How is it already June?  I'm not sure, but that means half of a year has gone by and there is still so much to do in the coming half of this year.  On to June!

Mon May 1, In the above picture I finally went into the building to check out what was going on.  Nothing big, just the festivities of opening the library up again after being closed for nearly two years.  This is where the real shit begins.  The fuckers that administer this place will have their sins catch up to them.  They will pay some day for their incompetence, mismanagement and out and out idiocy.  But for today, they celebrate the opening of this edifice.

And here with have the one desk model of libraries at work.  The guy at the first computer is Ben.  Next to him are some of my other coworkers.  Beside him earlier was Les.  Ben and Les don't work the desk at Central.  Ben has been on the job for about six months.  I want to point this out before I make my next point.  And that is this... I have nine years experience working on circulation desks and a five years working information desks.  So why the fuck wasn't I asked to work today?  My buddy Vagabundo has some extensive experience himself.  But were either of us asked if we could work today?  I would say I feel insulted, but that would mean I care.  I do feel it's a fucking shame that they didn't have either of us, or one of us, work that desk today.  When I went towards the desk to check out what was going on one of my coworkers was in the middle of trying to answer a question.  A patron asked where the author event was.  She didn't know there was even an author event.  I told the patron it was upstairs.  I fucking KNEW! But you know what?  They can eat shit.  This job feeds me, but it isn't here to fulfill me at all.  I know some of these dopes know I can run circles around most of the other workers there.  But will AD ever know that?  No.  All she sees is some dopey driver that doesn't know anything.  Well, then the dopey driver I will be.

As I continued to walk around the library I wandered into the maker space, whatever that is in real life.  It was empty.  I was not shocked.  I was sure this place would be empty and underused.  Why not?  It's a mockery.  This is why I call it the mocker space.  It's such bullshit.  I think this is the equivalent of shaking keys in front of a baby.  It doesn't really accomplish anything other than to distract the baby from what is troubling them.  Well, this library is way troubled with a lack of vision.  It's a fucking mess, and it's possible this room is the epitome just how much of a mess it really is.  I hope they all burn.

One thing you need to find books is the "call" number.  It represents the address of the book.  At the end of stacks there is usually the range of call numbers to help you find where the book you want is placed.  The above picture might show the information but it also sucks dick when it comes to how the information is conveyed.  The way the call numbers are placed in the above picture I honestly don't know if these books are teen books, science fiction books, or teen science fiction books.  This is shit! This is such a piece of shit.  I mean it's not the biggest piece of shit in the building, but it's just another turd on a huge pile of shit.  This is just another example of how no one can do anything right.

There was a lot of padding done to the schedule of things today.  One of the things they scheduled was an author event (as previously stated).  Well, here is the attendance of said author event.  OK, to be fair this wasn't the actual author event, or so I think.  They were talking, but hardly anyone was listening.  I think most of the authors were just talking to each other.  What a fucking mess.

I did a lot of walking around today.  I didn't leave at this time, but I did make my way to the library.  The above photo was taken at 12:47pm and as you can see most of the "dignitaries" had left, and all that was left were a few patrons and balloons.

My assessment of the event is that it was meh.  I didn't see all of it, and certainly I didn't care to see the ribbon cutting, though I did see that.  But truly this was a "let's get this over with" event.

Tue May 2, The above picture is of the side door, which used to be the main door at the library.  Wanna know what one problem with changing a former front door into a side door?  People will still think of it as the main door.  And sure enough, on day one of the library actually being open we have a problem.  Idiot patrons are still thinking this is the main door.  They come up to it, and try to open it.  And when I was loading the van this morning I had to keep reminding people that this is NOT the main entrance.  This is just one example of how the little details weren't thought about.  I now feel that this whole thing is a "we'll make it work somehow" situation.  Where it will be up to us to figure things out.  I already know after one day of loading the van up this way that I will definitely change the way I do this on Thursday.  No way I should be yelling at people from the van that "that's not the entrance!"

The sink in the restrooms is just another example of every little thing wrong in this place.  It's because no one ever thinks ahead.  This place might look nicer than it did before the renovation, but it has a lot of things wrong with it.  Like not having a direct, internal, stairway to the basement.  The one stairway we've been using is the fire escape.  We now have two elevators to go downstairs, but no stairs.  That makes fucking no sense.  Idiots.

I came back from the route and noticed that the bins the Pasadena driver bought this morning have not been touched.  It was 4:13pm and they had not been touched.  I told my buddy that if they didn't do any sorting that he should just leave with what is ready tomorrow and not help these dopes out.

I walked by the slaughter desk and saw that TheDesire was on one knee.  I asked her what was wrong and she told me that her feet were killing her.  I noticed these dummies never planned on having people sit at the desk.  They wanted them to stand the entire time, despite the fact that the desk is too short to be ideal for someone to stand and work.  Anyway, I felt bad so I got her a chair from circulation and took it out to her.  She was grateful.  I honestly don't know what those dopes upstairs were thinking when they didn't think to have chairs for the new desk.  What a fucking joke these dopes are.  Of course this is now going to be the new norm, to have chairs out.  And it's because of me.  Because I still care for TheDesire deep down inside and don't want her to deal with harm or pain.

Wed May 3, I had my book wedding project to finish up today.  I took the Japanese books I took off the shelf on Monday and scanned the barcodes into the computer to delete the entire collection.  I finished up in time to have lunch.  I was so sleepy after lunch that I decided to go into the conference room, where there's a nice bench, to lay on and chill for a while.  The picture above is of my view from that bench.  So relaxing.  So much so I nearly forgot that I had to chance my pants in order to get on the desk.

Pseudo supervisor thinks that bad times are coming to the library.  Perhaps even privatization.  Of course these is because they city supposedly wants to save money.  Well, privatization is not the magic bullet when it comes to saving money.  In the short run privatizing a library will save money.  But in the long run privatization means more cost to a city.  When a library goes private it's taken over by a private for profit company.  They will run it for that purpose.  And yes, at first they will run it at a loss in order to entice a city to have them take over.  But within five years the supposed savings evaporate.  But, these cities never get it.  They are penny wise, pound foolish.  This brings me to the point of this paragraph.  Pseudo supervisor is always looking to have me try to make money on the side with my photography.  Today she told me about a website where I can sell my stuff.  I plan on checking it out, because I do need to make some money on the side.  Hell, I need that money on the side to become "fuck you" money.

During my desk shift, while I was walking past the front door, I heard a pop and then a break.  Sure enough, the glass panel on one of the front doors had shattered, and the only thing keeping the class from falling is that it was laminated for this express reason.  We think it was because of the heat, but we really don't have direct evidence of that.  Well, the repair guy can't come out and put a new pane of glass in until tomorrow.  In the meantime another guy came out to board up the door.

I fumbled through another invite with TheWish.  She gave me a shrug and a yes.  I like her, but I don't know to what extent.  I can't say I have a crush on TheWish.  I just wish to be with her.  Is that bad?  Is that good?  At this stage of my life I have no clue.  But it is what it is.  And I did get the above photo of her leg and some of her butt.  Me does like that.

After work I had dinner with TheGirl.  She is driving a rental car, a not so little Fiat.  She says it drives like a tank, and sitting in it does feel like I'm in a larger car.  Chan had a good time chillin' in TheGirl's side when she got out of the car.  At dinner we talked about our upcoming trip.  She says she couldn't find many places along the 101, which we will have to take this time to get to Carmel, since highway 1 is still closed.  I haven't looked hard, but I'm sure there's gotta be something in one of the little towns that is along the 101 route.  However, it does have to be puppy friendly, since we are traveling with Cheyenne.  Every place is monkey friendly.

