When I put up my last post I thought I was just going to sail home and on to EC's after work, as traffic had been pretty light. I found out yesterday that the road closures for the march are going to be until 6pm, not rolling closures with some ending at 3:30pm, as posted.  I spoke to one of my bosses this morning (I got to work an hour and a half early, but apparently, that doesn't score points or count for anything) and they said that I might be able to leave early, but they're out and about, doing what they do, and I guess forgot about letting me know if I could bail before 5pm.  It's after 4pm now......

I'm still going, but frustrated that it's going to be stressful getting there and that it's going to take longer than I'd hoped. <sigh>.

Since I'm having a discouragingly difficult week at work, I decided to take my friend Sam up on her offer to meet her and her husband at EC's tomorrow (Friday 4/24) after work.

I really need a little cheering-up and I'm hoping this will do the trick.

This weekend cannot come fast enough.  I just want to enjoy not "having" be to be someplace that I'd rather not be, LOL!

The city started about three different morning construction projects on my side of town, all of which are on my routes to work.  Besides making it difficult to get to work on the streets with construction, all of my alternative routes are now heavy with traffic.

Wilshire in the Miracle mile has construction, Wilshire, between San Vicente and La Cienega has construction (the San Vicente on my "home" side of town, not the San Vicente on my "work" side of town), plus there is something going on between Fairfax and approximately Orlando on Third that requires these HUGE trucks to line both sides of the street.

I've tried biting the bullet and taking Wilshire all the way (45+ minutes), I've tried taking Wilshire to San Vicente, to Burton, to Little Santa Monica to Wilshire (60+ minutes), I've tried Beverly to La Cienega to Burton, etc. (60+ minutes).  It's crazy.  My morning drive is usually around 20 minutes, give or take.

I may have to try going down to Olympic or Pico to see if they're any better, but from past experiences, I doubt they will be.

I think I saw a sign this morning alerting us to the fact that Wilshire is going to be closed tomorrow at one point.  It's not the city this time though, it's for a march.  They're also closing other streets on my way to work, so I guess I'm going to have to leave really early, which kinda sucks.  Thank goodness I have EC's to look forward to!

Weird thing lately, going home hasn't been too bad the past few weeks.  It's only been taking me about 50-60 minutes, instead of over an hour and a half.  The only real back-ups have been on Wilshire, East of Beverly Glen through to about La Cienega.  I know that sounds like a long way, but it's a dream compared to how the drive was before.  Plus, there are a lot of things to look at, especially if you're like me and you like to drive in the left-hand lane cruising through Beverly Hills.  Only drawback is that you get stuck if you're caught behind a tour bus that wants to make a left up Rodeo Drive and they end-up blocking both the lanes because there's not enough room for them.

If the commute home continues to be fairly good (and I didn't just jinx it), I should be able to be at EC's before 6:30pm!  Because of the previous horrendous traffic on my work side of town, in addition to the regular bad traffic on my home side of town, I was averaging 7:15 - 7:30pm the last 8 months or so.  Not that I go all the time!  It's actually been a few months for me.  I think the last time I was there was before I went to my parents house for Christmas.

Anyway, one more work to go!  Not counting today, that is.

I mentioned in my last post that I had a couple of things to do this weekend and they, unfortunately, required waiting in line to get seat assignments.  I wasn't wrong.

Saturday was the final, regular monthly, Thrilling Adventure Hour performance.  I got my ticket months ago and was excited!  Since parking in my neighborhood is so awful, I took the bus up to Largo.  I'm sure I looked odd hauling my chair, umbrella and backpack, but whatever.  I got up there around 12:30pm and I was right, I wasn't the first person in line.  There were about six people ahead of me and a few more turned up right after I got there.

So I set-up my chair, pull out my "line book" and settle in and read.  It was a nice day, so I didn't need to pull out my umbrella yet....or so I thought.  My friends got there about three or four hours later.  They don't assign seats until 6pm, so it was still a wait.  I told the guy behind me that I was going to have four people join me and he was cool with it.

Fast forward to 5:00-5:30 and all of a sudden there is about 15 people who cut in line in front of me, apparently most don't have tickets (it was sold-out).  This means that they got better seats than the people who already had seats that happened to be behind them.  Including me. I wasn't angry as we got 2nd row and I prefer that row to the front row. I always get a neck ache in the front row. Last time I got front row was Eddie Izzard about a month or two ago. My neck was sore for days!

Len Wein was there. I let him cut in front of me in line (because I'm nice) and he didn't recognize me. I swear,  I've met him at least six times. I feel bad for him though. He's been sick. Plus he's very nice each and every time we meet.

The show was amazing. Emotional and packed with guest stars.  I am so fortunate to have been able to be there.

I got home around midnight.  I had to get back to Largo the next day to wait in line for my seat assignments for Neil Finn (again, a sold-out show) so I went directly to bed.

Turns out that a friend of mine from San Francisco was getting into town early and was going straight to a Largo to get in line. He got there about 8:30am AND WASN'T THE FIRST IN LINE!!!  Now comes my rant.... Getting in line that early ruins it for me.  Ticket assignments (as I have said) aren't until 6pm.  Fuck that, I'm not going up that early.  I've already wasted too much time standing in lines.  Then I get a text from a friend that I got a ticket for around 10:30 or something and she wants to let me know that she doesn't feel well and us going to take something and then lie down and rest and oh, by the way, "are you in line yet?".  I responded "nope". I guess her friend texted her and said there were 10 people in line.  Whatever! Again, fuck that! My friend was picking me up, and I didn't expect her until 3:30. We got up there and I set-up my chair at the end of the line (if you value your life, you DO NOT jump a Neil Finn line).  There were about 25 people ahead of me. No problem! I still got my seats in the second row.

