Look, I Just Want Some Dinner

I should write about my trip to Baltimore and mystery con stuff, but I'm so worked up over this food issue in Beijing that's it pretty much put every single thought out of my head.

Yes, I am at the work-related conference. And I suppose that all sorts of wonderful goodness is coming from all the networking that is going on, but all I can think about is the fact that this frigging hotel has NO FOOD. Let me back up. I did not actually register for the conference, but my employer put down a shitload of money for a eight foot by eight foot booth. I thought something was strange when I did not get the normal registration packet that I saw everyone else carrying. I was sent off to some hinterland to receive a worthless satchel with a program in it, but most importantly, NO MEAL TICKETS. I didn't realize the significance attached to the desk clerk's admonition that I was only allowed to eat at breakfast. Fine, there seemed to be a few restaurants in this bizarre hotel, no worries. HAH!

Except that one restaurant is closed for repairs. And the other restaurant, where I was lucky enough to get lunch yesterday, shoos away customers when it gets filled up. Literally, some very polite woman escorts you down the hall AWAY from the restaurant. You are not allowed to wait for a table. Tonight, I went there early, right after conference table duty, so that I would get a table, and it's closed until 9 o'clock at night. I had cookies for dinner tonight. Yes, that's right, a package of cookies. That's after a lunch consisting of a banana that I'd squirreled away from the breakfast buffet.

I'm beginning to hate this hotel.

This is the strangest place for a conference. We are in the middle of nowhere. It originally was (and remains) a small amusement park with spa amenities, probably in a former lifetime it was some hide away for communist party bosses. It is staffed by kids. Literally, the average age of everyone working here is around twenty-one. They are all very polite, but the English is very limited, and you get the feeling that they say yes to all questions.

And what really fries me is that being in Beijing, there is, naturally, a heavy contingent of Chinese companies that have booths, and THEY are getting food from somewhere. I see them eating from nice little take-away stryrofoam containers, while the rest of us starve in our booths. SOMEONE in the hotel is providing them with food, but not relaying this to the Westerners. It's REALLY beginning to piss me off.

I go to the Great Wall on Friday. My one day of sightseeing.

Debate: I Like My Vice Presidents Seasoned

I think that people basically went into the debate with their minds made up. I will say that Sarah Palin did much better than I thought she would, based on the very sad interviews she did earlier in the week. Having said that, I came away from the debate feeling that she was aptly coached. Which, given the history of the Republican party and it's affection for likable but malleable puppets (Reagan and Bush), she will most definitely be the front runner for 2012. It was, for the most part, sound bite after sound bite. When she didn't have an answer, she didn't answer the question and whipped out another sound bite that usually had nothing to do with the question. Energy got a lot of play. Someone said last night on CNN that she'd make a dynamite Interior head during a Republican administration and that's probably true. It seems to be the ONE area that she spoke with any confidence that didn't feel rehearsed.

Biden did much better than I thought he would. He reined in the snide, had complete command over his answers. I have to agree with David Gergen on this. They both won in that Biden showed his command of the issues and she didn't blow it.

I will also say one thing that I find extremely irritating to the point of reaching for sharp pointed objects and wanting to impale my television. WHY IN THE HELL do Republicans constantly trot out this "faux" hatred of government? This goes hand and hand with their hatred of Washington. Then why in the holy fuck are they so eager to get there! This was a running mantra in George Bush's first campaign, and Sarah Palin rolled this out again. This mistrust of government, this hatred of it. It's inherently evil.

You know what? It paves my streets, puts cops on my street corner, and educates my children. I LOVE GOVERNMENT. I LOVE DEMOCRACY. And it fries me to no end to hear this constant snide against government by politicians. Is all government good? Well, no, it is not. And this last administration is an excellent example of that. That's why we have a system where you vote people in and out. But government itself is NOT bad. And if you think it's bad, then please go home. Because I want people there who believe in the system. It is clear that George Bush's coven of trolls HATES government, because it got in their way. Gee, we can't wire tap citizens without congressional approval? Gee, water-boarding is torture? Gee, we're holding prisoners of war (oh, we can't call them that, oops) without due process? Gee, we can't FIRE federal prosecutors because they're not voting the way we want them to vote?

Stand on notice! I WANT people who love this system to be in Washington. I am sick of all this bullshit talk about how I love this great land, blahblahblah, and then do they do their damndest to undermine it. You want to change things? Great. It's all there, a system of checks and balances (Governor Palin, brush up on your Civics 101 so that you know exactly WHAT the Vice President is supposed to do) so that no one entity is in a position to abuse the other. Cheney did his level best to completely undermine the Constitution, and I hope that the next government restores the safeguards that he so callously whittled away over the last eight years.

You know another thing that bugs the shit out of me? This concept that if you've been in Washington for a while, you're an insider. You're tainted. I don't know how John McCain squares this with his long years of service in the Senate. You know what? I WANT someone with experience there. I want someone who knows how to get the bills out of committee and on to the floor and put up for votes. In short, I want people who know what in the hell they are doing! It absolutely boggles my mind. If there was a job description for the Vice Presidential office and Joe Biden applied for the job and Sarah Palin applied for the job, who do you think, just based on their relative experience levels, would get the job? Just based on experience and not political party. Hands down it would be Biden. And yet those years of experience are seen as a negative by the Republican faithful (although they certainly don't have a problem with John McCain's years of service).