My old fridge was clearly dying on Monday.  I immediately went online and bought another one.  They said it would be delivered the next day, but that turned out to not be Tuesday but today.  They gave us a window of after 5pm.  Well, by 6pm my aunt was getting antsy.  She must have called four times while I was driving and having dinner with TheGirl.  Oh fuck no! I was checking the delivery updates on my phone, and every time the estimated arrival time was pushed back I would worry that my aunt would call YET AGAIN.  At around 8:30 the fridge was finally delivered, and when I got home it was all set up.  It's slightly bigger than the last one, and hopefully will last longer.

Thu May 4, When I first got into work I could see that the gang had finally did some checking in of books and some sorting.  There were a lot of books for Casa and Montrose.  I decided to take a special trip to Casa before doing the rest of the route.  I wanted to talk to Les about Jade crowbarring himself into the route this week and next.  I wanted to nip that in the bud, before it became the new norm.  I told Les that I appreciated Jade's help, but that the route is a one man job.  And that on Tuesday I had thought he was just going to help me with one thing in the morning, and the next thing I know he's on the entire route with me.  No way.  I will say it again, Jade helped me a lot on the route the last couple of weeks.  But I don't need him as a permanent partner on the route.  Besides, he has things to do.  That's when Les told me that AD was asking why he wasn't at his post.  Well, because he was out on the route with me.  So it worked out that AD also doesn't want him on the route.  I hope this ends this whole ride along thing that Jade has been doing for the last few weeks.

When I walked upstairs to get the mail I noticed that the seam between the old and new construction had not been properly painted.  It's little things like this that really stand out to me.  But these little things aren't as important as not having a copier in the business center, and that there are no door stops where we need them.

I took the above picture at 9:10am and it shows just how empty the library is at that time.  I have no idea why these dopes think that it's important to open the doors at 9am.  Whatever, I just work there.

After our little talk it was nice to see Les act on what we had talked about.  Jade had already penciled himself into my route on Tuesday.  So it was nice to see the email that Les sent out to the Brand people saying:

Only Bastardo will be going to pick up the artwork at the date and time stated below.
Les

Nice! No more Jade on the route.  His help was appreciated, but I don't need him cramping my style on the route.

At nearly the end of my route I drove up to my second to last stop and I was confronted by the sight of some idiot bus driver parked in the traffic lane, and in front of the driveway I was going to turn into.  The bus was disembarking a bunch of brats, but for some reason the dummy bus driver couldn't pull a hundred feet forward where there was a clear curb and where he isn't going to block the driveway.  Fucking idiots!

And now a word about a pair of my female coworkers.  Krishna was once TheGirl's friend.  And when I first saw her I thought she was cute.  Of course you know my history with TheDesire.  For goodness sakes, her name here is TheDesire.  I took the above pictures today.  Krishna gained weight when she had a kid, and she hasn't lost most of that weight.  Yet, today her butt looked nice, despite its size.  I thought I caught her checking me out, but that might have been me just projecting.  Because I was sure checking out her huge butt.  I liked it a lot today.  I wonder if her whole gig is going well.  Could she be happy in her relationship?  And then we come to TheDesire.  I think I mentioned in an entry of about a week ago that I noticed she had gained weight.  Well, here is an unflattering picture of her today.  On my best day I will never been as attractive as TheDesire is on her worst day.  And even now she's cute.  But she has gained weight, and it wearing baggy clothing to hide that weight.  Look, if I was with her I wouldn't care if she gained weight.  I would love her for being her.  I'm just saying that she has gained quite a bit of weight.

Fri May 5, About a week ago the boss comes up to me and says that she needs me to create a collage of the winning bookmarks from the bookmark contest so that they can use it as a cover to this year's city budget.  After a few changes the above graphic was accepted.  It's not my best work.  I busted it out super fast and dirty.  That budget might be a killer.  It might end up hurting me in that they are talking about cuts to the library budget.  Perhaps this year it won't, but soon and for sure next year.  I've worked this job for nearly a decade and just as I'm about to reach that decade mark this all seems to be poised to end.  How horrible.  And I get to create the cover image for this budget.  Just great.  Then again, doing these things might assure my survival at this job.

When I arrived I was all set to have some pie with TheDesire tonight.  On the news this morning they were making a huge deal that it was Cinco de Mayo.  Oh yeah.  Whatever.  Well, TheWish told me that she "forgot" she had plans with her friends for tonight.  I don't have much of an ego when it comes to things now, so I just took it at face value.  She had made plans.  Nothing wrong with that.  I told her we could raincheck the pie.  Sure, she said.  Nothing wrong with that.  It sucks, but I don't mean to take this thing fast.  I rather take my time.  Hell, it took me a year to finally hang out with her.  I think I can wait some time to finally get to the point that we cross that line between a hang and a date.  Again, I'm in no hurry.

After my shift I had to get food in order to not starve, and to set up my time for the conversation class.  I went to Jack in the crack to eat.  I finally tried one of their new breakfast any time items.  It wasn't bad, but I do remember asking them for both sausage and bacon, and they only gave me sausage.  Oh well, it was OK.  Nothing spectacular, but it was filling.

Speaking of the conversation class.  One of the patrons pointed out that the class will be at a different time come July.  Instead of starting at 3:15pm like it does now, it will start at 1:15pm.  That means I'll be on the desk at that time, and won't be able to attend.  Oh, how sad.  And yes, you should read that last line with sarcasm.  Not that I didn't like this conversation class, but I mainly did it to get on TheLamp's good side.  I know, pretty stupid.  Since I've focused on TheWish I really haven't looked at TheLamp that much.  Not that I haven't noticed how nice TheLamp looks lately, because she has been looking nice.  But who I REALLY have been focusing on is TheWish.  She's been looking really good to me.

The front door still doesn't have glass.  Oh well, I guess that means that it won't be fixed until next week.  Oh well.  Now that I wasn't going to hang with TheWish I went home and ate some food and passed out after dinner.  I woke up later in the night and drank some whiskey and jerked off.  It was Cinco de Mayo, after all.

Sat May 6, I told my aunt about going to see my Godmother today because the facility was going to have someone visit my Godmother to see where they could move her.  Before going to her place my aunt suggested that we go and have breakfast at IHOP.  And we did.  I ordered crepes with some eggs and hash browns.  Good times.

The facility where my Godmother is was kinda blah looking when she first arrived.  But since then they put in new floors and painted the walls.  It looks MUCH nicer now.  And then there was the girl that I saw in the hall ways (pictured above).  Was she ever pretty.  And what a figure on her.  The reason I got to roam the halls today is that my Godmother's room mate was initially not happy with my Godmother, saying that my Godmother was going through her stuff.  Which she might have done, since she's still confused about a great many things.  Anyway, her neighbor asked me to wheel her out to the back patio of the facility.  I figured out later it was to have a smoke.  She told me to come back in five minutes.  Which I did, stupidly enough.  Because then she had me wheel her around to the dinning room and then to the lobby and then back to her room.  A pair of the nurses even laughed when they saw me wheeling her around.  And that's when I saw the above girl walking around the halls and in my dreams.

