The common theme of this month is obstacles.  Nothing but obstacles.

Wed Feb 1, Today my cousin's husband brought the kids over at just before 7:40am.  Now THIS is a more reasonable time to come around the house.  Bringing the girls over an hour and a half before school was just insane.  Bringing them just before going to school is just right.  But, my aunt did tell me that the two of them have been getting headaches and have been throwing up.  THAT's not good.  I thought back when I was a little older than they were and how I hated being moved from one sixth grade class to another.  That other class was shit.  The first class was so nice.  But of course the Universe couldn't allow me to stay in the nice class.  That move traumatized me to no end.  I'm sure deep down inside I still harbor some sort of problems from that emotional trauma.  Which makes me wonder if the girls are going through what I was going through way back when.  It's not a stretch to think that, you know.

Work was work.  Had another flirty moment with Desiree.  I mean come on now.  The signals are clear.  She wants me to ask her out.  Or at the very least she likes me enough to flirt with me.  Why am I so chicken?

TheGirl and I went to a new place to eat tonight.  There's a placed called Foreman's on Riverside that I've been wanting to try for a while.  TheGirl mentioned how she wanted a burger.  I named off a few places, but she suggested we try this Foreman's place.  Nice.  She forgot to check out the menu online though, and they didn't have a turkey burger.  So she had a chicken sandwich and I had a good burger with bacon.  The highlight of the meal for me was the booze.  I ordered a Manhattan and they did it right.  Good amount of booze, and made correctly (I watched the bartender make it).  I definitely want to return here again.  Though, I did drop a good amount of money.  Still, it was good food.  Afterward I played with Cheyenne at TheGirl's place.  Boy, that dog has a lot of energy.

Thu Feb 2, I started work early again today.  Just as I was sorting the fire alarm went off.  I didn't know if it was a test or a real fire, so I went outside just in case.  The sound was also so strong that I needed to get out away from that blasting alarm.  It took the construction guys more than fifteen minutes to finally shut down the alarm.  Good job, fellas.  Once back inside I got to finishing the sorting and loading up the van.

Just as I was pulling up to city hall I get a phone call from Jade.  He wanted to know what we did on the route when we handle interdepartmental mail.  I told him.  Some piece of mail was delayed a couple of weeks back, and now apparently something else was delayed this week.  Or so it would seem.  For some reason things aren't getting to where they need to get on time.  I don't have direct evidence of this, but it would seem that new guy is messing around on the route.  A couple of times the people at the treasury department have commented how late new driver shows up.  One of the workers there told me that one day he barely arrived before they close their offices to count the money... 2:30pm.  He arrived at 2:25pm.  I don't know what he's doing on the route, but that's nuts.  Also, he's finishing the route WAY earlier than I am.  This sucks, because now I have to answer these questions related to the mail delivery.  A mail delivery that had no issues until now, I might add.  No issues for the five years I've been driving this fucking route.

Even though I don't normally go up to Chevy on my route days, I had to go there today to deliver some fucking bullshit flags that say "library open."  Like the patrons are too dumb to see.  While there I took the liberty to take the above photos so illustrate this fucking bullshit about the tables there.  The first shot is of some of the tables I delivered last week.  The second (upper right) shows even more tables, that were already at Chevy.  The lower left photo shows more of the tables I delivered last week.  And finally, lower right the tables they already have set up classroom style.  I found out that it's some painting while drinking event that is going up there tomorrow and that's why they need that many tables.  I'm sorry, but there are more tables than they even have room to use.  As always, since they're not having to deal with the actual moving of the tables they don't give a shit to check if they actually need to move so many tables up to Chevy.

While I was there at Chevy I ate lunch and noticed these boxes on a cart.  These are significant, because I took about a dozen of these boxes up to Chevy a month ago.  I should have known that these dummies would turn around and send them out to various places.  This time, back to Central.  Ah, THEY WERE ALREADY THERE!  I just don't understand this mentality that makes me take these to one location where they are going to be then redistributed.  Fucking idiots.

