What I can say about this month is that I worked and worked and worked.  By my count I worked twenty-eight out of thirty days this month.  I had September fifth and seventh off, and that was it.  I worked every other day of the month.  More on that later, for now, the update.

Tue Sept 1, First day of the month I hit the ground running.  Today was a LONG day.  I was planning on starting it fairly easy by going on a hike.  But, pseudo supervisor wanted me to get some work done, so I went into work at San Marino in the morning.  The days are getting short, and the big fundraiser is just five weeks away.  There's so much to do.  So much for me to do.  I'm getting through most of it, but there's just not enough time in my schedule.  As I think about it, this change in schedule made me think I would have more hours for San Marino, but what it has done is actually just bunched up all those hours in just a few days.  This week and next is different, since I was covering hours on today and next Tuesday.  I'll have more time the Tuesday after next, but then the following I'm working all day at Glendale.  ARGH!

Speaking of covering a shift, I worked my first shift at Snow's branch.  It was quite an adventure to work under Snow.  She started me not, not with the lay of the land, but rather the lay of the problem patrons.  She told me about this one, and that one.  All the time I kinda wanted to know where the pens are, not about these random problem patrons that I will probably never interact with.  But, she insisted.  She went on for forty minutes about the problem patrons.  Yeah, not fun.  This approach by Snow actually made her less attractive in my eyes.  I do like details, I like being prepared.  But, for some reason this didn't strike me as something that I found attractive in her in any way.  I guess it's because I thought she was too ridged.  The shift itself was not too bad.  After Snow left it went by fast.  Before she left the first half hour felt as if I had been there for three times as long.  I was also nervous when she was around.  Can you blame me?  I like this girl, and now she's my boss.  I don't want to fuck up.  Actually, even if I didn't like her I wouldn't want to fuck up.  Fucking up is not something I wish to do.

As I just said, Snow's little lay of the land speech made me feel a little less attracted to her.  Mainly because I felt she was too ridged.  I have a patron friend that always calls her a "cold fish."  I didn't see it until today, but she does come off as a bit distant, to say the least.  If I had a chance with her I will never know it, because she won't ever throw me any signs.  But let's call a spade a spade, she's not interested.  She's not going to throw me any signs, ever.  Simple as that.  Perhaps the timing of finding her less attractive came at a good time.  I can walk away and not even stick my neck out by asking her out.  I'm still physically attracted to her.  I wish she would just sit on my face.  I love her butt and thighs, and her lovely skin, her face, her hair.  She's pretty, but not interested in me.  That's for sure.

Round three was at Central.  Today was such a long day at work.  I finished up at the branch and heated up my sandwich, sped to Central where I met up with my buddy at a restaurant.  He was already eating, and I came in and eat the second half of my pastrami sandwich.  The night was uneventful.  Mainly because there was no one to check out.  I checked out an iPad to a patron at 9:15pm and didn't check out another item the entire rest of the night.  Just great.  I think the security guard told me that there were about twenty-five people in the library when they counted just before we closed.  They have to count and keep track of the amount of people in the library.  They're tracking how many people are using the library during the night.  I'm sure they are going to find that most nights the amount of employees will equal or eclipse the number of patrons.  This is completely idiotic.

I came home and plopped into bed, knowing that tomorrow I had to do it all over again.  At least tomorrow I can take it easy on the reference desk.  Ah, but I won't be able to sleep-in, as I had hoped.  Mainly because I have to do the city's sexual harassment training.  Just great!

Wed Sept 2, Harassment training is as it has always been, boring.  I know every employee in the city has to do it, so it's a pain we all share.  The woman giving the talk today was just a mess.  She could be attractive, but she does everything in her power to dress completely like a facsimile of a woman, but stripped away of all femininity.  Whatever, I just wanted to survive the bullshit.  Somehow, I didn't go to sleep in my chair.  Mostly because one of the prettier coworkers was sitting next to me.  Her thighs looked so great.

After training I had two hours to start work.  I first went to My Taco in Highland Park for lunch.  I had a sope, which was good.  I also ordered some refried beans with chips.  I nearly finished the whole thing.  I was going to need a full belly, because San Marino was full tilt today.  I don't remember a moment when in the first two hours of my shift that I wasn't answering a question, hearing the phone ring, or having to deal with the clerks asking me simple questions that they should already know the answer to by themselves.  The phone, I suspect, was being cranked by some kid that my coworkers told me likes to call the library and ask for the reference desk.  Dummy clerks can't filter ANYTHING.  I know the boss tells them to send any questions to the reference desk.  But I ask you, if someone calls asking something like, "What time does the library close today," there is no reason why a clerk can't answer that.  I'm just glad that the first two hours went by fast.  There's another thing, pseudo supervisor has the bad luck of showing up when no one is at the reference desk, only to have twenty patrons descend on me when she shows up to tell me something, or ask me something.  It's a common problem.  Somehow I survived my shift to live and tell you this... well, write about it.

I rushed to TheGirl's place after work.  Mainly because I really just needed to escape after this week's shift.  As the time grows closer to the big fundraiser at San Marino the pressure grows to finish my projects for said fundraiser.  This is why TheGirl's watermelon martini really hit the stop tonight.  I went and bought some Mediterranean food, went over to her place, and ate a great meal.  TheGirl mixed me two of these powerful drinks.  The last time we had them was in Big Sur, and the both of us were feeling REALLY good.  We also had sex for the last time that night.  TheGirl, for her part, was feeling reminiscent of the past when she made the drinks for us.  She said to me, "I remember the last time we had these," and continued that to say that we really got fucked up.  What she didn't say, but was known to the both of us, was that it was the last time were were intimate.  I'm not going to lie, I do miss us being intimate.  But I'm not going to go back there.

Thu Sept 3, Thursdays are my longest day of the week.  I start work at 10am and work until 10pm.  There should be some sort of law that doesn't allow that, and I'm pretty sure there is such a law.  But.. but, Herr either hasn't heard of that law or just chooses to ignore it.  I'm 100% sure that she chooses to ignore it.  Otherwise she would not have even asked me to work after my route shift.  She isn't right, in any way.  She's not pure evil.  I've known pure evil only a few times in my life, and she is not anywhere near that.  However, she comes close some times.

The route today was quite simply put, an adjustment.  I know that all happens to be is an adjustment of two hours.  However, something like two hours can really change things a lot.  To begin with, I have a set routine that I have honed over the last few years that I have been driving.  It's not set in stone, by any means.  But, I do rely on knowing where I was the last time I did the route to keep me centered on where I should be at any given moment on the route.  Today, stupid Herr found me helping the reference crew with their iPads.  Her response was to tell me, "It's ten o'clock."  I know she meant that to mean that I was under the clock.  But of course she failed to notice I had arrived five minutes early to my shift, because she was late to her shift.  Consequently, when I was helping my clueless reference coworkers on how to deal with an iPad that had a serious case around them, I didn't think that I was over some sort of imaginary time line.  Mainly because I was already heaping my reference crew at least two minutes before 10am.  But to Herr, who was LATE, it somehow meant that I was not doing my job.  Hey, Herr.. go fuck yourself.

I started my shift with the fresh sting of Herr scolding me.  That made me just slow down to the point that I was crawling through my shift.  Still, there is always something on my shift that is something extra than the other drivers.  Today it was delivering the balance of some dumb order that one of the branches made for seventy chairs.  Fucking seventy chairs!  A couple of weeks ago I took twenty-five chairs, and today I took the balance.  The chairs were heavy, and it was hard to take them up the slight incline that leads from the sidewalk to the library entrance.  The branch manager just watched me as I struggled to keep the door open while bringing up the chairs.  Thankfully, a young lady, teenage, came up to the door as she was walking by the library and held the door open for me.

