Did you want some change?

Is the exact question I was just asked by a well-deserving, hard working waiter at a nice restaurant in the Santa Monica Area.  Maybe I am generous, possibly extravagant, but who are you?  This is not an angry or argumentative question.  I often vacillate between "why should I be so lucky" and "thank you very much."  Whenever I buy, eat, or do anything of value to me that the general public would consider a luxury, I don't need to feel one ounce of guilt.  If everything like that needed some type of justification, people would spend more time pleading with a host or hostess at a nice restaurant instead of eating and enjoying themselves at the given restaurant.


Occasionally I will go to a nice place to eat.  It doesn't matter if I'm with a group of people or alone, or on a  date, it's something that I wanted to do, and I'm doing it.  Don't feel bad that you have success in your life, don't even think for a second that it's so sad that someone has to wait on your table and MUST get a decent tip at the end of the evening.  This person on the receiving end of the tip took this job to wait on people. The people he or she wait on will be obnoxious, belligerent, and anywhere in between sober and "dude, where's my car?"

Nevertheless, these people have taken a job in order to provide for his or her needs.  Good for them! There shouldn't be any social stigma when you see the same man who gives out towels at the gym also serving you at a restaurant the same day.

There is always talk of something more to get out of life.  Maybe there is, probably not the case, but it's a nice concept.  When waiters ask if there is anything else, they don't really mean it, but if that is true, then they must not like the extra tip they get for the decent service they provided.

Too Much Paper in a City of Plastic

It's More than Just a Bag

I live in Los Angeles. This wonderful city has everything to offer from excellent weather and the most material people to the greenest neighborhoods filled with the most luxurious SUVs, LA has just about whatever you want. Last year, I was victimized by the city of West Hollywood. The city demanded that every time I go to a grocery store in the West Hollywood city limits I would have to pay 10 cents for each bag (15 cents at Ralph's for a stronger plastic bag). At first, I thought I was lucky enough to be on one of those hidden camera reality TV shows, where my response to this "new law" was going to be the talk of the town for a while until one of the Kardashians posted a new selfie.

Then I realized that this was no laughing matter. Unfortunately, the ultra-progressive, free-flowing, and everything-conscious city of WEHO had spearheaded tax of shame for going shopping for groceries and using a bag. It seems that it is always a shock to the clerks who are checking me out at the supermarket that I want as many bags as possible when the bill was just over 100 dollars for some basic items.

As 2013 progressed, I got used to paying for bags only to become well too aware of the severe reduction in quality of the paper bags the stores sold, leading me to realize that handles on paper bags were more futile than helmets on skydivers. Here I stand in 2014 -- I managed to survive. Nevertheless, a new law, banning all plastic bags in all of LA went into effect on January 1st.

This narrative continues at CVS… I rarely go to CVS for anything, but recently, during allergy season when I have been taking Claritin-D - Rite Aid will no longer sell me any Claritin-D because according to their system, I have been abusing the drug too much. On two separate occasions, nearly two weeks apart, I have been denied the ability to purchase Claritin at Rite Aid due to a definite flaw in their computer system. Apparently, there is also a law that requires me to swipe my driver's license in order to purchase Claritin-D since there is Pseudoephedrine, a primary ingredient for meth. This law limits 9 grams of the ingredient per 30 days. I checked.

Math Time (or is it Meth Time?)

Now let's do the math: 15 Tablets have 3.6 grams of Pseudophedrine (15 pills with 240 mgs each); taken every day once per day would mean that on day 15 or 16 when I go to buy more, I still am able to buy another 15 pack which would put me 20% the limit at 7.2 grams purchased during a 30 day period. Still following? Good. Bottom line is that I was not allowed to even purchase the second 15 pack twice in about 45 days, bringing me to CVS where I successfully purchased Claritin-D. 

Back to the Bags

However, the new "paper bag only law" shook me as they packaged my new box of drugs (Claritin), body wash, and other everyday items in this brown bag without handles. The bag was ripping already as the pharmacist inserted each item. The pharmacist and I exchanged pleasantries over our abhorrence for the ban on plastic bags. Ironically, the several customers near me at CVS were botox infused, with some new plastic parts eagerly awaiting their turn to painlessly fill his or her prescription for some highly addictive pain-killers. Again, too much paper in this plastic city.