Resolution Recap 2019

As I've gotten older it's felt like days and weeks go by faster. However, 2018 was amazing because it felt like the last 365 days have been twelve long, agonizing years. I can't say it's been the worst year I've had because there's been a lot of good to come out of it with the bad, but I'm ready to head into the next year. I grew as a person, learned a lot, and, most importantly, I did some stuff.

Last January I wrote about my resolutions and how they went and then re-wrote a list of New Years Resolutions for 2018. After all, there's no better recipe for success than personal accountability and actually remembering what it is you're setting out to do, and with the minor successes I had last year I figured I could do even better this year. Much of the list is the same as the one from 2017, and a few bullet points are in my list for 2019, but let's take a look at some of the highlights:

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- QUIT FUCKING SMOKING

I did it! I wrote about it in March after not smoking for maybe a week, and after nearly a year without nicotine think I'm done with smoking for good. What's more, I've been running faster, my blood pressure is better, I've been sleeping at least marginally better, and I don't stink so bad. Cravings pop up every so often, especially during stressful nights at work and moments when I'm feeling down in the dumps, but they pass a lot easier now than they did before. Having smoked for 15 years and successfully quit cold turkey is probably the biggest thing I've done for myself all year. 

- Hike More 

I did literally one hike I intended to do this year, though I'm glad it was the Whitney Portal Rec Trail because that was a blast. Especially going the weekend before Whitney Portal Road opened for the season, the trail was empty, the Portal was empty, and it was as if I had an entire woodland world all to myself. Scheduling conflicts put my plan to summit Mt. Disappointment on the back burner, and I didn't even end up going to Death Valley this year, but next year I hope to hike more and knock out some more trails. 

- Build Savings Account

The bad news is I had a little medical emergency that completely wiped my savings account, and I haven't been able to completely rebound from it. The good news is I had a savings account to begin with to pay those bills, and my finances are at least starting to get on the mend, so I can enter the coming year a little wiser and with a lot more spite toward the American health care system. 

- Keep Running 

I finished the Santa Clarita Half Marathon much faster than I had in 2017, and my recovery was a lot more pleasant. Up until the last few weeks I was pulling a minimum of 15 miles per week, with some runs lasting 10 miles without me thinking much about it.

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The list for 2019 has a lot of the same stuff. The list is starting feeling less like "resolutions" and more like "maintenance" but, honestly, I'm kind of cool with that. Knowing I survived my 20s with only minor scarring, trauma, and brain damage, if my goals are to maintain the work I've done already then I'll go with it. I have a lot to look forward to next year, and even though the concept of "A New Chapter In My Life" is kind of old hat, I'm happy to be entering one.

Happy New Year! See you in 2019! 

Jingle Bell Rock

I was a humbug for a long time. As a matter of fact, it's only been within the last few years that I've knocked off most of my humbuggery, so now I can actually enjoy holly jolly festivities and ugly Christmas sweaters without spouting out things like "This Feeds Into The Consumerist Dogma" and "It's All Empty Gestures And Commercial Lies" too often.

As such, I used to absolutely loathe Christmas music; it's an entire subset of music that is only relevant once a year, and by the time it's actually Christmas it's been overplayed since Thanksgiving. While I've gotten over it, there are two songs in particular that I hate to hear. The first song, of course, is "Last Christmas" by WHAM! since, of course, I cannot listen to it without succumbing to WHAMaggedon. It's a fine song, but I simply can't listen to it because it's against the rules. The second song is "Jingle Bell Rock" which is the worst ever.

Bobby Helms, the original person to release the song in 1957, probably hoped it would have a lasting impact. Considering it made an appearance on the Billboard Top 100 as recently as 2016 I'd say it has. Well, what I actually said was, "Holy shit it got to #35?! " but that's basically the same idea at its core. The reason I'm so surprised is because, personally, I think it's a dumb song. It's dated, the lyrics are stupid, and it's been covered by enough other music artists to have it be its own subgenre of the Christmas music subset. There's one subgenre of this subgenre of this music subset, however, that I hate most, and I can't hear the song any other way when I think about it; it's the elementary school Christmas program rendition.

Whatever evil dictated that every kindergarten class since at least the 90s had to sing "Jingle Bell Rock" can go straight back to hell. Whatever play the school might be doing manages to shoehorn in some line about rock-and-roll, and the kindergartners come out onto the stage. Parents chuckle and coo as they take pictures of the children, usually adorned in reindeer antlers or Santa hats. The adults turn to one another, saying things like, "Oh, how cute!" and, "So precious!" as they beam with pride a their rascals. There's always one kid with the attention span of a gnat and too much unbridled energy that takes a bit longer to get in position (that was me growing up, I'll admit that) but once that kid is ready, and the teacher is only holding on to the hope of the bottle of wine at home, it begins.