I had lunch late today, because I didn't want to eat lunch after my first branch, but the second branch had a full parking lot, so I parked on the side wall that is often used as a parking spot by the firemen that work next door.  I ended up eating lunch at a Brand, where I never take a lunch.  But, it was convenient.  Also, it was nice.  I think my coworker Ani is so fucking sexy.  I'm not sure I'm man enough to please her, but I would certainly try to do so.  I know she's not, shall we say, a slight girl.  But damn if she doesn't give me a hard-on.  I would very much like to be intimate with her.  I'm sure she would rock my world.  And dammit, I would do my best to rock her world.

I finished up the rest of my route without incident.  I heated up my dinner and went to my car to eat.  I didn't want to be at the library while I ate.  I rather be alone.  Dinner consisted of last night's leftovers.  TheGirl insisted that I take her leftovers home with me, because she's on a diet.  I gladly took them home, since I knew I would need two meals today.  Dinner hit the spot.  Work, as per usual, was crap.  I checked out an iPad to a patron at 9:15pm, and that was the last patron I helped tonight.  It is kinda nice to make some "easy money," but it was also difficult to deal with such a long day.  All these hours on one day and yet somehow I'm still working every day and don't have a day off.

Fri Sept 4, I was a little frightened to work with Mala, as my buddy named her.  I've heard my coworkers that work for her say that she can be pretty tough to deal with.  Maybe it's because it's the first time we've worked together, but I found that she was on her best behavior.  So was I.  It was dead quiet at the branch though.  I mean I helped only about a half dozen patrons before leaving to my other gig today.  I think I must have done an OK job today, since Mala did ask me when I was available.  I'll have to make myself somewhat available, but also not too available, because Herr already warned me about taking more hours.  Herr is full of shit though.  These extra hours may make it look like I'm getting a lot of hours, but all these hours are going away in October.  So, I'm feasting on hours right now, knowing that come next month I won't have these hours.  It was different working in such tight quarters with the boss five feet behind you at all times.  It's strange that it was just the two of us that worked today.  Mala said that she could not have opened the branch if I hadn't come and covered a shift.  Mainly because there needs to be two people in the building.  Glad I could help, and make a few bucks.

Job two today was just a couple of miles away from job one.  Today I worked at two Glendale branches.  I think it's the first time I've worked two branch locations on the same day.  Tuesday I worked a branch and then central, which isn't too different.  But these are two branches I've never worked, so it felt different to me.  Casa was much like Adams, quiet.  It was busier than Adams, but most of the people where chilling, reading a book, studying, or using the computers.  The four hours went by fairly slow.  On my way to Casa I had to quickly get something to eat.  I bought a burger and ate it as I drove.  But next time I won't do that.  I ended up arriving early to Casa and sat in my car for about ten minutes while I waited to go into work.  The shift itself was uneventful.  The last hour we took out legos so the kids could play.  There were about five kids, and I ended up playing more than they did.  There was a girl, who I think was a nanny, watching me play with the Lincoln logs.  She was cute.  Just before closing a really curvy girl showed up, and the other driver and I gave each other the "knowing nod" to confirm to each other that we had checked her out.  Ha!

Following work I met up with Ani and Emma for some food.  They wanted to go to a bar and get some drinks.  I was so pooped that I didn't feel like drinking too much.  Also, I was thinking about how I didn't want to stay out too late, because I have this thing with my buddy Dane tomorrow.  Early.  This week has taken it out of me.  So the three of us went to a dive bar on Pacific in Glendale.  Wow, what a dump.  In the picture above you can see the lovely back alley where you can go smoke.  Not sure why we had to go outside to smoke, since the inside of the bar smelled smoke as well.  We drank some cheap drinks that didn't really pack a punch.  Which is fine, since I didn't want to get tanked.  After that we met up at Ani's place and the two girls drank a little before Emma suggesting we go play laser tag down the street.  We went and it was fucking fun.  Somehow I shot everyone at least three times, but somehow I had the lowest score.  Oh well, it was fucking fun.  After that I went home.

Sat Sept 5, Today is the first day off I can remember in a long time.  I had plans to go on a neon art tour tonight.  Before that I was going to hang out with my buddy Dane.  He wanted to go to Santa Monica.  Before we ever got near Santa Monica we went down to Silverlake to get some food.  Dane suggested we get breakfast burritos at a place in Silverlake.  I've been there before for some chilaquiles, which was pretty good, but not the best I've had.  The best are the ones made my my Grandmother.  No one made them the way she did.  Still, the breakfast burrito was good, and filling.

We arrived at Santa Monica after going to a couple of stores in Silverlake.  Dane bought us a pair of sandwiches for lunch, which I thought I would have to buy.  I was thinking we could have something other than the huge sandwiches we usually have when we hang out.  But Dane likes those sandwiches because they're cheap.  I can appreciate that.  I've been down in the dumps.  Santa Monica was nice.  We walked up and down Palisades Park, along Ocean drive.  Eventually getting far enough that I wanted to turn back.  We then ended up at the pier.  We walked a little more south.  If it was up to Dane we would have walked to Venice.  But my legs were dead tired.  This past week has been hard on my legs.  I've been on my feet so long this past week.  I just didn't have the energy to walk that much today.

One of the best things about going out to Santa Monica today was the abundance of pretty girls walking the streets.  Dane and I had a nice time viewing the girls today.  The above photo illustrates some of the best I could capture with my phone today.  Women are an alluring trap though.  All they do is take time away from what is important in life, that is living.  We focus so much energy on them, as men, that we forget they aren't the only beauty in the world.  Our problem is that we view them as the only beauty worth a damn.  Perhaps that's true.  Time has made us key on their bodies in order to continue life.  But I have to say, the great artists that were homosexual serendipitously had it right to not focus their energy on women.  As I said before, they are a time trap.  They are absolutely wonderful, but nothing is 100% anything.  I love TheDesire, not going to lie.  But, the energy I've spent unsuccessfully pursuing her is time I could have used to create art.  Art should not just be my mistress, it should be my wife.

Lunch consisted of a pair of soggy sandwiches bought by Dane.  They are huge, but they are mostly bread.  They don't even come with mayo or mustard.  I mean come on market, how hard is it to add a packet of each?  With a sandwich this big you need it not to be dry.  And it is dry if not for some mayo that we bought at the market.  Gotta have that to moisten it up.  What we didn't need is the ice to melt onto the bad where we had the sandwiches and soak the bread.  So much for dry sandwiches.  Still, the food hit the spot.  We walked around a little more after lunch.  Lunch is usually a sleeping pill to me, so I didn't want to walk so much.  Also, I was just tired.  My legs were tired from Thursday's route.  Still, we walked around until it was getting late.

Lastly, just before sunset I told Dane that I wanted to get a picture of the sunset.  I don't like sunset pictures, but when I'm taking them I want to take the best I can.  That's a given for any picture I take.  But when I took the above picture I wanted to make sure it was right.  I read on a plaque in the park that there was a guy that would come out every day and watch the sun set from a particular spot in Santa Monica.  I have to say, tonight's sunset was pretty.  The ones up in Big Sur might have more of an emotional impact, but tonight's sunset was still absolutely beautiful.  I'm glad I watched it.

Dane asked me to take the streets back to Glendale, rather than the freeway.  I think he wanted this day to last as long as possible.  We only get to do this once a year.  So I'm sure he was thinking he better milk this year's hangout for all that it was worth.  I obliged him, because this thing is something that only comes once a year.  And who knows if this time next year I'm not dead or in a new job.  Best to strike while the iron is hot.  I drove down Santa Monica until we reached Beverly Hills, then I went down Wilshire.  Wilshire is much more interesting than Santa Monica past Beverly Hills.  Dane and I ended up stopping at the La Brea Tar Pits.  It turned out to be our last stop before I dropped him off at Glendale.  We walked around the park.  This city is quite beautiful at night.  But you need a friend to share to explore that beauty.  I think there's something missing when you explore this city alone.

