Brandelyn: Lyrical Contradiction

I’m Just sayin’ Volume 9?

            Coffee Shops: Now, this weekend, while I was at home visiting my family and enjoying life, I still had a lot of things that I needed to do for work. So I packed up Dino, hopped in Mom’s car and rolled to Starbucks. Once I got there, I scoured the place for an outlet, finally finding one behind the plastic dancing Christmas Tree and settled in. Once I made sure Dino had all of the necessary accommodations and was willing to turn on, I went in line, ordered my tangerine blended juice drink ($3.60) and went back to my computer. I clicked on the wireless internet link and was instantly taken to the t-mobile website. Hmm. One of the Barista’s walked past me carrying a large box of sugar packets, so I snagged her and asked her about the internet situation. She tells me to go to the t-mobile website and sign up...its only 10 dollars for 24 hours. Unhunh. So I politely ask her if they are planning to be open for 24 hours, because if so, I will happy to go home, change into some sweats and settle in for the 24 hours my internet will be available. She looked at me as though I was crazy, a look that matched my own and we both went on about our ways. She proceeded to stock her sugar packets, I proceeded to pack up my stuff and head out of the door.

            The next stop was to the Coffee Bean. This time before purchasing an over priced drink, I asked about the internet accommodations up front. I was promptly told that the internet could be purchased for $1.99 per minute. I promptly walked my tail right on out of there and headed down the street. I found an independent coffee shop that had free internet for their customers. Giddy with delight I walk in, set up my little situation, order my green tea smoothie and kept it moving. However, when I sat down, I noticed that all of the outlets had been covered up with tape. Hmm. I went back over to the front counter and asked the woman who was working there if I could plug in my computer. She told me no and continued wiping down the counter. I looked down at my 4 dollar smoothie and looked back at her and asked her again about using the outlet. She looks behind her conspiratorially and asks how long I’m going to be there. I said maybe an hour or two, I don’t know. She says, well I’ll let you use the outlet for an hour but that’s it. I wanted to throw the smoothie at her, but was not raised to be an angry person, so I sighed and took what I can get. I stayed for longer than an hour, just to make a statement but come one...are you serious right now?

            Traffic: First and foremost, Los Angeles is becoming scarily over populated. Pretty soon, people will be stacked on top of each other and LA will be forced to build a public transportation system that could actually replace the need to drive. Throw in some snow and great pizza and you’ll have a much prettier (thanks to the beaches) version of New York city. No matter what time of day you are traveling you will run into traffic and if you actually look at the person sitting in their car next to you, you will see that they are doing one of two things, talking on their cell phone, either laughing or looking very angry, or they have their heads laid back on the rest, clearly contemplating their lives. I noticed that the mentality of people living in So Cal is not that much different from those who live on the East Coast. People are lot quicker to get angry, stressed out, drink or find some other means of taking themselves out of their situations because being stacked up on people is extremely wearing. The short time I was out there, I was stressed out and cussing at people as I drove around looking for ways to avoid traffic. Good luck with that one.

            Shopping: I have to admit that shopping is a lot more convenient in the southern parts. With Malls every few miles of each other and Old Navy’s equipped with Plus size sections, I found myself in heaven. Where else can you go and get a sweater, pair of jeans and a shirt for 13 dollars. Its no wonder people are always looking for ways to spend money out there. Shopping is the thing to do and I have be honest and say that I have forgotten how much I miss it. If I want to holler at old navy it’s a B.A.R.T. ride away and of course that means I have to take a trip to Sephora to stock up on that good Carol’s Daughter while I’m out there. (Hahaha! Shout out to my Rose who mildly judged me for my CD references...LOL!!! sorry, I digress). I guess for my wallet and my mental health its better to have to travel to San Fran just to go shopping, but it would be nice to have all of my shopping need conveniently located. I’m just saying.

            Football: I have been quite for the past few weeks about College football and there has been some question about my loyalty, so let me set the record straight. I love my Golden Bears as much now as I always have and nothing will change that. I am irriatated that $C won this weekend, but I have to say that I will take tremendous pleasure and joy in watching them get obliterated by Ohio State...the season will be worth it then. I also have to speak to all of you Non-Pac-10 people out there. Let me just clarify a few things for you. There is a lot of talk about how we (meaning Cal) should support $C making it so far and doing so well so that the Pac-10 can be represented in the big bowl games. That’s all nice and in a perfect world that would probably be true. However, in the real world, those of us who are actually students and alumni of the Pac-10 need to make it clear that we are all a bunch of haters. We don’t care about other teams and how they do, unless they are losing to us. You best believe that $C is not sitting back hoping that Cal wins its bowl game. They are not thinking about us. And please believe that our boys are not sitting around hoping that $C wins the national title. We all hope they lose just because we don’t like them. Its all a friendly rivalry, but there is no real love or support there, so please stop talking about it. Until you have been brain washed by your institution, you will never fully understand what it means to yell out Go Bears...it means Go Bears and Forget everybody else! This is Bear territory and everyone else can just float on...

Thanks for listening to my tirades of the day...see ya tomorrow!
Peace!
B