I arrived at GV and Snow was there and she offered me some food.  In the past I would just run out, but I was hungry today due to a small lunch earlier today.  I ate two slices of pizza and drank a cream soda.  Snow mentioned that the flags I'm delivering cost them a pretty penny.  Something like $3,500 for the fourteen flags.  What a fucking bunch of dopes.

I arrived at the last branch and I was greeted by a stack of tax form boxes all going to different branches.  These fucking idiots can't just have the mail man deliver them to the other branches directly.  No.  They have to order them.  The forms arrive at Central, where one of the drivers have to take them to Pacific.  Then from there they label them and they are sent to other branches.  Now how is that not a waste of time?  The managers think with their feet.  It's not logical or is is efficient.  It's just like those damn photo books up at Chevy.

When I arrived back at Central I had enough time to finish up the sorting of the bins.  This will save my buddy time tomorrow.  I was quite proud to have finished sorting the bins.  It was not easy.

Just before going home I took a quick peek into the construction site and I was surprised to see that they have started to place the carpet square on the floor.  This is insane.  You can see in the picture that they have A LOT of construction to finish up before they start putting the carpet in.  The carpet in the stacks is already stained, but I guess they don't really care about that shit.  Fucking idiots.

Fri Feb 3, I have this idea that I'm going to shoot some photos with a pinhole camera.  I've been making the camera and since I'm so close to completing it I figured I needed some film.  I went into a photo store for the first time in years.  I bought two rolls of film.  Since the big trip up North is just two weeks away I wanted to get film before going up there.

A few months ago I submitted some photos to a thing in Whittier to supposedly have my work shown at some park, or whatever.  I was rejected, again.  I knew I shouldn't have even tried to submit anything to this thing.  But, my coworker insisted, and I figure why not.  I keep saying I'm not going to submit anything any more, only to submit something when I get a call like this.  Really I'm just tired of this.  Maybe I'm just not that good.  Maybe my style is too old fashioned, or not good.  Who knows at this point.  I really don't want to continue to submit my work to these shit little things, only to be rejected.  I go into these things thinking that I don't have a shot.  That I don't have what they're looking for.  That whatever photos I submit they're just not going to be liked.  Like Homer Simpson says, "You tried and you failed.  The lesson is clear... never try."

My buddy called me after he got off work tonight to tell me about the horror that was the route today.  Not only did he have to deal with the stupid tax forms, but then there was a whole drama in the loading dock.  When I came back from the route last night I placed the bins for Pasadena as close to the door as possible.  I thought I kept them out of everyone's way, but apparently Maleficent didn't think so.  Apparently she wasn't too happy with them being where I left them.  Ah, sorry, it's the most convenient place I could put them so that it would be easy for the Pasadena driver to pick up, and not have to deal with exploring half the library to find them.  But of course when my buddy returned from the route Maleficent didn't want the bins where I placed them last night.  So she told Les to tell Vagabundo to more them somewhere else.  Not happy with that, my buddy was saying that she was giving him the stink eye the entire time he was trying to get the bins upstairs.  Fucking cunt.  I'm so tired of their incompetence.  They need to all go away.  They are what's wrong with the library and the world today.  Short sighted bastards!  She fucking sees those bins every morning that she comes into work.  Suddenly she sees them and wonders why they are by the dock entrance?!  This is not right.  This is nothing but bullshit!  Maleficent focuses on the stupidest, most irrelevant thing.  Like not having personal items on work desks.  Ah, what?  You have a library renovation that's over budget and not on time.  I think you can let this no personal items thing slide for now.  Again, total incompetence.  Last thing, my buddy said that few items were sold.  Could it be that the tables in the above photo were overpriced?  They wanted $1,200 for those tables.  Ah... no.  They are fucking piles of shit tables.  The price makes me wonder if she was trying to pay for the over runs in cost with this sale.  Good luck, lady.  You're drowning and no matter what you do the lifesavers aren't coming.  Suck dick, Maleficent.

