rock 'n' roll soapbox

What I wrote to President Obama per MoveOn.org

Dear President Obama,

I would like you to ask Congress to extend the the assistance given to borrowers with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae loans to other homeowners who have high- to mid-interest mortgages. These widespread changes will allow people to keep paying their loans and other bills while managing loss of work and higher food and energy costs.

My friend and neighbor bought her home during the bubble and, after some job losses, is now behind on her mortgage by several thousand dollars. As a responsible person, she is working with her mortgage company to repay that debt in full. However, they will not renegotiate the terms of her mortgage nor the rate in order to allow her to continue paying her mortgage at a more reasonable and sustainable pace.

Would she be better off going into bankruptcy? So many other opportunities for herself and her two daughters are going unmet because of this extraordinary debt that the mortgage company will not amend.

I also bought my house during the bubble in 2006 and lost my job in 2010. I’ve been lucky that my husband has kept his jobs and that I’ve put together a living piecemeal. We haven’t even pursued refinancing our home loan because we doubt we’ll qualify for a loan because we’re both mostly self employed.

I’m afraid that many U.S. citizens will decide that defaulting on their loans and leaving properties vacant for cities to deal with will be the best decisions they can make to manage a variety of challenges. I encourage you to read this article in The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2011/12/19/111219ta_talk_surowiecki.

If you believe home ownership is a significant element of strong communities and the American dream, I hope you will hold banks accountable and allow homeowners to not pay for their mistakes.

Mexican paradise lost & found

A Mexican resort is weird & awesome. It takes a person unaccustomed to luxury and entitlement a few days to get settled in, so I suggest at least a 5- to 7-day stay to maximize the skills of personalized gluttony you will adapt in the first few days. After mere days, you will figure out how to tweak & nudge an all-you-can-eat buffet into a unique plate, individually curated for your precise DNA as dictated by your tongue. Lest I sound overly cynical, let me be clear: a large part of me wants to stay here forever, bringing work under this tropical umbrella. I could work here. Work would be easy in this clime. Work would be mild. Everything in Maya Riviera Resortland is mild: the weather, water, food, expectations. This is not real life. Real life contains extremes. Resortland is so mild, I have not even accomplished full-on inebriation here. Such a state would require trying, which is something hidden, unavailable, in Resortland. Trying takes effort. Effort is discouraged. After five days away from home, I definitely miss things. I miss familiar things, which in many ways are easier than easy things. I miss known things. What I would like to experience some day is getting past the point of missing into the place where you can distinguish needing from wanting. It’s difficult to do that experiment on your own—discipline being what it is. In this place where trying takes no effort, and getting something is so easy, perhaps after some time you could determine what you merely miss and what you truly need. Of course, I guess that’s the role of the desert island. Maybe next time. This one’s a peninsula, and it’s too crowded to inspire self reflection.

anxiety eating

It’s 10:55 a.m.  I’m already thinking about treats.

Actually, what I think about first is how much everyone and everything in this office is driving me crazy.

Coughing. Tapping. Heels clicking on hardwood floor.

Male co-worker using the women’s restroom. “These are unisex,” he says, gesturing dismissively to the Men and Women signs. “The bosses said so.”

Said bosses pacing and looking at their watches.

Band members pacing in and out of the building. At least they don’t smell like cigarette smoke.

Problems with the live stream. Problems that don’t matter because no one is watching the live stream.

The band is playing during the intro. Bands aren’t supposed to play during the intro.

How do I tell my body and brain to stop reacting to everything like it’s the end of the world?

And that what will make me feel better is a baked good that I’ll regret later?

Letter to a drummer

I know you don’t hear what I hear. You are dumb as a bag of hammers and half-deaf. But if you don’t stop that infernal tapping, I’m going to cut you.

Merriam-Webster gets it right, adds ‘Americana’ as music genre

I’ve complained about the Oxford English Dictionary’s annual addition of pop vocabulary, but I can get behind this adoption of terminology:

“The music genre known as Americana, with roots in early folk and country music, has been popular in certain circles for years, but gained enough widespread attention recently to place the term among other new dictionary entries. The Grammy Awards have included a separate category for the best Americana album since 2009, and some of its best-known musicians — including John Hiatt, Emmylou Harris, Levon Helm and Steve Earle — have had crossover success on other genres’ hit charts.

“Jed Hilly, executive director of the 12-year-old Nashville, Tenn.-based nonprofit Americana Music Association, said news of the word’s inclusion in the dictionary has spawned jokes about making T-shirts bearing the word and the invitation, “Look it up!”

“It’s still a little off the radar because we’re not super commercial, but there are a lot of people who will be very excited about this,” Hilly said.”

(Source: Washington Post)