Random Thoughts

• This week Rick Santorum made some headway in the primaries.  I’m not sure whether to be frightened or thrilled.  Santorum is SO socially conservative, his views on, well most social issues, are really quite scary since we are living in 2012 and not 1950.  He’s for small government on business but GIANT government on families, marriage, sex, religion, and pretty much anything else that keeps women barefoot, pregnant, and out of the work force.  On the other hand, those same views are hopefully so polarizing to most that, if he did win the Republican ticket, that would surely give Obama another four years.  Obama has had his share of ups and downs, but at least he stays out of our personal lives, because they aren’t any of his business.
• My backyard has, yet again, become the bane of my existence.  I’m no good at gardening, so the landscape is quite minimal back there.  But things have recently taken a turn for the worst as my sprinkler system has gone bonkers.  They’ve stopped working where they are needed and have now started watering the dirt.  The dirt has since turned into a swamp that the puppy LOVES to run through.  Even if I send her out for 30 seconds she comes back covered in mud.  I’ve tried turning them in another direction, but they’ve just fallen off, only causing gushers.  I’ve called the gardener to come out and fix them, but he’s been useless.  I think I might have to find someone else, which means firing the one I have now…and I don’t want to have to fire anyone. 
• So Whitney Houston died yesterday, on the eve of the Grammys.  Of course, it’s very sad that such an amazingly talented singer is gone after only 48 years of life, but let’s be real.  She has been a hot mess for the last several years.  I can’t think her death would have been a great surprise for anyone close to her.  Even though cause of death reports have not been released yet, her notorious drug and alcohol abuse was sure to be her demise. 
• This week, I started playing “shuffle” on my entire iPod while driving in the car.  I had gotten tired of my playlists and needed to hear something different.  Last night Sonora Carruseles’ “Micaela” came on.  It is such a fun song, and made me miss the couple of years that I went salsa dancing once a week with some friends.  They stopped the weekly classes a year or so ago, and I never looked for another place.  I’ll have to add that to my “to do” list. 
• Birth control and Planned Parenthood have been in the forefront the last few weeks.  Men in government, men in medicine, men in church, and men in the news have been debating the morality of the distribution and use of birth control.  Does anyone else find it funny that the ones debating whether I can get/use birth control are men?  It’s even more hypocritical that drugs like Viagra and Cialis are paid for by many insurance companies while woman have to pay for contraceptives out of their own pocket.  That doesn’t seem quite fair, especially with all those newly erect penises to deal with. This week Obama tried to reach a compromise with women and the “Church men” with a policy requiring the insurance companies to pick up the tab on birth control.  That’s a win, if it doesn’t get knocked down by the right. 
• I’m still up watching the Grammys and kind of irritated that even though the awards’ show takes place here in Los Angeles,about 20 miles away, we had to wait until 8PM (3 hours after it actually happened) to watch it.  Friends on the East Coast already knew who won before it even aired here, plus starting a 3.5 hour show at 8:00 means it’s going much later than I want to stay up for a Sunday night.  There are about 15 minutes left, and having fast forwarded the country music bits, it’s been a pretty decent show.