I've been going to my bosses house every day to check on things while they are on vacation and, I have to say, it's been a stressful nightmare.  Nothing to do with actually checking the house, though.  It's been a traffic nightmare.  Between the issues I'm having with my car, West Side work-week traffic, construction delays and school run traffic, I've started to shudder and get on edge every time I get in my car.

This morning I left the house just after 6am purely so I could avoid the jams around all the schools between my place and theirs and then again between their home and work.  I ended-up getting to work two hours early. I'm still expected to be there until 5pm, so it's not like I can leave early. It also sucked that when I got into my car to go home that I had to sit in San Vicente traffic.

I even hit traffic congestion over the weekend!!! While it took me about 90 seconds to go, what took me 40 minutes during the week last week, I still hit road closures in Westwood and then got turned around (lost) around the little streets surrounding UCLA.  It took me an hour and a half to get home. This was before 9am on Saturday!!!!

I'm exhausted and stressed out.

Surface street traffic is getting even more ridiculous (if that's possible). It took me 30 minutes to get from the signal at San Vicente / Darlington to the signal at San Vicente and Wilshire. It's not that far!!!!  It should take 3 minutes.

All I could think about was the fact my car was probably going to die and I should look around and find good, reasonably priced hotels west of the 405 that I can stay at when traffic sucks this bad.

I owe an apology to all my fellow commuters that I was a bitch to. Sorry.

BTW- What was up with all the law enforcement vehicles screaming along Wilshire west-bound?  I was stuck in even more traffic along that corridor, just west of the 76, but at the top of the hill, and at least 7 police SUV's, motorcycles and sedans went tearing the other way with lights and sirens on. Nothing was mentioned on news radio the rest of the way home. Weird.

Late this afternoon I passed the written exam for the M-1 drivers license.  Now I need to take a class on how to operate a motorcycle so I can get the permanent license and maybe the next step is to get the Vespa I want.

I also had lunch with a bunch of people I used to work with / for. It was an annual birthday luncheon I used to plan when I worked there.  It was very nice, but weird. When I planned it, the seating chart had people who knew/liked each other sit together. This was kind of random, so people didn't chat much.  Lots of awkward silences, which is a shame because it was a beautiful lunch.

I was really happy to see a few people, a couple of others, not so much. My ex-boss seriously thought I was there to ask for my job back. Um, no. I guess he thinks that there is no way I could possibly succeed outside that firm.  Why he sat next to me, I don't know. I just wish that he could let go and just be cordial. He still talks trash about me! I guess I take up a lot of space in his head.  Even if I was fired from my job, there is no way I would ever willfully work for him again.

The president of the company (who I worked for many, many years ago) looked good and it was nice to chat with him a little. With 12 people there, it wasn't appropriate to monopolize his time, so we just chatted a bit. I miss him and one of my other bosses (along with my other friends).

Bonus- I was told that I smell really nice.

Another creepy weird bonus- when I was in line at the DMV to get the paperwork to show I passed my tests, the young Portuguese lad in front of me (who didn't pass his exam) was all over the place, leaning, bending over, etc....and when his baggy shorts slipped, he showed all of us behind him that he was wearing thong undies. He was a CHILD. Plus, I didn't know males wore that kind of underwear.

Surreal day.

After a couple of weekends being sidelined due to hurting my back, I was finally able to get up and out of the house this past Saturday night. Went with a group of girlfriends to see Jeff Garlin interview Michael Sheen. Jeff Garlin is hysterical and quite an interesting interviewer.  Some of the questions were so out of the blue! Not your typical celebrity interview, thank goodness.

Priceless moment of the show: Michael Sheen doing his flying monkey from The Wizard of Oz impression.

Good stuff.

I'd go to the next one, but I'm not sure I have enough interest in Ryan Adams to take a seat that could and very well should be filled by a hard core fan (he has those, right?).

You know how every so often you get hit with a truth that you always knew was there, but it still always comes as, if not a shock, a disappointment? Each and every time?

I've been reminded (by myself, no one else) that I'm a coward in some respects. While I normally like to take problems and issues head-on, there are just some things that I try not to think about, because if I don't, they don't exist. But mine is a two-prong issue. I don't think about the issue, so I get a small space of time where I have relief because it doesn't exist, then I get reminded of it and then I stress out overtime and obsess , until I can put it aside again.

Innocuous example: my car. I made a decision a while back that I wasn't going to get a new car for two years. I like my current car and I really can't afford a big car payment coupled with an increased insurance premium that comes with a new car or a lease. I only drive about 8 miles each way to /from work, so my car doesn't get a lot of miles put on it. Plus, I already know what I want my next car to be and I want to stick with my 2-year plan and not get a used car car that will put off me getting the other car I really want.

Anyway....

