All I want for Christmas

Once upon a time, Christmas was a day to spend with family and friends. Now, it has become a holiday filled with greedy bastards looking for a deal. 

Corporations have made us consumer driven. Our vision is so blurred with concern about extravagant gifts that we can’t focus on what really matters.

All I want for Christmas is to spend time with my fiance, Adam. That would make me the happiest woman on Earth.

Since Adam left in October for a job as a diesel mechanic in Colton, Ca. with International, I have seen him three times. It’s better than not at all. 

But, every time I have to drop him off at the airport to go back, I feel my heart rip into pieces. 

My stomach hurts. 

I try not to cry until I’m driving away so that he can’t see the pain in my eyes.

I know it’s pathetic, but I’ve never had to do this. 

I have one more semester of school. That is the only thing keeping me in Sacramento. 

I can’t give up now. I won’t.

Plus, my mom and dad would kill me. 

Adam and I have a bond that I’ve never had with anyone else. He is my best friend. 

He is the one I want to spend the rest of my life with. I want him to be the last person I see before I go to bed and the first person I see in the morning. 

For two years, the butterflies in my stomach have not gone away. Just the way he smiles at me makes them go crazy. 

If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is.

If I had to pick something for Christmas, it would be a time machine. I would fast-forward to our wedding day, on top of the Delta King Riverboat, decorated in emerald green and white carnations. I love carnations because they can be any color you want.

I can’t wait for this part of our lives to be over. I want to start living my life. I want to get a job that actually has to do with Journalism.

Working in retail is not my goal in life. It helps pay the bills for now. But, I will never understand how people can be so rude to a complete stranger. 

I’ve had a coupon thrown at me because it had expired. My response was “Wow. Seriously?”

School is like Limbo, awaiting your fate. It feels like a never ending journey.

I would love a fast-forward button. Unfortunately, this is unrealistic. 

I could settle for a Christmas with just the two of us. 

Adam wants to teach me to Snowboard. Maybe, a getaway to Lake Tahoe. 

But, again, no such luck. 

I will have to share my time with him. Christmas Eve will be spent with my family in Sacramento. Christmas will be spent with his family in Newark. Then, he will go back to Colton, once again.

Leaving me utterly pathetic, once again.

Bah Humbug. 

My Thanksgiving

It started with a ring.

My boyfriend, Adam, of two years moved in October to Colton, Ca. to become a diesel mechanic for International.

I am extremely proud of him, but it has come with a price. Since I will not be graduating until Spring 2010 from Sac State, our relationship has turned long-distance. 

It’s hard because we have been joined at the hip since we started dating. We moved in together after three months. But, thanks to texting, phone calls, and Skype, long-distance hasn’t been too bad of a journey.

We have talked about marriage off and on. But, it has always been discussed as something I would have to wait for until I move down there to be with him. 

On Wednesday, that plan slightly changed.

Adam came home early Wednesday morning to spend time with me before we had to drive Thanksgiving morning to his parents’ house. 

My parents skipped town with my brother and their two pugs to Lake Tahoe for the week.

I had to work that day, but we had plans to go out to dinner that night.

We went to Joe’s Crab Shack in Old Sac, where we had our first date. Afterwards, he asked me if I wanted to go on a walk. I said, “I’d love to”.

We walked to the bridge beside the restaurant. As we looked out towards the water, there was a sea lion barking down at the dock. 

I was getting cold. So, we started to walk back to the car. As we were holding hands, he asked me to hold on a minute. I turned around to find him on one knee, asking me to marry him. 

I said, “Yes”.

Now, I have to tell you that my family is very small, organized and quiet. My mom is the organizer and my dad is the scheduler. If we are supposed to leave at a certain time and you forgot something, too bad. There is no way my father is waiting one second over his schedule for you to pee. 

Adam’s family is big, loud, and very last-minute. It takes a million years to leave the house because there is always something to add to the list of things needed to go anywhere. 

At first it drives you nuts, but once you take step back it’s hilarious to watch.

Thanksgiving morning, Adam and I drove to his parents’ house in Newark, Ca. The Thanksgiving celebration was held at his cousin’s, Chris, house. 

We ended up leaving his parents’ house with his brother, Alex, because, like always, their dad was taking too long to leave. 

Everyone was very excited about the engagement. Alex and his dad made a speech at dinner, welcoming me officially into the family. It was very sweet.

Adam’s grandmother is from Germany and lived through World War II. She currently suffers though dementia. She is very soft spoken and takes a while to finish a sentence. 

Sometimes she goes from one subject to another without remembering the first conversation and then repeats herself. 

She stared out the day detached from her surroundings. But, towards the end of the night, she started to interact and become more lucid. 

