Recession: Responsible for Increased Crime?

After having a break and entry last week in my own apartment, I have been a little paranoid about leaving during the day.  I normally text my husband throughout the day while I am at work, mostly to let him know that I am thinking about him and that I miss him.  You know, all that sweet stuff.  But the last few days I've been texting him to make sure he's ok on top of letting him know that I miss him.  I have this paranoid feeling that those idiots who broke in last week are going to come back and this time with firearms.  Hopefully, all it is is my paranoia getting the best of me.

With my state of mind, however, I have been looking at area crime reports in my city.  I had no idea how much crime happens where I live every day.  That got me thinking, "Has the crime rate increased?  If so, is it because of this economic uncertainty we have been having to deal with?"  My guess is yes.  I tried to see if I could possibly find a trend report for my town, but all I could find was current criminal activity by day instead of a report of total criminal activity by year.  I could do it the hard way and run the numbers myself, or do a little more research.  But to be honest, it's late and I don't feel like researching too much into it.  

So, has crime increased over the last few years because of our economic situation or am I just paying attention to it more because we have become victims?  It would make sense that the crime rate has risen.  You have gas prices increasing what seems like everyday.  With increased gas prices, transportation of food and other commodities as well as any services that involve sending someone out to your home will increase.  Hypothetically, with unemployment rates high and inflation around the corner people have to get money from somewhere.  And the desperate will do what they can to survive.

Of course, you also have the greedy like a certain MLB star who makes almost $500 thousand a year arrested for stealing $50 worth of merchandise.  Really?  Are your mortgage payments, car payments, and other extravagant bills so incredibly high that you didn't have enough money to pay for whatever it is you stole cause you just had to have it?  How about you live within your means.  I make way less than you do a year and if I needed something that was $50 I would be able to afford it.  I'm sorry, but when I read a news headline like that, it makes me want to take that person's yearly salary and make them live on the streets so that they can see what it's like to really have no money.  Maybe they will take better care of their finances and not be so greedy with their materialistic purchases.

And aside from the poor and the uncontrollable spenders stealing or committing crime, you also have gang activity.  Which may increase because kids or young adults are trying to look for ways to find money, their parents might not be working because of unemployment, or they have dropped out of school because the education funding has been cut in their area and quality education is hopeless.  

Whatever the reason may be, I believe that it is a trickle effect and we have been seeing this effect for a few years.  Of course some area neighborhoods are going to be bad, and maybe always will be.  But the fix of the problem should be more community involvement.  Growing up, I remember having neighborhood block parties where all the neighbors got to know each other and crime watch was active.  I don't see that these days.  Do neighborhoods have crime watch anymore?  If this is a dying program, it might be a good idea to revitalize it.  At least make the neighborhood feel safe.  Who knows, maybe I can voice my concern and get something that was good started back up again. 

Turn Your Bad Day Around

Being that today is a Monday, I would expect to have some small bumps and bruises throughout the day.  It is expected to have that kind of luck at the beginning of the week.  But my bumps turned out to be mountains and my bruises ended up being welts.  By the time I needed to leave work, I was ready to jump in the car and get out of there.  I don't think I've had a day this bad in a long while, so I guess I was long overdue.

It all started about an hour after I got to work.  The phones were a little slow so I was doing some reports.  I decided to take a drink of water from my water bottle when it slipped from my hand and I dropped it on my desk.  With the top off the bottle.  Of course water goes everywhere, and of course my cell phone had to be in the way of the mini flash flood.  I immediately grabbed my phone and dried it off, took it apart, took out the battery and let it sit for a little bit.  After a while I placed the battery back in and turned my phone on.  It starts right up, but I'm still holding my breath.  After about a minute it starts going back and forth from standby to active.  So I turn the phone off and turned it back on.  Now, my phone is stuck on the startup screen.  I can't even shut it down.  I read on some forum that if you keep the phone on it should reset itself.  So I did.  After about 20 minutes, it completely booted back up and looked like it was working right.  Only problem was after keeping it on for 20 minutes it drained the battery, and I didn't bring my USB charger with me to work.