My sweet ride just came back from having work done on, but still needs A LOT more done to it. Nothing that will cause it to stop running, but necessary repairs for safety, etc. Well, honestly, my car isn't worth the money needed to make those repairs, so I've been ignoring the issue. Until I get into my car. Then I start imagining that the expensive thing I just got fixed (that caused it to stall when I was at stop lights, etc.) wasn't fixed and that I'm going to be that asshole blocking traffic in the west side during rush hour. Then I start thinking about what would happen if I got into an accident because I haven't made those other repairs. This goes on and on until I'm out of the car and able to take my mind off it......until I get back in the car.

(The only thing I have in my defense is that I'm going to take my M1 license exam in the next week or so. Then I need to either take a skills test or a class to waive that requirement. When I get all that done, I may get a Vespa and keep my car for emergencies or inclement weather.)

Yup, I'm a full-on coward. It's not just the car either. If it was, it wouldn't be an issue.  I thought I was better than that. Avoidance isn't a good trait.

:-(

Yay, President Obama is in town, I'll get to REALLY put in some freaking-out / obsession time tonight while I'm stuck in traffic on the way home.

Pathetic? Absolutely.

Just thought I would put up a quick note- due to recent crummy luck with my car, I will not be going to LBCC this year. In case anyone was wondering. It's safe to go, you won't see me, which I'm sure will be a boon for everyone.

Keeping a positive attitude is hard. :-(

Well, I have to say, had a pretty good weekend this past week.

On Friday night, a friend and I went to a taping of the Dead Authors Podcast at the UCB Theater. We go every-so-often and it's always hysterical. This month one of my favorite comedians / performers, Matt Gourley, portrayed Ian Fleming.  If you're familiar with Matt, you know he's a huge James Bond fan (for more info, please see his podcast "James Bonding with Matt and Matt". His take on Fleming was great! Thoughtfully slow with a definite creepy leer in everything he said. He's a victim! It's the women's fault! Good stuff! I'm just sad that the blue terry cloth onesie he had made (and was so excited about) didn't fit.  As always Paul F. Tompkins brought his A-Game as H.G. Wells.  I don't know how he does it. Everything Paul does is achingly funny.  If you're interested, you can look up the Dead Authors Podcast online.  I recommend all of them, but anything with Chris Tallman, Craig Cackowski, Mark Gagliardi or Matt Gourley will be especially good. Particularly Chris Tallman. The man is a genius!!!!

After that my friend and I met another friend at the 1988 gallery on Melrose to see an exhibit of art inspired by Joss Whedon. Very crowded, hot and steamy! The art was neat. It was difficult to see everything though, it was too crowded and I felt bad lingering when there was such a long line outside.

On Saturday my friends and I met up once again for our monthly appointment with the Work Juice Players at Largo for the Thrilling Adventure Hour. Once again, I was seated behind Len Wein, who I have given up saying hello to, as he never remembers that we've met before. AT LEAST FOUR TIMES!  Anyway, there was a buzz in the air while we waited in line for the seat assignments to be handed out. A big mysterious purple curtain was put up in the courtyard for the table read so we couldn't see or hear it (they'd never done that before, to my knowledge). Exciting! Bonus - I got to meet Hal Lublin's dad Bill, which was cool.  Such a nice, funny man, I can see that Hal got some of his talent from him!

After grabbing dinner we walked back up to the theater and got into our seats. Again, there was a buzz in the air. Now, if I was plugged in to social media like I used to be and still went to cons, I would have probably known why there was a buzz in the air.  Since I'm not and I don't, I was clueless. It was the return of Cactoid Jim and Jefferson Reid, Ace American!!!!!  Yes, after about a two year absence, Nathan Fillion was back with the Work Juice Players for the Thrilling Adventure Hour and it was AWESOME!!!!!  Nothing else can describe was cool it was. This show was jam packed with neat guests, including Colin Hanks and Jason Ritter. It was probably the best Thrilling Adventure Hour I've ever seen. I even broke my rule of not standing in line for photos, so I could get a picture with them. Too bad none of them turned out (not one was good enough to share) and too bad I didn't have anything with me for them to sign (I didn't want to wait in the merch line and I didn't bring one of my show prints from home). We did go stand in line again so I could re-take the pictures, but he line was so long that as it grew late, Nathan walked through it quickly to sign stuff for people so he could leave and not have people left empty-handed, that we just decided to bail (I was the only one who wanted a photo, everyone else was just after signatures). That's okay though, it was still a cool night and I can't wait for next month! They always have great guests and I'm sure next month will be no different. I don't think it's been posted yet, but you can always check out other episodes of the Thrilling Adventure Hour online. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Switching to a different topic altogether, everything is fine at work (just fine, no better). To give you an example of the class divide (my boss is rich and I grew up middle class), he said to me one day "wow, you look really glamorous, like you work at Neiman Marcus or something". Not "shop" at Neiman Marcus", "WORK"at Neiman Marcus. I wasn't sure if I should be offended that he thought that the highest level of glamour I could possibly have would be a retail salesperson at a department store or not (no offense to the many great people who work there). Every so often I find that my bosses can't help themselves, they just make comments that point out that I'm not on the same level money-wise. Ah well, no job is perfect.  It's still better than the last one.

My lunch break is about over, I suppose I should eat something. Btw- typing on mobile devices is awful.