She noticed a picture on the mantel of her and her late husband. She took the photo, sat down beside me on a love seat, held my hand, and described the setting in San Jose. She told me she was pregnant with her daughter, Susie. 

She told me she was a teacher in Germany. It was clear as day for her.

Susie explained to her that Adam and I were getting married. She looked at me, still holding my hand, and said, “Married. You really feel it in here”,while placing her hand on her chest.

I wanted to cry. I looked into her eyes and told her, “Yes”.

Adam and I stayed at his parents’ until Saturday morning and returned home to Sacramento. That night, we went to dinner at The Olive Garden with my parents, my brother, Kurt, and my best friend, Kim, to celebrate the engagement. 

Kim and Kurt stayed with us, while my parents returned home to Yuba City. In the excitement, Kim started to help me plan for the wedding, while Kurt watched a movie with Adam.

The wedding is planned for June 11, 2011. It gives me at least a year to finalize everything after I move down to Colton, post graduation.

On Sunday, I took Adam to the airport. It is a short goodbye. I will see him next weekend for his other grandmother’s 80th birthday party.

It ended with an empty apartment.

 

Barbie doing charity work on her birthday

To celebrate Barbie’s 50th anniversary, Mattel, Inc. has released a Barbie dressed in a burka. 

The doll is being showcased in Florence, Italy for the “Rewrite the Future” campaign designed by the Save the Children organization. Hundreds of Barbie dolls, including this one, are being auctioned for this charity.

The charity is for millions of children around the world effected by conflict.

How ironic is that?

Barbie has certainly come a long way from it’s initial design. 

The first Barbie doll wore a black and white zebra striped swimsuit and signature topknot ponytail. She was available as either a blonde or brunette.

Barbie was created by Ruth Handler and named after her daughter Barbara. The doll was debuted at the American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959.

In Barbie’s 50 years, there has been controversy concerning race and size.

Colored Francie made her debut in 1967. She is sometimes described as the first African American Barbie doll. However, she was constructed using the existing head molds for the white Francie doll and lacked African characteristics other than dark skin. 

Christie is considered the first African American Barbie doll, manufactured in 1968. 

In 1997, Mattel paired with Nabisco to promote Barbie with Oreo cookies. Oreo Fun Barbie was marketed as someone that little girls could play with after class and share these specific cookies.

Mattel manufactured both a white and a black version. Critics argued that in the African American community Oreo is a term meaning that the person is "black on the outside and white on the inside," like the cookie itself. 

The doll was unsuccessful and Mattel recalled the unsold stock.

One of the most common criticisms of Barbie is that she promotes an unrealistic idea of body image for a young woman. 

A standard Barbie doll is 11.5 inches tall, giving a height of 5 feet 9 inches at a 1/6 scale. 

If Barbie was real, she would have a 36 inch chest, 18 inch waist and 33 inch hips. 

In 1965, Slumber Party Barbie came with a book titled How to Lose Weight which advised: "Don't eat". The doll also came with a pink bathroom scale reading 110 pounds, which would be around 35 pounds underweight for a woman her height. 

No wonder women in America are so obsessed with their bodies.

In 1997, Barbie's body mold was redesigned and given a wider waist. This might have given the designers at Mattel a better night's sleep. But, the doll is still seen as too thin and unrealistic.

In September of 2003, Saudi Arabia outlawed the sale of Barbie dolls because she did not conform to the ideals of Islam. 

In Middle Eastern countries, there is an alternative doll called Fulla, which is similar to Barbie but is more acceptable to the Islamic culture. Fulla is not made by Mattel, and Barbie is still available in other Middle Eastern countries. 

In Iran, Sara and Dara dolls are available as an alternative to Barbie.

Maybe now Barbie will be more accepted while wearing her burka and Islamic girls can have an anorexic woman to look up to, as if they didn’t have enough problems.

Entourage on a slippery slope in Season 5

The fast life of Vincent Chase comes to a halt after his role as Pablo Escobar in Medellin wins him a spot on the black list of studio movies.

The fifth season of Entourage begins with Vince (Adrian Grenier) and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) on the beach of Mexico with a buffet line of beautiful women. 

Convincing them to come home and get back to work is no easy task. His agent, Ari (Jeremy Piven), and manager, Eric (Kevin Connolly), team up to get Vince to go to an interview for a new movie called Danger Beach.

Vince realizes that is career is at stake when the interview turns out to be a cruel joke. Ari and Eric try to score a studio movie, while the guys are trying to learn to live on less.

In the meantime, Leighton Meester returns to the set to win over Vince’s heart once again. 

Eric, then, comes across a script for a movie called Smoke Jumpers, written by a couple of hicks. Unfortunately for Vince, Universal buys the script. Vince had been fired by Universal’s President, Alan Grey, while producing Aquaman. This left the studio with a nasty taste in it's mouth and detesting the very sound of Vince's name.