The night ended with me dropping off Dane just at the edge of Griffith park.  He sleeps around there.  It was a good night.  I missed my neon bus tour, but it was worth it.  Not being able to drink while on the tour?  What a crock.  Sure, it cost me fifty-five dollars that I'll never see again.  But it was worth it to hang with my buddy Dane.

Sun Sept 6, I didn't expect too many people to be at the library, because of the holiday weekend.  And sure enough, it was a quiet Sunday.  Not too many questions to ask.  There is this one patron that comes in and always finds something to complain about.  Today she asked if we could turn down the temperature in the building.  Mind you, we can't.  But I don't think I would do it even if we could.  Certainly not at the request of ONE person.  Just stupid.  Thankfully the day went fast.

For some reason my coworker's legs looked really nice to me today.  She's cute, and a country minute away from getting married.  She moved in with her boyfriend last week.  So yeah, it's pretty serious.  Not that I have a chance with her, or any woman, for that matter.  I'm just saying that she looked good today.

Following work I FINALLY went to Disneyland after work.  The last three weeks I've wanted to go, but something always prevents me.  Last week it was the heat.  But, today I made it down there.  I wanted to eat a flatbread pizza from the Village Haus.  It was good, and definitely something I could have again.  I didn't think it would fill me up, but it hit the spot.  I almost went and bought a hot dog, but, I never got the chance.  By the time I was leaving I noticed that I had forgotten to get a hot dog.  Oh well, next time.  What I didn't' forget was to drink.  I went to my usual spot, but that place was packed.  There was a line outside for the bar at Carthay Circle.  Ah, no.  There are plenty of bars on the Disneyland property nowadays.  I went to the hotel and found a spot.  I ordered a gimlet, followed by a Manhattan.  Neither of them gave me a hard kick.  Which is probably for the better.  A pair of women sat next to me.  At first we didn't talk, but then we talked a little.  When they left they said something about me going back to my family.  They thought I was there with my family.  I didn't correct them.  I just said, "Oh yeah, they're in the park."  I went back into the park and went on the Jungle Cruise.  Then I went to get a Dole whip, which lead me to visit the Tiki Room.  When I got out I got caught up in the river of people leaving Fantasmic, and flooding Main Street.  It was crazy.  But, a good time was had.

Mon Sept 7, Resting.  Today is my day of rest.  I tried to do little today, and I was able to do just that.  Nothing.  I don't know when my next day off is going to be, so I thought to myself how I wanted to take advantage of this day to prepare for the job marathon to come.

Tue Sept 8, Today was another long day.  I started out going into San Marino to finish up a couple of things.  I was only able to stay there for a couple of hours, despite having so many things to do.  I had to rush out, get some food and get ready for job two, Snow's branch.  I had some food on the way, because the only food I have in the house is mac & cheese.  My aunt made mac & cheese, and that's it.  Always with the single side dish.  Never an entree.  Fucking bullshit.  I caught some fast food and went to the branch.

The shift started out hectic, because the IT guy was installing new computers.  But of course he does it near the time we open, so when we open he's still working on one computer.  That means we only have one computer to work with when we open.  The librarian, and the page I was working with took turns with me doing a round robin thing to help the patrons and using the computer.  I tells ya, these IT guys have it easy here.  Anyway, of course he finishes and the crowds of patrons die down.  The rest of the shift was pretty uneventful.  It was mostly quiet.  I bought some more fast food and wolfed it down.

I arrived at Central tired, but ready.  And I found that I was going to be on the computer desk the rest of the night.  Nice.  That is where I wrote this entry.  Good times!  Of course I still have to deal with idiot patrons.  Oh, and then Herr called a few minutes ago to ask if the computers were full.  Yes, there are a lot of people still here.  I was planning on setting the computers to cut off at 9:30, but then rethought it.  But now I think I should block everyone from using them until closing.

Wed Sept 9, Work today was all about printing.  I was in the basement most of the morning.  As we near the big date in October I will be spending a lot of time in the basement printing all the things that need to be printed.

Work was work.  I honestly can't remember any one thing that stood out above the rest of my shift.  All I know is that I was looking forward to getting out of town.

On my way home I noticed a rainbow in the distance.  Of course I had to take a picture of the rainbow.  It's not every day you see one.

TheGirl's birthday is today.  I bought her a print of a photo I took back in 2012 when we went camping.  The lake where we stayed is a place she has gone since she was a child.  There are some good memories there for her, but of course some bad memories associated with that place for me.  But, of course this is about her.  So, I bought her a print of the photo above to celebrate her birthday.  We had dinner at her place, the nearly almost usual banana-roni and cheese (as Chan named it) along with chicken from Trader Joe's and a salad.  Good food.  I gave TheGirl her gift, and she liked it.  We still have to get her a frame for the print, but that will come soon.

Thu Sept 10, Today was hot.  So hot I could barely think.  I had a headache all day because of the heat.  I show up to work and I'm confronted with a lot of bins (pictured above).  There were so many bins that I didn't actually get all of them, and I had to triple stack some of the bins that did make it on to the van.  I knew today was going to be a challenge, certainly because of the heat.  But I was also out of sorts.  Last night I slept, but I think it was a restless sleep, because this morning I woke up very tired.  I kept chugging, despite the fact that every time I would turn my head it hurt.  Having to deliver so many books was a challenge.  I've never had to triple stack the bins, but I did today.

I barely made it to lunch today.  I really needed to just rest, but lunch was a good idea as well.  I had lunch at Brand, which is kinda late on the route.  Still, it afforded me a chance to talk to Ani.  The above sketch is an example of how I would like to pose Ani if she let me photograph her in the nude.  Lunch was good, but it also hit hard.  My energy level fell after lunch, and never recovered.

I'm not entirely sure why my buddy Dane sent the series of texts above.  It could just be that he was sick of the hot library.  However, since there is no tone to text I can only take the words on their own, and the words do seem to come off as annoyed that we're not hanging out Saturday.  We hung out all day last week.  I told him that my schedule was going to change a lot, and that I would likely see him less.  Probably Saturdays, but not every Saturday.  But of course somehow I'm the villain.  I'll see how he treats me on Saturday.  I like Dane as my friend, but life has taught me never to get too attached to anyone.  They'll just walk away.  They will go away, and it's best not to be too brokenhearted when they leave.  If this marks the end of our friendship I'll be sadden, but certainly I'm not going to cry about this.

I was changing my pants in my car when I received a call from Herr.  She told me that they had decided to close the library due to the heat, and having no computers or phones.  She wanted to know if I wanted to come back and work the hour from 7pm to 8pm.  Nope, I said.  She said, "Then see you Saturday."  I drove home and took a picture of the sunset.  After getting home I ate and then finally had the drink I so needed today.  My headache was cured by a nice bit of whiskey.  Thank you, whiskey.

Fri Sept 11, I usually don't work on Fridays at San Marino, but the time is getting close to the big fundraiser in October, and there's still a lot to get done.  Today I started my day at San Marino mounting posters into frames.  Not a bad little job.  I finished all the framing in about three hours.  I then bolted out of there, and went to get something to eat before starting up again at Grandview.

Grandview was fine.  The damn A/C turned off at 5pm, despite the fact that we don't close until 6pm.  The last hour was a bit hot, to say the least.  Not as hot as Central was yesterday, but still, hot.  The shift itself was calm.  Nothing crazy happened, just work.  I worked with Shay, which my buddy should be working with.  But somehow we are working with the girl we are not interested in.

Speaking of Snow, she gave me a gift from her Florida trip (shown above).  She warned me that she couldn't find anything with Donald Duck on it at WDW.  I knew this, because in general Disney doesn't have many Donald Duck items.  Must say, it was nice of her to check.  Now, before this whole hours thing I felt like I wanted to give her a gift as well.  I've gone to Disneyland a couple of times in the last month and yet have not had the time to find her something.  Also, no one can tell me who her favorite character is.  I don't want to ask her, because it will tip her off to my intentions.  Also, when she went off on her trip I felt different feelings towards her.  Since then I've gotten good and drunk.  In that drunken state I told myself that I needed to not think about Snow, or TheDesire, or any woman as some sort of personal validation.  And since then I have thought long and hard.  I don't have a chance with any woman.

