I'm not sure if I mentioned this in  my last post (I probably should have read it before posting this one, sorry!), but a close friend of mine has to test twice a week for Covid, so I figured it was safe to invite her over for Christmas.  It's also her birthday, so we celebrated that too.

Before she came out, I called my folks Christmas morning.  It's not the same as being there with them, but we talked about when I would be able to go up there.  Unfortunately, my dad believes a lot of what is on conservative television/websites and he has decided he doesn't want the vaccine, even though he's in the group that should have it.  I can only hope that enough people where they live get it and they reach herd immunity and he can be safe.  Maybe it was for the best that I decided against going to stay for Christmas?  Sometime after the inauguration is probably a better plan, pandemic or no pandemic!  I'm looking forward to it.  I haven't seen them in such a long time.  

Later in the day I made a roast with roasted potatoes ('cause, come on, you have to make roasted potatoes when you make a roast!) and a flourless chocolate cake for her birthday dessert and she brought amazing sides.  Mushrooms in a cream sauce with tomatoes and spinach, Mac and Cheese with peppers, Mashed Cheesy Buttery Cauliflower, and Roasted Broccoli.  Add that to the hummus and pita chips with chips / salsa, PLUS we had mimosas! ...... conservatively, I think I probably gained 10lbs from Christmas alone.  In my defense though, I didn't have breakfast or lunch and we ate all of that over the course of about 8 hours. Yikes! For the first time in a few years, I guess I'm going to be like the rest of the bloated, overfed Western World and back on an eating program January 2nd.  Nothing crazy though!  

We watched Wonder Woman 1984.  It was okay.  I think I probably would have liked it better on the big screen.  You don't notice as many things when you aren't looking at everything at once.  Does that make sense?  The acting was great, but to be honest, I expected a bigger part for Cheetah. Plus I figured she was going to be scary or at least kinda vicious.  I think I also thought it would be more 80's.  Or at least more accurate 80's.  They made the criminals at the start of the movie kind of dumb.  I don't think folks were  that stupid back then, at least not from what I remember. It also needed to either have more stuff explained or edited out entirely.  Maybe they'll come up with a better edit when they do the DVD?  A director's cut or something?  It wasn't a waste of time or anything..... just kind of "meh".

Later, after Wonder Woman, we scrolled through Disney Plus and watched some fun stuff (Forky Asks a Question).  I saw they had a bunch of superhero movies.  If you can believe it, I haven't seen any of the Marvel movies, apart from the first Iron Man, so after I finish up watching all of the episodes of The Office (it leaves Netflix on 12/31), my friend is having me watch ALL of the Marvel movies.  Jeez, there are 20 of them!  I re-watched Iron Man already, so 19 to go.  Yikes.  Disney Plus has a playlist that helps with what order to watch them in.  So far, everyone I've talked to about it has told me that Captain America: Winter Soldier and Thor: Rangorok (sp?) are the best two out of all 20.  I asked her if I needed to watch Iron Man 2 and she said no, except that it's the movie that introduces Black Widow, so I may want to watch it for that. I tried watching it once before and kinda never finished. Ah well, I guess now's as good as any to watch them, it's not like there's much else to do.  I certainly don't want to do chores or take down my tree just yet.

Work tomorrow.  BAH!  Lot's of last minute year-end stuff.  I've got three client meetings/calls scheduled all fairly close together, which I usually avoid, but they gave me no choice.  I hope they don't run long.  I also have a wild card client I was supposed to talk to this afternoon at 3pm (when I'm usually logging-off for the day), but they didn't answer their phone at 3pm or 3:30pm, so I left a message for them to call me at the office in the morning.  Fingers-crossed everyone calls me as planned and we can get their stuff taken care of.  I don't want to push anything back closer to the 31st, it's too stressful.   

Well, I think I want to stop looking at a computer.....

Be safe out there folks!

Well, Thanksgiving went well.  Quiet around the house, which was nice.  I'm used to not doing anything on that day since I always work the next day and this year was no different.  I got the usual invitations to go to small gatherings at friends' houses, but I stayed home.  I thought is was weird that folks were still inviting me over during this pandemic, but it was nice.

This morning I had to call my parents and break the news that I wont be able to visit for Christmas.  They took it better than I thought they would.  I know it's the right thing to do, but I'm still sad.  This is the first Christmas in my life I won't be spending with them, and who knows how many they have left?  I hope they have a lot of Christmases ahead of them, but what if they don't?  If I could make the drive up there, I would still have gone.  My bubble is small and (knock wood) I don't have the virus and no one in my bubble has had it either.  My original plan was to start working from home mid-December, get tested, then isolate for a few days, rent an SUV at LAX and make the drive, return the car to the airport closest to my parents' house and then rent an SUV to drive home, work from home, get tested and then go back to "normal".  My dad was adamant that he didn't want me driving through the mountains in the snow and ice, so that plan was rejected.  

We decided I would (if allowed) go and celebrate the holiday in late January/early February, once the lockdown is lifted and the vaccine has been administered to older people, as well as the front line workers.  Being that they are both in their 70's and both have some health issues, I'm hoping my parents will get theirs sooner rather than later (both doses).  The population size where they live is nowhere near what it is here in Los Angeles, so I hope that works in their favor as far as availability goes.  I'm guessing that my demographic won't be in line to get anything until July or August at the earliest.

When I was breaking the news to them, my dad (a proud  GOP supporter), who never really talks to me about politics, other than a few jibes here and there that I ignore, went on about how **IF** Joe Biden wins the election, we are going to lose all our rights and how this is all the democrats fault and how much he hates Governor Newsome (and my mom hates their governor).  I'm thinking "They just told me that it's probably safer to put it off and now it's about politics?  and BTW, what do you mean **IF**?  Biden DID win the election, over a month ago!"  I didn't say anything, but I wanted to, LOL.

I guess a doctor they know told them or one of their friends that it's not as bad as the news says and not to believe what they see, then in the next sentence they told me how two hospitals are out of beds.  What?!??  I told them about a client of ours who is in their mid-80's with cancer was discharged from a local hospital, but then started having issues 2 hours later, so they called 911, the ambulance took him back to the hospital he was just discharged from and they couldn't take him because they were out of beds.  He had to go two cities over to a different hospital!  

I was told a couple of days ago that the asshole who lives downstairs that has been having all the barbecues and parties with no face masks or social distancing throughout the pandemic contracted Covid.  I told the guy who told me that it may make me terrible person, but I don't feel bad for him one tiny bit.  He hasn't taken this seriously and he put people at risk, including himself.  I guess he's okay now and I doubt he learned his lesson, 'cause like I said, he's an asshole.

I'll keep wearing my mask and being safe.  Hopefully, that will be good enough.  

I'm sad.

 It’s been a bittersweet few hours. 

The US election was finally called and the Biden/Harris ticket has prevailed. 

While crying tears of joy watching the wrap-up of the speeches last night, I checked my email on my phone and saw a message at the top from the Oils office with the subject “Bones” from the Midnight Oil list I’ve been on for decades.  I opened it hoping it would be news that my favorite bass player of all time was finally winging his way to Australia to participate in the upcoming Makarrata gig project.

Unfortunately, the email was letting us know that Bonsey had passed away. Cancer. It was a punch to my gut. All the air went out of me and I broke down in tears. It may seem odd to react this way about a bass player in a band, but this was BONES! I’d met and spoken with him many times over the last 30+ years. A kinder, gentler soul than anyone I’ve ever met. Wicked sense of humor and never an unkind word said about anyone (except maybe Trump). He had the voice of an angel (I have a list of songs I can recommend, but have a listen to “One Country” if you can). His bass playing was unequaled (in my opinion). 

I’m so grateful the Oils got the band back together and toured a couple of years ago. My friends and I went to many shows across the US (like we did when we were kids). The stand out being the first gig in the US back in Atlanta. I got to see the band, explore Atlanta more than I had in the past and see my friend Magnus, who passed away not too long after our visit.

My heart goes out to his wife, family and friends. Rest easy Bonesy. You are a legend who is missed by many.  We are heartbroken you have left us, but thankful for the time we had.  To build on what a Powderworker friend said: I hope you’re up in front with the driver, guiding the way and enjoying the adventure.  I’m glad you were able to hang on long enough to see Trump lose, knowing you could leave us safe in the knowledge that things were going to get better and the chance of peace, decency, equality and justice were back in the mix. 

