I think I have posted too much on news for the moment and want to give the reader a chuckle. I have two Las Vegas stories that I think are amusing. They are absolutely true and I hope they bring a smile to your face.
Before my father died, he used to like going to Vegas and I tried to take him there once a month. He would play for hours nonstop. I could only play for a bit and would get bored. As a consequence I would go to the shows. Now here is something that the readers can use. In Vegas the best seats are kept for the high rollers and their wives. Frequently only the wife will take the seat while the husband gambles. That means you can usually get one seat. As my dad did not go to the shows, I usually got one seat up front. The moral is, if you want the best seat in the house, go alone.
One weekend I wanted to see a traditional Las Vegas show, the longest running show was at the Tropicana, it was the Follies Bergere. I bought a ticket and went, front row, far right (stage left for actors, lol). Having been a stage manager I like to sit far to the right or left so that I can see backstage.
Let me tell you about the show. In addition to be the longest running Vegas show, it was a variety show. It was very family friendly except at night when it was topless. The ladies were mostly natural and a little older than on most of the strip as the show had run longer. There was singing and dancing and jugglers (the juggler was very funny) and it was a real variety show. The ladies were lovely, old school Vegas dancers.
On the night I went, a newlywed couple sat across from me. I was in my mid forties, bald, short, glasses, grey, wearing a Hawaiian shirt. The couple was 30 or so. The show began and there was a dancing number, it was ballroom dancing. One of the lady dancers was having a hard day. When the couple dancing turned and stopped, the lady dancer thought nobody could see her as her partner blocked her from the audience; but, I could see her because I was on the far right side. When they stopped she looked at her partner and started complaining about something, I think her feet hurt. She looked to the side and noticed that I had seen her break character. She was embarrassed, I only found it charming, I have worked too many stages.
Now, let me tell you about this showgirl. She was beautiful and tall and graceful and probably in her early 30s. The kind of woman men love to be seen with and in the longest running Vegas show in history. I have no doubt that she was the complete professional, a joy to behold for an old stage manager. You can only imagine how hard the life of a showgirl is, lots of work, hard work, dreadful costumes, high heels and hard dancing, she had amazing legs, dancers do; but, there is a price for it. She probably had a family and was working to provide for them.
Well, this young lady made a mistake, she broke character, that is frowned upon by professionals and she knew I had seen, that is the worst, an audience member caught her. As she complained to her dance partner, she noticed that I had seen everything, she was embarrassed. The show continued and later just the ladies were dancing, all of them topless. At one point, the lady ended up in front of me, she looked over at me and smiled and winked, as if to say, "You caught me". Now comes the best part.
The young newlywed man saw this statuesque, beautiful, amazing showgirl wink at a little old man. He turned and looked at me with most baffled look a guy can have. As if to say, who the heck are you that this showgirl is winking at you during the show. LOL. His confusing and reaction made my night. For the rest of the evening he would turn and make this puzzled face at me, probably assumed I was rich.
My next story is semi-sad. One of my best friends lost his mother. When she died I offered to fly to the east coast and attend the funeral. Instead he asked that I take he and his father to Vegas, to get away. Some time passed and they flew out, I got us a nice hotel and stayed with his father. The first night I was ill. I had bought tickets for some show and we went. It had a former playboy or playmate model, I don't remember which. We had front row seats and I was dying, headache, nauseous, a real mess; but, I wanted his father to see the show so I went. Did I mention front row. Yeah.
There the three of us were sitting and me ready to pass out from being sick and in pain. My friends father had never been to Vegas and this was his first Vegas show. The show began and the playmate was lifter on a chair and put above the audience, she ended up just in front of me, a half naked playmate, she looked down and waved and smiled at me in front of my friends dad. He thought I knew everyone in town. I was just sitting in the right place at the right time. It was great.
I treasure the times I was allowed to take my father and my friend's father to Vegas. I treasure the fact that I was allowed to do something for them. When my father was dying, my friends father, who I had not met in person, was very nice to my father, they worked in the same industry but did not know each other, they had toiled the same ground. I was very blessed that I could have two such men appreciate me and let them know they were appreciated. Real men, old school, tough as nails and quiet until they needed to be firm.
These men paid their dues for their families and did not complain much. They were old school and worthy of my respect. Even in my 50s I still refer to my friends dad as Mr. It is respect. It is earned and happily given. It is not agreement on everything, it is respect for the gifts they have given others. I did not know this was going to be about fathers, I guess it was just on my mind. I miss my father and my mother, greatly.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Sunday Again
It is Sunday and it is Father's Day. I miss my father and appreciate all that he did for me. He was good dad, not perfect, none of us are. Being parent means never being right again. To all the fathers out there, Happy Father's Day, I hope you are appreciated and that you appreciate your father.
