High Speed Car Chases

Woke up this morning to the "breaking news" of a high speed car chase in Orange County. The chase today was a particularly crazy one, a woman in a Scion box (whatever the heck the model is that looks like a box on wheels) was chased from Long Beach to Rancho Santa Margarita. This chase spanned several freeways and lasted over an hour and included her stopping dead in the toll lanes of the 91 freeway, her doing donuts in the median of the 241 toll freeway, her slowing the car down to a slow crawl and getting out while the car was still moving, her gesturing to the police out of her windows, her turning her car around and driving the wrong way on the 241 toll road, and her car finally being "pitted" and swarmed by several CHP cars.

Car chases are considered high entertainment here. What I fail to get is what makes people think they are going to outrun the police, especially in a Scion box? Even if she could have outran the police, they likely got her license plate numbers and could certainly radio ahead to more remote law enforcement units and eventually she would get caught. Is it the 15 minutes of fame? Seems kind of silly since neither her name nor her photo were included in the news coverage of the chase.

And isn't it against all the laws of physics for a Scion box to go over 100 mph?

Signage

One of the most frustrating aspect of living here in southern California is the signage here. Seriously. There are billboards on top of billboards lining all of the freeways here. Quite frankly the billboards are an eyesore. We are constantly inundated with superfluous information on needless signs everywhere.

The thing that frustrates me the most, however, is the lack of signage for important stuff like freeway entrances. Most of the main thoroughfare type roads here are 3 lanes going each way, and people are very resistant to letting others change lanes. It chaps my hide to no end to discover that a freeway entrance is going off to the left when I am in the right lane, and the only sign telling me that is 200 feet before the entrance. There are numerous instances of this type of thing, especially in Orange County.

And then there are signs that are just plain stupid. Like the two signs I encountered today on the 405. Well actually one of the signs was on the entrance ramp to the 405 south from Bristol Street. It was one of those diamond shaped caution signs, which read, "Landscape Ahead". Really, Landscape Ahead? I thought I was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The second sign read, "Landscape Ends". This sign was located about 1/4 mile before the Jamboree Rd. exit. I guess if the landscape ended, I must have been driving a hovercraft.

Please, southern California, I am begging you, post fewer unnecessary signs, and post more signs that give useful information, and post them in more appropriate locations.

Yard Butts

Sometimes I find myself missing the most bizarre things from the midwest because I live here in California. Take the yard butt, for example. This tacky piece of "Americana" can be found gracing gardens and front yards in much of middle America. An even more tacky version has a man bent over next to the woman with his hand on her bum. These things seriously break the tacky meter, yet I find myself missing seeing them around.

I wonder if my neighbors would revolt if I were to plant me my very own yard butt in my front yard.

History

I watched the Inauguration yesterday on television. And as unhappy as I have been about the passage of Proposition 8 in California, Proposition 102 in Arizona, Amendment 2 in Florida, and Arkansas Initiative 1, I was happy to see that our country has finally been able to elect a President who is not 100% Caucasian.

I was also deeply disappointed in Obama's choice for the invocation at the Inauguration. Pastor Rick Warren is not someone that deserves mainstream credibility. He has compared gay people with pedophiles and participants in bestiality and incest. It is not a secret that women working for his Saddleback Church are not allowed to be in supervisory roles, because, according to HIS interpretation of the Bible, women are to submit to men. Not to mention Rick Warren's "AIDS Minsitry" is based upon abstinence rather than scientifically proven safer sex practices. Adult human beings are sexual beings, and preaching abstinence is not a real effective strategy for combating sexually transmitted illnesses. That is the reality. Rick Warren is patently anti reproductive rights and anti stem cell research.

I listened to his "prayer". It was NOT a non-sectarian prayer at all, in fact, it seemed to me to be more of a mini sermon. There are ways for Christians to be inclusive of other spiritual traditions in a prayer. Rick Warren's was not one of them.

Yes, Pastor Rick, there are people in this country who are not Bible Thumping Baptists. Yes, Pastor Rick, there are people in this country who are not Christian. Yes, Pastor Rick, there are actually people who do not believe in God at all, or question what it is they actually do believe. We are all here, we are all part of this rich EVOLVING tapestry that is society in the United States of America. Not all of us desire joining your "Hitler Youth" type movement for "Christ". My guess is, if Jesus Christ came back today, you might be surprised at His reaction. Pastor Rick, you are an anti-gay bigot. Not sure how you are on the non Caucasian races, but your homophobia speaks volumes about your commitment to Christ's teachings, ergo "Love One Another as I have Loved You". Dude, you fall WAAAAAYYY short on that one. Actions speak volumes. And do not get me started on your "embrace" of the Jews. Dominionist actions and attitudes never seem to end well. Read the history books and you will know what I am talking about.

I honestly hope that Obama does put his money where his mouth is regarding being a "fierce advocate for Gay and Lesbian rights". Quite simply, marriage rights are civil rights. And since 4 states voted to remove rights from a class of people, I am quite nervous that my marriage may be next. I am a mostly Caucasian woman married to an Amerasian man. Are mixed race marriages next? If the racial purists and Aryan Nations types had their way, my marriage would be next. That thought makes me quite ill.

As long as there are peaceful protests at Saddleback Church of their stance on civil rights, my family and I will be there. Civil rights are NON NEGOTIABLE.

Elementary School

I just spent all morning and early afternoon at K's school taking group photos and candids for the yearbook. I am the yearbook co-chair and we are coming up on our first deadline and NOBODY has submitted photos to us. *freaking out in a huge way here*

I took group photos of eleven classes (grades K-2). I have two more to do but my back can no longer handle it for today.

Honestly, I do not know how the teachers do it. I do not even really have enough patience for the two children I have spawned, much less 20-35 strangers' children. Ay yi yi. What I thought would only take me about two hours is going to end up taking me four. And that is not including uploading the pictures to the yearbook software. I need a nap. Don't get me wrong, they are all darling children, and pretty much mostly well behaved, but man, the noise level, even when they are quiet is something to get used to. My ears are ringing two hours after I left the school.

I am thinking a dark quiet room this afternoon is in order after I pick K up from school.

Some Men

Why do some men think that because they are men, it is OK to get all up in a woman's face and try to intimidate her? And that when a woman does her best to protect herself and her children from the intimidation, that same woman is referred to as a Bitch.

A man got mad at me because I parked in a parking space that he thought he was entitled to. He got out of his car and started screaming at me about how it was his spot. (I did not see his name on it, nor did I see a reserved sign as it was at the damned grocery store). My daughter and I started to walk into the store, but he stayed right next to my car in a threatening manner. Like he was going to do something to my car, or maybe even to me.

I went back and yelled at him to get away from my car, so he came very close and got all up in my face. The store manager came out and allowed me to get into the store and get done before the asshole went into the store. I am still shaking. K is very upset and scared. But I am a Bitch for protecting myself and my daughter.

Social Networking

I have a MySpace page and a Facebook page. Quite frankly, the MySpace is way too cluttered and clunky that I never go there unless I get an email notifying me that someone has commented to me from there. I do like that you can customize MySpace more than you can Facebook. But I have rather liked the simplicity of Facebook. Now one of my Facebook friends has convinced me to Twitter. Cute concept. Not sure if I like it, and things are not very intuitive on Twitter, but heck, I will try it.

What I find rather ironic, is that the time it would take to actually get together with people face to face like, seems to be eaten up by all the stuff one does on the social networking pages. The cool thing is, I can keep up with my friends in Minnesota via Facebook.