Today, In News That Shocks No One

Today, my fave lady-blog decided to do a behind-the-scenes take on science and dating. Well, not really. But, because it's the holidays and everywhere I go seems to be devoid of people (thus enhancing my boredom and lack of desire to do anything productive), I took thishandy little quiz to discover my "attachment style." Apparently, this should help me realize which types of people I should be having relationships with and which ones I shouldn't, and something else about communicating and its importance in relationships. Cutting edge stuff, guys.

I was shocked and dismayed, dear reader, to discover the following: I fall into the "dismissive" quadrant, which somehow involves a combination of low anxiety and high avoidance [NB: I was neither shocked nor dismayed. These are qualities I have known about myself since the age of 10 that are in no immediate danger of changing]. This is defined as follows (if we've ever met, prepare to be wowed):

"[D]ismissing people tend to prefer their own autonomy -- oftentimes at the expense of their close relationships. Although dismissing people have high self-confidence, they sometimes come across as hostile or competitive by others, and this often interferes with their close relationships."

Yes, I did have to answer roughly fifteen questions on a sliding scale of agreement! I only did it because at the end of the quiz, they put your response on a graph, and it kinda reminded me of 9th grade algebra with its x-axis and y-axis.

I'll try to keep this in mind for the new year.

Pleasantville

Or, as I like to call it, Irvine. If you haven't been, you've probably at least heard of it. Irvine is a planned city, where homeowners' associations rule all (here's a link to a typical neighborhood). With one notable exception: the "village" of Northwood. Before I get to that, here's a little Irvine information. Irvine was incorporated in 1971, and was basically completely developed by The Irvine Company. Population as of the 2007 is 202,000, with the following racial makeup: 61% white, 1.45% black, .18% Native American, 29.8% Asian, 7.3% Hispanic/Latino. In 2006, the median gross rent paid for housing was $1,660 a month, which was the highest of any place in the United States of more than 100,000 people. The median income for a household is $84,270. All the high schools consistently rate on Newsweek's list of Top High Schools (top 4% in the nation). Finally, Irvine has been named at least three times (2005-2007) as The Safest City in the United States.

I've lived on and off in Irvine since 1995, and the running joke is that it's a "bubble" where everything looks the same, is overplanned, with no nightlife, but lots of police officers and no crime. Also, the homeowner's associations have a very firm grip. As in, my parents get letters if a plant dies in the front yard, they were required to paint the basketball hoop over the garage the same color as the house, and got a call when they only replaced one door knob of the double French doors (the second was on back order).

Knowing all this, I was surprised when my roommate and my sister went for a bikeride and came back to tell me about this crazy house they spotted (in the non-HOA village of Northwood).
It's like a mini castle. And it might be abandoned (black windows, half of which are boarded up), and I guess there was some scary child molester van parked out back. Also, I hear there are torches. Why? Makes no sense. Even three story houses don't makes sense in this neighborhood. And now, from the cul-de-sac behind the house:Finally, the crazy lot of this house:
Point is, Irvine is KNOWN for not allowing this kind of craziness to exist. Clearly I find this interesting, and I'm sure you do not. I will resume normal cheesy blogging shortly.

Wedding Madness, part one

This weekend I traveled up to Bakersfield for a wedding (clearly the bride and groom did not agree with my suggestion that Bakersfield was a poor locale, and had it there anyway). So we all make it into town on Friday night, and after copious drinking in our hotel rooms, we meandered down to Club Odyssey. We picked this place because all the great reviews it got - "greatest hotspot in Bakersfield" type reviews. Oh, I forgot to mention that this place was also handily located in the Doubletree Hotel, where we were staying. Needless to say, this place was sad. Giant tv screen playing CMT constantly (which was obviously a highlight), tiny bar, weird seating area, dance floor, pool tables, oh, and a dance cage. Plus, on Friday at 11:00 p.m. there were maybe 10 people there.

Saturday, we decided to go get manicures and pedicures so we could look our best for the wedding. We had an experience so horrible and time consuming that we ended up fighting with the manicurists, only getting one service each, and tipping less than 10%. But, there were highlights. There was a woman getting a spa pedicure who brought her two children. One was an obnoxious 4 year old running around the salon, and the other was a baby, maybe weeks old. It was said that this child was a fetus. Either way, it was creepy and kind of gross. There's fumes in these places! And, she could have dropped that miniature thing in the pedicure water, and that would have been bad. Second highlight: there were two elderly Asian people in the salon, basically observing what was going on. The woman hovered over my pedicurist, and the male hovered over R's manicurist, in a creepy way. Finally, an older and very chatty customer asked who they were and was told they were her manicurist's aunt and uncle, and had only recently landing in the US. The woman then said, in a slow and loud voice, "Welcome to America" with a nice shoulder pat. I guess you had to be there.

At this point we hit up a Subway and confirm that every person in Bakersfield is ugly and obese.

We return to our room, only to realize that it was 90 degrees, and that not only was our air conditioner broken, our television was broken. It was actually cooler on our mini patio than in our room, and the whining ensued. Also, when I checked in, I discovered that they had give us a room with one king size bed rather than 2 doubles. When I called, they said we had only "expressed a preference" for doubles, and that they were out. Luckily, we got a FREE roll away cot! Thank you, Doubletree.

The ceremony was lovely, and we proceeded to the Stockdale Country Club for the reception. Country Clubs are always a great wedding choice, and this place was pretty fabulous, as reception locales go. There was a movie theme, and we sat at the When Harry Met Sally table, and our gift was flavored popcorn, which was tasty. Best part: we were served filet minion with a mushroom demi glace, roasted asparagus and garlic red mashed potatoes. It was by FAR the best wedding food I've ever had, and I was basically ill from eating so damn much of it. Also, the slide show was really cute, and I was in it. Thus, I was pleased.

After the reception we re-congregated at Club Odyssey (according to the radio, famous people perform there), laughed at possible prostitutes and this girl from South Carolina in a glittery gold dress very suitable for Las Vegas. We then barely slept through another sweat-soaked night in our non-air conditioned hotel, and proceeded back to our towns not surrounded by cows. We didn't even get our promised free breakfast (for the broken a/c) because we weren't able to get up in time. Oops.