Sat Sept 12, I don't think I've ever had to work under hotter conditions inside the library as the ones I had to work in today.  It's was fucking hot.  The A/C is broken.  Has been broken for days.  But, of course they're "working on it."  Nothing actually gets fixed around here, except the employees.  For the first two hours Herr had me on the outside table.  It wasn't logical for me to be out there, but I didn't question it.  Mainly because being inside was like being inside an oven.  Outside it was hot, but actually bearable.  There was even a breeze.  It wasn't cool, but it was certainly better than being inside the stuffy library.  Alas, my time outside would not last forever.  The rest of my day I stood at the circulation desk.  I had been scheduled to work four hours on the upstairs desk, but because the second floor was so hot they didn't allow people upstairs, I was relegated to the circulation desk.  Lucky me.  I don't honestly know how I survived today.  I heard a rumor today that the library might close at 2pm.  Of course it neared 2pm and nothing was happening.  It passed 2pm and I was still stuck at the circulation desk.  My hopes that the damn Saturday manager would come to her senses and close the library early were dashed when 2pm came and went without a peep.

The story going around Thursday and today is that Maleficent wasn't answering her phone.  I think that's fucking shitty of her.  Her job, like it or not, is a 24 hour job.  Yes, most days she leaves and she doesn't have to worry about the goings on at the library.  But when events like this week happen, where we are sweltering and nearly passing out, she needs to be available for consultation.  She is the boss, this whole building and everyone in it is her responsibility.  Not being available at all shows her lack of understanding, compassion, and just overall shittiness of her abilities to do the job.  The second floor was said to be ninety-five degrees today. 

After the other night's exchange with Dane I wondered how things would go when I saw him today.  I sent him a text earlier today, and then saw him when I was outside.  He seemed to have calmed down from his previous night's statements.

I went out for drinks with the coworkers, including Vagabundo and Emma.  It was Emma's idea.  She wanted to get smashed for her birthday, which was earlier this week.  I would have joined her, but I had plans with TheGirl early Sunday morning.  We are going to have breakfast at Disneyland.  Much like we did a little while back.  My plan was to have a cocktail, maybe two, but not get anywhere near smashed.  And of course I didn't.  I was tempted, but no.  I didn't want to be a zombie.  However, I still had to navigate through tonight.  We went to on place, then to another bar.  The second bar was more like a restaurant that had a bar.  They had samba dancers.  Two pretty ones.  The little one's body was NICE.  However, I didn't want to be out too late.  Emma kept on saying I should drink more.  I didn't.  And come 10:30 Vagabundo and I left.  It was a good time, but I was being the responsible one tonight.  Not like last time.  I know I set precedence by being the total lush last time, but I can also be the responsible one. 

Sun Sept 13, Disneyland breakfast with TheGirl this morning before work was nice.  We did this last month, and she liked it so much that she wanted to go today.  When I arrived at her place I initially got out of the car and started to go into her place, since I have the key.  But something stopped me from going in.  I texted TheGirl and she didn't say, "come in," she said that she would be right out.  I stopped in my tracks and went back to my car.  She had a visitor, TheChisel.  She called him, "Her loser friend."  But of course I argue that if he's such a loser then why let him into your house?  He stays there, as far as I know, every weekend.  Yeah, that's not right.  But then again, TheGirl has never been "all right."

Once TheGirl came out of her place and we were on our merry way to Disneyland.  I wanted to get there at 8am, but of course she wanted to sleep in and arrive at 9am.  Which we did.  The timing would have been better at 8am, because after finishing up breakfast we only had about forty minutes to get on one ride.  Both the Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain have halloween overlays, which make them more fun to ride this time of year.  TheGirl picked the mansion, but when we got there the attraction was closed.  That pretty much meant we didn't have time to run to Space Mountain and wait in line.  The wait time was something like forty-five minutes.  That would put us way past our curfew at that point.  So, we went on Pirates.  Then we left the park.  I wanted to get something for Snow, but there was no time.  There's never enough time.

It was hot out today, and because of that the library was packed.  Some people around the neighborhood also had power outages.  It was kinda quiet, but as I said it was packed.  No big report on work tonight.  It was just what it was... work.

My buddy was texting me about wanting to tell me something about work, but also wanting to hand me the pie he bought me while he went up to SLO and Cambria.  Also, because of our new schedules it's become more difficult to coordinate hanging out.  We've hung out, but not as before with him coming over to my house.  Now it's more of a hang with other people.  Which is great as well, but doesn't allow us the time to analyze everything.  Tonight we figure we'd kill two birds with one stone and get some dinner and he could drop off the pie.  My buddy asked where we should go eat.  I quickly looked on my bookmarks of restaurants and decided on a place close to my house, Public School.  The food looks good in pictures.  It's so close that I told my buddy that we should just walk over there.  Also, I wanted to do that so that if I drank enough and was tipsy that I could make it home safe.  My buddy ordered a burger, which he said was really good.  I ordered fish & chips, which I will also report were really good.  Not the best I've ever had, but really good.  I'd definitely go back again.  After dinner, my buddy and I talked for a bit, but he didn't stay late because he and I had work the next day.

Mon Sept 14, Mondays I'm now exclusively at San Marino.  No more going from SM to Glendale.  Because of that I get to work on my projects all day, without much interruption.  If they ever made me a full timer at SM this is what it would be like.  Alas, they won't make me full time.  Their loss.  While I was at work I checked my iPhone to see that my other job had posted some idiotic post about being closed yesterday.  The post says to check on Monday.  I checked, they didn't mention anything on Monday about being open at all.  Fucking idiot job.

I worked and worked today.  Pseudo supervisor and a guy from administration and I went to lunch together today.  We went to some place that purports to be some sort of authentic Italian sandwich shop.  Well, nothing could be further from the truth.  I don't think French fries covered with bacon, green onions and cheese is authentic Italian.  Anyway, I ordered the Italian sausage.. which was good, but not great.  My coworkers weren't that enthusiastic about their sandwiches.  I can't say I was either, but I was hungry.  Both of my coworkers said that they would not be back.  Yeah, neither will I be back.

The rest of my day was full of work.  I have to say, that I do more work when pseudo supervisor isn't around.

These days I get off work early on Mondays, but I still visit TheGirl after work.  Getting off at 6pm on Mondays is good, because it affords me a chance to eat dinner at a reasonable time.  In the past I would not eat dinner until after my visit with TheGirl.  Which would mean I would be eating at around 10pm.  The last couple of weeks I've gone to Popeye's to get some dinner.  I drive to TheGirl's general neighborhood instead of eating near work, because of the traffic.  It's somehow unusually light on Monday nights.  But even if it isn't, I have plenty of time to get to Burbank and get some food, and then go to her place for a visit with Chan.  She also gave me a key to the place, which means I don't have to wait in the car.  Tonight she said that I should go into her place and make myself at home.  I ate, and then drove down to her place.  I waited for about twenty minutes, which was fine.  She arrived and we had our visit.  She asked me how long I had been waiting and I told her twenty minutes.  She said, "What?"  I told her how I get off work earlier and the whole thing about being able to eat dinner.  I told her it was fine, I needed to digest.

Tue Sept 15, This morning's commute was a bitch.  It took me an hour and a half to get to San Marino this morning.  It wasn't even raining that hard.  I've had to drive in a harder rain.  But, I rather go slow on the freeway than deal with dummies that drive too fucking fast when it rains.

I worked in San Marino most of the day, from 9am to 5pm.  In that time I was busy creating ads for the upcoming fundraiser.  This Friday is the big deadline.  Also, we're just about three weeks from the actual event.  Things are going to get hairy.  Most people end their day at 5pm and go home.  Not me.

