Calpers Update

I wanted to go to bed and was closing out when I saw this article. It is about the trips and gifts that were given to Calpers staff. Amazing. Calpers trips.

Without giving out who I am, I do work for the government. On occasion people will buy each other lunch, it is no big deal. You have a meeting over lunch in a friendly atmosphere. Lets face it, even if you work for the government you still make friends with people you work with. When I do, I will pay every other time. I don't bill the government, it is a matter of a respect. It is well below the $50 amount. I just don't want to haggle over the cost of every lunch. Heck, I even bought lunch a couple of times for a billionaire, he hated that, lol. He knows I don't get an expense account for such things and it is nothing to him. Makes me feel good and as if, I don't know how to say this. It is very freeing to buy lunch for a billionaire knowing that you don't want anything from him. It is worth more than $50. Because of the divorce, it is still in my freezer, I know it hasn't gone bad, I would not turn over bad meat to a charity.

Oh yeah, I usually just send things back, could not do it with the meat, had to freeze it. The only other gift I ever received was a jacket. I looked it up online, it was worth $45, not $50. How sad is my life, I had to look up the cost of fricken jacket. I was forced to leave my beloved Los Angeles and go to the east coast, it was cold and they gave me a jacket, they had hundreds of them. It was a throw away advertisement, I appreciated it as I had not brought a jacket. The company had offered my government to pay for my trip, the government insisted that they pay for it. I cannot say I really cared, I don't like traveling.

I hate business travel. I mean, I really hate it. I have cussed people out, refused to submit expense statements and generally been a complete jerk when I have to travel. I think it is my way of begging to not travel unless absolutely necessary. I don't like being away from loved ones. I have had as many as two people be forced to travel with me and all they did was make sure I didn't go crazy, it rarely worked. ROFL.

Anyways, at Christmas people exchange gifts. Working for the government, I can't take, I can only give. One guy I know, who has never had a contract with us and who has never bid one, he sent me some meat. I had made him dinner a few times while we talked about what he wanted to do with the government; he liked my meals and sent me some meat. It was a very nice gesture, I had spent a whole weekend with him, unpaid, to here what he had. Actually, I think his idea is very good; because of that I have to turn the meat over to a Charity. I will do that this week unless I have to talk to my ex.

It is okay, in my opinion, to buy lunch or let someone buy you lunch. You are not to give millions dollars and ruin your organization because someone bought you a hamburger or gave you a book they read. Heck, I gave the Christmas guy a book, it was just a friggin book. When you start taking things that matter there is a problem. I don't care if someone buys the coffee; but, if you have someone pay your mortgage there is a problem. Where is the line, when it could effect your decision making. When the cookie may impact your decision making. You cannot have that no matter how inconsequential the giver makes it sound.

Read the Calpers article, read what the staff member accepted. Investigate where the seminars for pension board members are held, Hawaii comes up a lot. I want to say that I really like Hawaii and love the Polynesians. If I thought I could go to Hawaii, all expenses paid, once a year, it might impact my decision making. I love Filipino sausage. I would probably not attend the seminar.

I had my impacted molars removed, they broke my jaw and it hurt really bad. They gave me percedan, I really liked it. It is my favorite drug of all time. It felt like an orgasm (see the tie in to the last post, yes). I had to stop taking it and throw it out, I could have been addicted to it easily. I through it out because I knew it was my drug of choice. Instead I dealt with the pain of the broken jaw, that was not addictive.

Sometimes, if we grow, we have to take the pain over the easy way out. We have to accept that avoiding pain is not the goal of life, that having joy is not the goal of life. The goal of life is to learn to do the right thing for the right reason, if you do that then over time things get better. If you chase the cookies, life will get worse. You will get the cookies; but, you will never fully appreciate them, you will miss out on joy.

The easy way out, the quick fix to comfort is always wrong. It leads to bad decision making. Relying on someone else for your happiness and giving up your sense of right and wrong is corruption. Be well.