I’m going to be sad for a while with this one guys. It has hit me hard. I know it’s selfish, but I can’t help it. He was one of the good guys.

I’m trying to keep my mind on my country’s potentially bright future.  That will hopefully keep me from getting too down for too long. Trump, Pence and their rogues gallery of fascists are on their way out!  If we can pick-up the 2 senate seats January 5th in Georgia, we can make meaningful changes quickly.  I have a lot to be grateful for, even if the next couple of months are going to be ugly and full of hateful noise and rhetoric coming from the Trump administration and his lunatic cronies.

Here is one of my favorites of the Bones photos I took on that last Midnight Oil tour in 2017:

 Another quick one. Talk to your friends about voting. This morning I was talking to a co-worker about random stuff and they mentioned how weird it was they hadn’t received their ballot yet. They plan on voting in-person, so I reminded them they’d need to bring the ballot in order to surrender it at the poll on 11/3.

I asked when they last voted and it was in the last primary. Weird! I said “we gotta check your voter status”. Sure enough, they’d been reclassified as inactive, even though they voted in the last election!

Luckily, the deadline for registrations here is still a few days away and they were able to get re-registered in time.

Please, have casual chats with your friends and make sure they’ve received their ballots! My friend almost missed-out on voting!!!

 Just a quick mid-week post. If you are hoping Biden wins this election, please don’t believe the reports on the polls. In my office alone, I am out-voted by Trump supporters 6 to 1. Trust me, they ARE voting and they ARE NOT answering poll questions.

Don’t get complacent, please vote!!

Be safe, stay healthy and if you feel sick, stay home!!!

Take care of each other!!

 Today was an absolutely absurd day and you know what?  I couldn't stop laughing at all the stuff that went crazy wrong!  If it was another day of the week, I probably would have gotten angry, but as it is Friday, I just couldn't help but laugh.  

Everyone called out at the office today.  Seriously!  They either worked from home or called in sick and it was literally just me.  The thing about that is, everyone who did either of those things thought there would be someone who backed them up in the office to do the stuff that can't be done remotely.  NOPE!  Just me!  At times I felt like Lucy without an Ethel or French without a Saunders.  I was walked through a bunch of things over the phone though and we made it through just fine.  

The first burst of laughter came when I was instant messaging back and forth with my boss figuring out how to deal with the challenges we knew we were going to have when all of a sudden blood started gushing out of my nose, all over my hands, desk, papers, floor mat and the lap area of my pants.  FYI - Tide pen does NOT take out blood from pants.  I've always been prone to bloody noses, ever since I was a little kid, so I didn't freak out.  I stopped getting them regularly a few years ago (apart from when I would go to higher altitudes) and then about 18 months ago, they started back up and I've been having 3-5 a week.....except for the last week, where I've had NONE!  Not a single one.  Weird, right?  When I do have them, they usually aren't bad and stop in a few minutes.  Boy, not today!  It went on for a long while, probably because I was laughing so hard and saying "Shit!" over and over again as I scrambled to get more tissues. If they ever luminol the office, it's going to light up like a Christmas tree and they're going to think it is a crime scene!

Thank goodness nothing got on my blouse, so no one on my weekly Zoom call knew, HA!  With this group, I totally would have gotten shit for it!

I think I was able to calm the stressed-out folks who were working from and worried about their stuff not getting done and like I said, we didn't suffer at all from people not being there.

So I can't say it was a bad day, and that's a good thing!

Bring on the weekend!!!!

If it happens on Monday though, I'm probably going home sick. HAHAHAHA!!!

 Wow, I've had a few good days since my last post!  YAY!  The rumor we'd heard at work was true and they have begun allowing 50% of the office to work on site at any one time.  This is great because, before we were sent home and capacity was at 20%, it was a finite list of people that equaled 20% and only they were allowed in the office, so if they didn't go in, less than 20% would be there.  This time it's 50% at any time, so if I decide to go in, I am part of the 50% that's counted, but if I decide to work from home, that percentage can be used by someone else.  It's awesome!  Especially with the heat we've been having.  I've been going in to the office 4-5 days a week and loving it. (Hooray for free a/c!!)

I mean, it's a job, don't get me wrong, but being at the office is so much better than being at home.  There are still only four or five of us in there and we're really spread far apart while working and we stand at least 6 feet away while chatting.  I'm so fortunate!  I'm also very grateful that I have the choice to work either from home or the office.  When the weather cools down, I'll probably work a couple days a week from home.

Completely different topic - A few weeks ago, I decided that I needed to get some sort of exercise.  Bikes are pretty much sold-out everywhere and I didn't really want to deal with scratching the heck out of my car by trying (and probably failing) to properly install a bike rack.......so I went with rollerblades.  ROLLERBLADES!!!  Me?  Yes!  I haven't really been on skates since the late 70's!  There was a few times in the early 90's I tried skating again, but I didn't do much. 

This last weekend, a co-worker whose hockey league has been cancelled, said they would help teach me to remember how to skate and not fall down.  We went to a local park and skated for about an hour.  Holy crap!  I was so tired and thirsty when we were done, I almost threw-up!  It was so much fun though!  I was able to do well going forward up hill and forward on flat parts!  Down hill and braking..... not so much!  Gotta work on those two things!  I only ran into a chain link fence a few times and I didn't TOTALLY fall at all.  I ALMOST fell a few times, but that's different!  What's with only one skate having a brake and why is it on the back????  

The helmet, pads and guards are dorky, but at my age, who knows if I have osteoporosis or something equally bad?  I don't want to shatter my aged bones! 

Anyway, I had a really fun time and can't wait to go again!  

That's it for now.  If you're here in the USA-- don't forget to vote!  Read all your ballot instructions and make sure you follow them!  I voted yesterday!  It's a great feeling!!

Well, it's been a little over a month since my last post.  Being that we're in a pandemic, not much has changed. 

Right after I put up that last post, I decided to go a step further and not drink on the weekends as well as during the week and it's worked out pretty well.  To be honest, it's been too f-ing hot to drink.  I'm afraid that I'll get a hangover before I'm even done with a cocktail.  I did have one "video" drink to toast a friends' birthday, but that's it. 

I noticed I was getting really down, so I finally begged my boss to let me go into the office on the down low one day last week and one day this week.  It really helped my mood a lot.  They were the best two days I've had in months.  There were only two other people in the office, but it was nice to see them and take advantage of having a landline phone and use a computer directly, instead of remote-ing into it.  The air conditioning was pretty sweet too.  I work WAY more when I'm at home than I do in the office.  It was nice to fuck around a little and not be at my desk from 5am to 3pm, afraid that I'll miss a client emergency. 

On a positive note,  I was told this afternoon that they may start to let up to 50% of the office capacity come back (before it was 20% and it was a set list of people, now it's only 3 people able to go in) and I asked my boss if I could be one of the group allowed in and he said yes.  This time they're going to make it so that no more than 50% can be there at one time, so I could choose to go in a couple days a week and work from home the other days.  The days I would work from home would open up space for someone else to go in.  That would be ideal.  I just hope that people don't ruin it for us by going out and behaving stupid over the holiday weekend and cause a spike in the Covid cases here and they send us to exclusively work from home again.

Now I'm getting depressed again....

That's enough for now.  I'll try to come up with something positive to post next time.

Be safe, be kind, be patient and wear a mask!  Please!

A lot has changed since I last wrote a blog post. 

 I've gone from being able to work in the office three days a week to working from home completely. I can't say I'm happy about it, because I'm not. I'm REALLY not. There are aspects of my job that just can't be done remotely and every day, we hope that they don't come up. So far it's been a little bumpy and I've gotten frustrated, but I survived. Barely. Older clients who don't trust secure documents or e-signature items don't want to hear that we do not have access to that fax machine they just sent something to.

 My work space prior to being 100% at home wasn't really workable. The kitchen table was too high and the wooden chairs too uncomfortable. I got myself a new desk (robins egg blue!) and a simple table/desk that I could use as a return unit. I normally work with two monitors, so I went out and got a couple of inexpensive 24-inch tv's and the necessary adaptors and cables (thanks for helping me find them Manny-Man!) to get them to work properly, a new rolling desk chair, lamp, fan, desk pad.... ugh, I've spent way too much money and I'm not going to be reimbursed for it. It's not perfect, but it works. I chose an area of my living room that gives me a great view, should I have the time to look out the windows. 