My aunt and I visited my Godmother.  A pair of ladies came in from another facility or agency or something, saying that they were looking for a nicer place for her to go live.  They asked me a few questions, and then inquired about her SSI.  They then told me they would get back to me in a few days.  OK, well that's good.  I hope that they're able to find something nicer than where she is, and where she might even get a room on her own.  And also somewhere closer to the house so my aunt doesn't have to travel as much.  Time will tell.

We came home and my aunt immediately asks if I want to eat.  I was stuff from this morning, and I was tired.  I told her no, and that I was just going to lay down.  I knew I would fall asleep, but I didn't think I would fall asleep so fast and for two hours.  When I woke up I looked back to see what time it was, but the clock in my room was off.  I looked around and realized that the power was gone.  It was only around 4pm, so of course there was no way to know if my neighbor's power was also out.  But, my aunt and I did some investigating.  I went out to the fuse box outside to see if any of the fuses had been tripped.  Nope.  I then went online on my phone to see if I could get any information from DWP.  Sure enough, they had a power outage that they were reporting in my neighborhood.  No explanation as to the cause, just that they were working on it.  I told my aunt this and she asked me again if I was hungry.  I told her that I was and she started to cook a couple of things for me on the stove.  The old fashion way.  I ate and then chilled out watching videos on my phone.  Eventually the power came back around 5:30ish.  Today I was tired.

Sun May 7, Today the boss put me in charge of getting cookies for the problem in the community room.  Well, actually I volunteered to get them.  I have this plan to take over so many tasks that they see me as even more indispensable than I think I already am now.  This is why I've taken up more duties there.  And getting cookies isn't a big thing, but then setting up for this program was something I took on.  I didn't even tell T that I needed help or anything.  I just started doing it.  It was nice to see the clouds framed by the mountains in the background.  I'm a lucky bastard, when you take everything into account.

Today's program in the library was flower arrangement.  They taught people how to arrange flowers to look really nice.  Things went well, and at the end I was tasked with taking some pictures of the event, and also getting some video of people saying why they love the library.  Done and done.  I have to do my part to save this fucking thing.  Because, there's talk of the library possibly going private.  That is if these knuckleheads in the city start believing the lie that going private is going to save them money.  It doesn't.  Sure, in the short run it does.  But in the long run the cost is the same or more.  And then why change it?  I hope this I love the library campaign saves us.

Someone vomited in the library today.  Not just once, or even twice, but three times! Three times! What a nut.  Why would they even leave the bathroom?  What's worse is that all three times the mess wasn't even in a toilet.  In the woman's room they vomited right by the door.  And they vomited near the locked children's bathroom.  I mean come on.  Go outside and find some plants to vomit on, or go to the bathroom and stay there until you don't feel sick anymore.

Tue May 9, Last week I was given the assignment of going to Little Tokyo to pick up some art work.  The above picture is taken from the artist's website.  It looks pretty cool.  The drive to Little Tokyo was surprisingly quick.  I thought I would take longer, but the phone app took me around the streets instead of the freeway.  I would have not made it that fast on the freeway.  And I discovered a new way of going downtown.  I made the round trip in just over an hour.

I was talking to one of the librarians this morning about TheDesire.  I asked him if she was pregnant, and he answered that she was.  Wow! You couldn't knock me over with a feather, but I certainly was surprised to learn that I was right.  And apparently she's married.  Ah, now THAT was a shock to hear.  I never see her with a ring.  So yeah, she secretly got married and is now having a kid.  Good for her.  Of course my curious mind started to work overtime.  I wondered when she got married.  I knew a while back that she wasn't living in Glendale with her parents any more.  I found that she was living in the valley, of all things.  And I also saw her rubbing her belly a few weeks ago.  THAT was the first moment I had a suspicion that she was pregnant at least.  I was talking to Vagabundo and Misa tonight and I thought back to that night when I threw the coffee across my coworker's office.  I think I figured something out that night.  I honestly don't remember much about those moments, except that it triggered that coffee throwing incident.  Finding out she was married would have made me toss that coffee.  But did I figure it out back then?  Who knows.

There isn't much to report about the route today.  I had the special delivery int he morning, and then one in the late afternoon.  I was tasked with taking a dishwasher that was bought for the administration kitchen that was the "wrong size."  More like the cabinet was the wrong size.  But, whatever.  I took it to the store and the administration guy took care of the paperwork.  But the rest of the route was pretty uneventful.  I went back to taking a little longer on my lunch break.  If they're going to cut my hours for no good reason, then I don't see why I shouldn't go back to taking a regular lunch break instead of an abbreviated one.  Fuck these dopes.

Wed May 10, These days I've been given pretty much a lot of little assignments to keep me busy.  I like doing these things, because it keeps me busy and it keeps my job safe.  Or should I say safer?  Today I was given the assignment of modifying the signs from years past for the book sale coming up next week.  I had to change the date and the times on the poster by printing up the updated information and tacking it on to the old poster.  I think I did a nice job updating the posters.  I was also given the assignment by TheLamp of making some new signs for the Chinese DVDs, which are being moved to make room for books.  Just keep giving me assignments.

My shift on the desk was pretty good today.  My other main assignment was to get TheWish's cell phone number once and for all.  Of course I didn't.  I so chickened out so many times.  She had a headache, and she was dealing with the phone the entire time.  I didn't want to burden her with me asking for her number.  But mainly I just chickened out.  Sigh.

TheGirl wanted to have dinner without puppy tonight.  So we went and had Mexican food.  Last time we were here the bartender made our margaritas super strong.  Not tonight, sadly.  Oh well, I don't need to be getting that drunk on a school night.  We talked a little about the upcoming trip.  But mainly we talked about how she is going to take her son out of her will, because of his actions.  TheGirl gave him $10,000 for his wedding, and then lent him $4,000 for who knows what.  Well, he has YET to make a payment on that loan (the $4,000).  Also, according to TheGirl, he only texts her when he needs something.  Never to just say hello.  That fucking sucks.  I'm glad I don't have children.  I have a monkey that is loyal.  Ha!

The above picture is of Cheyenne and me on Monday.  Since I don't have an entry for Monday in this journal I figured this would be a good time to dovetail in this picture.  We had just finished roughhousing and Cheyenne did this little move where she just put her paw in the position you see it in the picture.  TheGirl awed and she took the picture of puppy and me.

After I got home I texted TheGirl and asked her if Cheyenne was out like a light.  She sent me the above photo.  Sure enough, Cheyenne was OUT.  When we roughhouse she keeps so worked up, and she tires herself out completely.  Tonight TheGirl mentioned how she sometimes thinks that when Cheyenne dies will she miss us.  I didn't have an answer except to say, "Why are you thinking of her dying?"  I know I would miss this dog more than anything.  More than pretty much any human right now.  That's how deep she's entered my heart and my life.

Thu May 11, I always arrive early to work.  I go into work this morning and I try using my keycard on the side entrance, which is the official entrance for us employees now.  Of course, like it didn't last week, the keycard doesn't work and doesn't allow me to enter.  OK I thought, we want to play it that way, I won't enter until they open the front doors at 9am.  Fuck this shit.

Today's delivery was a lot! As you can see in the above picture, the van was absolutely packed with bins and other things.  I found out later that Benedict was complaining about how his Monday route had a lot of books bins.  Well too bad, we all have to deal with what we have that day.  Sometimes I get an easy route.  Today I got slammed.  Boo hoo, Benedict.