The opening music starts and the bass line ba-dum-dum-dums into what can only loosely be defined as singing. I'm not sure what key the kindergartners sing-- or, let's be real, shout-- in, but it's a key that transcends generations that, I'm pretty sure, was banned by the Geneva Conventions. It's also somehow sung to the same beat regardless of when or where you hear it, that being a sporadic and anxiety-producing one. There's always one kid that's a little too excited about singing/shouting (again, that was me), and there's always one that very clearly wants nothing to do with being on stage in front of a bunch of strangers. To their credit, the kids almost remember some of the words to the song, so some parts are clearly and confidently belted out. Others are mumbled as the teacher frantically uses hand gestures to get the kids to be louder, as if the kids need encouragement. The whole affair ends with, "THAT'S THE JINGLE BELL, THAT'S THE JINGLE BELL," sang/shouted at different intervals, before culminating into a, "THAT'S THE JINGLE BELL ROOOOOCK!" that can, and probably has, broken glass and caused dogs to panic. The energy of the class throughout the performance is at all ends of the spectrum. The dissonance is palpable.

The parents applaud. The children are herded away as one kid jumps around and flails his arms (again, me). The teacher considers running to the store on the way home to pick up another bottle of wine. The play continues.

I think that's the reason I'm not a fan of the song; it reminds me of a dozen children who'd rather do anything else shouting on stage. Now, to be fair, I don't have kids and I don't plan on having any, but if I did I might appreciate my tyke belting out that classic with their classmates. It makes sense that any parent would be proud to see their child capable of memorizing a song and looking nice, but I don't have a child of my own, partly because I don't want to risk having to go out of my way to hear "Jingle Bell Rock" and partly because I know what kind of child I was and don't want to do that to the world.

Anyway, regardless, I'm okay with the season overall. Just get me some eggnog and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and I'll be set 'til the 25th.

Happy Holidays!

Old Hotels, pt. 2: Hot Water

I was going to write about the steam heat at work and how it clangs and hisses when it's in operation, but I decided not to this time for a couple reasons. First, the heat in the hotel is doing really well right now, which is both a relief and very suspicious. Second, there was an exchange I had with a guest earlier today that I've similarly had with other guests before. It was about the hot water.

The guest called the reception desk. Fortunately he warned me he was going to be that kind of guest by starting the call with, "Now, I don't want to be that kind of guest, but..."

According to him, the hot water in his room wasn't working. He had an issue with his television that maintenance resolved earlier today and believed the two issues were somehow connected for some reason. He berated me, saying the hotel fell so low in quality from "its golden age" (mind you, he's maybe stayed here twice in as many years, so I'm not sure what his benchmark is). Before I had a chance to tell him to let the water run awhile longer, he interrupted by saying the water wasn't getting hotter even though he had both taps running. Instead of  informing him that running hot and cold water at the same time doesn't make water hotter, I told him I'd check the water heater. He responded by very aggressively hanging up the phone, possibly in gratitude. True to my word, I checked the water heater which, not surprisingly, was working normally. I checked a sink in a room that was connected to the same water heater and, wouldn't you know it, it was running hot. I tried knocking on the guest's door so I could check the water in his room specifically, maybe also to check if the TV was taking up all his hot water somehow, but didn't get a response. By the time I returned to the desk I saw a missed call from the room, so I assume he was in the shower since there was nothing ever wrong with the hot water in his room.

Maybe it's because I've lived in houses built prior to 1960 almost my entire life, or maybe I'm proof that millennials don't always expect instant gratification, but I understand and accept that sometimes it takes a minute for hot water to get to the faucet. I think it's normal to wait with any water heater, possibly aside from tankless systems, but for whatever reason older pipes hate hot water and older people hate waiting for it. The guest who complained earlier was even in the newer wing of the facility with updated plumbing, so if he was in the part built in 1923 I'm sure he would have been able to heat the whole building's water purely with his unadulterated rage that would come from having a tepid tap for so long.

Water temperature in the old hotel is sometimes slow to warm up, and sometimes is erratically hot and cold when. Some guests have told me they had to leave their taps going for the better part of 10 minutes before the water started to heat up. Others have said their water would go from pleasant to ice cold to too hot to pleasant again in the span of the time it normally takes to shower. I mark their complaints down to pass on to the general manager and apologize to the guests, but I usually get a snide remark or scoff in response. If I were a plumber it'd be one thing to put me down for that sort of thing, but since I'm not I do my best to take those moments in stride.

It's wasteful to let water run for so long, especially being in the California high desert. I know that, but I also know the business owners aren't about to completely replace the plumbing in a nearly century-old building with high-efficiency lines and heaters. Part of the retro experience in this instance is using two gallons of water to flush the toilet and infinite patience with how long the shower takes to heat up. Usually it's not so bad and not always that wasteful, but it's honestly a crap shoot. That's part of the reason why "they don't make 'em like they used to."

So remember; much like old people exercising, old plumbing in old buildings takes a minute to get warmed up, so be patient.