Switching gears a little, actually switching gears a lot. Watching the hearing today, I admire Doctor Ford so much!

It was on a few of the televisions at work and, being in the industry I am, I felt like I was alone in an office with a bunch of people in it. Everyone is so conservative and making comments about the whole event that, honestly, hurt and offended me. Nothing sympathetic or even humane said about this incredibly brave woman who had NOTHING to gain by coming forward, but EVERYTHING to lose. She has dealt with so much since her name was revealed. I can't even imagine what it took to go through with it. She handled everything with the two things our administration doesn’t have even the tiniest amount of: grace and intelligence. We need more people like her.

I'm currently watching a program that is showing the cast's reaction to the 2016 presidential election returns coming in. I actually shed a couple of tears. Like an idiot, I was hoping they were going to show a different result. The last (almost) two years have not felt real to me. All the hatred, anger, lying, stupidity, moving backwards from all the gains we have made as a people, the deliberate destruction of anything and everything President Obama accomplished... is this how things are going to be from now on? It's so depressing. Look at the election results in Sweden, Austria, Italy, France, Denmark and other countries since Trump was elected. Nationalism is rising up and it's scary.

I think I'm going to go do some baking, that should help distract me, if even for a short time..

Decided to make a trek down behind the orange curtain this past weekend. We had tickets for both of the Joel McHale shows at the Irvine Improv. How was it? AWESOME! Both guys were really funny! It was a pretty lengthy show and it was just Joel and one opener. Definitely a value for my hard earned money! Staying down there was a good call. I forgot how long it takes to get to/from Irvine. There is always traffic.

On Monday, being the clutz that I am (and easily bruised) I lost my balance while standing on a box in my closet, which caused me to trip, fall, land on and drag my leg down the corner of a wooden box. Now I have a scratch that’s 4 inches long and a MASSIVE purple/black bruise that’s 4 inches long and 3 inches wide (yes, I measured, ‘cause I’m a dork) above and to the side of my knee. It happened 3 days ago and it’s still swollen and hard. GAH!! I guess shorts and dresses outside the house are off the menu for a while.

Today was the birthday of a friend at work, so I made them a chocolate cake from and old family recipe (with cream cheese frosting from scratch). I added pecans to the cake and put chopped semi-sweet chocolate to the outside on top of the frosting. It turned out really well, I wish I would have taken a picture if it. Added to the small batch bourbon and gift cards I bought, they seemed pretty happy. Phew!!

I’ve been in a weird, stressed, melacholy-yet-good mood lately. What does that mean? That means everyone at the office has been having to eat my baked goods. I guess that’s how I deal with some things, baking. In the last few weeks, I’ve made truffle brownies, cookies, cake and rice crispy treats with chocolate chips (that one can’t be considered baking though). I think next week I’ll bombard them with endless loaves of zucchini bread. My cookbooks and recipe boxes are living on my counter!

It’s Weds, so only two more get-ups, yay!! I get my roots done on Friday, so I’ll be starting the week in (hopefully) good shape!
Speaking of my hair, I’m thinking about growing out my bangs. It's been two months so far and hasn't annoyed me too much yet. We’ll see how I feel in a few weeks, lol!!

Well, I've got stuff I should probably be doing....

I was asked by a very kind person who doesn’t really know me that well if “everything is okay at home?” I was confused....then I realized that, while asking, they were looking at the underside of my exposed forearm, which had a really nasty bruise exposed.

I looked down and laughed, shocking them (from their expression). Then I had to thank them profusely for their concern, explain that I’m single at the moment and then tell them my bruise was a result of dumbass me, sitting in the drive-thru at Del Taco bored, waiting FOREVER for my crinkle cut fries and burrito.

To pass the time, I was messing with my hair and got a long strand caught and decided to drop the single hair out of my window. I proceeded to push the button to roll the window down, stuck my arm out, not realizing that I’d done something else to the button, causing the window to come back up really fast and close on my arm. I couldn’t stop it fast enough! Getting your arm stuck in a car window really hurts!!

The result? A HUGE bruise on my arm that looks like someone grabbed me and held on hard!

That poor person didn’t know how to react! I think I put them at ease though, they were laughing at me by the end of my explanation! They were so sweet and nice... I was embarrassed.

The burrito and crinkle cut fries were SO worth my shame though!!!

It was so kind of them to ask and it took a lot of guts, I hope they continue to ask if they see things amiss and that I haven’t put them off with my gluttonous, yet bruising Del Taco adventure.

Yikes! We walked over 6 miles when we went to Santa Monica / Venice this past weekend! It was fun though. As we had a birthday in our small group, we insusted on getting cheesy Venice souvenirs. Some of the stuff you can find....crazy!! breakfast was good. Thankfully, we didn’t go to Shutters and instead ended-up on the top level outside patio of a bar / restaurant in Venice. The breakfast tacos were outstanding! we finished at just the right time, it started to get really warm out.

Looks like I’m going to be in Santa Monica Saturday morning. meeting a couple of co-workers at the pier to walk to Venice, then brunch/breakfast back in Santa Monica afterwards. One of them likes to go to Shutters, but I don’t feel like going there and spending a zillion $$$ on eggs. Hopefully, we’ll go someplace else. I enjoy that walk a lot, but I’ve got chores to do!! Ah well, it’s only a few hours. I’m sure it will be fun. Right?

I went on my usual Labor Day road trip this past weekend. The only differences with this year compared to previous years are that I went solo and I drove my new car.

I’ll be honest, apparently my car has “performance” tires, where I guess “performance” means that you feel every bump in the road, because their profile is so low. Because of that, the drive each way was even more exhausting than usual.... and let me tell you, 7-8 hours straight in a car is tiring enough! I only stop once, to get gas, so breaks are rare. My arms were sore from holding the steering wheel so tight! Plus, my car has a weird “driver attention is low” notice that flashes with an icon of a cup of coffee while it does something wierd with the steering wheel. Excuse me? I’m driving hundreds of miles in a straight line, my attention isn’t low, there’s just nothing to do!!! WTF??

I was really glad to see, once I got to the mountains, that lakes have more water than in previous years. They’ve been so low in the past I was afraid it would be the same this time I rolled through. I really live that part of the drive! The mountains are so pretty!!! Mojave, Death Valley, a good portion of the 5 FWY, not so much.

We’ve been working on a stressful project at work, so now that it was over (Friday), it was great to leave the office and not worry about it. Believe it or not, I actually slept in to at least 7am each day!! Usually I’m up by 5:30, but this time I guess my body really needed the rest. My dad was shocked!

What did I do while visiting my folks? NOTHING!!!  We stayed home the whole time and relaxed.  Since I got in at 7:30pm Friday, I was too tired to eat dinner, but the rest of the trip we barbecued or made pizza and had cocktails. A couple of nights we used their fire pit to make s’mores under the stars. You can see everything in the night sky out there!!!

I was sad to have to leave and come home.  I missed Gotham though.

It’s good I did come home though....I came back to gazillions of ants in the kitchen. Just what you want to do after driving for most of the day, get rid of ants.

Today, after work, I need to get the bugs washed off my car and put some gas in it. I drove about 1,000 miles!!!  Then I’m going home, taking a hot shower, then relaxing until I fall asleep. Chores are for another day!

<yawn> I’m beat!!!