I know I'm very fortunate I was able to do this and not be stuck on a couch hunched over a laptop. 

 The biggest problem I keep experiencing is this dumb earpiece I was given. It's supposed to log-in to my work phone via my remote hook-up and allow me to use that instead of my mobile to talk to the back-office, co-workers and clients. It works fine for the first two calls I have during the day, but then it craps out and sounds like the worst cell phone you have ever used. Drops in and out, is full of static..... grrr! I've talked with our IT dept. and they have escalated the issue. I'm waiting to hear back from them. Two days now... I wonder when they'll get to me? 

As of now, we don't have a return to office date. Most firms in my industry aren't returning until 2021, but I don't think that will be the case with us. They know we are all like family and enjoy going in to the office (as long as it's safe). They are reconfiguring things at most offices, but we don't really need to do much, other than all the new hand sanitizer, thermometers, etc. 

 Working at home is also bad for my waistline. At work, I can severely limit the snacks. Not so easy at home. The extra pounds don't bother me too much right now. I'll get back to where I need to be, but I'm not going to stress it. There is enough out there for me to worry about without adding this old stand-by. I'm also going through a ton of diet soda and sun tea now. I can't believe how many I'm drinking in the course of a day! I cut out booze, except for one or two over the weekend (if I feel like it). I don't generally drink a lot anyway, but I didn't want to fall into bad habits, so I thought it would be best to keep the liquor cabinet closed during the work week. 

 So far, all of my friends and family are healthy (to my knowledge), thank goodness. I hope it stays that way. Everyone wears their masks and stays home (for the most part). We're a lazy lot, so unless someone else plans it, there are no hikes or walks or anything. 

 The weekend ahead is going to be hot (starting tomorrow, it's going to be 98F+. I've started rearranging everything in the apartment to accommodate the new work area, so little-by-little I've been tackling the sun room (the horribly hot room I've been using to store stuff). I need to move some furniture in there that no longer fits in the living room. Already put one of the loveseats in there. I'm thinking about making it an office for the cooler months, but that's a long way off. 

 I've also been looking into dumpster rentals too. I have a lot of stuff that will take months to throw away if I use our regular trash cans. I wish we had a dumpster like most apartments. Then again, you don't usually have to pay for your own trash at most apartments. We pay for our own sanitation services. Ah well, nothing is perfect.  I think I may move after things calm down.  I have a lot to think about.  One thing I DO know, if I decide to move, it won't be with most of the crap I have.  I swore the last time I moved that I wasn't going to haul it all to the next place.  Especially my books.  I love them so much, but I'm too old to carry all the boxes (we're talking dozens and dozens of boxes).  Even getting them ready for movers is too much.

 That's about it for now. I might have more later. Take care of yourselves, stay healthy and be kind and patient with each other.

There's no other way to put it, but it has been an awful and surreal time. The scariest part? I've heard from A LOT of people that they are just laying low and waiting for things to go back to "normal" when "things die down". I hope, more than anything, that things DON'T go back to "normal". I hope that it really is different this time. That change does happen. That people remember their anger and take it to the voting booth in November.

The only breaks I've had from the darkness was my birthday and a co-workers birthday. (**NOTE/EDIT: I need to insert here that everything at work was socially distanced. I neglected to mention that when I first posted this entry. We followed the rules folks! Our office is pretty big for the number of us who go in and we all either face different directions or are in offices. The closest person to me is 20 feet away. So don’t get mad or scared, we did the right thing!! Plus, it’s been about 3-4 weeks and no one is sick. Thanks!)

I couldn't believe it, my friends at work threw me a huge birthday party. I was depressed about societal hatred, the pandemic and hitting this terribly old sounding milestone. I actually cried at what they did, I was so touched. A taco truck catered the food, along with other delicious offerings from my co-workers, a former bar-tender on our team made us the most kick-ass margaritas I've ever had and then there were the gifts. So thoughtful. Like I said, I cried. I never make a big deal about my birthday, so for them to do this touched me. Then, my closest friend came out to celebrate my birthday. It's funny, they asked me what I wanted for dinner, thinking I might pick something fancy, and all I said was "is Bakers open? Can you bring me my favorites?". I've known them for just about 30 years, so they knew what to do! Bakers is a fast food place out in the Inland Empire, where they live, that have Mexican and American food. We ate delicious fast food, had a cocktail and watched Mad Men. They made me (knowing I love lemon) a lemon pound-type cake with lemon glaze and lemon curd. Oh. My. Gosh. It ALMOST made getting old worth it.

A co-workers birthday was the following week and it was up to me to provide the desserts. She told me she doesn't like cake, but that's it. I asked her to let me know what she wanted, but I never heard back. I took it upon myself to find stuff to make that she might like. My kitchen is my happy place when I'm baking, so I'm a little ashamed to say that it was a welcome respite. I decided to make mini cheesecakes, mini lemon tarts and mini chocolate cheesecakes with chocolate cookie crusts, chocolate ganache and chocolate shavings on top. Now, I pretty much don't eat the things I make (I have a co-worker that I make eat one of everything first so that I know no one will get sick), but I did try the chocolate cheesecake after I was told by a lot of folks it was their favorite. It was good! I'm going to try to post photos below. We had a big party for her too. She is invaluable and lovely to work with. It was a pleasure to celebrate!

After all that, it was back to reality. I'm trying everything I can to be a part of the change. To continue to try and make sure people vote. To preach that hatred and being unkind is NOT okay. I'm going to continue the work. I hope you will too.

I hope everyone is safe and healthy.

My message to folks everywhere:

It’s not my time to speak, it’s my time to listen. As a woman I’ve experienced and felt powerless against sexual discrimination and harassment, but I’ve never had to fear for my life when in the presence of law enforcement. I’ve never felt fear for my family on a daily basis. I have not walked in your shoes. So don’t ask my opinion, I want YOUR opinion. I want YOU to educate me. How can I do better? How can I help? Where can I make the most difference? How can I stop the hurt? The pain? The injustice?


Stay safe, be healthy and take care of each other.

I don't think I mentioned it, but last week at my every-two-month doctors' appointment to get my migraine prescription refilled, I asked my doctor if he would write up the order to have the Covid19 Antibody test done. I'd checked online and saw that Quest Diagnostics was now offering it and I wanted to get it done.

"Why?", you ask? Well, I have a co-worker on my team that I'm in pretty close proximity to who is a right-wing, gun toting, tin foil hat wearing, hillbilly conspiracy nut libertarian who was convinced we both had it back in early February when we both got really sick. I kept telling him there's no way we had it, I always get a bad respiratory infection once a year around that time. Yes, this was the worst I'd ever had, it was a really bad one, but not Covid19. If we did have it back then, the entire office would have gotten it and the older, more vulnerable guys would have been wiped out and they weren't. He wouldn't stop going on about how he KNEW we'd gotten it and we were an example of herd immunity working and all of this lockdown nonsense was the liberal government taking away our freedoms, blah, Blah, BLAH. Anyway, I figured, even though I was confident I'd never had the virus, I'd get the test done and then the guy would have to shut up. In the off-chance I DID have the antibodies, I would start donating plasma to the Red Cross. It's win-win.

So, I had the antibody test done last Friday and my doctor called me this past Monday night with the results. "Robin, I have good news and bad news for you!" "Give it to me doc", "The good news is, you don't have any antibodies, but the bad news is, you don't have any immunity and you can still get the virus. But you are a very good patient and a very nice person". I LOVE that last part! LOL, he didn't have to say that! When I was in his office, he asked how I was holding-up (he has been my doctor for at least 20 years, so he knows my work, family, etc.) and I told him it's hard to stay happy sometimes. We talked about it for a few moments, he gave me advice and I went on my way. So for him to say that last bit in our phone call was simply to meant to cheer me up, which was so sweet of him. I appreciate that he did it.

The next time I saw the co-worker a few days later, I told him "Sorry dude, I took the antibody test and it came up negative. We didn't have the virus". He actually had to think about it for a few minutes! He started to talk about different strains, but stopped, knowing they would have come up as well. So he finally said "Good! I'll have to tell my wife, she will be surprised". So the REALLY good part of all this is I don't have to listen to that particular theory any more from him. Small favors indeed!