I was exhausted from being out in the sun for too long over two days.  My eyes feel like they have sand in them. BAH!

The Neil Finn show was amazing.  Again, I am so fortunate to have been able to go.  I haven't been in the position financially to go to his shows for a couple of years, so I was excited to be back on the scene.  I saw so many friends that I haven't connected with for a few years. It was awesome.

There is another show tonight, but I knew that getting there after being at work all day would suck. Plus, I'd get a shitty seat assignment if I got there after 6pm.  I have a great show to think about, so I'm good.

On the downside, Saturdays moment in the sun resulted in a sunburn on my right arm and forearm (up to the shoulder as I was wearing a sleeveless dress) and the inside portion of my left arm., which was the part of my arm facing the sun while I was reading my book. I'm REALLY pale, so I burn easily and I'm still red and it still hurts.  It looks so stupid. Now I have to wear long sleeves until it fades.

Anyway, no worries! I'm still trying to catch-up on my lost sleep and recuperate from being in the sun from the weekend, so laying around watching tv is about the most fun I can handle today.  I'm so glad that I have no plans for this weekend. I'm sorely in need of going grocery shopping and cat supply shopping. Not to mention that I have at least one load of laundry to do (fingers-crossed no floods!).

How way my long weekend you ask?  It was okay.  Quiet.  Ran errands on Friday and stayed around the house the rest of the weekend.  On Saturday I decided that, because I hadn't watched it in a while, I would watch Mad Men from Season 1, episode 1 through the most current episode on Netflix.  I got through two seasons and one episode of season 3.  I forgot how good of a show Mad Men is... or is it "was"?

I would have gotten through more episodes, but early Sunday was taken up by me trying to clean up the laundry room in my building.  My normal pattern if my laundry has gotten to the point where I just HAVE to do it is to get up early on Sunday and run down to the laundry room and get it done before it officially opens at 9am.  I usually get down there around 6am.  The manager says it's okay, so I figure it's worth a little loss of sleep to ensure that the machines aren't being used.  I hate going down those stairs, lugging all my dirty clothes and detergent, only to find that the machines are in use.

We have two washers and three dryers, so it takes a while to get everything done if you have more than two loads to do.  The only caveat about using both machines at the same time is that you have to wait for one to completely fill-up and start agitating before you can start the other one.  No problem!  I'm used to it, so it's second nature.  I put in the first load, let it fill-up, etc. then I started the second load and went back up to my apt.  30 minutes later I made the trip back down and the laundry room and entry way were flooded.  Crap!!!  I checked and one of my loads was done, but one was still going.

I don't know why or how it flooded, but I had to get it cleaned-up.  I didn't want someone coming down and seeing it, so I got to work with a broom and "sweep" the water towards this big scary grate in the floor of the entry.  I got most of it in, put the laundry from the first load that can go into the dryer and glance over that the load that's not quite done yet and "whoosh" a bunch more water comes gushing out.  Shit!!!!  I started all over again sweeping water to the grate, hoping that no one walks in on me.  Keep in mind, I'm wearing boxer shorts, a t-shirt and a hoodie (I'd taken my slippers off when I saw the water).  I wasn't exactly dressed for seeing people.

I get as much water as I can into the grate (again) and my second load finishes.  I pulled out the clothes and loaded the few items that can go into the dryer into the dryer and set the stuff that needs to air-dry aside.  I loaded my last single load into the washer, started it and then grabbed my things and went back to my apt. to hang them up to dry.  It's only about 7:30am at this point, so most of the building is still asleep (I couldn't smell the weed smoke in the hallways yet from those who like to "wake and bake").

30 minutes later I went back down to the laundry room and it's flooded AGAIN.  How can this be?  I only did one load!!!  I'm guessing the sink must be clogged, but I can't tell for sure as it's inside this weirdly cobbled together enclosure.  I went about sweeping the water to the grate again and made the executive decision that, when my final load is done, I'm just going to air dry everything in my apt.  Turns out that my final load was sheets, so my apartment looked like furniture warehouse that keeps all the items in it covered.

I was exhausted and it wasn't even 8am yet!

I should probably mention that the laundry room floods all the time.  The floor is cement (painted a weird bright blue) and the grate that I was sweeping the water into always has water in it (it pretty much stinks all the time too, but not overpoweringly so).  I think it's a drain, but I'm not sure.  The creepy scary part about that grate is that there is a power outlet on the wall a few feet above it (set approx. two feet away) and there are electric cords that are plugged into it going down into the grate.  I always think I'm going to get electrocuted when I go down there and see the water from a flood!  I'm guessing it's safe though.  We get inspected by the fire dept and the city on a fairly regular basis and they've never said anything, that I know of.  Maybe there's a pump down there or something?  I dunno.  All I know is I got the heck out of there as soon as I could and I hope the floor dried before the next tenant came down to do their laundry and flood the laundry room.

Back in my apartment, I sorted out the laundry situation and took a nap.  Yes, I took a nap in the morning.

I called my folks a little while later and they're doing well, which is nice to know.  Other than that, I didn't get much else done.

I had a lot of stuff I wanted to do around the apt., it's a shame I'm so lazy!  I won't get a chance to do anything next weekend either.  I have two things to go (one Saturday, one Sunday) and they both entail me waiting in line all day in order to get a good seat assignment.  It sucks because I already have tickets, but they don't assign seats until 6pm and both of these things have a HUGE fan base now, so I have to get there early (probably around noon and I can guarantee I won't be the first person there) wait in line all day.  Some friends are going to meet me at some point, but since I live the closest, I offered to get there first.  Fingers-crossed it's not hot and that it doesn't rain.