Sat Feb 4, I know I should have just stayed home today, since I had a day off.  But no way I was ready to deal with my aunt today.  Besides, I needed to get some things done.  Number one, get a haircut.  Number two was to kill some time.  I had a couple of ideas where to go, but I ultimately decided to go up to Descanso gardens to take some shots with my new pinhole camera (pictured above).

I decided to go to Descanso gardens to check out the sights.  I figured that since it's been raining the gardens would look nice.  Sure enough, the gardens looked nice.  I didn't travel around too much, but I did get some good shots.  The one above is of the Japanese garden.  It's taken with a fisheye lens on top of my iPhone.  This was a double test in a sense.  One, for the pinhole camera, and two for the fisheye lens.  So far I can't tell how the pinhole did.  That won't be known for a while.  The fisheye did well, I think.

I do wish I could have just stayed home today.  I'm tired and I want to just rest.  I also had some things to do on the website, but when I got back home I didn't have the energy to do anything with the site.

Sun Feb 5, A patron that's a regular was speaking to me today and at one point another patron walked in front of her.  That opened up the floodgates with this one.  She immediately says to me, "I hate Asians."  I was so shocked that I didn't know what to say to her.  I just told her that I hated everyone.  What I should have said, and I didn't think of it until later is, "I'm Asian."  Next time this lady starts with this kind of talk I'm just going to walk away.  I'm so very tired of people.

After going to the grocery store and driving home I stopped by a fast food joint to get some food before arriving home to catch the end of the Super Bowl.  The Falcons went up 28 - 3 at 8:31 left in the 3rd quarter.  The Patriots outscored them 31 to nothing the rest of the game, including overtime.  When I started got home the Patriots had just scored a touchdown, but missed the extra point.  The score was 28 - 9, Atlanta.  I thought the game was over.  But, I then I watched an incredible come back by the Patriots.  My aunt was yapping at me as I watched the overtime session.  That goes to show you she's unaware of anything.  She could see I was interested in watching this, but she kept right on yapping.  I ended up watching the end of the game, but then rewinding it to watch it again, because my aunt was not going to just leave me be.  But yes, it was an incredible comeback.  One of the best I've ever seen.

Mon Feb 6, This is a broken record now, but I'm going to mention it again.  My cousin's husband came to the house at 6:54am this morning.  I can't fucking take this shit anymore.  My aunt and I were actually talking about this last night.  How we want to say something to my cousin's husband about getting here so early.  Sleep is precious.  Having those few extra minutes of sleep is precious.  But some people don't get it.  I'm so very tired of this.

I went over to TheGirl's after work and of course played with puppy.  TheGirl and I tried to figure out what our itinerary for our upcoming trip.  We're going to stay in Carmel, but drive up to Santa Cruz on Sunday to visit a specific park, the name of which escapes me at the moment.  We have to figure out where we walk to have breakfast and such.  And that's what we talked about tonight.

History repeats itself, because humans don't learn from their mistakes. What I ask you all to do is to replace the word "communist" with the word "Islam" and tell me what is the difference between what happened during the the 50's and what is happening now.
There have been many charlatans throughout history that have pointed fingers while acting righteously.  They cloak themselves in whatever you hold to be dear and honorable.  They will sell you a bill of goods.  What they really want is obedience.  Question them and they will label you whatever is the unpopular name at the time.  They will shine a light on you, while hiding in the dark.  History has shown us that those who stand in that light and are not afraid to reflect that light and cast the truth are the ones that free us all.  Let us not lurk in the dark.  Let us cast the light of truth into the darkness... now more than ever.  As Murrow said, "We must remember that accusation is not proof."  "Cassius was right... The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves."