Yesterday, he tried to engage me in a conversation he knew would provoke me (I don't know why, he's been doing it a lot lately). He said "Who are the democrats going to get in place of Biden?". I didn't even look up (I rolled my eyes though). I replied "They're not, it's going to be Biden". "Not if he's on trial for those illegal activities he's been caught in" (he believes all the UNPROVEN right wing propaganda). I said "It will be Biden". "He was involved in illegal activities". To which I said "Trump got elected, didn't he?", then I walked into a meeting.

I'm so tired of the bullshit the administration says and that there is actually a segment of our population that actually believes it. With no proof, he says Joe Scarborough murdered someone years ago? Really??!!?? Murder??!??!? Obama is at the center of the worst political crimes in history? Seriously? What were those crimes exactly? Actually legitimately winning the Electoral College and popular vote in his elections? Being better at his job than you are? Being well-respected? Educated? Well-spoken? Better-looking? More gracious? Dare I say it, cooler than you? Then GUILTY!!! It must kill him that Obama was asked to give a national commencement address that's going to be broadcast on all the networks and he wasn't. I wonder what he's going to be tweeting while it's on? Poison, that's what. Divisive poison.

I hope to all that is good in this world that smart people, YOUNG people vote in November and they don't sit out the election. We just can't have a repeat of 2016. Plus, remember when Trump ripped on H.W. Bush for being a loser one-term president? Please let that happen to him. I'm no huge fan of H.W. by any means, but show some manners! Keep your stupid opinions to yourself, as you should have done with John McCain. GAH, I'm getting worked up and need to think about something else.

Deep breaths. Smile!

I was hoping the Thrilling Adventure Hour was going to be on this weekend, but I haven't gotten an email invitation, so it's not looking good. They've been averaging every two weeks or so. I guess they're busy? As they didn't have a broadcast, last week my friends and I got our cocktails ready and each logged in to watch Paul F. Tomkins and Rhea Seehorn read for Hate Mail and it was hilarious!

I'll have to check with my friends and see if they've come across any other shows that are on the internet this weekend.

Wish me luck!

Stay safe and healthy!!!

As always, working out of the house was better today than it was on Friday. I don't know if it's because Fridays are the end of a long week or if Mondays are after a weekend after a long week, but Mondays always seem a little easier, they go by faster than Fridays do when I work from home.

Or maybe it's the TV. I had it turned on this past Friday, but I didn't have it on at all until Governor Gavin came on at noon. I don't get a chance to watch his news conferences at work, so it's nice to watch them while I'm at home.

All the clients I spoke with today seemed to be in good spirits, which was really nice. It also made for a good day that I had a pretty good playlist going: Burt Bacharach, Jack Jones, Dean Martin, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald… you know, 50's and 60's stuff. I had that on most of the day, then put on some 70's disco and R&B. I can listen to music at work, but it's gotta be on low, I don't want to disturb any of the other 6 people still working there, LOL. At home I can play as loud as I like.

I've always loved the song "Wives and Lovers" by Jack Jones, but I recently paid attention to the lyrics...Jeez! You couldn't get more misogynistic! I guess it was just a different time. I still like the song though, there's just something about it. I guess you can hate the lyrics, but like a song, right?

I had a client call when I had "Shake Your Groove Thing" playing kinda loud. I had to scramble to get the volume down before they heard it, HA!

The weekend was on the quiet side, my big errand was going to Target to pick up a prescription refill and buy a new mop and bucket. Woo-Hoo! I got to spend my Sunday mopping my kitchen and bathroom floors! That's living BABY!!! At least they're clean. I've been using a Swiffer Wet Jet to clean them, but they always looked a little dirty after I was done, so I wanted to get a real mop (I threw my old one out when I moved out of my last place). I'm glad I did! The floors, especially the kitchen, were dirty, if the water was any indication (which it definitely is!).

Tomorrow is probably going to be a crummy-but-not-too-bad day. I have a client that I gave forms to back in early December that finally got them back to me in early April. Well, in the interim, the forms had been updated, so I couldn't accept them. I'd been following-up with them every few weeks and they were always "in the mail this afternoon", so I finally gave up. I figured I was only making them angry asking for docs, so they'd get them back when they could. Too bad it ended-up being 7 days after they were updated, D'Oh! So now I have two conference calls scheduled for early tomorrow morning (the first one is at 5:30am) one with our accounts department and the other one with legal so I can see if there was any way to salvage what they gave me. I'm definitely not looking forward to this.

At least the weather is cooling down....

I haven't really had much to post lately. Trying to keep a positive attitude and stay grateful for all the little (and big) things I have. I'm doing okay. Sometimes it's a struggle to keep a smile on my face and not give away that I'm worried. Sleep is difficult a lot of the time.

I decided to reach out to some of our clients and see how they were doing. I purposefully chose those who were fairly local to me, had health issues in the recent past and who were on the older side. Basically, I called and said that I hadn't talked with them in a few weeks and wanted to make sure everything was okay. I wasn't calling about business, I was calling about them and their families and wanted to know if they needed anything. Do they need toilet paper? Kleenex? Are their supplies holding-up? Do they need me to pick anything up for them? I said that as I was going into the office Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I could help out if they needed it. I also picked-up a big pack of toilet paper last week and put it in my trunk for anyone who needs it. Everyone was so surprised that someone was checking on them and not wanting anything in return.

These people are more than clients to us, we actually care about them. I told them the same thing I tell everyone I know, "If you need anything, you call or email me. Do NOT feel that you can't reach out. I am fortunate enough to be able to work out of the home, as well as in the home, so I really want you to let me know if you need help".

Turned-out one gal I called was in the hospital. She'd fallen late last week, had surgery as a result and was in a residential rehabilitation center. She hadn't told anyone, apart from her brother. "What can I do to help?", she almost started crying.

The best call I made was to a 95 year-old. She's a firecracker and really smart. We chatted for a minute, she thanked me for calling and then basically, sighed and said "I have a man about to show-up regarding my air conditioner. I should go so I can be sure to be ready for him". By that, she meant that the guy didn't know what he was dealing with, she wasn't your typical 95 year-old, she is sharp as a tack and no pushover. He will NOT be overcharging her! I wish I could have been there to see her meet with the guy. Before the lockdown, once a month she would cook for 16 lady friends in her group, hosting luncheons for them at her home.

If you can, call someone who may be alone or someone who is older and possibly vulnerable. Just hearing your voice will make them feel better and it might just make you feel good too.

Working from home tomorrow. Not sure how I feel about that. I really do prefer to go into the office...

Stay safe and healthy everyone.

Just a note - Last night while I was getting ready to go to sleep, I thought about the post that I put up here yesterday and I felt terribly guilty and ashamed. How selfish am I to moan about something so trivial? Just because a birthday that hasn't even happened yet isn't going to go as I'd hoped or planned? How dare I feel sorry for myself over something that I should be used to anyway? I need to put that energy into something worthwhile, not wallowing in self-pity. I'll keep those feelings to a minimum and it's probably best to keep them to myself.

So, I've deleted the text of that post. I'm sorry I even put those emotions into text.

Working from home today.


Stay safe everyone.

After the excitement at work yesterday, there was no way today could compete! It was a dull, Dull, DULL day. For the first 3 hours it was just two of us in the entire office. We each had music on kinda loud (who were we gonna bother?) and the phones were quiet. My boss got in to make it a trio, then about two hours after that, a couple of the other folks came in for a bit. Actually, one of them hadn't been in the office for a few weeks (he thought his wife had the virus), so it was weird seeing him with his bushy hair and big smile, just happy to be out of the house. He's the step son of the guy who passed out yesterday, so he drove him in.

The best bit was, the kid made a production about going down the hall to the mens room and propping open our door as he'd forgotten his key and didn't want to walk the long way. He was gone for A WHILE. I started to think maybe he went downstairs to the lone food truck in our area or something, he was gone so long. Finally, he came back and we were teasing him. He wasn't saying anything and his cheeks were red and he had a big nervous smile on his face. I said "What did you do?" and he says "I may have clogged the toilet in the mens room". As we all have the sense of humor of a group of 5 year-olds, we burst out laughing. How do you not know for sure that you clogged a toilet? He was in there so long because he was trying to figure out how to fix the situation, LOL!! My boss shouts from his office "Don't you know you're supposed to flush as you go?" The poor kid! Then I had to call the building to send someone up. They start asking me questions about the clog and I have to say, really loudly "Why, I don't know how bad it's clogged, let me ask the person who reported it" and "I'm not sure if there's water on the floor or not, hang on...". We will never let him live it down, HA! He's such a skinny little hipster kid, I would have thought one of our more robust gentlemen in the office would have jammed up the pipes. He took our ribbing in stride though. He's a good kid.