While golfing with Ari, Grey dies of a heart attack and introduces the guys to their golden opportunity.

Ari’s long time friend, Dana Gordon, replaces Grey and gives the go ahead for Vince to perform in Smoke Jumpers.

The director tries to sabotage Vince’s performance by giving away his lines. This causes production is shut down after an outraged Ari takes the matter into his own hands by calling a meeting with Gordon. The meeting escalates when the director goes to Gordon's boss and causes a scene.

Out of work, Vince and the guys head home to Queens. 

Eric is able to send director, Gus Van Sant, scenes of Vince in Smoke Jumpers in hopes of landing a role for Vince in his new movie. Sant tells Vince that he would like to work with him, but not in this movie. He assures Vince that he will send the scenes to some colleagues to look at.

Meanwhile, Drama (Kevin Dillon) buys a bar in New York and Turtle starts dating Jamie-Lynn Sigler after meeting her on a plane.

The season ends on a high note when Martin Scorsese calls to offer Vince a role in his remake of The Great Gatsby.

The fluctuation of Vince’s career is not what makes this season entertaining. It is the “in your face” comedy provided mostly by Ari that helps save the show. 

As the seasons have gone on, the show seems to have lost its once new and refreshing take on Hollywood. The story of a group of guys from Queens trying to make it has started to lose it's originality, leaving fans bored to tears. 

Fans can only hope that the show will be revamped now that Vince has an income.  If not, no amount of guest stars will be able to save it. 

Life's little warning labels or lack there of

Things that are typically bad for you, like cigarettes, come with a warning label. But, what about relationships? Where is that warning label?

The warning label about sex is drilled into our heads when we are teenagers. You can get pregnant. Look at all these diseases you can get. It can ruin your future.

But, where is the warning label attached to boyfriends? A warning label of a broken heart could have come in handy at one time or another. 

When I was 15 years old, I had my first real boyfriend. I call him my first real one because it was the first time I felt that spark. The first time I felt butterflies in my stomach and always wanted to spend time with him. Love stuff. 

We were together for about seven months. A week after my 16th birthday, he broke up with me because I wouldn’t have sex with him. I was still a kid. I wasn’t ready. Well, needless to say, he found someone who would have sex with him. 

No warning label for what was to come. I ended up drowning in depression and lost weight, causing me to go under 100 pounds. I didn’t want to go to school anymore, but my dad pushed me to go.

Looking back, I can’t believe I let myself get so hung up over a guy, who later lost his scholarship in college because he spent most of his time partying.

I didn’t get my weight back until I was 20. 

Guys should come with resumes. A list of references from past girlfriends would be nice. Details on why they broke up. Maybe a letter of recommendation, if he can get one. 

A family tree and a description of the immediate family members should be attached. Whether or not he is a momma’s boy is crucial information.

Momma’s boys are the worst. When he moves out with you, he expects you to do everything his mom did for him. This includes cooking, cleaning, laundry, and everything his mother bent over backwards doing to ensure his happiness.

Been there. Done that. Warning label? I’m afraid not.

He was fun. He would decide not to clean up his dishes and leave them in the sink to grow mold. 

I put my foot down and refused to clean it up. The smell was so bad, you didn’t dare go into the kitchen. I ended up throwing the dishes into a trash bag and throwing it in the dumpster.

Then, there are those guys that live secret lives that no one knows about. He acts normal while you are dating and having fun. But, once you move in with him, he is a completely different person. The secret comes out slowly over time as he gets comfortable with you.

Then one day, you find out how bad it really is. 

This one had 600 gigabytes of porn on his computer. He had so much porn, he had to get a couple external hard drives just to hold it all.

He was so proud of his collection.

What man in his right mind prefers watching porn and masturbating over having sex with his girlfriend in the next room?

That relationship didn’t last long. No wonder he lived in a 4-bedroom house all by himself.

Warning labels and resumes would be nice. It would save a lot of time and heartache.

 It really puts in perspective the saying that you can't learn how to avoid a situation unless you experience it. Lesson learned.

Columnist Oscar Odd McIntyre (1884-1938)

Oscar Odd McIntyre was born in Plattsburg, Mo. on Feb. 18, 1884. He lived to be a well-known columnist, who used imagery to capture his audience.

Not much could be found of his life story. This is what I have compiled.

In 1902, McIntyre worked for the Gallipolis Journal in Gallipolis, Ohio. This is where he married Maybelle Hope Small.

Next, he worked for East Liverpool Morning Tribune in Ohio.

Then, he worked for the Dayton Herald as a managing editor.

Then, he worked at the Cincinnati Post as an assistant managing editor.

