...And I hate the new tv.com.

So where are all the changes we were promised. We still have this hideously colored layout and I can only see four friend's blog updates at a time. I Miss the old days when we could quickly glance and see ten of our friend's updates, at a time.

Sad to say, I don't navigate as much here anymore. Too much effort I guess. Just wanted to let you all know that I miss you and hope you are all well.

PIKE

Hey Friends:

This blog is specifically designed for my on line friends here who support Obama on Tuesday. This blog will be your chance to make your case for your guy in a reasoned argument.

BUT!!!!!!!!!!

Here are the parameters.

1. I am a single issue voter. The only thing I care about in any national election, post 9/11, is what candidate is going keep this country safe from murderous, Islamist, pyschopaths who would destroy anyone or any nation who doesn't agree with their twisted world view. I feel strongly that this is the only issue that matters, because the rest of it (education, welfare, abortion, gay right, guns etc. etc.) doesn't matter if they win! In other words, how does your candidate propose to keep this country safe and defeat (notice I said defeat, not placate not compromise with, not negotiate with) the most dangerous enemy this country has ever faced. That's it.

2. You must cite specific policies, and avoid vague, meaningless terms like hope, change, future, charm, charisma. I don't want to hear about what a great speaker he is or how somehow this country "owes this to Black people" (Don't laugh, I have actually had very intelligent people make this argument.

3. You cannot mention George Bush!

There you go. Please PM them to me and I will post them as updates or use the comments section (although I think the format for cutting and pasting from PM would be easier with the stupid new tv.com format. Did I mention I hate the new tv.com format )

This is for you my Obama supporting friends only. To my McCain supporting bretheren here, please don't comment on the blog or turn the comments section into a debate or a flame war. Feel free to PM your responses to me.

I seriously want to hear what you have to say.

PIKE

Awhile back I made few observations about the pizza biz and some of the sociological and political angles one sees when one rushes a customer's order to their doorstep. I mentioned that come the fall, we drivers were going to take an informal survey of cutomer attitudes and generosity and cross-reference them to the political signs in their yard and see if any conclusions could be drawn.

Well that plan has not really worked out. Perhaps it is because TExas is a solid color state and fewer people wear their political affiliations on their sleeve, or in this case, stuck into their front yard. We have not had enough "active political houses" to make any kind of conclusive statement or even gather enough good data. A few incidents have stood out to me though.

Last week: upper middle class house, not one, but TWO Obama signs in the front yard. Total bill is 11.98. Woman has teenage daughter give me a check for $12. Wow, two whole cents! Thanks Lady!

Two nights ago: Obama house, upper middle class household, very nice tip. But, this appeared to be a lesbian couple, and a lifetime in service industries has given me the impression that most gays are good to very good tippers.

Today: McCain/Palin sign, upper middle class neighborhood, very generous. $14.36 bill, lady gives me a twenty and tells me to keep the rest.

Not a political sign observation, but a general comment on society in general. Delivered the other night to a lower middle class/working class neighborhood. Used to be nice, but parts have gone "ghetto" in the past decade or so. Hmmmmm. sub prime mortages perhaps???? Anyway delivered to basic 1,600 s. ft. or so house, two car garage. Driveway had a Ford F-150 pickup, that did not appear to be a work truck and a four door Corrola type car. Thirtiesh Hispanic Mom came to the door, couple of children in the background, wedding ring. Friendly, polite, but I could not help but notice behind her a sixty inch or so televsion. The thing pretty much dominated the small living room.

And I began to think. Hmmm, two cars and a sixty inch tv. I work two jobs and can't afford a sixty inch tv.

Yeah, bet they can't afford to buy their kids health care though huh?

Hello all:

(For those who missed my last blog, please check here to see what I am talking about. http://www.tv.com/users/PikeBishop/profile.php?action=show_blog&entry=m-100-25555963)

I am back from Los Angeles and the first ever meeting with my long time internet and phone friend "Layla."

My flight arrived about 7:30 and we had a funny moment as I called her cell as I was walking towards baggage claim. I spotter her opening her cell as she spotted me talking into mine. We had alrady agreed to a "greeting hug" in order to defuse any awkwardness. We both smiled and agreed that we pretty much looked like our pictures, so there were no surprises. She is about 5' 6" and has a nice figure, not just for a woman of 42, but a nice figure in general, (including a really nice butt ). She has a pretty Asian face and that long black hair, of course.

We went back to her place in Huntington Beach. We had no real problems with conversation lag as we talked about our plans for the weekend. We were both pretty tired and turned in early. She has a very comfortable couch that had me in dreamland shortly. She did give me a little kiss good night, which I pointed out was our first ever kiss.

The next day's agenda had us taking a three hour trip to the Santa Barbara/Santa Ynez wine country and a charming little town called Solvang. Solvang is nestled just over the coastal mountains in a little valley. It was founded by Danish immigrants and the town has captialized on that for their tourist industry. The architecture is very nordic looking, including a replica of the Mermaid statue and various tourist sites devoted to Hans Christian Andersen and other Danish things. The town is also chock full of wineries and wine tasting places so I was in heaven.