The above photo shows the Casa delivery.  That one branch received ALL that stuff.  Insane, right?  The boxes no the right are the summer reading bullshit.

I went to Brand and checked out the art work I picked up on Tuesday, now hanging in the gallery.  The above photo is a bad representation of the thing.  It's actually quite neat, and large.  It's taller than me by a lot.  Anyway, it's just my little contribution to this whole endeavor.

Misa wanted me to take some picture of the library to show her how empty or full it is.  Well, I went into the stacks and found that there were actually a lot of people there.  But, of course, that's where the actual desks are.  I will say that when I see someone at the library on their own computer I wonder if they are trying to escape something from home (like I have done in the past).

The state librarian, who is not actually a librarian with a degree, visited Central today.  I saw him as he went into Pacific with Maleficent.  And here he is on the library's social media feed with poor Keyvon, who is showing him the mocker space.  Terrible, just terrible.  Calling ourselves a twenty-first century library while being nearly twenty years into said twenty-first century is pretty dumb.  Also, the things that they claim are the future are already of the past.  It's all for sure, and it's apropos for that city.  It's always for show.  It's not about substance, even when they have actual substance.  It's always about show.  Terrible.

Fri May 12, Some genius, probably the circulation manager, took the copier that's in the back office and brought it out to the front.  TheWish said that she thinks he did it to prevent the clerks from lingering back there.  It could be.  Could be.  It certainly is an eyesore, as TheWish said.  Oh man, where have we gone with this whole passport thing?  It's fucking ridiculous.  I've said it before, I'll say it again right now... the passport service is a cancer.

This morning there was a city wide budget meeting.  I hope it went well for the library.  There is talk that the city might decide to hire a private company to run the library.  They think it's cheaper.  I've said my peace on this in a previous entry, so I won't repeat myself.  But this sucks.  The boss hopes that a campaign touting how great we are will save us.  Hope that it does, because I've been tasked with running this testimonial campaign.  They bought a GoPro camera for me to do the recording with.  They want me to try and get some testimonials from the brain aerobics people on Monday.  I hope they don't just say good things about that one program and have nothing positive to say about the library.  I'm trying to save our bacon here, people!

Just before going to the conversation class I went up to TheWish and I handed her my phone with the contact application already open for her to just enter the information.  She entered it and that was that.  It was THAT easy.  Yeah, sure.  I made it hard on myself.  I know TheWish and I have a thing going.  But I best get my butt in gear if I am to see her naked.  Ha! Just kidding, if I'm to have her think of me in a romantic sense.  Because, if I don't move on that she's going to put me in the friend's zone, and I hate that zone.  I've been there too many times to count now.  No more.  I know she expects me to move faster, but I'm a snail when it comes to this shit.  It's my chicken ways.  Still, now I do have her number.  I don't plan on bombarding her with texts though.  I did send her the above picture.  So she automatically knew that it was from me.  Nice!

I spilled whiskey on my computer the other night.  I put it in rice to hopefully keep it from completely dying.  I turned it on this morning and it was working, though some of the keys on the keyboard weren't working right.  But at least it's not a total loss... yet.  I'm hoping they have good news for me at the store tomorrow.  But, something tells me no.  These things never work out for me in the positive.

Sat May 13, Somehow Emma invited herself to my visiting the Apple store to see if they could repair my busted computer.  It turned out to be cool.  I couldn't cry when the tech there told me that it would cost $800 to repair the damn thing.  Oh fuck no! He did suggest that I just buy a new one for less money at another store.  Great idea, because I have $1,200 to just throw out the window.  Fuck! I went around the mall with Emma, but not before we went to get her some food.

I drove us to Jinky's up the street.  You know, I like Emma.  I would really like to sleep with her.  We get along well, and she can drink right along side me.  But, she's currently involved with a guy that is ghosting her.  He is always so "busy" that he can't hang out with her.  It's his job, his mom, he's hanging with his buddies.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.  She wants to live with the dilution that he is THAT busy, so be it.  I just know that I would like to sleep with her.

After food we went to Best Buy to get that new computer I needed.  But then I left empty handed because the computer crashed as I was paying for it.  Better yet, the store charged me for another computer and then sent out a third request which trigged the fraud prevention and then my card was declined.  I know all this because I called American Express and they told me all this.  To cut a long story short, Best Buy never got the approvals because of that computer crash.  Because of that they passed it through the system again, which did supposedly go through, but they didn't see that.  So they tried a third time and that was as I said declined.  And so I walked out of the store without a computer.  Which turned out to be fortunate, because when I got home I noticed that the enter button, which was not working last night, was now working.  Some of the other buttons still don't work correctly, but I can live without the volume up button.  I can just change the volume on the screen.  I'm sure other things might come up, but right now I'm willing to live with them as long as the enter key works.  And I'm glad that for now I won't have to buy a new computer... yet.

Emma invited me to drink with her and another coworker.  But, really I just wanted to rest and nap today.  But, during our breakfast Emma and I did exchange a lot of information about TheDesire and her marriage and her pregnancy.  Apparently she's married to some soccer player, and Emma thinks they got married some time in August of last year.  TheDesire only just told Emma that she was having a baby last week.  And that she was married.  Apparently when Emma and TheDesire went to Vegas last year TheDesire was talking to this guy and Emma got to hear his voice.  Later TheDesire mentioned that he needed his green card.  Emma also mentioned that he's younger than her by about ten years.  I'm trying to remember what else Emma said about this guy.  She doesn't know about him because TheDesire kept him secret and Emma has never met him.

\All I say is that I hope TheDesire is happy.  But knowing how things are, and I said this to Emma, I think that this marriage is a sham.  It's TheDesire's attempt at starting a family before her biological clock tells her it's too late.  I told Emma that we all make our prisons.  TheDesire might have just built a huge prison for herself.  I truly hope she has found happiness with this guy.  Because I sure don't think that it's real from the information I have now.  More information would help me figure this all out.  For now, the's knocked up and married.  Pretty soon she's going to have to announce both those things to the entire library.  I mean, she's already showing, and people are already figuring out that she's pregnant.  And she was out sick all this past week.  I hope it's not complications.  I think that would devastate her.  She would not be able to handle losing a child.  Why did I just say that?

When got back home after picking up a pair of pizzas for my aunt and myself, I ate a couple of slices and passed out in my bed.

Sun May 14, They bought me a GoPro at San Marino in order to save the library.  They want me to use the camera, such a fancy camera, to record patrons saying how much hey love the library.  I'm not sure that sort of stuff is going to save any of us, but I'm certainly going to try and give us a fighting chance.  And... now I get to play around with a GoPro.

Mother's day Sunday is one of the least busy days at the library.  Today was no exception.  It's not that no one shows up to the library, it's that only students and such come.  Not many people coming to check out books.  The library was busy, but most of the people came in to study. I went home after work and just drank some booze.  No reason to go out.  I thought I was going to have dinner with a friend, but they didn't mention it, and I wasn't going to volunteer the invite again.  So, I went home and enjoyed a relaxing night at home.

Mon May 15, Today I helped one of the recreation guys take out the old tables from the library to make room for the new tables.  These old tables have served us well over the last decade, but they're falling apart.  For one, and for two, they weigh a lot and are falling apart.  The guy from recreation and I moved them next door where they will serve them like they served us.

TheWish asked me to make a sign to direct dummies who come in for a passport to the last part of the circulation desk.  Of course I complied with her request.  The photo above shows my handy work.  About ten minutes in Photoshop.