If we are selfish we think about what we did not get, if we are loving we remember what we did. It is all a matter of perspective. Nobody can fulfill our expectations completely and we cannot fulfill anyone else's completely. What we focus on is a statement about us.
A dear lady sent me a link to a video of a motivational speaker. He is not like every other motivational speaker. His motto is, "No arms, no legs, no worries". I would like you to watch this short video, it might just make you appreciate what you do have a little bit.
Nick Vujicic
One of my cousins lost his father on his wedding day. It was a horrifyingly sad event. About a year later, he had his first baby. She is a beautiful girl. This year he had his first son, he is equally beautiful. We were so thrilled to have something positive happen in our family, too many deaths and no births in years. I put a picture of the baby on my office door to remember that good does happen.
There is a lady in my office who I have known for 30 years. When she is feeling down she walks by my door to look at the smiling picture of the newborn baby. Now she sees both pictures. I never meant to keep them on my door; but, I cannot them down because I know they brighten her day and I like seeing them too. I am providing a link to a song for people to think about the first time they saw the face of someone they came to love.
Roberta Flack - The first time ever I saw your face
If we are selfish we think about what we did not get, if we are loving we remember what we did. It is all a matter of perspective. Nobody can fulfill our expectations completely and we cannot fulfill anyone else's completely. What we focus on is a statement about us.
A dear lady sent me a link to a video of a motivational speaker. He is not like every other motivational speaker. His motto is, "No arms, no legs, no worries". I would like you to watch this short video, it might just make you appreciate what you do have a little bit.
Nick Vujicic
One of my cousins lost his father on his wedding day. It was a horrifyingly sad event. About a year later, he had his first baby. She is a beautiful girl. This year he had his first son, he is equally beautiful. We were so thrilled to have something positive happen in our family, too many deaths and no births in years. I put a picture of the baby on my office door to remember that good does happen.
There is a lady in my office who I have known for 30 years. When she is feeling down she walks by my door to look at the smiling picture of the newborn baby. Now she sees both pictures. I never meant to keep them on my door; but, I cannot them down because I know they brighten her day and I like seeing them too. I am providing a link to a song for people to think about the first time they saw the face of someone they came to love.
Roberta Flack - The first time ever I saw your face
A Personal Post on Pension Reform
I work for a governmental entity. I have for over 20 years. During that time I have made and saved hundreds of millions of dollars. I did not come to the government for security, it was my career choice and that is why I took the courses I did in school.
Over the course of my career I have had numerous opportunities to leave the government and make more money in private industry and make more money, I chose to stay. I am well paid and have few complaints about that. When my life came apart I almost left. I almost quit to become a consultant. I had a half million dollars in contracts in under 30 minutes and wasn't trying to get any.
The people who know me, know this to be true, the people who do not probably cannot believe it. It is what it is. Most people that work for government cannot just take a job on the outside and make four times as much. I know this. They stay because of their pensions and benefits.
Part of the reason I stayed was because of my pension. In five years I can begin to draw my pension and retire. Only one problem, half goes to the ex. It would be better for me to leave, make more and start a 401k or invest in stock. I have many options. Best case scenario would be for me to go into consulting and create a new self made pension. I plan on staying for a bit, as long as my health is manageable.
When I went into government, I was told that I would get a specific benefit, a pension calculated and guaranteed. I was told the government would put aside a specific amount each year. I didn't, few did. They made the promises; but, when times were good counted on making large returns on the pension investments. Markets go up and down, the bets failed eventually.
Nationwide government pensions are under scrutiny. Few, very few, governments put the money in the pension funds that they promised and instead turned to riskier and riskier investments. Government pension funds were then also used for political ends. Government Pensions invested in things that the government wanted to achieve, in exchange the government allowed them to do insider trading, constructively.
The Federal government turned a blind eye to all of what was happening as long as the pensions invested in things that the fed wanted to see grow. A problem occurred, a culture of corruption was created. That culture led to graft and bribery. Now we have the outcome, failed government pension systems nationwide.
Because of the underfunding of the pensions, the failure of governments to put in the amount needed at the time, the pensions will fail. If the governments were to make up for what they did not pay at the time, they will be unable to pay their present employees. That is the reality we are facing.
As a consequence of the above, we are now faced with a choice. We can, as a society, not provide the promised payments we made for service done, we can put the burden on future government employees or find a hybrid solution. Doubling taxes to pay for the promises made to government employees, including me, is not a viable solution in this economy.
I have been cheated. I and many others have already given our time, spent our careers in government service in exchange for a promise. That promise is now a lie. I gave up making more, making different choices based on a societal promise. I am being asked to screw future employees or accept that I was cheated and find an alternate situation.