We had lunch and began to take the wine tour. The first place we went we met another couple who were intrigued by our declaration that we "had known each other for eight years, but only met last night." They had met on match.com and had been married for three years. That was nice to hear.

We strolled the streets, had ice cream, sampled wine, met interesting people and got to know one another. BTW our story got us free drinks in two of the places . We even had some fun in a fairly upscale clothing store that had fallen on hard times due to the current economy (or due to the fact that their stuff is over-priced to begin with as I think), according to the owner, Maria, a sixtyish white haired lady, who had a quick wit. Prices were slashed in half at least, and I found a luxury item I have always wanted, a genine silk shirt, salmon colored. Layla tried on a few tops, and even a pair of really nice fancy pumps, with lots of sparkle. Her feet looked great in those shoes, as even Maria agreed saying, "Wow, you have beautiful feet." This made her blush. Maria also had evening dresses on sale and we convinced her to try one on, I really liked this red number, spaghetti straps, fairly low cut, flowing to the floor. She walked out of that dressing room a vision. Her long hair draped over her shoulders, that firey crimson fabric glowing against her olive skin, and the dress cut just right to emphasize her medium sized breasts.

Both Maria and I thought her a vision, but she only chose the two tops and left the dress and shoes be. Layla later told me that she was a little shy about the dress as she was still that "good little Asian girl" who was not used to such a low cut neckline.

We returned to Huntington Beach and slept soundly after a long shower. The next day was San Diego, only about eighty miles down the road. I did the driving today as a thanks for her doing it yesterday. We stopped just north of San Diego and had lunch with a friend of her's, her husband, mother in law and their adorable one year old son, who is Layla's god son. They are Philippino emigres as well. I got a good look at California real estate prices, as their simple tract home is valued at about $500K. (YIKES) We had a nice lunch at an Asian buffett and headed on to San Diego. We crossed the Coronado bridge and strolled the beach. We then took a harbor cruise, past the sea lions, the naval base and lots of sail boats. (One of my goals in life is to own my own sailboat. I am getting my basic sailing certification this fall) I took some great photos of the boats. It was great basking in the sun, taking photos, feeling the wind and smelling the salt air.

We drove back and decided to go out for a nice dinner. She lives only three miles or so from Huntington Beach, which I found was the original "Surf City" from the Jan and Dean song. AS surf city, it was an interesting place, full of young surfer dude types, and a plethora of young girls of various looks and attitudes. Wed ressed nice and found a good wood fire restaurant with a view of the darkened beach. I had steak and she had salmon and a bottle of my favorite merlot. We strolled around after dinner, people watching, as neither of us was interested in the musical selections offerred in the bars and clubs, music geared to a much younger crowd than us. We strolled out onto the pier, arm in arm. We sat on a bench on the pier and talked a bit about the future .

My flight was the next day at 5, so we decided to go and check out the beach during the daylight. Even in October, there were still surfers out there in their wetsuits, including whole families, little tykes on their little boogie boards, pre teens on their mini boards and Mom and Dad on their long boards. The sun was shining bright around noon. We checked out the surfer gear in the clothing shops and I felt like a real old dude. WE made a stop at the famous Mission de San Juan Capistrano, site of the annual swallow pilgrimage. It is a well-maintained historical site, with a lot of beautiful gardens and quiet serenity. We sat under the shade of a grape arbor and talked about the future a bit more.

She drove me back to the airport; we embraced and kissed goodbye.

She told me she couldn't wait to visit me in Texas.

It was a good weekend.

Hello Friends:

About eight years ago, this month probably but I cannot recall specifically, an interesting thing happened to me. I had had my computer for about a year, and while working my first teaching job and a weekend job at a steakhouse, then, just like now, I didn't have much time for a social life. I had joined Yahoo Personals (back when it was free) in order to meet some friends and find romance. That worked out pretty well for me, as I made lots of friends and had two long term relationships come from this.

Well, one day I checked my in box at Yahoo and found a message from a woman in the Philippines, who had answered my ad. While still being new at this cyber dating thing, I was hip enough raise an eyebrow or two at this. Red flags weren't going up, but let's just say they were a nice shade of orange. I already knew about all those "Asian penpals" and "Meet Russian Ladies" ads in the back of magazines and already beginning to prolliferate in the early days of the internet. In fact a friend of mine had been taken to the cleaners by a "mail order fiancee" years ago, so I answered this ad with my guard up.

Turned out my fears were unfounded. "Layla" was just looking for friends and penpals in the US, not romance, a finacee visa or a green card wedding. She was a year younger than me, single and had a good job in Manila. WE exchanged information and began a long pen pal correspondence, and chatted for hours on IM. We shared similar tates, views and attitudes. We were both single and never married, but we wanted marriage and children. We were both Roman Catholics and we both had lost our Mothers to cancer. We had similar political views, and liked the same kinds of music and movies.