After work I needed to have some food.  I shouldn't have gone to McD's, but it was easier to go there.  I went in and once again witnessed that the so-called self checkout machines were not being used.  And of course I post this here to say once again that people will walk pass an empty machine and stand in line in order to get help from a human.  I did it, and so did everyone else in line.  I bought myself one of those signature BS burgers.  It wasn't any better than their regular burgers.  Whatever! I should have had fried chicken tonight.

I put this up here because I was talking to my buddy Vagabundo about how curvy TheLamp looked the other day.  Well, she looked super curvy today.  She wore the dress that ALWAYS makes her body look insane.  And today, it looked so nice and curvy.  The girl is nice, I'll say that, and lately she's been looking really good.  Maybe it's because I finally noticed her, or because she's just looking that good these days.  Whatever it is, I like.

I went over the TheGirl's after work and of course roughhoused it up with puppy.  Cheyenne was particularly energetic tonight.  We are so close to our big trip up north.  I can't wait for the trip.  It's much needed, and overdue.

Tue May 16, Since my keycard doesn't work to get into the building, and I'm too much of a peon to get a new one that does work, I have begun to wait for the front doors to be open in order to go into work.  It's better than knocking on a door that has very few people on the other side.  This is how I'm treated here now, like a visitor.

I wanted to text TheWish, now that I have her number.  But at the same time I don't to over do it.  Not until we're dating.  Ha! I finally decided to send her a funny meme pertaining to working the circulation desk at San Marino.  It opened the door, thankfully.  I don't want to be the guy that bombards her with texts.  I want them come to be naturally.

Now that I can I'm taking a longer lunch.  Forty minutes rather than thirty minutes.  I deserve a little bit of a break, and really I'm just combining my lunch and regular break, because I don't take another break during the route except my lunch.  I do like the longer break.  I like not having to rush up after wolfing down my food.  It's good to let things digest.

As I was moving through the main reading room I saw that one of my coworkers had a puzzled look on her face.  She was being asked a question by a patron that wanted to know the wifi name and the password.  In her broken English my coworker was trying to tell her that the wifi didn't require a password, but then the patron could not find the signal.  I stepped in to help my coworker.  Well I come to find out that they changed the name of the wifi.  They changed it to the stupidest thing ever... GLAC Patron.  Ah, what the fuck is a GLAC?  And what does it have to do with the library?  It took me a moment to understand that these dummies changed the wifi signal's name in order to match it with the rest of the so-called "branding."  The letters stand for dummy Glendale Arts and Culture.  That is a mouthful, but it's the official name of the cocksucking library.  They an all eat it, for all I care.  I told the patron that was the signal and she says, "Oh Pa-Trone?"  Yes, I said, and walked away.  What a bunch of fools.

Wed May 17, When I arrived at work I hit the ground running, getting rid of the Friend's book bag display.  I came to find out that the reason why they are not going to sell the bags, but rather give them away, is because they found out they need to start collecting sale's taxes for each one they sell.  Now Pseudo supervisor mentioned that they wouldn't have to because they make less than $50,000 a year from the sales.  Whatever, all I know is that I was tasked with getting rid of the display.  I did so, and then I had to cover the reference desk because TheLamp was going to attend some sort of city wide meeting.  She later told me it was light on details, but that essentially the people at city hall will have to work five days a week instead of four days of week that they work now.  I don't see a problem with that, but I'm sure they do.

Anyway, the other news of the morning is that the broken copier has been replaced with a nice little copier, that the circulation manager figured would be lovely on the passport desk.  There was talk that he brought the other ones out, because he didn't like the clerks going to the back room and lingering while they made copies.  But now this little thing is on the passport desk.  I mean, what do I care?  I don't work that desk.  Why should I give a damn, right?  It does matter, because this is just another mail in a coffin full of nails.  This ain't right.

Emma mentioned it to me that now that I have TheWish's texting number that I should text her a good morning message.  I asked her what time was good, and she gave me a laundry list of times.  Ah, I was looking for a window of time, not a list of almost every minute from 9am to noon.  I decided to text her at around 10am, but I ended up texting her closer to 11am.  Believe me, I would like to text TheWish continuously during the day, but as I told Emma, I don't want to be THAT GUY.  You know, the clingy guy that needs constant attention.  No, I don't want to be that guy at any cost.  I took the above picture of TheWish today and man she looked really nice.  Really cute.  I love her legs.  I don't ever remember looking at her legs until today.

While I was on the desk today I received three calls in a row from Carmel.  I didn't know what it could be.  When I was able to take a minute to look I checked my phone and the transcription said that the call was from the Fireplace Inn in Carmel.  They saw that I had stayed there the previous three years during Thanksgiving, and they wanted to give me a change to book my room for Thanksgiving before the website availability.  I didn't get a chance to call them back today, but I'll call them back tomorrow.  I do have to figure out if I want to go up there during Thanksgiving this year.  Because my hours have been cut at Glendale I have to worry about cost.  But, then again, you only live once.  Also, I scooped out the rooms there and there's one that's smaller than the one I've stayed in the last couple of years.  The cost difference would definitely help me afford a trip this year.

This year is the fifth anniversary of my first trip up to Big Sur.  I need to go up there during the summer to commemorate that moment.

TheGirl wanted to stay in today.  She didn't want to drive to a restaurant with puppy, because she was going to turn in her rental car tomorrow and she went and vacuumed the entire thing today.  If they found dog hair on the seats supposedly they were going to charge her a $250 fee for cleaning.  Oh no.  Hence us staying in.  I bought some food and took it to her house.  Chan and Cheyenne, of course, where there.  As you can see in the picture above, Chan was ready to eat.  And Cheyenne was asking me for scraps.

Thu May 18, I took the above picture because I wanted to illustrate how stupid things are at Central.  These dopes weren't ready to open the computer lab on opening day.  Why?  I don't know, because they had time to ready the computers.  Granted, the lab itself wasn't ready until the last minute.  But now here it is eighteen days after the opening of the library, eight days after their sign says the lab was supposed to be opened, and they're not open.  Fucking turds.  They can rot for all I care.

The route today was just whatever.  Pretty standard.  But what I did notice is the start of a trend.  The trend of less books going to what used to be the most popular branch... Casa.  As pseudo Central, Casa became the place where all the traffic went as far as books on hold from the closed Central.  Now that Central is open I am getting fewer bins for them.  Today was the lowest it's been since the re-opening.  And mind you, the above photo represents the delivery of not just Casa but of Grandview (which is closed for it's own renovation).  The delivery for two branches and it was only six bins.

The rest of the route was pretty standard.  There weren't too many books for the rest of the stops.  Well, I shouldn't say that, there were a lot of books for Pacific, but those were from the dummy outreach at Central shipping a bunch of language books to Pacific.  So only there of the seven book bins going to Pacific was actual delivery.

Fri May 19, As I said in a previous entry, I figured I would make reservations for Thanksgiving weekend for Carmel.  If I can't or don't want to go I have until nearly Thanksgiving to cancel.  I called the Fireplace inn this morning and asked them about the reserve a room for me for Thanksgiving weekend.  The sent me the confirmation in a few minutes.  For now, I'm going to Carmel.  At least that's the plans for now.  Those could change, but at least I my room reserved.

They're still looking for part-time staff?  Ah, I'm part time staff, and yet they haven't asked me to work any hours at central other than the hours I drive.  And THAT is some major bullshit, and the focus on this journal entry.