Now aside from my phone issue, I was having a networking issue.  My calendar at work wasn't showing me the shared calendar.  This calendar is important because it sends me reminders about scheduled conference calls that I need to be aware of.  So I let our IT guy know and of course he tells me the obvious, "Reboot your computer".  So I did.  When it comes back on, my screen display comes up as landscape.  So I shake my head and change it back to portrait, trying hard not to tilt my head.  For those of you not familiar with those terms, landscape makes everything on your screen sideways and portrait makes everything on your screen normal.  I tell my IT guy about it and he says "That's weird" and nothing more about it.  My guess is that my computer either flipped out, or someone was messing with me.  I assume it's the latter because you have to physically change the setting on your computer display in order for that to happen.  And someone can easily do that if they have access to control your computer.  Which in most cases people working in IT have that access.

On top of everything else, it was an extremely busy day.  I was ready to go home by lunchtime, but I grit my teeth and got through it.  So what made my day better after that exhausting start?  Well, my phone is ok.  It stopped doing the flashing from standby to active.  I kept a positive attitude on the obstacles I had to get through today and didn't let any of it affect my work.  And finally, I was able to come home to my husband who always makes my day, no matter what kind I am having, a million times better.

So what should you, the reader, take from this?  Well, try as hard as you can to keep that positive attitude and don't let your day be taken out on an innocent bystander.  It's ok to vent (trust me I vented a bit today to my co-workers).  But don't be snippy or create an attitude to someone who doesn't know what's going on, especially if you're in customer service and have to deal with talking to customers.  I know it might be easier said than done, but it is possible.  Finally, think about the latter part of your day and what part of that day you are looking forward to.  Keeping that in mind will help you keep a somewhat upbeat attitude and should help you get through your own bumps and bruises a little less scarred.  If that doesn't work, well, just take a deep breath and hope that time travel will become available soon so that you can quickly get through what you deem to be a day of bad days.  Then maybe you can look back and laugh about it, or at least crack a smile.

Engagement Chicken??

Engagement Chicken ...So I was flipping through news articles on Yahoo and I came across a news story that they grabbed from Glamour.  Apparently the former fashion editor of Glamour magazine has this "magical" recipe for chicken that will persuade the men that women are after to ask their hand in marriage.  But if this recipe was so enticing to men, then why have only 72 marriages after 26 years been linked to this recipe?  My husband proposed to me after I made him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a glass of milk.  So should I formulate an engagement PB&J recipe?  Probably not.  Though if you want to go that route, just make sure you make the sandwich extra thick with both peanut butter and jelly.  Men don't like it when you skimp on their meals.

Regardless of if it works or not, the recipe does sound good to at least try.  And if you're a single woman, well then it wouldn't hurt to use it when you think you have found Mr. Right.  If you do try it, comment and let me know the end result.  My guess, you're probably better off showing him you would be a good wife than expecting the chicken to do all the work for you.  But, here's the recipe if you do want to test it out.

Engagement Chicken

Serves 2 to 4

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken (approximately 4 pounds)
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, plus 3 whole lemons—including 1 sliced for garnish
• 1 tablespoon kosher or coarse sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• Fresh herbs for garnish (4 rosemary sprigs, 4 sage sprigs, 8 thyme sprigs, and 1 bunch fl at-leaf parsley)

1. Position an oven rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Remove the giblets from the chicken, wash the chicken inside and out with cold water, then let the chicken drain, cavity down, in a colander for 2 minutes.

2. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Place the chicken breast-side down in a medium roasting pan fi tted with a rack and pour the lemon juice all over the chicken, both inside and out. Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper inside and out.

3. Prick 2 whole lemons three times each in three different places with a fork and place them deep inside the cavity. Chicken cavity size may vary, so if one lemon is partly sticking out, that’s fine. (Tip: If the lemons are stiff, roll them on the countertop with your palm before pricking to get the juices flowing.)

4. Put the chicken in the oven, lower the oven temperature to 350°F, and roast, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

5. Remove the roasting pan from the oven. Using tongs or two wooden spoons, turn the chicken breast- side up. Insert a meat thermometer in the thigh, and return the chicken to the oven and roast for about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the meat thermometer reads 180°F and the juices run clear when the thigh is pricked with a fork. Continue roasting if necessary. Keep in mind that cooking times in different ovens vary; roasting a chicken at 350°F takes approximately 18-20 minutes per pound, plus an additional 15 minutes.

6. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before carving. And here’s the secret: Pour the juices from the roasting pan on top of the sliced chicken— this is the “marry me juice.” Garnish with fresh herbs and lemon slices.

So You Think You're Safe?

These apartments look like they would be safe to live in, don't they?  It's a gated community that you either need to have an access code to gain entry or you need to have a remote that opens the gate.  The landscaping is kept up very nicely.  And every apartment has an alarm system.  It's overall a quiet complex.  You almost feel as though you can leave your door unlocked and not think twice about it.  Almost.

 About a couple months ago I noticed that the gate to the apartments was stuck open, allowing anyone on and off the property without needing to enter a code or use their remote.  I felt a little uneasy about that simply because this did allow anyone access to the property.  Plus, our rent is premium because of the fact that our community is supposed to be gated giving residents a sense of security.  My uneasy feeling started to dissipate until my husband texted me this afternoon.  The text read "Someone just broke down our door!"  The next one reading, "I'm talking with the police right now"

So now I'm feeling panicked.  I'm at work about 30 miles away and I can't do anything about what has just happened.  He tells me everything is ok and that he scared the perpetrators off.  But then I start thinking about what might have happened if they were armed and my mind starts going in circles.  And the one thought that kept coming to mind was, "What if they come back?"

Here, you can see the damage they did to the door when they kicked it in.  And if they do come back, they may realize that the door frame will be weaker because it's broken.  That is if they're that smart.  It's times like these that I'm grateful for the 2nd Amendment because, yes, we do own a handgun.  And, yes, it's when things like this happen.  A part of me took for granted the area we live in.  It really is a nice neighborhood and crime rate is pretty low.  But what happened today shook me back into reality and I was forced to realize that it doesn't matter what kind of neighborhood you live in.  Things like this can happen anywhere.

 So ask yourself when you're getting ready to go to bed tonight, how safe am I?  How will I protect myself if someone breaks into my home?  Am I really that safe?  Hopefully, you'll be able to answer those questions before what happened to my home happens to yours.

Back to Blogging

I believe my blogging rampage had stopped for almost two years now.  Why?  It's not that I didn't have any time to do them anymore.  In fact I had plenty of time to blog if I wanted to.  I was out of a job for a few months and wasn't in school.  So you would think that being the writer that I am, I would have blogged constantly in my spare time.  This was not the case, though.  I had put my blogging on a hiatus because I didn't feel the drive anymore.  I was depressed and unmotivated.  I had just gone through a divorce and was left without anyone to stand by my side.  And after 8 years of being with someone, that loneliness doesn't really do a person much good.  It's not as liberating as the movies play it out to be.  At least it wasn't for me.  And I don't want to call myself a dependent because I am able to survive on my own...financially anyway.  But without support, one tends to lose their drive in life.  And I was seeing myself fall down that path.  I did have family, but they had their own problems and I couldn't ask for them to give me the emotional support that I needed to continue to be successful in life.  And then it happened.  I found someone who would give me that strength I needed.  He turned out to be my best friend in life and he is now the one I call my husband.

Yes, I got married a second time, but this time I was smarter.  I didn't make our wedding day about me, or about catering to our guests by spending thousands of dollars.  I made our wedding day about us and our new commitment to each other.  So we got married by the J.P. and had our "reception" at Kincaid's.  His family was there and my dad was able to make it.  It was a nice little ceremony and everyone had a good time.  And what's the best part?  I was able to remember everything!  With my first wedding it was so jam packed with people.  We had to take hundreds of photos.  We had to greet everyone at the reception.  We did the whole feed each other cake routine and our first dance.  By the time I was ready to eat, it was time to leave.  I barely remember who was there, not to mention I didn't get to have any dinner.  This time, we didn't do any of that.  We just invited close friends and family to watch us say our "I Do's" in front of the J.P. and ate a somewhat dry hamburger from Kincaid's.  And it was better than my first wedding day.

So what's in store for me now?  Well, back to writing my blogs and letting the world know what I think, feel, and observe.  This means posting news that I find interesting, life events that I feel I need to write about, or maybe some useless facts that people might get a kick out of.  In any case, it feels good to be blogging again. Who knows, I might even write about you!