Job two was still hot, but at least it wasn't as hot as it has been the last few days.  Still, it was chill because Herr scheduled me for one hour upstairs, but it turned into two hours.  It was quiet, thankfully.  Only a couple of dummy patrons showed up.

Wed Sept 16, I forgot to mention that I booked a hotel for October 11th in San Simeon.  It's the day after the big fundraiser in San Marino.  After going full out I decided I needed to get away.  My buddy sent me a deal from one of those online social thingies that give you discounts.  I received the same email and thought about booking the trip.  But I think him sending it to me, and him reminding me that life is short, made me want to pull the trigger.  I bought the voucher yesterday, but didn't book the trip until this morning.  I called to make the reservation, and thankfully they had one opening for Oct. 11th.  If I didn't get that day my whole plan would have been shot.  I guess I could have gone the next weekend, but the whole idea was to get out of Dodge the day after all this to really decompress.  Thankfully I did get a room.  I can't wait.  I haven't really done any traveling this year, and my big trip isn't until the end of November.  That's nearly a year since my last trip.  Not good.  I need to get away more often.  Damn bills.

There is a picture of TheDesire that I printed using the Beast in the basement a few months ago.  It's a great photograph of TheDesire.  I display it on my desk.  More than once a person has come in, noticed the photograph, and asked if TheDesire is my girlfriend.  The same happened today.  I always answer no.  What I then say, in my mind, is, "I wish."  Yeah, I have it bad for TheDesire.  She is the loveliest woman I have met.  If only she would give me a chance.

Work was go, go, go today.  The time of the big fundraiser is getting near.  The tension is ramping up.  The good thing is I don't worry about things any more.  I know pseudo supervisor is worried.  I'm not worried, because I don't worry about many things.

My time on the desk was pretty chill.  Actually, for all the tension that is in the air, today was light in terms of work.  I have to say that the patrons stayed away from me today.  Which is just how I like it.

TheGirl asked me where I wanted to eat tonight.  I went to my bookmarked restaurants around her place, and picked a place that I thought might be good.  I ordered a Manhattan, which was not good.  For dinner I ordered come chicken and waffle sliders.  I still don't have any idea who put these two things together, but certainly they are now married to each other.

TheGirl is now married to her dog, Cheyenne.  if it was up to her she would take it everywhere she goes.  she has been to this restaurant before, for "drinks," she said to me.  I don't give a damn who she came here with.  Our lives don't revolve around each other.  I'm sure that she wonders where I am on a Friday, or Saturday, night.  It's none of her business any more.  She gave up that right when she broke up with me.  I was always loyal to her.  Up until the moment she told me she slept with TheChisel.  After that moment she was no longer trustworthy.  After that moment she went from being the love of my life, to just that girl that showed me things I never experienced before.  I still love TheGirl, but I am more than a country mile away from being in love with her.  That feeling is so far away I can't actually remember how it was to feel that way towards her.  Every morning I drive by the metro platform where I pleated with the Universe to bring her back to me.  The place where I poured my heart out.  That place feels far away now that I'm just her friend.  I envisioned a moment far in the future where I would be with the girl as we both grew old.  She made her choice.  I won't be by her side when she is older.  I hope that I will have TheDesire by my side.  I hope that I can call TheDesire my one true love.  I hope that one day TheGirl will see me with TheDesire, family in tow, and know that she made the biggest mistake in her life letting me go.  No dessert can ever make up for knowing that you fucked up royally.

Thu Sept 17, Happy Birthday to me.  Wow, forty-four years old.  I know I'm tired most days, but who wouldn't be working the hours I work.  However, I don't feel forty-four.  Sometimes I feel older, it's true.  However, I think that I'm in pretty good shape for someone my age.  Could I improve?  Sure.  I must.  I still have this notion that I'll go hiking on my day off and get back in shape.  Ha, now I just have to have a day off.

Today's route was about overcoming obstacles.  First obstacle was at Pasadena, but I'll talk about that in the next paragraph.  When I came back from Pasadena I had to go to city hall.  But the streets around city hall where I normally park were blocked off (pictured above).  There were film crews getting ready to shoot a TV show, or something.  The old Glendale police department is still used by a TV show to represent the police station on the show.  Every once in a while the whole area around city hall becomes one big no, you can't park here sign.  I ended up parking down the street.  And then I didn't even get to see TreasuryGirl.  Dammit, and dammit!

Here's where I step back to Pasadena.  When I arrived the dock area is usually wide open.  Because not only is the other van not there, no one is there.  However, today some idiot decided to park his car in the dock.  Right smack in the middle.  I had to do some maneuvering to get the van into the space left.  I have no idea who the driver of the car happens to be, but of course he can't park reasonable.  Fuck him!  When I arrived at Central I pull up and there was a bunch of city cars in the front.  One of them in particular is the above photo, the one on the right.  That thing was parked there when I arrived in the morning to start work, and when I got back from Pasadena at near noon.  This one IT guy drives the car.  I'm not sure why he had to leave the car out in front nearly all day.  Now I say nearly all day because when I returned from the route the damn car was still there.  Fucking idiots.

The route today was kinda easy today, all things considered.  I didn't have a huge amount of books, and it wasn't super hot today.  At one point I was about an hour ahead of schedule.  I killed some time and finished just a few minutes early.  But then, my day isn't over after my route on Thursdays.

I had dinner in my car.  I had a belt of whiskey, because I have two hours for dinner.  TheGirl gave me a bottle for my birthday, and I still had it in my car.  I opened it up, had a couple of shots, and took a nap.  I didn't even really catch a buzz.  Working these late hours is pretty pointless.  There isn't much to do, unless one of the full timers doesn't want to do anything and gives us their work.  Which is what happens every time.  Fucking lazy bastards.  My coworker and I finished up the cart of check-ins quickly.  I then just spent the rest of the night surfing the web.  I tried to get free tickets to the Broad museum, with no luck.  I'll try again later.

Fri Sept 18, Once again I'm double dipping.  I honestly thought that my days of working both jobs were in the past.  But, it would seem I was completely wrong about that.  I worked at SM this morning, finishing up some ads for the fundraiser booklet.  I was only at SM for three hours, but I was already tired by the time I left.  I went and bought some lunch at McD's.  For some reason my local McD's has food that tastes like something.  The McD's I went to today had completely flavorless food.  I did get to have a hash brown for lunch, since they are now serving breakfast all day.  However, even that didn't taste like anything.  Fucking bullshit!

Work was work.  Nothing new there.  Shay did tell me a story about Snow snapping at her and, as Shay put it, "Shitting on her."  The story involved Shay being told to make a sign for the parking lot saying something to the effect that these spots are for patrons only.  Shay wanted to print it out, but the stupid printer wasn't printing.  For some reason the computers just wouldn't connect to the printer.  Shay then made the sign by writing it out.  Snow, seeing his, ripped the sign down and told Shay that there is never to be handwritten signs.  Shay told her that she wrote the sign out only because the computers weren't working with the printer.  Snow, not believing Shay, went to the computer and tried to print something.  After failing she didn't say anything more to Shay, but she also didn't apologize.  Later Snow made a remark that made Shay feel bad.  This story adds more evidence to my theory that Snow hides a darker side behind that nice veneer.  No one could be THAT nice.  Also, I always felt that her niceness was forced.  It never felt as if Snow was being nice to be nice.  I have felt for a while that the root of her niceness is a quest for approval.

My coworker H sent me a text saying that she had two tickets to see the movie Aladdin at the El Capitan theater in Hollywood for tonight.  She was leaving for San Francisco tonight, and couldn't make the movie.  I told her I would love to have the tickets.  I figured I could find someone to go with me.  But actually my one, two, choices were busy or out of town.  Choice one being TheGirl, and choice two being TheDesire.  With work over, and me only having an hour to get over to Hollywood during rush hour, I bolted.  I got stuck in traffic on Lankershim blvd.  Behind me was a guy playing with his hair.  From the looks of it he had hair plugs.  The guy refused to stop playing with his peach fuzz.  What a total dope.