Then it started to get warm in the office. I think, as there are so few tenants actually coming in to such a large building, they aren't always turning on the air and it got into the 80's in downtown yesterday and today, so it was stuffy. We're going to have to call tomorrow and ask for a little air. My end of the floor faces south, so we get a lot of sun. Beautiful view, but a lot of sun.

Ah well, looking forward to tomorrow, not for any particular reason. Just looking forward to a new day.

Stay safe and healthy you guys! And in the words of my boss, "Always flush as you go"

Thank goodness I was back in the office today and don't have to work remotely until Friday. It was nice to have a land line phone, a proper desk and chair, two computer monitors and best of all, no asshole cat yelling at me, walking on my keyboard, laying down on my trackball (while my hand is on it) or batting my pens onto the floor!

All kidding aside, it really was good that I was in the office. There's an older guy I work with that has an office near me that I play-clash with all the time. Dude used to answer his phone "Trump Headquarters". BAH! You know, we kid around and I give him shit for being a conservative Republican and slam his door shut every time he listens to Rush on high volume. I've told him "You can blast anything you want, but not him!" The shrieking! "Hillarrrrrry!!!!" Jeez, get a new topic! Oh wait, he shrieks about Nancy Pelosi now too. Anyway, we were talking about how his new face mask looks like a jockstrap (I swear, it does!) and he threw his head back a couple of times snorting with laughter, I thought he was going to say "yeah right" or something (we'd been laughing, it wasn't a serious conversation), but he didn't! His head went back, cracked against the corner of the door jam, he twisted around and went down. HARD! Crash!! I jumped up and called out for our boss (I forgot he was on crutches) and another co-worker to come help. He was only about 4 feet from me, so I went directly to his head, lifted it and straightened it out so his airway was clear and got a co-worker to get his legs straight. I'm holding his head calling out his name, asking if he can hear me. He was breathing, but not responding. He finally came around about a minute later (a loooong minute) and had no idea he was on the floor and not standing up (seriously, he thought he was still standing) and had no memory of blacking out and going down. It was scary!

We got him a cold bottle of water, a bowl of fresh berries and toast. He said he hadn't eaten yet when it happened, so I'm guessing his blood sugar dropped too low. He's a big guy, I'd say 6'2, 350lbs. No way I'd be able to shift him by myself. He eats like crap (2-3 donuts every morning, in addition to his breakfast), so is probably diabetic, but doesn't know it. When we talked about it, he said he was feeling crummy earlier at home and saw spots, but came in to the office anyway (no, he doesn't have the virus, he was tested Friday and everything came back negative). Who knows what would have happened if it happened when he was alone? I mean, he was in the office by himself for part of yesterday when the rest of us worked from home. He could have really hurt himself!

I kind of have to laugh though, if it hadn't have gone right, the last conversation he had would have been how his mask looks like a jockstrap.

The rest of the day was uneventful. A client that I was supposed to talk with on the holiday last week, but didn't answer when I called, finally sent me some of the documents I need and said he wanted to talk with me today, but never called. I was able to have calls with everyone else on my calendar, so that was good. Got a lot done.

So, yeah, kind of a mixed bag for a Tuesday!

My first day of working from home is done. To be honest, it kinda sucked. It was too quiet and I snacked all day. All. Day. Plus, I was able to put stuff off until I go in to the office tomorrow, so it feels like I didn't get much done. I mean, I got some stuff done, but not a ton. Gotham tried to help by jumping-up on the dining table and batting my pens onto the floor, but it didn't really help much, in the traditional sense of "helping".

I'm definitely more productive when I have the structure of an office. Hopefully, Friday will be better! The next three days I'm back in the office, YAY! Who would have thought I'd want to go in to work?

I have to admit, while I did put on make-up and stuff as though I was going in, it was nice wearing comfy clothes and not having the ringing phones...………

My weekend was supposed to have started at 1pm today (we're closed tomorrow, for Good Friday), but I just HAD to check my work email when I got home, which lead to having a client call me and then do some work. BAH! Plus, I need to talk to another client and the only time they have available is tomorrow between 7-8:30am. I almost laughed when I was on the phone with them and said "What time on Monday would you like for me to give you a call?" (this was after I'd told them we were closed tomorrow) and they reply "How about tomorrow between 7-8:30am?" "Okkkaaaay, no problem!". I'm kind of hoping they will forget to send me the documents I need, so I won't be able to do anything when we do talk. Who am I kidding? I'll always give in when it comes to doing stuff that helps clients, even if it means not sleeping in much and working on a holiday.

My boss sent out an email yesterday to everyone letting us know that his doctor in Beverly Hills is able to test patients for prior exposure to Covid-19 and also the other test to see if we have built up an immunity to it and is taking anyone who wants to come in. I was tempted to go have it done, but I don't want to take a spot from someone who really should have the tests performed. It would be interesting to see though.

I'm tempted to walk up to Target tomorrow, I'd ordered active yeast when I placed my supermarket grocery delivery order, but the shopper couldn't find it and said they were out. I want to make bread, so maybe they have it? I guess everyone has taken-up bread making while they're stuck at home, LOL. Who would have thought that would happen?

I know I'm going to talk myself out of going up to the store..... After all, I did last weekend! I believe my actual thought, dramatic as it sounds, was "I don't want to risk dying for corn tortillas" as I turned off the alarm clock, pulled the covers over my head and made plans to place an online order for them. And diet coke. With everything being closed, I went from drinking a couple diet cokes each weekend to having a couple every day! Isolation makes you thirsty!

The cat is about to lay on my keyboard and I need to start planning dinner.

We got word today from our headquarters back east that we are to work from home exclusively starting Monday..... We kind of knew this was going to happen, so I already arranged with my boss that I could still go in to the office. Luckily, he's going to be going in as well, so I'm going to mirror his schedule and work from home Mondays and Fridays. There are certain things I do at the office that I cannot do from home, plus my boss is still on crutches, so I help him to/from his car and stuff.

I've been noticing lately that one of my team at work is really starting to be affected by the pandemic and it's fiscal impact. Each day they're more on edge than the day before. They've been ranting more than usual about how it's all the democrats' fault and how they hate America, blah, blah, blah. He's a staunch libertarian who's afraid all that is his is going to be taken away by the democrats. I sit kind of near him, so I usually just go "uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, really, wow" and ignore him (he knows he's insulting me every time he does it and has no fucks to give, so I just don't react). Well, he went off today and I was the closest person he thought he could do it to. Since I'm a really reactive person, I gave it right back to him. Don't go apeshit on me for no reason and expect me to take it without fighting back.

Afterward, to everyone else I had to pretend that everything was fine, even though I'm sure they all (all 6 of the people who were actually in the office) heard me slam the door and us yelling at each other. I tried waiting for him to cool down and being the bigger person by offering to help him with a computer problem he was having, but that just started another rant against just about everything I believe in (he likes to make it REALLY personal, but don't you DARE do that to him, not that I would) and he got mad all over again. I'm exhausted from it. Sad part is, I know exactly what he's having trouble with on his computer and I can help him fairly quickly, but he won't have it.

I think the worst part of it for him was, later on, I had to give him something valuable he'd left in the office by mistake the day before that he'd called me right after he left and had me lock up for him. Kind of like when you storm out of a room and slam the door and have to go back in to get your keys or purse..... The worst part for me is, he's never going to apologize. If anything he'll either be mad for days and pretend nothing happened or he will just pretend nothing happened. In his mind, it's all my fault. He's done it before.

Maybe I SHOULD work from home every day, if anything to avoid all of this bullshit.

It makes me really sad, even more anxious and overwhelmingly stressed. I can tell I'm not going to get much sleep tonight.

This is the new normal everyone is talking about?

Thank goodness this week is over, IT'S FRIDAY!!! A challenging, heartbreaking, stressful and very long week has, at last, come to a close. I'm hoping I can finally get some quality sleep, it's been a while.

As of earlier this afternoon, I can finally fully access my computer at work from home. For the past few weeks I've only been able to get into a few areas and then had to use a work-around to see my work email. Now I am actually proxying in and seeing my actual computer and everything on it. It's just kind of weird having only one monitor when I see everything, instead of the two I have at the office. I had to rush out of the office and quickly locked my screens and it wasn't until I got home and started setting-up this new configuration that I saw I'd left some windows open on the desktop! Again, so weird! Now that I have that dialed-in, I need to make sure I don't work while I'm on my own time.