She's young! She's fresh! Uh yeah, but she has the experience of governing a state with less than a million people and 75% of those people are white! Will people get a brain! Sarah Palin might be one of the most brilliant POTENIAL vice presidents to come down the pipe. But not yet. Give her something, like Secretary of the Interior, with a tad more exposure to what is the reality in national governance. Get her involved in negotiating with other states. But someone who does not even KNOW what a Vice President does is not qualified. Call me picky!

I want experienced people there. It's like going to a doctor with a serious problem and you're given a choice of the guy whose had twenty years of experience operating on this sort of thing, OR you can have the intern who has gloved up three times--all in the last week. Again, I WANT someone who is experienced and knows a thing or twenty about how the Senate works. Because they are presiding over the Senate

But most of all, I want people who believe in government to be there representing me.

Bouchercon Here I Come

The last four months have been hellish in a number of ways. Son had major surgery, got daughter off to college--IN CANADA--near and dear relative has been in ICU for, what, three months and have been helping other near and dear relative with childcare. Oh yeah, did a lot of bookstuff because new book came out.

Anyway, am continuing this breakneck pace by flying out to Baltimore to attend Bouchercon, the BIG mystery conference. My wonderful editor, Barbara Peters, and publisher, Rob Rosenwald, are being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award this go around, so there will be a lot of Poisoned Pen authors there. It will be great to reconnect with them.

I've got a primo slot, 1:30-2:30 in the INTERNATIONAL E. The title of my panel is "APPLES, PEACHES, PUMPKIN PIE--Do our eating habits reflect our reading habits?" Claudia Bishop is our moderator, and I'm "paneling" with Judy Balzo, JoAnna Carl, Don Bruns, and Julie Hyzy.

After that I'm flying to Bejing--notice how she just tosses that off--for a work-related conference. Am getting all my plot ducks lined up for the next Mary Ryan and as I'm spending a ton of time in airports and on planes over the next two weeks, I expect I'll make a good dent in number 3.

See you in Baltimore!

More Politics

Yes and yes. I think he says it all, and far better than I could.

http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/this-your-nation-white-privilege

Getting Political

You know, my father was a doctor, and I always thought I'd make a good doctor because I'm pretty smart and compassionate, but you know that damn math sort of got in the way. I am happy to say that the recent declaration of Governor Palin, that she is ready to be president, has now emboldened me. After all, if she, as governor of one of the most sparsely populated states in the Union, and also with absolutely no foreign policy experience what so ever, can feel perfectly comfortable stepping into John McCain's shoes should he become president and become incapacitated, then why can't I just act like a doctor? After all, I've treated fairly bad cuts, reduced fever by administering aspirin, and, you know, yelled at my kids to drink their 7-up so they wouldn't get dehydrated. Hell, I could probably perform BRAIN SURGERY. WHO KNEW????????

On a more serious note, this is not about Dem versus Republican. Do I agree with John McCain's general philosophy? No, I don't. Will I vote for him. No, I won't. Do I think he is qualified to be President. Actually, yes, I do. His many years as a Senator DO qualify him to be president. I do not want him to be president, but I certainly do not quibble with his qualifications. He certainly trumps the current Commander in Chief, whose only qualifications for the job was mismanaging a bunch of oil companies and his father's political juice.

Governor Palin is not qualified. In fact, her very confidence completely disqualifies her. And I do not understand what in the hell the Republican party is doing fronting this woman as a Vice Presidential candidate. They are bus loads of people who are more qualified, who, um, actually have some experience of NATIONAL GOVERNANCE, and yet who have been passed over. What in the hell are you thinking, John?

Passing Me By

::Waves::

Been a while, friends. This summer has been something of a whirlwind. There have been several bookish sort of events, intersperced in between family events, which have made for something of a scheduling nightmare. Unfortunately, the writing always end up on the backburner when push comes to shove. In between several graduations, a surgery, the dog's pneumonia (my husband calls her the disease magnet), a trip to Disneyland, the annual camping trip to the Redwoods, and birthdays galore, it's been a sad summer for writing.

But I now have an idea. A good idea!

My Ode to a Hardware Store

When I moved into my suburban enclave thirteen years ago, there was a hardware store in the next suburban enclave over that was a throwback to another era. It was called "Simons," and I do believe that it was actually owned by a Simon at some point. Naturally, it fell victim to the Home Depots that sprouted up around it, who undercut its prices by about forty percent. It was the sort of store where if you asked a question about screws, the sales person knew screws. And I mean KNEW screws. Plus, the majority of the employees there looked like different versions of Robert Young in his "Father Knows Best" years, and would Robert Young steer me wrong? No way! Clearly, they had worked there for umpteen years and, yes, it was their real job, and they acted like it was a pretty okay place to work. In short, they were pleasant and knew their stuff (plus the Robert Young vibes). The turn-over rate there was non-existent. I loved going there because I am a mechanical idiot and I never ended up buying crap I didn't need out of ignorance. I didn't mind paying for the fact that the employees actually got a decent salary on the mark-up on my wrench because I figured I was paying for not only the item but the expertise.

When it got paved over and an upscale supermarket was put in its place, I mourned it of course, but by that time I was so inured to that sort of thing that it was just another blip in the corporatization of American society. There is a small ACE hardware in town, but they hire a lot of high-school kids who exude bored 'tude with every snap of their gum and the stock is limited and, well, it isn't Simons.

Lo and behold, I just read in the paper that an ACE hardware is going into the suburban enclave next door, not two blocks away from where the old Simons used to be. I know it's ridiculous to expect that it will be similar to Simons, with people who know their stuff and don't have that hungry, worn-out look on their faces that is the hallmark of every single Home Depot employee I've ever laid eyes on, but here's hoping.