. Let's see, yesterday I ate toast, some cereal, and blueberries in the morning; some pretzels for a snack; a salad, roll, and small cookie at Corner Bakery for lunch; and bertolli and bread/evoo for dinner. Ugh, boring. I have thought about workouts (ran to the gym, twenty minutes on the elliptical reading the Sandra Bullock issue of Glamour, ran home), but I have never been able to track that consistently, either.

I could write more on politics, or Detroit, or pop culture, but really: I've always been a generalist. I've never focused on one particular thing, though I gravitate toward what I've written about: sports, Detroit, politics, food, travel, random funny articles I've seen. And I guess that is what this will remain, though I do want to recommit myself to at least posting something daily (or several times a week). Perhaps stating this goal here will propel me toward fulfilling that. It will make me a better writer, hopefully a more critical writer, and it will give me something to do during boring days at work when I'm feeling unfilled and bored out of my mind. Did I say bored twice??!!??

Chicago

I'm not sure I even published a blurb about Philly, but that's ok. Chicago was a busy weekend, starting with an EL ride, heading to Heaven on Seven for a very-bad-for-you dinner of cheesy grits with shrimp. Then a White Sox loss to the Indians 6-0. Michelle and I met Saturday morning for breakfast at Grand Lux Cafe. It was fantastic to catch up with her, and she seems pretty happy. After the meeting, we had dinner at Everest followed by even more drinking and carousing and inappropriate behavior. Needless to say, I was not feeling 100% on Sunday morning, and I had to devote much time to detoxing yesterday. I managed a lazy run, in the heat, ugh. But at least I moved around, and I did need that. I did make a yummy Giada dinner of pasta with clams. Yum. Garlicky, lots of EVOO, and I've never made clams before. We'll be making this again.

Oh, and the Wings won 5-0 on Saturday, which became the first time I spent a leadership dinner tracking the game. I am hoping with fingers crossed that they can win Tuesday in Pittsburgh.

The End of GM

June 1, 2009 is the day that will live in infamy.

In this town, Monday, June 1, 2009, will go down as the Detroit equivalent of Dec. 7, 1941, the date FDR said would "live in infamy." GM's slide into a New York bankruptcy court is the industrial equivalent, marking the final collapse of a post-war business model that united big, high-cost business with big, high-wage labor in a marriage that delivered unparalleled prosperity to the middle class.

Until it didn't.

This is an important point: Conventional wisdom in Detroit-centric auto circles is that someone else -- aggressive foreign competitors, disloyal American consumers, greedy executives, parasitic unions, a lazy news media, to name a few -- is to blame for the forced dismantling of Detroit.

Partly, but so much more: Acceptance that good enough cars and trucks were good enough, when the evidence and the market share trends suggested otherwise.

The belief that pay and benefits could only go one way -- up -- because they always had. A culture that spent more time looking at its past in the rearview mirror instead of tooling itself, and its children, for the future.

Very sad that GM failed. Sadder is that the Government Motors company is not going to rescue Detroit. More people will lose their jobs and their cushy benefits, more young people will leave Detroit.

President Obama claims he wants to get out quickly, but we know that once the government steps in, it takes a lot to get out. He claims he does not want to run GM, but he's already fired its CEO. The New York Times draws this parallel:

So, just as George Bush spent much of his presidency seeking a way out of Iraq, Mr. Obama may spend much of his seeking a way out of the morass of new government investments in the private sector. The hardest part will be knowing how to time the withdrawal of government support — a balancing act between maximizing the investment of taxpayers and risking the company’s fragile state.

Sounds about right.