It's only a little after 4pm, Self-isolating is still in force, so I can't go out and I don't feel like watching TV or movies or anything so I think I found something dumb to do while I'm listening to an audio book.....

I love infomercials. I don't know why, but I do and I always have. I used to go to the "As Seen On TV" stores, such fun! Most of the stuff out there is probably trash, but sometimes you come across really neat stuff (I'm looking at you Copper Chef pans! Literally, I have them and can see them.). Well, I found a website that has thousands of "As Seen on TV" stuff to look through and it looks like most, if not all, have commercials to watch. YAY! Arctic Hat! Easy Feet!

I know, it's stupid and a waste of time, but hey, I need a little mindless activity in my life right now. At least, for a little while. If I can stop my cat from knocking my mechanical pencil off the table.

Okay, the site does NOT have thousands of items, as it stated. I'm kind of disappointed. Oh well, there are plenty of other places on the intrawebs to look for silly things.

Crazy day. So many client calls.

I don't know why everyone decided reach out at once. It was not an exceptional day in regards to my industry. I couldn't leave my desk for over three and a half hours! We have a few clients in their 90's and I love helping and talking to them. Odd they chose today... Once the phones quieted down, and since I was basically alone at my end of the office, I started playing Talking Heads - Sand in the Vaseline" (greatest hits cd set). My boss hobbled out of his office on his crutches as I was sort of signing along to Psycho Killer. He laughed at me!

I was glad when the work day was over. I think the anxiety (and not being able to show it at work) and stress is getting to me. I'm sporadically sleep walking, which I haven't done in a long time! Sleep quality has kinda sucked too. I wake up tired. Things are going to get better though, I have to keep repeating that!

On to other things....

I mentioned earlier that, as my friend didn't need a grocery delivery when the spots opened-up, I decided to use one for myself. I didn't have anything I "needed" to get, so it's really just trying it out.

This is so surreal! I got a text saying that my shopper has entered the store and has started shopping for me (fancy!). They will text me if anything is out of stock or if limitations mean I am unable to get the quantity I'd bought. So far, most of the meat items have been replaced, but I'm not sure what with. The texts just say "**** replaced: Angus stew meat". I guess the pork butt roast is totally out of stock, so they asked if I would like ribs, chops or tenderloin instead. "Boneless pork chops, please". Their text sounded so sad when they'd said they have bones... "Bone-in chops are ok!" They use a lot of exclamation points in the texts to me, so I find I am too "Great!". (Chops should work, I'm going to make a salsa verde pork dish to take in to work, so the few of us that are going in every day can have soft tacos and take extra home.)

Now the broccoli florets have been replaced... I'm concerned, I mean, what they could replace those with? Unless it's a different brand? I hope they don't give me any with a butter or cheesy sauce or anything, I'm cooking with them.

More replacement texts! Very mysterious! It will be interesting to see what I get and how different the total cost is going to be versus what I already paid.

This is so weird.

Okay, they are done shopping for me and the items with be carefully handled and kept in a temperature controlled place until delivery. The driver will be next to contact me.

Driver just sent a text, they are on the way and should be here in the next 15 mins or less. Exciting! The supermarket is less than a 5 minutes drive, so I bet they'll get here quickly.

Oh my gosh, they got here so fast!

Looks like all the stuff that they replaced was with something comparable in price and description. One thing to remember, if you order a pork butt roast and they replace it with pork chops, you are going to get roughly the same weight and cost in chops as the roast. I think I'm going to be taking a few to work for people to freeze and use! The total came out to be a little more than on my original order, but that may be down to taxes and slight price differences.

Overall, I think I'd use the service again while we're still in this awful situation. As long as my coupon savings or promo codes will equal or beat the delivery price (which it did this time). The people we very nice and did a great job. It's helping employ people and it keeps me from crowding-up the market. If you use a service like this, please remember to tip generously, if you can!!!

Now I need to eat dinner. Maybe some of the pancakes I made a froze on Monday...……….

Oops, one last thing. If you have the means to do so, please consider donating to local businesses. If you're here in LA, Largo is having a benefit for their staff (date to be announced). I got a ticket and would love to see a full house there. Also, the legendary and historic Troubadour has a Go Fund Me Page. They just sent this out:


By now you know that we have had to shut our doors indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that we have not been able to operate as usual and our wonderful staff has not been able to work. We are a small, independently-owned, venue and have an hourly staff of over 20 people. Our team consists of bartenders, security, sound and lighting engineers and box office personnel. These are the people welcoming you into the venue and bringing you great experiences inside the showroom.

We are reaching out to our community for support and are asking you to please donate if you can. If you are unable to donate at this time, please share our GoFundMe link. Anything helps! 100% of the donations will go towards helping our staff.

We love sharing our stage and creating memories with you, we look forward to continuing to do so in the future! Until then, please stay safe and healthy.

From,
Your Troubadour Family

To donate: https://www.gofundme.com/f/troubadour-employee-relief-fund

Have I said on here lately how grateful I am to have a job and an office to go to? Seriously. My job may be really high-stress and not much fun sometimes, but I am so appreciative that I have a job. I can't put it into words properly.

These are such deeply unsettling times. No one knows how long the virus will run unchecked or how many lives will be lost. Our govt. seems more interested in spreading propaganda and downright lies than it is in trying to figure out the best way to handle this and protect people. Did you see that Mitch is saying the govt. was distracted by the impeachment and that's why it didn't focus on the virus? Are you fucking kidding me? How dare he? I swear, I am going to learn how to, then dance a jig WHEN (not if) that asshole loses his re-election. In fact, MY CAT will join in and dance a jig himself when it happens, because even though he's an asshole himself, he won't tolerate that level of assholedness! I just hope that GOP doesn't try and use the current crisis to delay the election in November. That. Can't. Happen.

Unemployment is skyrocketing and, let's be honest, there really aren't any jobs out there for me should I lose the one I have. Apart from delivery services and the like, everything else has dried-up. While I would do any job, what chance do I actually have at getting one of those jobs? The job market is flooded with better qualified people than this middle-aged woman with no experience.

At home, I only have the news on when I'm getting ready for work at 4am, but at work it's on all day. You can't escape it. It's only when I get home in the afternoon that I have some peace... but after a day filled with bad news, it's hard to turn it all off mentally. Even when I try and distract myself.

It's a scary time. My parents are an 8-hour drive away and are considered vulnerable. Even if I were to go to where they are, I'd have to be quarantined for two weeks before I could see them for fear of getting them sick in case I somehow get it and turn into a carrier. I only have one other semi-close family member near me and I haven't heard from them once. I sent a text today, we'll see if I hear back.

I always try really hard to be positive and not let all of this horror (or any other bad stuff) get to me, but sometimes, like today, it does. It really does.

Things WILL get better they have to.

Sooooo, this weekend was kind of a waste. I got very little done. I mean, I got SOME stuff done... cleaned the bathroom and kitchen and finally broke down the carboard boxes I had in the hallway and took then out to the trash, but I didn't get anywhere near as much done as I'd hoped. Other than that, I slept a lot, watched Forensic Files, Cold Case Files (on Pluto) and the last few episodes of Nora from Queens (on Sling) that I hadn't watched yet, re-watched some old Real Housewives episodes and What We Do in the Shadows.

Man, I also snacked WAY too much. Seriously, I was cramming pretzels and kettle corn into my face whenever I could. I wasn't even hungry! I'm a lazy snacker!

Surprisingly, I was able to get a delivery from the local supermarket scheduled for later this week. Luckily, I don't need anything that you have to actually go into the store for (yet). I was shocked I was able to get it done, as I'd been checking for a friend for the past 10 days and no time slots were open. Forget about Amazon Fresh and Amazon/Whole Foods though, there are no deliveries in my neighborhood at all! I guess I could go to the store, but I'm sure everybody involved (including me) would rather have one less person who doesn't need to be there taking-up valuable space.

Stupid thing - Thinking about it, I think I was in pajamas all weekend, even though I changed out of PJ's and into lounge clothes each morning. To be honest though, that felt kinda like going from nighttime pajamas into daytime pajamas. I wish I could go to work in daytime pajamas!