I've worked at Glendale for nearly a decade.  in that time I've been driving for about five years now.  I have five years experience on the desk.  I have four years experience before that at the San Marino desk.  In total I have about nine years of experience working with the public at the library.  And if you count the couple of years before that when I was working at Ralphs and CSUN's library then my experience is more than a decade.  But of course that's not good enough for AD.  That's what's most glaring about all this.  Benedict has two minutes of experience working at libraries, though I'm not going to totally exclude his work with the public at his jobs.  But I'm here at the library for so long, and I've literally done everything required of me there.  I've done nearly every job there.  But does AD care about that?  No.  She has totally overlooked my buddy Vagabundo and me for any hours at Central.  She is still looking for part time help?  She has asked the pages at the branches before asking us if we wanted to work.  She has repeatedly overlooked us.  Well, that's not right.  I really need to find a way out of there.  I can't stay there under these circumstances.  AD can suck my dick!

And FINALLY, after so many failed attempts I had pie with TheWish tonight.  I have to say it was a damn good time.  We went and ordered up a slice with cheddar cheese first thing.  I wanted that before we had any other food.  We joked that they weren't going to have cheddar cheese, or that they were not going to have apple pie.  Thankfully they had both.  We ate the pie, which wasn't bad but not so earth shattering as I thought it might be.  Not sure why I thought it would be earth shattering, but whatever.  Then we ordered up some food.  I had a burger and she had a tuna melt.  Not exactly the thing to get at a place famous for its burgers and pies.  Oh well, she liked it.  We talked, and we talked and we talked.  Emma suggested we go walk around, but we never got to that.  It was past 9pm and the both of us were yawning.  I took her back to her car back at work and mentioned how I'd like go to to the Huntington with her some time.  Her day off is Monday, which is gonna make it hard for me to work out.  I told her perhaps I could take the day off.  But then I wonder how I would visit TheGirl and puppy.  So many things to consider.

And speaking of considering.  On my way home I wondered to myself what was my end gave with this endeavor.  Do I want to simply sleep with TheWish?  Yes and no.  I don't JUST want to sleep with her.  I would like that, very much, but in a way it's not the priority.  I like this girl.  OK, so do I want to pursue a relationship with her?  Again, I think I do, but at the same time I feel I'm too cynical and jaded to pursue anything more than a loose relationship.  One in which we see each other from time to time, sleep with each other from time to time, but don't declare it a relationship.  But, is that fair to TheWish?  Not at all.  And I know it's not fair.  It's not even fair to me.  But, I do realize that I want my cake and to eat it too.  Simply because I don't want things to change with TheGirl.  I value that friendship, but no girlfriend would understand that I'm still friends with my ex-girlfriend like that without rightfully thinking that I'm still sleeping with her.  Only a dope would think different.  But it's not like I'm not pursuing something with TheWish because of TheGirl.  I think TheWish is nice, and I want to get to know her.  To what extent, I'm not sure.  But I have to say that part of me feels like a cad for not wanting the full monty with this girl.

Sat May 20, I don't know what it was that got me so tired last night, but when I got home I was ready for the count to be over.  I wasn't going to make it to ten.  I was out.  The tiredness hit me like a brick wall, and all I could do was get ready for bed and hit the hay.  I mean it was almost instantaneous.  And now this morning I just want to rest and do nothing.  I plan on getting my hair cut today, and that's it.

But, then I went to the barber and he wasn't there.  Guess I'll have to go later in the week.  Which sucks.  I'm cutting this close to my trip.  Oh well.

Come a week from today and I'll be traveling up north to Carmel with TheGirl, Cheyenne and Chan.  The whole family.  We can't take highway 1 up the coast because it's closed in so many places (see photo above).  We will have to take the 101 almost the entire way up.  At least up to Salinas and then jet west to the coast and Carmel.  I suspect we should arrive faster than when we go up the coast.  Mainly because the coast highway has a lot of curves, and the 101 is basically straight.  We shall see.  I tried to scope out some places to eat on the 101, but I double checked and none of them are officially dog friendly.  If we find a take out place we can eat elsewhere, like a park, but we can't eat at the restaurant with puppy.  Dang.  My plan is to have us stop for breakfast in Solvang, and then stop in SLO for a sandwich and eat it along the way.  But today I looked and the sub shop I like doesn't have any veggie sandwiches.  ARGH! Nothing is ever easy.

My buddy and I haven't hung out in a long time.  Probably about two months or more.  Tonight we hung out and went to get cemitas, aka tortas.  It's a form of sandwich from Sonora Mexico.  I had the breaded steak strip and my buddy and carne asada.  Mine was really good.  I will definitely try and come back here again.

Sun May 21, There's a reason why I don't give up my unlimited data plan on my cell phone.  Because I would not be able to use this much data on many of the plans out there.

Sometimes my aunt will say the stupidest things, and when I call her out on it she get mad at me.  Case in point, today.  I went to the fridge and she says to me, "The other day I forgot to turn off the coffee pot because I went to the girl's reading thing."  She goes on to say, "You should have checked to see that I left it on."  Ah, what?  I do check things before I leave, but the main thing I check is the toaster oven.  It's something we usually have unplugged, and something my aunt has left on in the past.  That's the main thing I check.  I quickly look over to the stove to see if the dials are on off, but I don't go around the entire house checking to see if every device is off.  There isn't time in the morning, and how am I supposed to know what devices she has plugged into the wall sockets?  I think it's unreasonable to beat me up and blame me for the coffee pot when she was the one that forgot to unplug it.  How I took it when she said that is why did I fuck up and not turn off the coffee pot she forgot to unplug?  I don't think that's fair.  I'm on my way off to work and I can't be checking every little thing in the kitchen.  In short, she fucked up and was getting mad at me because she fucked up.

I was texting with my buddy this morning and at one point we mentioned what we were talking about last night, about the one desk at the library.  But more so about how we're not invited to the dance, and that we won't be getting hours at Central.  I told him that it was a blessing not to work there.  I texted him the following: "They can have their asshole desk... we don't have to deal with no register, long lines of dopes, being abandoned; having to deal with asshole copier, printers, credit card machines that you have to do two transactions."

Is it too soon to start the November Carmel trip?  There are one hundred eighty-six days until Thanksgiving.  That's a long time still, but it will go fast.  It would be nice to go up there with TheWish, but I' not going to go nuts and put that as some sort of goal for myself.  I still have to figure out what I want from this girl, ultimately.

Mon May 22, I didn't have much work today.  In the late afternoon I was at my desk kinda just sitting there trying to stay awake.  But it was impossible, I passed out at my desk for at least a half hour.  I need to ask TheLamp for a new assignment on Wednesday.  I don't mind making money for not doing much work, but for doing no work is jacked up.  I'm sure she will have something for me to do.

I was craving some Tommy's after work today.  I went and ordered a single patty cheeseburger combo.  When the guy was ringing up the order I saw no the register's screen that it said medium pepsi.  What?  I wasn't sure if it was a mistake or what.  Well, I turn around to get my drink and sure enough the soda fountain is all pepsi products.  Fucking shit, I think to myself.  This is going to ruin my meal.  It nearly did.  I filled my cup half way with root beer, the only option I had that wasn't totally gross.  Well, it was gross.  I ended up dumping the rest and filling up my cup with ice.  The next time I go to Tommy's I'll be sure not to order the combo, and to bring a Coke with me.  In a year where everything just seems to go wrong this is yet another thing no the growing pile of shit.