In 1912, he and his wife moved to New York. He worked at Hampton’s Magazine as an associate editor. This did not last long because the magazine closed shortly after he was hired.

McIntyre continued to freelance and work in public relations for some of the local celebrities, such as Florenz Ziegfield. His publicity work for the Hotel Majestic gave him free room and board. 

He, then, started to produce a daily column about New York life. The Bridgeport Post was the first to run these columns. 

It appeared in 26 different papers, including Journal-American. The Gallipolis Tribune ran it on its front page.

He produced this 800 word column daily and titled it “New York Day by Day”. “Thoughts while Strolling” and “Incident on Park Ave.” are a couple of titles. 

He wrote in a poetic style, describing his surroundings. “Sinister shadows slithering sibilantly through the threadable mews of Chinatown always remind me of the Nick Carter stories I used to read with Butch Klutch in the haymow of his father's livery stable.”

He usually worked right after breakfast. He would keep the blinds closed and the lights on because he did not like sunlight. By 5:30 p.m., he would have completed his work. 

The column soon ran in 508 newspapers in every state, Mexico, and Canada. He had about seven million readers. 

McIntyre also wrote monthly essays for Cosmopolitan for over 15 years. In 1929, he published his book “Another Odd Book: Twenty-five Selected Stories”. It contained a collection of his articles from Cosmopolitan. 

In 1935, he compiled his “New York Day by Day” columns into a book he titled “The Big Town”. 

According to Time magazine, he lived in an expensive Park Ave apartment. 

Because of his syndication, he made more than 200,000 dollars each year. He lived the high life and had many celebrity friends, including Irvin S. Cobb, Gene Fowler and Major Bowes.

This was after his and his wife’s hardships of moving to the East coast. At first McIntyre had a hard time getting editors to print his columns and barely made enough money to eat. 

“His wife patiently worked the mimeograph machine, licked the stamps, kept what records there were,” wrote Time magazine. Maybelle also acted as his business manager, arranging and dictating the terms of all his contracts.

McIntyre did not have children.

He turned down radio offers of up to 5,000 dollars because he thought his column might suffer.

McIntyre died on Feb. 14, 1938 in New York City. He was buried on a high bluff overlooking the Ohio River. He was 53 years old.

O.O. McIntyre Park District in Gallipolis was named in his honor.

Maybelle died in 1985 at the age of 101 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

Round Table Pizza at the Hive

If you are looking for a place to hang out with friends and relax, Round Table Pizza at the Hive has your solution and is conveniently located in the University Union of Sacramento State. 

Like many other Round Table Pizza’s, it has an impressive display of flat screen televisions showing news and sports. However, this one also has team jerseys and banners decorating the walls, giving it a sports bar look and feel. 

As you make your way to the cashier, there is a large variety of pizzas, appetizers, and drinks to look at and choose from on the menu board behind the counter. 

You can build your own pizza with the variety of toppings, including veggies and meats. There is also a selection of sauces, including creamy garlic, polynesian, and zesty red. 

To make it easy, you can also choose from their specialty pizzas, including “Italian Garlic Supreme”, “King Arthur Supreme”, Montague’s All Meat Marvel”, Guinevere’s Garden Delight”, “Maui Zaui”, “Hawaiian”, “ Gourmet Veggie”, “Chicken and Garlic Gourmet”, and the “Smokehouse Combo”.

There is the standard order sizes: small, medium, large and extra large depending on the size of your group. 

A personal pizza is a great choice for the busy college student getting a bite to eat between classes. It is perfect for one with only four slices.

Appetizers include garlic twists, salads (garden or caesar), and buffalo wings. There are also Club sandwiches, such as turkey, ham, and chicken.

If a soda wasn’t what you had in mind, there is also a small selection of beers, including Corona, Fat Tire and Sierra Nevada. Don’t forget the lime for your Corona and you are all set. 

Beware: They will card and quiz you on your birthdate. So, those unfortunate souls under the age of 21 are out of luck. It is easier for them to get into a club than order a beer at Round Table Pizza. 

After ordering, the cashier will give you a number to take to your table. You can sit inside at a table, at the bar, or lounge outside on the patio. 

Either one can be a little noisy depending on what time it is. But, it is nice to be able to sit outside in the fresh air and enjoy the day.

Even though it can be crowded, the wait isn’t long, about 15 minutes. 

The “Smokehouse Combo” is amazing. Your choice of pepperoni or chicken, topped with Italian sausage and linguica, Roma tomatoes, red and green onions with BBQ drizzle. It also has three different cheeses on top of a zesty red sauce. Your taste buds will go crazy from all the different flavors. 

This place doesn’t count calories, but you can choose from original, thin, or stuffed crust. 

Hours vary through the week. Monday thru Thursday 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

No matter what time you go, there is always friendly and fast service.