Food, work, and "good times"

"Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper." Today was the first time I've ever heard that. The woman who rang me up when I bought breakfast told me that...after commenting that I must not be hungry since I only had a piece of toast and a sausage patty on my plate. On the contrary, I was hungry, or I would've passed on the concept of breakfast as I normally do. Growing up in a non-agrarian society, breakfast has always been dine-and-dash at best. A quick bowl of cereal, or a Pop Tart in hand, often skipping when I could simply because I had no interest in eating Cheerios, my eldest brother's favorite cereal and, thus, generally the only cereal in the house. Plus, sleep > breakfast every time. Last night, people were surprised to learn that I am not a fan of sandwiches. Not that I refuse to eat them, for they do serve a purpose, but I prefer to take a minute out of the middle of the day to procure something that cannot be consumed on the fly, forcing me to stop and take a breather. Of course, I'm usually too lazy to make anything. However, I am the goat of my family and will gleefully delve into almost any leftovers that I happen to have or find in my parents' fridge. Whenever I am working, I take my lunch time seriously. My lunch hour is my hour, even if I happen to be eating at my desk.

Sometimes I wish that I was an actor, so that I would always have union-enforced lunch breaks and I would always get fed by craft services. The only downside is the unsteadiness of the work. Even someone like Angelina Jolie will fade from the limelight or have a dry spell where there are no productions with a role that she fits the description of. Although in these economic times, is it really any more of a gamble than trying to get a "real" job? With the number of layoffs, maybe now is really the time to go after your dream job, kind of like how Michigan is reinventing itself as a new Hollywood now that the auto industry has finally driven the final nail into the coffins of their factories near Motor City. The idea that the economy is improving is bs until we really start to see tangible improvements, not just word from Wall Street or from the White House.

Speaking of the White House, Obama's asking for even more money, this time for a new incentive program for teachers. Nice idea, but not the right time. What good is improving education if the kids can't stay in school because they're being shuttled around to different relatives or various homeless shelters because their parents can't afford to have a singular residence for an extended period of time thanks to being unemployed? Can Obama learn to pinch pennies? He can't run the US like he ran his household in a tony Chicago neighborhood on his wife's salary. The man's a "good times" president, and if this were the 1920's, I'm sure that his approval rating would be through the roof. We're in hard, lean times, and the man's lightbulb has yet to go off. Instead of escalating the national debt and increasing taxes to finance his pet projects, he should be trying to trim the fat and putting forth non-expensive ideas on how to keep jobs in the US.