Our friendship blossomed over the winter, through chats and emails. We exchanged photos and both liked what we saw. She IMed me on July 4, 2001 (appropriately enough) and I told her that I had just bought a house and she told me that she was emirgrating to America. She had some relatives in Los Angeles and she had applied for a work visa through them and the company they worked for. I looked forward to being able to call and talk to my new friend when she reached the continental US.

Most of you have figured by now, that yeah, we talked about romance. We discussed the possibilites of the two of us meeting and clicking, marriage and children. I mean, hey, we are both human, and as I said, we had really clicked. Both of us entertained the possibilites of a relationship developing, and our being closer than half a world away, was very exciting. I can recall the exhileration I felt the first time we talked on the phone and I heard her voice, sweet and chraming, made more so somehow by her competant, but still halting, English.

Well things changed a month or so later when I met Alyssa. We began dating and became serious. She moved in with me the next year, 2002 in the summer, and we were engaged in the winter of 2003. I was honest with Layla about this, as the relationship progressed, at least I think I was. I honestly can't remember a lot of what happened beyond my pair bond with Alyssa during those times. We stayed friends and shared the occasional IM, which I did hide from Alyssa for obvious reasons. I could see her asking why I was still even talking to a potential rival female and , who knows, perhaps, subconciously I was seeking it out (Paging Dr. Freud, Paging Dr. Freud, Dr. Freud call your service ). I honestly don't know, but I stayed in touch with her.

Well as you know Alyssa and I did not make it and we parted. This was in December of '03. Layla was well established in California and was doing well. She shared a nice apartment with another Philippina girl, and had a good job with her company. We started talking again, and the idea of my flying out to LA to visit her finally came up. For whatever reason or reasons, we never were able to make the arrangements work out.

Sometime in 04 she met a guy and began dating him. Our correspondence was pretty rare in those days, but part of me died, when she revealed this to me. I had always held out this hope that she would be "the one." Considering the way in which we had first met, and how she moved to the US and....well you get the picture. I was even more taken aback when she told me she was moving in wiht him in 05. This shocked me, because she had always given me the impression she did not approve of this. Without revealing too much detail, let's just say she was a good Catholic girl, even into her 30s.

Her IMs became even more rare as she was in this relationship with this divorced guy, who had a ten year old son. Our conversations resumed soon after and I asked her about her relationship. She was not really happy with him. She wanted marriage and children and he wanted neither. She revealed to me that he pretty much told her up front, that he was not going to marry her. And she had to talk to me on IM in secret because he was the jealous type and would check her computer to see who she had talked to.

I was kicking myself, for all those times I just "could not get out to see her," all the mis steps and false starts to see her and meet her finally. I kept asking her why she was with this guy, and she could not give me a good answer, although she was pretty cold when she told me, that I had pretty much blown my chance with her, (and I hated to admit that she was right).

I dated no one seriously or long term for those years, and she often ended up Iming and talking to various dates of mine, in addition to me. HEre I was playing the field and here she was, in a nowhere relationship.

I hate to say it got pretty emotional at times. I kept asking her why she stayed in this relationship, even if it was not fulfilling her needs, and she kept saying that she got tired of waiting for me, and why it seemed like I was playing the field so much, if I wanted to settle down and marry. Both of us exchanged pointed jabs like two top-notch middle weight fighters.

At one point I even told her, "Congratulations Layla! You've always wanted to be an American girl and you have finally succeded. You are now officially the typical American girl. You're stuck in a relationship that is going nowhere with a loser who doesn't fulfil your needs and won't be a part of your long term goals and you are going to waste all of your energy "trying to make this work" and "someday he will CHANGE."

Hey, I told you it got contentious. As Bree once remarked to her son, when she threw him out of the house and abandoned him during Desperate Housewives's second season, "The opposite of love isn't hate, its indifference." Hate still involves feeling. Layla and I did not hate one another, but we still felt and we still hurt because of that.

I could tell she was hurting. The fact that she was sneaking around and trying to IM and talk to me, her friend, was a good indicator of that fact. She was unhappy.

Well sometime in 2007, she finally reached the end. She finally realized that this relationship was not fulfilling her needs. She broke up with him and moved out. Her Yahoo icon started popping up a lot more on my screen. She could not wait to talk to me and tell me of the changes in her life.

She moved to Orange County and got her own aprartment. She got a promotion at her work. She is now no longer on her work visa, which pretty much limited her to her employer and living in Califronia. And finally, she now has her green card.

We talked more and more as we rebuilt the bridges we had not just burned, but in some cases had dynamited, in the past five years. We rekindled our friendship and reignited our mutual, long distance, and somewhat unspoken romance.

Which brings us to today.

My flight to LA leaves at 6PM tomorrow night. Wish me luck gang!

PIKE