It's Sunday afternoon and since I've been home since mid-day Friday, I managed to complete most of my usual weekly Sunday "Me Time" routine a bit early. Now all I need to do get the last few things together to take in to work with me tomorrow, fix dinner and maybe read for a while.

My cat can't wait to have his apartment back to himself!

This is probably going to be a really long and boring post. We ARE in a pandemic after all. What else am I going to do on a Friday afternoon while stuck at home?

We're over a week into the pandemic "lockdown" here in California. As I've mentioned before, I'm considered to work in an "essential business", so I continue to drive into work each day. Our home office even gave us two memos to print out and keep with us in case we get stopped and questioned about why we are out and not isolating in our homes. I guess they don't realize that law enforcement here has WAY better things to do than stop cars driving into downtown before 5am..... at least that's how it is right now.

I'm worried that people aren't taking this seriously. Freeway traffic is markedly lighter, but street traffic on my way home is the same as it was before and I see loads of people out and about. Looking out the window right now, I see heavier traffic than usual driving up and down the street, as well as four people walking in a tight group down my street. It looks like a normal day.

You might be asking "well, what about you? You're out and doing your regular routine!". Fortunately, my regular routine entails very little contact with people close-up. I leave for work very early, before most are even awake. I get to my building and wave good morning to the parking garage attendant without rolling down my window. I don't see anyone as I take the elevator up to the buildings' lobby to take the next elevator up to our floor. Once in my office, I go to my desk. Currently, the occupants of the two offices closest to me are working from home and the person working at the desk closest to me (10 feet away) works from home a couple days a week and we are faced in the opposite direction to each other. There are only about 6 or 7 of us in the office and we are very spread out. The closest I come to anyone is my boss. Unfortunately, he's on crutches right now, so I help him from his car up to the office (and back again) and if he has to go to the restroom I walk him down and wait to walk him back (kinda hard to open doors when you're on crutches). Don't project anything dirty into it! It's the human thing to do! I'll admit, it IS kinda weird to stand outside a restroom door and wait to hear someone wash their hands before opening the door (facing the hallway) and holding it open with my foot extended backward. HA!

Other than that, I'm at home. I've already mentioned that I bought a new laptop and stuff and am now able to access most essential work programs from home if I have to, but it hasn't come to that. Our company has said that if we don't feel comfortable, we can work from home, but at this point, I'm more productive at the office.

I feel for everyone that's struggling right now. My hairdresser isn't allowed to work, so I offered to pre-pay her for my next appointment. I was supposed to go in tomorrow, so I was prepared to pay her then anyway. I've made a couple of local donations as well, but I know it's not enough. I hope people who need assistance get it quickly. The bill that the government just passed today is nowhere near good enough, but at least it's something to start with. I'm worried. Really worried. We just started this journey and things got bad so fast!

I'll repeat this to my friends and acquaintances, if you need anything, let me know. As long as I know you, the offer is open. I may not have what you need (I'll try to get it!) or I may not have a lot, but what I DO have, I will gladly share with you.

I really hope this situation is giving people pause and showing them that little issues and problems don't mean anything. We need to come together and help support each other. I've reached out to people I haven't spoken to in a while to make sure they are okay. I've heard back from most of them. Hopefully, I'll hear back from the one or two that haven't emailed me back, if anything to let me know they're okay. Unless they really hate me, then I guess they won't. One friend I reached out to was one I'd been slowly backing away from for over a year.... she said was low on toilet paper and I offered her what I could and went in search of packages for her (she lives out by the beach, where there aren't a lot of supermarkets). She's good now. A co-worker in another office that's medically vulnerable and has small children needed a couple of sundry items. A friend and co-worker in Little Rock was worried about being able to get needed items for her 92 year-old mother in-law... You gotta ask people, sometimes they don't want to ask you or mention it. I can't tell you how many text messages I've sent that ended with "Are you okay for toilet paper?". I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't have a huge hoard of it or anything, but I can get-up early and stand in a line and I'm happy to do it! No toilet paper at the store, and I have to get you wipes? Then that's what I'll do!

You know, thinking on it, I can honestly say that there are only two people I personally know on this planet I would refuse to help, and they are old horribly abusive bosses I had that are multi-millionaire assholes.

Other than those two, you are in my heart and I'm here to help however I can.

I'll probably write more later this weekend since I'm stuck at home. I promise it will be more upbeat! Maybe I'll binge-watch Parks and Rec or Community or something.

Oh yeah, if you have kids or like listening to young adult books, Audible has made a ton of audiobooks free to listen to as long as schools are closed at:

stories.audible.com

I think they have books available in 6 different languages.

Stay safe and healthy everyone!

Happy birthday CBLMW, I know I already wished you an early Happy Birthday in an email, but I wanted to do it here as well. This next year is going hold many good things for you. You are a good person who does a lot of good things, so you deserve it.

The state of the world is grim right now and I hope everyone is safe and healthy. My job/industry fall under the umbrella of “essential business”, so I’m going into the office as usual during the day, and just hanging around at home the rest of the time. Traffic has been nonexistent, which is really nice. One of the few nice things that’s happened lately!

For those of you that know them, my parents are doing okay. The area they live in isn’t experiencing the same level of shortages we are here when it comes to food and some other essentials. They’ll be good!

For now, I’m conserving my food supplies by getting take-out for dinner every couple of days. Hopefully, if enough people do this, it will help keep those business afloat!

I was walking home from getting a pizza the other day (again you gotta support your local small restaurants!!!) and saw a CA for Biden sign” affixed to the inside of an office window (facing out). That made me feel good. There are a lot of conservatives here, so it gives me a little hope for November.

I hope everyone out there is safe and healthy. If you’re a friend of mine and need anything, please reach out to me and I’ll share whatever I can or I’ll try and find what you need. I don’t have a huge store of anything, but I will help my friends! As of now, Gotham and I are okay and should have what we need. As a precaution, we’ve got an order of his prescription food due to be delivered within the next week.

Please be safe and PLEASE check on any older or vulnerable people around you!!!

Talk soon,

Robin

I’m glad it’s the weekend. What a terrible week. The Keane concert was fun, but didn’t have much of an effect on how the week unfolded. It was an historically bad week at work. The industry needs a break, so it’s good we’re at a weekend. Hopefully POTUS will stop making things worse by talking and tweeting. Because that’s what he does, makes it worse.

I went to the super market this morning to do my usual shopping. Holy crap! I’d read news stories about lines and shortages, but I didn’t think it would be bad before 6:30am! Was I wrong!!! If you wanted pasta, sauce, beans, water, pork, anything other than chicken thighs or really expensive cuts of beef, you were out of luck! Not to mention paper products!

The produce and freezer sections were sparse as well. I was lucky to get a four pack of russet potatoes!

Snack foods seemed well-stocked though. Same with ice cream and frozen pizza. I had to search for frozen broccoli, but not junk food, lol! I guess that’s a good sign that people are stocking-up on good food and not crap.

Odd thing, I couldn’t find Havarti cheese anywhere. So random! It’s the only cheese I buy regularly and I’ve never really had an issue finding it. Not today! Maybe Trader Joe’s will have it tomorrow? I’m thinking about heading over before they open so I can buy my favorite sourdough bread anyway. I might as well see if they have my cheese.

One thing I don’t get is the run on bottled water. It’s not like people are preparing for an earthquake, where water supplies can become unsafe or pipes might break and service is interrupted. We still have working faucets! Plus, I am fortunate enough to live in an area where our tap water is very safe. I mean, sure, I prefer bottled water, but tap water is fine. I drank from a hose throughout my childhood and survived!

I get that people are buying-up hand sanitizer and soap. In fact, I can even understand buying a little more toilet paper than usual, but the rest of this is just crazy.

So I got my few things (I keep a pretty well-stocked home, so I didn’t have to buy a ton of stuff) and stood in the long line to check-out / pay for my groceries. Seriously, it was looooong! It took around 40 minutes to get to the checker! I chatted with her for the few moments I was checking out. I feel bad, people were being so rude and nasty to her. She actually thanked me for being nice! Come on people, we’re all just trying to do our best! Be nice!

I’m hopeful that once folks have two weeks worth of supplies stocked that things will get back to normal. Things can’t continue like this, right? RIGHT??

Fingers-crossed Trader’s is a better experience tomorrow!

It’s pouring rain today, so I think I’m going to stay inside. If it clears up, I might go to Bev Mo or Total Wine and More....surely, their lines will be short. HA! Riiiiight.