Tue May 23, I walked up to the library entrance and it was like old times, what with the regulars waiting outside the library doors for them to open.  I waited back until the dopes entered first.  There was one guy that was parked right in front of the doors, but not exactly at the doors.  He was right in the middle of the two doors, but he was no more than a couple of feet from the glass.  At the right angle it could look like he was pressed against the window.

The dopes at Central are trying to "brand" everything in the library.  The new name of the stupid library is Downtown Central BS.  But now they created a series of shows and last week the series was called Downtown Central 222 East.  Ah, what?  I joked that they should just make it 222 East, and sure enough today on social media they renamed their stupid music series 222 East.  I mean, just come up with a not douchey name and stick with it.  Constantly changing names doesn't help either.  It's some bullshit!

I went to city hall to get the mail and moments after I parked I felt the van move a little forward.  I looked back and some dope had tapped the van while they were trying to park (pictured above).  I took the picture as the guy in the car was walking away.  It was just a tap, but still.  When I came back another car was parking behind the van, and once again the idiot driving tapped the van.  I got out of Dodge before it happened again.  This is so not right.  But what do you expect for his backwater town?

I post this picture to illustrate that the tide is definitely turning when it comes to the ebb and flow of the books throughout the branches.  A few weeks ago, before Central opened, the amount of books going to Central was a trickle.  And now it's completely flipped.  I knew this was going to happen, it's only natural.

When I arrived at Adams someone, I forget who exactly, asked me "Did you see him?"  Who?  Him?  It turns out there was a bit of an incident with a patron that was shouting and focusing his attention on Ru.  He called her names.  I later found out that he called her a whole and the N word.  And mentioned something like, "This is why the Russians hate your people."  He was clearly nuts.  But of course he got away.  The police were called, but of course by the time they arrived he was long gone.  They took Ru outside to question her about the whole thing.  When I went out to the van to leave I could see that she was dying the tears from her eyes.  She was definitely shaken up.

When I got back to Central to take all the items out of the van I parked at the end of what used to be the waiting area on the now side of the library.  I park at one end because it makes it easier on me to enter through the front door this way.  But of course, despite the fact that NO ONE is parked in front of me, this dope decides to park behind me.  And of course gets super close.  They were there to pick someone up, but come on.  Why do they HAVE to be EXACTLY behind me?  This is some bullshit, and it just makes me think about how everyone seems to be losing their minds.  I'm so very tired of everyone acting a fool.

Wed May 24, Whatever I am I can tell you that at the end of the day I'm a hopeless romantic dope.  I do like TheWish a lot.  I think there's something there.  But what?  I told my buddy the other day that people come together because they want to bone each other.  Ha! But here I am again, asking what do I want from this possible relationship with this woman.  I think she's sassy, and she has a bit of an edge.  And I love talking to her.  But what?  I'll ask again, am I just looking for someone to sleep with?  I feel I'm too cynical these days to really fall in love like I did in the past.  Too many things have tainted my view of love.  Like I just said, I'm a cynic.  But am I?  Or am I just saying that because I don't know if I should commit any emotions to this endeavor.

I asked TheWish for another assignment after nearly falling asleep on Monday.  She gave me the task of creating new signage for the Chinese collection.  I took the Japanese books and that gave us a little more room to stretch out the collection so it's not so bunched up.  Anyway, I get to make the new signs for the end of the shelves, so people can hopefully find their books.

TheGirl and I had a couple of options for dinner, but she decided to not go with the doglegs option.  We ended up going to the Counter.  I usually drink wine when we go there.  At least two glasses.  The burger I had tonight was OK.  Our waitress was a bit of a character.  She was waitressing instead of being a veterinarian assistant.  It's so crazy how many of us get a degree in some field and never use our degree in that field.  TheGirl and I talked a little bit tonight about our pending trip up to Carmel.  We both need to get out of town.

Thu May 25, The red bins are reserved for new books.  These bins have been waiting for over a week in circulation to go out to the branches.  Jade artificially holds them back in order to have Flavia in administration take pictures of the new books and then show them on the social media feed.  But of course it takes Flavia a long time to get that done.  Also, no one said this was what we were doing.  Jade just took it upon himself to do this.  Well, today it came to a head.  I asked Achee about the bins and she says, "Yeah, what is it with those bins?  They've been there for over a week.  I told her why they were there, and she goes to Les and says, "There's no reason why the red bins should wait around so long.  I chimed in and said that Flavia doesn't come down in a timely manner to do this task, and meanwhile the bins sit there.  Mission accomplished, the spell of the new book bins has been broken.  I don't think I have to add that I took the red bins on the delivery today.

The above is a picture of the amount of bins going to Casa today.  Clearly the numbers have gone down.  Mind you, this is Casa and Grandview books going to Casa.  This is just the beginning.  In the past this would be the normal number of bins going to Casa.  When the renovation happened Casa became pseudo central and they were getting at the peak twenty bins.  Obviously the amount of bins now is no where near twenty.

There isn't much to say about the rest of the route.  It was pretty standard.  I didn't have much else after that.  I clocked in at 9am and clocked out at 5pm.  I took a forty minute lunch and I don't care.  I need to eat.  Ru was at Central and Adams today.  She's still shaken up from the incident with the patron on Tuesday.  She is damn attractive.  I told my buddy that she was still at Central and he pointed out that it means the dummies up in administration haven't filled out the paperwork to have the patron banned.  Of course not, why would they?  What a bunch of tools.

Fri May 26, Emma posted the above photo on social media.  It is so true.  I always tell Emma that I have a curfew and that we should go home early.  The last time we went out we stayed out until 2am.  This despite the fact that I said, "We should wrap it up around 11pm."  Yeah, sure.  Famous last words.

The office manager at work asked me to create a badge so that when the clerks go to the post office they can show that they are employees of the library.  I know the badge won't be used, but these days I pick up assignments to keep me busy.  Keeping myself busy means making bucks.  So what do I care if none of the clerks will ever use this badge?

Sat May 27, I completely slept through my alarm this morning.  I woke up at 7am, which was the time that TheGirl said she was going to pick me up.  Sure enough, she was texting me just as I was waking up.  I saw that she was already outside the door.  I texted her that I would be right out.  I threw on my clothes and grabbed my stuff.  My aunt was asking if I wanted something for breakfast, and I just told her that there was no time.  TheGirl sees me outside and asks me, "Did you just wake up."  Yes, I told her, and continued to tell her how my alarm didn't wake me up.  I looked at the phone and the alarm was set, but it was off.  It makes me wonder if I just slept through it.  We were on our way and on the road by 7:20am.  Not bad for having slept until 7am.  Of course stupid me didn't have time to shower.

TheGirl and I stopped off in Solvang for some breakfast.  There's one go to place in Solvang has not steered me wrong yet.  And it didn't this time.  I had a fried chicken breast served on a biscuit covered with gravy.  Also added a side of bacon.  It was fucking great.

Because of the landslides and the bridge being out on highway 1 we had to take the 101 up to Salinas and then cut across west to Carmel.  That route is certainly not as pretty as going up the coast, but I will say that it seemed to take a lot less time to go up the coast.  I made reservations for November, by which time highway 1 still won't be ready.  The last landslide is something they don't know how long will take to remove.  In short, the drive up certainly took less time than going up the coast, but it wasn't as beautiful.  If all goes according to plan I'll be making this drive in November.