I barely made it to the theater on time, no thanks to the traffic.  Somehow I made it, but then there was getting the tickets.  For some reason no one could just help me get the tickets.  Finally I got the tickets and I went in.  I bought a hot dog, a soda, and ran into the theater.  The movie still stands up.  I'm glad I took my coworker's ticket to have some fun.

Sat Sept 19, As I write this I just came to the realization that I have only had one meal today, breakfast.  My aunt made me breakfast this morning, but since then I haven't had anything to eat.  I thought about going to get some fast food after work tonight, but you know, it wasn't something that appealed to me.

Work was without much drama today.  Mainly because Herr wasn't at work today.  When she's not around I believe we do better work.  At least I do.  When I walked into circulation I wasn't expecting what I saw.  Thursday I heard that they were going to install some A/C units so that they could cool down circulation.  Today I walked in and realized this place is just one big series of fuck-ups and dumb ideas.  These "portable" A/C units are idiotic.  As soon as I saw them I was cracking up.  I laughed loud.  The fucking heat coming off them completely offsets the cool air that is also coming from them.  This is some sort of sick job, because not having these things is as good as having them.  The idiots I work with will claim that the machines are "working" because the room is cooler.  Hey, fucking dopes.. the room is cooler because it's COOLER OUTSIDE!  No one will admit that fact.  The good thing is I don't have to really deal with the heat most days.  I'll drive every other week.  The days I don't drive on Tuesdays I won't be in the building until nighttime.  On Thursdays I'll be on my route, and not return to the sauna until night time.  These poor suckers have to deal with it on a near daily basis.  I love that these fucking machines don't work.  They only make this place all the more absurd.

Sun Sept 20, I show up to work and I find that not only is there a substitute for T, but there's a substitute for me as well.  T had to deal with the Opera group today, so she was working.  But, she wasn't going to be at the "office."  I saw in the weekly email that someone would come in for T.  What I missed was that someone was coming in for me.  That was OK by me.  I went to my office and worked on stuff there.  Truthfully there wasn't much to work on.  For the most part I can't do much until tomorrow, because Pseudo supervisor has to OK a lot of things.  I did what I could do today.  One of the things I had to do today was print stuff.

When I was in the basement printing and waiting I decided to play some games on my phone.  Well, for reason stupid new version of Angry Birds needs to be connected to the internet.  Great!  So, any time I'm not connected to the internet this fucking app won't play.  Just great.  What were they thinking?  I'm thinking perhaps I need to delete Angry Birds 2.

I suspect I will never understand the patrons that don't want to leave when told that the library is closing.  Don't they have somewhere better to be?  Maybe patrons that are studying don't want to stoop.  But the other patrons, like the one above, didn't seem to want to leave.  I practically had to push these two out.  At the end of the work day we just want to go.  This lady was still in the bathroom five minutes after we were done.  After I threw her out she sat in the patio area.  The patrons can't stay there, because we lock up the patio area as well.

It's hard to see in the picture, but this woman has a nice figure.  I've been trying to get some traction with her for the last four years.  She has the curves, for sure.  But, she's also super flakey, and religious.  Two terrible things to be.  She was at the library today, and yeah, she looked good.  I've thrown so many invites at her throughout the years, with no luck.  I wish I knew what I was doing wrong when it comes to trying to court these women.  Then again, my fat belly sure isn't attractive.

Mon Sept 21, Today was the deadline for the ads for the big fundraiser's booklet.  Or was it.  Pseudo supervisor told me it was today, and I worked hard to get everything done by today.  But, the real deadline is more like a week from now.  That's OK, at least now I can work on other projects.  Pseudo supervisor had to leave early today to go with her sister to cancer treatment.  I didn't know her sister had cancer until she said "radiation treatment."  Dang.  All this and her sister is ill.  Not easy.

When she left I did take it upon myself to install the big banner outside.  When I went upstairs tot he roof I found a city worker already there putting up another banner.  Fuck!  If I had moved when I first realized the banner had arrived I could have had our banner in the prime center spot.  As it is I had to install the banner to the right of the smaller author series banner, which I also made.  Womp, womb.  Still, I had to do it today since I won't be at San Marino tomorrow, because I'm driving at Glendale.

Speaking of Glendale, Snow went out an email saying there were some changes coming to the schedule.  Instead of me explaining it, here it is word for word.  The only thing I changed was her name.

Hello,

Hello, At the Thursday manager's meeting, I received the Casa and Grandview budgets for the year.  The figure was less that I was expecting and I have been working on scheduling scenarios.  I will be inputting the schedule today, but just received the When to Work email announcing that the schedule has already been published.  I will send each of you a confirmation when I have added your shifts.
Thank you and many apologies,

Snow

I went online to check if the schedule was posted.  Some of it is.  Apparently I will still be working on Fridays.  Though, because of the San Marino fundraiser and a scheduled trip to Disneyland with TheGirl, I will have to miss two Fridays in a row.  I talked to my buddy tonight and he may be able to cover one or both.  Mainly because I can do him a solid and take one of this driving Tuesdays so that he doesn't go over his hours.  I honestly didn't expect to continue working at the branches in October.  I was actually looking forward to having some time to myself.  I'm waiting for Snow to confirm what I see in order to tell her I can't make it Oct 9th and 16th.

Tue Sept 22, This is the first Tuesday I've driven under the new schedule, despite the fact that my buddy and I have officially been driving on Tuesdays since September 1st.  It also marked the return of TheDesire.  I came in, hoping to see her, but I didn't.  Even when I came back from Pasadena I didn't see her.  More on that later.  The route was whatever.

One thing that I didn't expect was the return of Misa (shown above).  She's been out for three weeks, or so.  It was good to see her back.  She was adjusting to her first day back, and working at one of the branches.

The city "installed" two A/C units in the middle of circulation.  These things are huge, as you can see in the picture.  Yes, they do throw out a lot of cool air.  However, they also throw out an equal amount of hot air.  Essentially the units both cool and heat the air.  They are neutral in that sense, but not really.  I think they throw out just a tiny bit more heat than cool air.  Couple that with the fact that the air is already warm and you get a room that is cooler only because the temperatures are much cooler.  This is the idiocy of this place.  These units need to be placed somewhere else, where the warm air doesn't mix with the cool air.  This is why these units are housed next to the vents.  There's no logical sense in dropping two units like these into the middle of a room without venting their heat vents.  I tell you, this is so typical of how much these idiots don't make sense.

Piney's first day back was today, and I got to see her when I returned from Pasadena.  But seeing her tonight at circulation was like seeing her for the first time.  I was by one of the big A/C units when I turned towards the sorting area.  In a moment she turned the corner and there was... as wonderful as life itself.  I saw her face light up.  I'm pretty sure she likes me, but isn't willing to act on it.  That face said it all to me.  I wanted to kiss her there and then.  All the feelings I have for her rushed to my head at that moment.  I could hardly contain myself as I asked her how her trip was.  She is a delight.

Wed Sept 23, My reliable car has now reached 90,000 miles, in just over four years of driving.  I averaged about 22,000 miles a year, give or take.  Apparently that's a lot of miles.  It sure doesn't feel like I've driven that much.  Four years has gone by fast.  I don't know where the time has gone.  They've been good miles though.  By this time next year I will definitely be over 100,000 miles.  Crazy.