Be safe out there and please be kind to service workers. You should be nice to them anyway, but especially now!

After having such a nice, relaxing weekend, my work week has been crummy (to put it mildly). I can’t believe it’s only Tuesday! It feels like it’s been an entire week already. I feel beaten, battered, baked and fried! Plus, I got a comment from someone at work (but not about work) that has really thrown me into a funk/blue mood. I’m supposed to go to a show tonight, but I really don’t want to.

The drive home was exhausting. I haven’t driven in rain that hard since I was driving around Ft. Lauderdale Florida in November 1994. Today was equally as bad! I couldn’t see anything through the windshield. I figured I’d probably die in a car crash to finish my shitty day. It just doesn’t rain like that here! It was like hail. I am relieved to be at home. Not really excited about going back out in this. I paid a lot for the ticket though and my friend is expecting to pick me up.

I hope tomorrow is a better day. Maybe something good will happen? Hope springs eternal with me....

Man, I love Sundays. I especially love them when the weather is nice like it is today. Bright blue sky with big clouds (both bright white and ominously dark), a nice breeze and temperatures in the 60’s. You can feel that it’s going to rain, but not quite yet.

I got up early, set all the clocks ahead an hour and did a little tidying up around the apartment. I started re-listening to an audio book I really like. After a while, I decided that I’d walk to go pick-up an order I’d placed online. The store opened at 11:00am, so I had plenty of time.

I left the apartment at 11:00am and walked over. I live in a really walkable area. There are tons of shops and restaurants with plenty of new businesses to discover every time I decide to walk around. I was only gone about 50 minutes, but it was a good walk.

Being that it’s Sunday, I still have clothes for work to get together for the week and I’ve got trash to take out, along with a bathroom to clean... I know it sounds boring, but I enjoy it.

The best part of a good Sunday is that quiet time around 5pm, with chores done, nice music playing and dinner cooking, when you can sit down with a cocktail and think about the week that just finished and what the week ahead holds.

Yep, today is a good Sunday.

Election Day! Super Tuesday!

I had a crummy day at work, but I had voting to look forward to!

I got to the polling place around 2:15pm and, wow, was it different to what I’m used to! Instead of checking-in, having my name crossed-off, getting my long ballot, slipping it into the ink/punch machine, it was all tablet computers and stuff. One thing I didn’t care for was the fact that when I got to the bit where I voted for my Democrat candidate, all of the candidates, even those who dropped out a while ago were still on the list (Booker?). I really had to scroll through to find my person. I wonder how many folks had issues with finding theirs?

Other than that, it was pretty smooth sailing. The polling place was crowded (YAY!), but moving smoothly. I really hope we have a great turn out and good people score the delegates!!

My folks were in town this past weekend and actually told me ahead of time! I took a half days vacation on Friday as I had an appointment with Gotham’s new vet at 10:30am, so I told my dad I could hang out with him if he was around while my mom was busy. We had a really fun time and then I took him to dinner at a little Mexican stand I love. He said he enjoyed it, which makes me happy.

On Saturday, Before I met up with both of them, I splurged and bought a Roomba. Not the really fancy one that emptied itself, but the model under it. OMG! I love my Roomba!! No more cat litter tracked out of the bathroom! Plus, it’s mesmerizing to watch. I tried scheduling it to clean while I’m at work, but it got stuck and ran its battery down. It doesn’t seem to do that if I’m here watching it, and trust me, if I’m here and it’s running, I’m probably watching it, lol! I can’t help it! Gotham doesn’t know what to make of it yet, so he will sit with me and watch it. We’re weirdos! It will probably stop being interesting in a few days, but for now, it’s cool!

Work was nothing but challenges today, but I made it through okay. Time for dinner, maybe an audio book and then some Roomba watching....

The convention was fun. The one panel I really wanted to go to was amazing. So insightful and heartfelt. I had a good time with my friends as well. I came home mid-day Sunday, showered, changed and pretty much went to bed, then puttered around the apt for the holiday Monday. Unpacked, hand washed some stuff and had a good day.

Only drawback from the weekend I can determine is that I’m now sick again and since I just finished a round of antibiotics last Thursday, I can’t take anything other than OTC stuff. I’ve got a sore throat straight from hell. Dayquil and Nyquil are my only friends right now. And my cat. Although, he’s not helping much by laying on my chest.

Blah.....

Well, last Thursday evening I finally had the follow-up surgery to last June’s procedure. I fancied myself a pretty Bad ass tough cookie so I told the surgeon I didn’t want general anesthesia, just a ton of the local stuff. Holy fuck, was that dumb!!!

In all honesty, since my surgery was scheduled for 3:30pm, was only supposed to take an hour and the office was only four blocks from my home, I couldn’t rationalize asking any of my friends to deal with traffic and stuff just to drive me four blocks. Plus, I got so sick when I was put under the general anesthetic last June, I couldn’t face it again. So local only for stupidly independent me!

The surgeon was running about an hour behind, so we didn’t start until 4:30pm.

I was taken back to the operating room and hopped up on the table. The surgical assistant was kinda surprised I wasn’t being put out. In my head, I thought, “she’s thinking how hard-core I am and is TOTALLY impressed with me” (she wasn’t). Anyway, there I was, on my back with nothing but an eye mask on (I was emphatic I didn’t want to see anything!), a lot of iodine/betadine painted all over me and some towels strategically placed when my surgeon comes, greets me again and gives the word....I get a ZILLION shots to numb everything. I guess they also have to move the area manually to help it spread and work faster, which was really weird. Then comes out the laser to burn and open me up. I could smell burning ME! Gross! Then I could feel tugging, wetness and a releasing sensation. I could have sworn I sensed the guy flinging a big piece of me aside, lol!

After a bit, it was time to sew me up, it was so surreal to feel the tugging and sewing, but no pain. Then I felt the surgical glue being painted on. It was so odd. Once he was done, I got bandaged-up, got dressed bid everyone a good night and walked the 10 minute trek home.

Later, when I was home, I thought “I wonder how long until this local wears off”. TOO FUCKING SOON, that’s how long. It was so painful, yikes!!!

I took the next day off work and literally slept all day! I was thinking about taking another day, but came back on Monday. I think that was too soon. Better every day since though.

I have to say, the surgeon was really nice and chatted with me through the hour it took to do everything. He had funny stories to tell me and it wasn’t too terrible of a time, and it went by fairly quickly.

The timing was a bit inconvenient as I have my usual February sci-fi convention this week (I bought the pass about a year ago before I had any idea I’d be having any surgeries at all). I’ve got about 75 stitches and have to care for the incision, but I really like the main guest this year and don’t want to miss their panel, so I’m a little bit excited and still going to go. Weird after so many years of not really caring much about most of the guests. I’ll go to a few panels, but will probably spend most of the time relaxing in the hotel room though!!

I’m glad it’s a 3-day weekend. Even with the convention, I should still get a lot of my chores done AND relax. Win-Win!!!

A very belated happy new year to everyone!

The holidays went well. First time I can remember that Christmas was just me and my parents. Stress-free! We’d planned on decorating their tree, but it ended-up being bare, with lights and a couple of bows thrown on it, lol! I think I ate pretty much the entire time I was with them. I must have put on 10lbs. Ten. Solid. Pounds. It was SO worth it though!

My visit with them lasted a week and I had a thoroughly good time. I was really happy to get home though. The ride-share lot at LAX worked out really well for me on the way home. The walk from my terminal only took a couple of minutes and my car showed shortly after I requested it. Luckily, while it had been raining earlier, it stopped right before we landed, so I was able to stay dry during my wait. When I got home, I looked to the north and saw the foothills dusted with snow. It looked so pretty with my Christmas lights!

I was sad to take my decorations down, they made my place look so sparkly and homey. Putting everything back into their boxes was a little depressing.

I’m not sure why, but I’ve been really tired the last couple of weeks. I’m thankful for this long weekend, it gives me an extra day to play with my cat, bake stuff, cook my white bean chili, run my errands and maybe lay around!

I didn’t have any resolutions to start the year, but my fat ass needs to get to the gym, lol! I can’t think of the last time I went! That extra Christmas weight is still hanging on! I don’t want to get crazy or anything, maybe just start back on the treadmill and, if I’m feeling it, work my arms.

Not much else is going on, so I really have no excuse!

I’ll check back in later. Happy Friday!!