We rested a bit when we got to the hotel, just past 2pm.  We settled in, rested up, and then went down to Cannery Row.  Many years ago, during our first trip up to Monterey, TheGirl saw a tarot card reader and had a "great" reading with her.  Ever since she's now gone back twice in hopes of a reading that is as good.  I have news for her, it's not going to happen.  But, she still insisted that she wanted to see this person.  Well, it was bad.  We were out of her stall in about ten minutes.  Which is not good.  It was lazy.  Not that I believe these charlatans know anything, but it's fun when someone gives you a good reading.  It's not stuff to live by, it's just what it is... advice and entertainment.  I'm not too keen on Cannery Row, because it's too touristy.  Also, because it's touristy there are a ton of slack-jawed dopes walking around the street.  No thanks.  I get plenty of those dopes at home.

We returned to Carmel and our room and rested up from the long drive and the trip down to Cannery Row.  We didn't spend much time down there.  It would have been nice to see the coast a little, but this is really the first trip that I've been up to up north where I didn't spend some time on the coast.  Hmm.

In what is now a trip to Carmel tradition, TheGirl and I went to our favorite restaurant... Club Jalapeno.  It was a little chilly since I forgot my jacket at home.  But two margaritas later I was feeling warm again.  I really like that restaurant.  I think I've missed eating there only once in my many trips to Carmel.  I ordered up some fish tacos, just to round out my selection of foods there.  I've eaten a good variety of the dishes there, and of course had my share of booze there as well.  As always, a good time.

Sun May 28, I have a good list of restaurants that I want to try, or have tried, in Carmel.  I think I know what's good, and what has potential.  I wanted to try out a place called Katy's place for breakfast.  But TheGirl and I got a late start on the day, and by the time we got out the door it was past 11am.  When we walked by Katy's place there must have been thirty to forty people out front waiting.  No way! Last night TheGirl mentioned a list of suggested restaurants that were in the paperwork given to us by the hotel.  Of course those places aren't really recommended by the hotel, they're paid for ads.  The hotel puts them in their recommended list because it's bought and paid for.  I was wary of the list, but when our first option for breakfast was a bust, we went with one of the recommended restaurants on the list.  Sure enough, it was meh.  They had a short list of six items for breakfast, which made for a limited choice.  I needed up ordering the huevos rancheros.  Mistake number two.  I didn't know that huevos rancheros were made with fried, not scrambled, eggs.  I hate fried eggs.  That was my fault.  But I guess if I had more of a selection I wouldn't have picked huevos rancheros.  I can't say that the huevos rancheros ruined my breakfast.  And I can't say that the place was horrible.  But I can say it wasn't my first choice.  Oh well.

Off we went to Santa Cruz to visit the land of the medicine buddha.  The drive up to Santa Cruz wasn't super bad.  In fact, it was nice.  Of course I didn't drive.  The Land of the Medicine Buddha was pretty cool.  TheGirl wanted to go to the gift shop at one point, but that was in an area of the retreat where they were having a silent retreat, and they didn't want visitors there.  Oh well.

TheGirl went up to the wish fulfillment temple with me and made a wish.  I do no such thing these days, or ever, to tell you the truth.  I don't believe in wishes.  There was a couple that was giving me the stick eye.  These days I don't give a fuck about people.  I generally actively ignore more people.  It seems to work well for me.

When we returned to Carmel TheGirl and I tried to go back to Club Jalapeno, but it was closed due to a sink problem.  I quickly told TheGirl that we should go to a place we tried to get into a few years ago, but failed.  That day they sent us to the bar, and I think we ended up going somewhere else and having a mediocre burger.  Tonight, we had a great meal.  I've had some good meals in Carmel, but this is one of the better one.  Maybe not top five, but close.

Mon May 29, Day three was travel day.  After yesterday's bad breakfast we were not going to go back to that restaurant again.  I wanted to see if we could get into Katy's place, but that was packed.  I told TheGirl that I knew of a place just outside of Carmel proper.  She said to lets go and try it.  I scope out things like this, just in case.  It's good to be prepared with good eats.  Thankfully my research once again paid off.  We went to a place called From Scratch.  Their famous dish was biscuits topped with sausage and gravy, along with eggs and country potatoes.  The thing was huge, and I couldn't finish the entire thing.  It was damn good food.

The picture above was taken just south of Salinas.  We actually did really good time from Carmel to SLO.  And good time from SLO to Santa Barbara, but then we had lunch in Santa Barbara and the traffic was awful from Santa Barbara to home.  It felt like it took us longer to get from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles than from Carmel to SLO.  Not really, but it felt that way.

TheGirl mentioned how she was getting hungry, and I said that we could have lunch in Santa Barbara.  I had a place to go when she mentioned she wanted a burger.  When we arrived the place was closed.  Plan B was closed as well.  TheGirl tells me, "Let's just go to In-and-Out."  Sure enough, that was open.  I ate too much.  But what else is new?

We got back on the road to Los Angeles and that's when we hit traffic.  The entire way down we were fine, but boom, right as we got on the freeway it was packed.  And it was packed all the way into Ventura.  We didn't make much headway, but some.  Still, it should have taken us much less time to get home from Santa Barbara.  The maps app on my phone did say that we should cut east and hit the 5 freeway and come down that way.  But, TheGirl and I didn't want to do that, so we continued down the 101.  We lamented our choice, but that's to say that the 5 was any better than the 101 on this last day of a three day weekend.  We might have been even more stuck.  We'll never know now.

When I got home the first thing I wanted to do was take a dump.  I took a small dump on Saturday, but I didn't yesterday or today.  And today I could feel that since I was on my way home my body was ready to evacuate, so to speak.  When we had lunch in Santa Barbara I went to the bathroom to pee and hopefully let out a fart.  I could not do either, because farting was like the last thing I could do.  And because I couldn't take a dump and open the path for the farts to come out, the pressure of that would not let me even pee.  So I simply tried, failed, and then washed my hands and hoped for the best on the way home.  Thankfully I made it.  When I got home and TheGirl drove off the first thing I did was go to the bathroom.  In about three hours I was pooping again.  Guess not all of it got out that first time upon arrival.  I feel better now.  But this might not be the last of it.

Tue May 30, One of my coworkers texted me about the carpet coming up, but of course I had to see it to believe it.  It's hard to see in the picture, but suffice to say there is a part of the carpet at the top of the stairs that is coming up.  A patron nearly cracked their head open when they got their foot stuck in that part of the carpet.  Of course it had to be at the top of the stairs.  Just another example of the fine workmanship they put into this building.

Speaking of great workmanship, I submit to you the back door sidewalk.  Notice how that one side of the sidewalk just ends.  No effort was put into connecting the two sides of this walkway.  So if you want to to go around you have to go through the new plants.  It's yet another example of their short sightedness.

When I got back from the route one of my coworkers showed me this note that was left in a book.  I agree with the sentiment of the note.  These assholes have sold out for this idea that they are a new century library, when they wouldn't know what that means.

I went to Long Beach with a friend and got a lot of good photos.  It was way colorful downtown.  Case in point, this structure by the convention center.  It was like a tube, but what was important for me was that it was framed by the blue sky.

I took the above picture of a map of Carmel at the Long Beach public library.  It was cool to see this map just laying around.

I went out drinking with a friend and ended up at a bar that had good solid drinks.  Of course I had to take a picture of said drink.  This is of a yummy Manhattan.