My San Marino job is in a building that I don't think would win any awards.  The building has some details that seem wrong.  Like the entrance being inside a patio area that apparently no one can find.  Where people do gravitate is the employee entrance in the "back" of the building.  I have no seen a less inviting place than that back area.  I don't know how anyone can walk back there and think that this area is the main entrance.  Just look at the photo above.  What about that area makes one think, "Oh, that's the entrance."  Buildings like this don't have main doors that look like these.  These are clearly fire doors, designed to keep fires contained.  They are not front doors.  Front doors are usually glass.  Fucking idiots.  The group I saw today went to the doors, and then walked COUNTER clockwise around the building.  If they drove up they should have notice there wasn't a door on the North side of the building.  And what about noticing all the people walking in through the patio gates on the SOUTH side of the building?  Oh fuck, people are just stupid.

Work was work.  The real deadline for the ads is next week.  I know I keep saying it's such and such day only to later say it's another day.  But I think pseudo supervisor wanted to start a fire under me.  Ah, I can do my job without artificial deadlines.  Still, work was work, and I got what I needed to do done in the morning.  On my afternoon shift is something else.  I'm on the reference desk and while I'm on that desk I get almost nothing done.  All I have time for is to answer patron's questions.  Nothing as far as the Foundation goes gets done during those hours.  It's not for lack of trying.  But anytime I start something I can never get more than a few moments in before a patron will come up and ask me a question.

Dinner with TheGirl was needed today.  It has already been a long week, and I don't have a weekend any more.  TheGirl was having a long week as well.  She has work drama.  Her bank was bought out by another bank that has told them they will likely make less money next year.  The boss at the bank has found a way to skirt this.  He has talked to another bank into taking the whole office.  It seems as though the other bank is willing to hire them all.  However, there's a catch.  TheGirl and everyone in the office have to resign from their current jobs and then apply for their jobs at the new bank.  And of course there's no certainly in that.  This, as well as being tired of her daily commute, is why TheGirl was in a bad mood tonight.  But it was nothing a margarita couldn't fix.  We went to a Mexican restaurant down the street from her place.  Their food is OK, nothing spectacular.  But, they do serve strong margaritas.  Which is what the doctor ordered.  My enchiladas were just OK.  But, thankfully the margaritas helped the girl feel better.  By the end of the night she was feeling good again. Tomorrow is another day, of course.

Thu Sept 24, There isn't much to say about the route today other than it was hot.  What's really more important is all this talk of work hours.  My buddy is supposedly working nineteen hours at the branches alone.  Couple that with hours on Sunday and Wednesday and he's going over his hours.  Not that they care so much about how many hours he's working, but more about the fact that if he goes over forty hours in a week's time they have to pay him, or me, overtime.  The city doesn't want to pay overtime.  They want to cut the budget, not have us make more for the same job.  Herr wanted my buddy and then warmed me about my hours.  Of course I'm not working as many hours as my buddy.  My buddy and I have a plan to talk about what we can do about this.  He doesn't want to loose his branch hours.  I don't mind giving up some hours.  If only because I'm tired.  I've been working so many hours.  I'm worn out.

One of the unless A/C units died today.  According to one of the security guards the city bought those things for $5,000 each.  Motherfucker!  I would have thought they had these units in some city warehouse just in case.  If they bought those things they were ripped off.  Then again, I'm sure the way they installed them wasn't kosher either.

I only had one hour for dinner tonight, but I knew that I needed some booze along with some food.  I bought a wrap, and went back to my car to eat it, and to have a couple of good swigs.  I didn't get drunk, just a little tipsy.  I felt nice.  If I had two hours for dinner I would have had more to drink.  But I can't go into work drunk.  I can go in feeling good, but not drunk.

I finished up dinner, drank some water and went into work.  TheDesire was at the reference desk.  I looked to see what my assignment was, and then I went over to talk to her in the couple of minutes I had before going up.  I adore this girl.

What followed was three hours of boredom.  However, I rather deal with that than be downstairs.  At least upstairs I'm left to my own devices.  I can go online and get some stuff done without much interruption.  Certainly the patrons know when to interrupt me.  I help them and get back to what I was doing.

Fri Sept 25, Job one was short today, since I'm also working at job two today.  I came in and did some work on some ads, and then worked on a poster project.  After that I went and got something to eat between jobs.

I was a little early to job two, so I drove down the street and found myself a parking spot.  Thankfully it was in the shade.  Before that I was stuck behind the car above.  The car above was driven by a woman that was picking up her brat kids.  She waved the other cars on the other side of the street to pull up, so she would have room to pick up her idiot children.  Sure enough, the other mother's complied.  Then this mental midget goes nearly to the end of the street and starts to make a three point turn within twenty feet of the fucking intersection.  Dumb, simply dumb.  I don't understand why she can't find a better place to do a three point turn.  Even going to the intersection and doing some sort of U-turn is slightly better than this move.  Fucking moron.  My problem is that where she made the turn is not an appropriate place for that kind of move.  She's obstructing the flow of traffic... meaning me.  She can't be bothered to go around the long way.  Nope, she's gonna make her jackass move in front of me.  Idiot.

I work with an abundance of Armenian women.  My buddy makes the joke that I really have "thing" for Armenian women.  It is true that I have a "thing" for Armenian women.  Talia is half Armenian, half Polish.  TheDesire is Armenian.  I don't know, I guess I just love that dark haired look.  Also, for some reason I happen to be surrounded by Armenian women that have nice curves.  Case in point, my kinda coworker from another branch, who happened to visit the branch I was working today.  She is a real girl.  I really love her thighs.  I suspect the rest of her is as nice.  I think TheDesire is the epitome of Armenian beauty.  She is incredibly beautiful.  My other coworkers will never be as attractive as her, but certainly they make a good run at it.  This particular coworker is simply an attractive girl.  I'm sure she doesn't even realize it, somehow.  Then again, maybe I'm just fucking horny as hell and every girl I see is attractive to me.

TheDesire went on a month long trip to Armenia.  I asked her if she took many photos via text.  She sent me four.  The one above is the best of the bunch.  It's pretty cool, actually.  I like to think that in those little moments that she's taking a picture she's thinking how I would take it.  I wish that her thoughts weren't just of how to compose a photo.

Finally tonight, I show you a photo of the sunset as I drove home on the 101.

Sat Sept 26, I woke up rather early for work today, 8am.  I didn't have to start work until noon, but of course my internal clock woke me up before my alarm did.  I didn't get out of bed until my alarm sounded though.  My aunt left early, because she had plans to visit my Godmother today.  I got out of bed, took my shower, and ate breakfast.  By then it was just past 10am, so I started to watch something online.  Then I thought about how I tried to jerk off last night, but I passed out because I had too much booze in me.  I figure, since my aunt was gone, I could jerk off before work.  I jerked off, cleaned up and got ready to get going to work.  Actually, I still sat around for about ten minutes, not wanting to arrive so early that I have to sit in the car with the A/C running for too long.  Well, I waited way too long.  I left home at 11:20am.  I set myself up, because I was two minutes late for work.  Fuck!  There was an unusual amount of traffic on the 101 East.  There wasn't even an accident.  But for some reason the fucking traffic was slow.  Never did I build up any momentum.  I nearly made it to work on time, but then I had to drive all the way down two levels in the parking structure.  That pretty much assured that I would be late.  Terrible.

Work today was mostly slow, with moments punctuated by total chaos.  After the full timers left that's when it became really hairy.  I had to juggle patrons, patrons with reference questions, and the phones.  Most of the time it was quiet, but when it got crazy it was all out.  I only had a problem with one patron today, and it was towards the end of the day.  It was another situation where a patron is 100% sure they returned a book, but it's still on their account.  Because it was a Pasadena book I couldn't go and check our shelves.  I tired to tell her that, but she was a dope about it, insisting she returned it.  I thought, it couldn't have been missed by TWO check-ins, and told her that she should check at home.  But, she became indignant and took it as some sort of personal attack.  I told her I could only renew the book.  She asked for my name.  I gave it to her, and then placed a hold on the book for myself.  When it comes in the check-in note will say how this patron claimed she returned the book, but of course did not.  Fucking moron.

