Missing California: Three Steps Forward, One Step Back

On Monday I wrote a post about missing California.

It's still calling me.

Three Steps Forward
One of the things that got me thinking of CA the other day was an acquaintance of mine was on The View. He is the doctor to one of my best friends.

Tonight on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric that same friend's barber was featured in the final segment. Ruben Martinez, a barber in Santa Ana (his shop was about 3 blocks from where I used to live), was profiled for his activism in the Latino community.

Many years ago, he started loaning books to the local Latino/a children to raise them up. Something like 90% of children in the Santa Ana school district are Latin and something like 40% have parents at home where English is their second language. Now Ruben is a bit of a local celebrity as he goes to schools encouraging the students to read because the more they learn the more they grow.

Congratulations, Ruben!

Then the Orange County Register, a very conservative newspaper in the heart of Republican-ville, printed an editorial in favor of marriage equality and against the upcoming anti-same-sex marriage constitution amendment on the November ballot.

Go Register!

Lastly, as I write this post, it is about 9:30 p.m. and I'm enjoying some awesome weather out on the patio, in the dark, on the swing. I spotted my first firefly tonight. Why does that remind me of southern California? Because they don't have them, except for one place, and that's in the dark of New Orleans Square as you exit the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. Oh, and they're fake, like everything else in the Magic Kingdom.

One Step Back
Someone called my best friend from my ex's cell phone, and when she answered, the person hung up. Hello, it's 2008! It's called Caller ID, people!

So I figure it is either the ex being all creepy and needy, or his partner got a hold of his cell phone and started dialing for dollars through the phone's address book. It's been about 4 years for them so he's probably catching on.

Let's assume, just for the sake of this post of course, that you don't want your partner to know what you do and who you contact. Well, you probably would only call from your cell phone so that: a) You can make the calls when you're out of the house; b) You can prevent the person being called from seeing your home phone number (using caller ID) and returning the call, thereby risking someone else answering; c) You can keep your partner from seeing the calls listed on the home phone bill; or d) all of the above.

Yep, been there, done that. Except I was smarter than he thought or ever gave me credit for despite my being way more intelligent than him. (Blatant pat on the back but it is the truth and pertinent to this post). While I didn't know the details of most of his shenanigans, I wasn't in the dark. Mainly, to get by, I just stuck my head in the sand. I know, I know, I've told you all this before. My Chinese sign is the Ostrich. This is just one more example.

Let's further assume, again for the sake of this post, that you don't want anyone to know you are trolling for sex when you go out of town. Well, you'd probably set up a "secret" AOL screen name and cruise the chat rooms. If you were leaving for, say Seattle, you might include the city's name in your secret screen name. Except your dumb ass doesn't know that AOL places multiple directories associated with each screen name on the hard drive. Even if you delete said screen name.

Just sayin'.

Mr. Creepy McIntegrityless is buzzing around and bringing back bad memories of CA.
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