I cannot get back the career options, choices of the past two plus decades, I cannot redo my life. I cannot have married someone different. Government employees are being asked to make the decision about their pensions. They are being asked to condemn the future employees to working 40 years, rather than 30, or insist upon tax increases.
Private company employees are in a similar situation. Social Security is also $1 trillion underfunded. The government did not put the money aside to pay for social security. That means privately employed people are being asked to pay for public pensions or their own. Keep your promises and go without or fail to meet your promises and take care of yourself.
The question is how we solve these problems. It will determine the type of society we create in the future. If we choose to cheat future employees, they will steal you blind, private and public. It is not a solution you will like and future employees will not help retiring ones if that is our societal answer.
ON AVERAGE, people are living longer. That does mean that we will have to change the pension systems because of the actuarial tables. It does not mean that we have to make upcoming employees pay for our pensions. Rather than allowing ourselves to be conquered and divided, what if we all compromised. I will gladly allow the next ten years of my pension to be based on a new formula if it will allow the new employees to only work an extra five years rather than 10+. I will not ask taxpayers, I pay them also, to not have services in order to meet the promises they made to me completely.
Everything I have said applies to Social Security, which I do not recieve but have paid into, and how we will deal with people on the private side. Will you saddle your children with working an extra ten years to get what you were promised?
Over the course of my career I have had numerous opportunities to leave the government and make more money in private industry and make more money, I chose to stay. I am well paid and have few complaints about that. When my life came apart I almost left. I almost quit to become a consultant. I had a half million dollars in contracts in under 30 minutes and wasn't trying to get any.
The people who know me, know this to be true, the people who do not probably cannot believe it. It is what it is. Most people that work for government cannot just take a job on the outside and make four times as much. I know this. They stay because of their pensions and benefits.
Part of the reason I stayed was because of my pension. In five years I can begin to draw my pension and retire. Only one problem, half goes to the ex. It would be better for me to leave, make more and start a 401k or invest in stock. I have many options. Best case scenario would be for me to go into consulting and create a new self made pension. I plan on staying for a bit, as long as my health is manageable.
When I went into government, I was told that I would get a specific benefit, a pension calculated and guaranteed. I was told the government would put aside a specific amount each year. I didn't, few did. They made the promises; but, when times were good counted on making large returns on the pension investments. Markets go up and down, the bets failed eventually.
Nationwide government pensions are under scrutiny. Few, very few, governments put the money in the pension funds that they promised and instead turned to riskier and riskier investments. Government pension funds were then also used for political ends. Government Pensions invested in things that the government wanted to achieve, in exchange the government allowed them to do insider trading, constructively.
The Federal government turned a blind eye to all of what was happening as long as the pensions invested in things that the fed wanted to see grow. A problem occurred, a culture of corruption was created. That culture led to graft and bribery. Now we have the outcome, failed government pension systems nationwide.
Because of the underfunding of the pensions, the failure of governments to put in the amount needed at the time, the pensions will fail. If the governments were to make up for what they did not pay at the time, they will be unable to pay their present employees. That is the reality we are facing.
As a consequence of the above, we are now faced with a choice. We can, as a society, not provide the promised payments we made for service done, we can put the burden on future government employees or find a hybrid solution. Doubling taxes to pay for the promises made to government employees, including me, is not a viable solution in this economy.
I have been cheated. I and many others have already given our time, spent our careers in government service in exchange for a promise. That promise is now a lie. I gave up making more, making different choices based on a societal promise. I am being asked to screw future employees or accept that I was cheated and find an alternate situation.
I cannot get back the career options, choices of the past two plus decades, I cannot redo my life. I cannot have married someone different. Government employees are being asked to make the decision about their pensions. They are being asked to condemn the future employees to working 40 years, rather than 30, or insist upon tax increases.
Private company employees are in a similar situation. Social Security is also $1 trillion underfunded. The government did not put the money aside to pay for social security. That means privately employed people are being asked to pay for public pensions or their own. Keep your promises and go without or fail to meet your promises and take care of yourself.
The question is how we solve these problems. It will determine the type of society we create in the future. If we choose to cheat future employees, they will steal you blind, private and public. It is not a solution you will like and future employees will not help retiring ones if that is our societal answer.
ON AVERAGE, people are living longer. That does mean that we will have to change the pension systems because of the actuarial tables. It does not mean that we have to make upcoming employees pay for our pensions. Rather than allowing ourselves to be conquered and divided, what if we all compromised. I will gladly allow the next ten years of my pension to be based on a new formula if it will allow the new employees to only work an extra five years rather than 10+. I will not ask taxpayers, I pay them also, to not have services in order to meet the promises they made to me completely.
Everything I have said applies to Social Security, which I do not recieve but have paid into, and how we will deal with people on the private side. Will you saddle your children with working an extra ten years to get what you were promised?
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