The last hour also featured working with TheDesire for the first time in over a month.  She's just lovely.  One of my coworker kept on saying that she was going to get married.  One of our other coworkers, Ru, is getting married next month.  Emma kept saying TheDesire was, and then TheDesire said, "Yes, this year."  Which of course is almost over.  But then I said, "Calendar year."  "Yes," said TheDesire.  My heart ached a little at that prospect.  I wish I could win her over.  My buddy O was on the phone with me the other day and he said I need to just kiss TheDesire.  It's certainly been a thought that has bounced around in my mind for a while now.  I'd like to kiss her at the Beethoven concert in less than two weeks, but I don't want to come off as a masher.  Still, I do adore her.  I think we could be good together.  I have certainly learned many lessons over the last few years.

After work I sat outside the library talking to my buddy Dane.  One of my favorite pastimes is to watch the morons that come up to the library after we close and stare inside, or try to open the door, or wonder why the doors aren't opening.  This guy was all three.  He comes up, sees the doors aren't opening and then goes up to the door and tries to push it open.  Not happy with that he begins to knock on the window.  He keeps on saying, "Hello, is there anyone inside?"  Ah, no dummy!  Still not satisfied he then goes to the other side of the door, to get a better view of circulation, and starts to knock on the window again.  Once again she yells out, "Hello?"  Fucking moron.  He turns around and asks no one in particular, "Is the library closed?"  A guy that was sitting a few feet away from Dane and me tells him that yes, the library is closed.  Still not happy the guy turned around and looked inside again.  That was all I could take.  The dummy walked away and all I could do was shake my head.  Why are people so dumb?

Sun Sept 27, Worked felt like it was going to be calm, but then I went upstairs to reset the A/C's chiller.  We often have to do that.  I went up on the roof, and reset the thing.  I heard it rumble for a moment and then it went out.  I tried to reset it again, but nothing happened.  I went to check and sure enough the power had gone out.. again.  I knew what to do, so I went to get the key to the main circuit breaker.  Within a few minutes I had the power back on, and the rest of the work day was kinda chill.  Busy, but chill.

It was during the last hour that my coworker Tina asked if I wanted to meet up with her at Disneyland.  I was planning on going there tonight, so it was good to be able to go with someone else.  I told her I would meet her there, and made my way down there.  I usually take the 5 down there, but with all the construction I figured I would take the 710 to the 91 to the 5.  I made it down there really quick.  I found Tina and we went to get some food.  I was starving.  She bought a corn dog, and I bought a corn dog and an order of fish & chips.  I didn't think I would put a dent into both, but I nearly finished the whole both.  The corn dog really hit the spot, and so did the fish & chips.  I was starving.

What I really wanted to do since the last time I was here with TheGirl was go on the Haunted Mansion.  I finally got on.  The wait time said thirty minutes, but it wasn't that long.  Or at least it didn't feel that long.  It's nice to go to the park alone, because I can do whatever I want.  But, it's also nice to go with someone that loves the park as much as I do.  Tina fits that bill.  It's strange that it has been nearly a year since we've gone to the park together.

I find I'm attracted to Tina, mainly because of her chest.  She has a nice looking pair of boobs.  But it goes beyond that, she's smart and capable.  She seems like she's lived.  We went on the Haunted Mansion after dinner.  Then we went on the rail road, followed by It's a Small World.  Just as we were getting off that ride the fireworks started.  We were able to see some of the fireworks from the Small World boats, but then the rest we watched just outside of the toyshop.

We went on the Jungle Cruise last and then left the park.  We parted ways and I went to my car.  I talked to my buddy on the way home.  It was a long day, but a good one.

Mon Sept 28, Nothing much happened today.  Just worked on more fundraising projects.  It's getting to be end time for this.  In two weeks time I'll be driving back from Cambria.  I can't wait.  On my way out to my car I noticed how nice it was framed by the trees, and the sunset casting a nice glow (pictured above).

Tue Sept 29, This morning I was not supposed to drive, but because of circumstances I drove the route today.  I had worked it out with my buddy that I was going to drive today, but Herr didn't want that.  Still, he made plans based on what I said.  This is why I had to drive today.  I knew that the second Herr saw me and not my buddy driving she would hit the roof.  But, I wanted to delay that roof hitting as much as possible.  On Tuesdays she doesn't show up to work until noon.  I talked to my buddy and we figured that if she didn't see me until 6pm that there wasn't much she could do about it.  As it worked out, that's what happened.

I arrived early to work, as usual.  I saw a pile of books that TheDesire was working on the other day.  I picked up a few and read the first paragraph of each.  The one that caught my mind today was the opening lines from "Lady Chatterley's Lover" (shown above).  The words still resonate to this day.  THAT is one of the signs of a great novel, that it stands the test of time, because it's timeless.

Without even trying I was able to get back to Central after dropping off the Pasadena books with a lot of time to spare.  This gave me a chance to leave the Pasadena books and load the van before Herr showed up for work.  This only delayed the inevitable confrontation until the evening.  Which is how it happened.  But really I wasn't trying to avoid her so early, but it certainly didn't happen on it's own.  I was able to get through city hall stuff easily since I only had one bag for treasury, and there was little traffic on the way back from Pasadena.

I wanted to talk to Snow about the hours situation, but ever time I want to talk to her she's busy dealing with some patron.  Today's patron was a time burglar.  Hence me simply leaving before our talk.  I did email her the most honest email I could write.

There's no talking to Herr, ever.  You can have all the reason and logic in the world on your side, but it can't stand up to her world view that she's right.  I never want to be a person that always thinks they're right.  I don't want to be the opposite, of course, but you know what I mean.  I don't want to be so sure of my position that I never explore the idea that I might be wrong about something.  Gotta have room for that in life.  Herr is absolutely sure of herself.  Which I suppose might be a good quality at times.  But this woman sucks a huge dick when it comes to being a manager.  She's the worst.  I tried to explain about the fact that I drove today instead of my buddy.  But there was no explaining it to her.  She was sure that she never spoke to me about switching.  Ah, then why did she call me last night to verify that I was NOT driving?  Because we had talked about me driving.  Duh!  Whatever.  My idea was to simply dodge and weave as she threw her jabs at me.  I just wanted to survive the round, and that's what I did.

My buddy and I have a joke about how some of the women we work with seem to "prance" around.  It's no joke with TheDesire, she does prance.  Tonight as I was on the circulation desk TheDesire was putting up a "Banned Book week" display.  I was able to talk to her a little, and check out her butt as she put up the display.  My coworker caught me check out her butt as she pranced around.  What a girl.  She's not interested in me.

Shay texted me to say that she was going to go to Disneyland this Sunday.  The short version is that she wants to go, but of course it's not alone.  If I go I will be the third wheel since she's going with a friend.  I'm going to tell my buddy about this, but it's kinda awkward since he likes Shay and I'll be hanging out with her.  My buddy needs to make a move.

Wed Sept 30, Rush, rush, rush was the theme today at San Marino.  The big fundraiser is less than two weeks away.  The work needs to be done.  This means a lot of little detail work before then.  But I barely have enough time to do anything these days, what with my stupid schedule.  I feel bad that I don't have more time for pseudo supervisor.  I'm looking forward to this fundraiser so I can get it over with and start to look at it in the rear view mirror as I drive up to San Simeon.

Dinner with TheGirl was nice.  She has not had a good week at home, and I've been busy like a madman.  Her job is forcing her to clock-in.  She's probably never had to clock-in in her life.  Tonight's dinner was good.  I drank some wine and had a nice little buzz on me.  TheGirl was telling me that her new bank, which bought out her old bank, is just not right.  Clocking in is just one thing she doesn't like.  Losing all her vacation time is another.  She's not happy with this new bank.

And then there's Chan.  That little monkey helps me out so much.  I know Chan is just a stuffed monkey, but he grounds me and makes me laugh when I see his little smile.  Hims always smiling.