Tue Feb 7, I start tonight with the tables that were not sold.  I was asked last week if I could work the furniture sale on this weekend.  Ah, no, I said.  I didn't want to deal with that shit.  As it is, I could have worked and made some money.  But, I'm glad I didn't show up.  From the looks of it they sold nearly nothing.  Reasons range from the quality of the furniture to the fact that motherfucking Maleficent has lost her damn mind.  She priced the ratty, gum infested, old as dirt tables at a whopping $1,200... EACH!  I wouldn't pay two cents for these old things.  As you can see from the sign above, the price was then halved, and halved again.  Still, NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD PAY $300 FOR THESE TABLES.  Even at $100 the library would be hard pressed to find a buyer.  Obviously.  THIS is how detached Maleficent is from reality.  Something as simple as a furniture sale has revealed her incompetence.  To not realize that no sane human being would ever pay these prices goes to how detached she is from reality.  Instead of pricing them at $100 each, priced to move, she decided to charge full value for something that is used and old.  Naturally no one bought any of them.  Naturally if they had been priced to move the loading dock would be empty right now.  So instead of going for the easy money and getting rid of this junk, she decided to close her budget gap by pricing the furniture at prices no one would touch.  Effectively rendering the sale pointless.  Good job, Maleficent.

When I was sorting a little this morning Jade was telling me about new guy clocking in at one time, but leaving at another.  This morning I noticed that new guy arrived late.  9:15am.  I'm not saying he doesn't have a horrible commute, but this is not the first time he has been late.  IF he's constantly fifteen minutes late than you would think that he would leave fifteen to twenty minutes earlier from home to nullify that time deficit.  I guess not.  Also, Jade was mentioning how the time that he puts down as clocking out and the time he leaves are two different times.  I don't know about this guy.  When he started I thought he was a good guy.  But couple this, and the recent mail problems that clearly point to him, and I wonder what he's trying to pull.  Also, I nearly forgot.  One of the branches told me that they had sent a black backpack out in the delivery, but that it hadn't arrived at its destination branch.  I came back and asked Jade about it.  He had not seen any black backpack.  Of course the dummy sending it in the delivery can't remember what day it was that she sent it.  Of course.  Jade also mentioned to me that new guy hugs the female coworkers.  If that's not bad I don't know what is.  I admit, I would like to be hugging up on some of these guys, but I also know that it's a big no no.  Not only because they might not like it, but even if they invited me to hug them a third party could find that it creates a hostile work environment.  And that makes it a huge no no.  Oh well, this guy wants to hang himself so be it.  I'm not his boss, so who am I to tell him what he shouldn't do?  Whatever!

Last week I had to make a "special" delivery to Chevy Chase library in order to take them a banner/flag that said "Library open."  It was huge.  I was to take two to each branch, except Chevy.  That extra Chevy one was meant to be used during the furniture sale in the dock.  Now that they don't need it I was to take it up to Chevy today because, "They need it before the open," tomorrow Wednesday.  Oh sure, I thought.  Well, I went up there and sure enough, the one that they had to have on Thursday so they could use it when they had an event on Friday night was STILL FOLDED IN THE PLASTIC BAG IT CAME IN.  They had not used it AT ALL (pictured above).  Oh, and the tables I was asked to take up there last week were UNTOUCHED.  I show a picture of two coffee makers above, because I want to make a point.  Vagabundo took the coffee machine on the lower right corner, DESPITE the fact that they had a bigger coffee maker (lower left) ALREADY!  I seriously think this is just a way of giving us busy work.  Meanwhile, I'm actually busy with all the other things I have to do.  I don't need busy work, because I'm ACTUALLY busy.  Idiots!

At my last stop Krishna was talking to me about wanting to get something to eat, but not wanting to drive off and give up her good parking spot.  Somehow I told her I could take her somewhere, but she had to walk back.  She decided she wanted to go to the mall, so I drove her down there.  You know, Krishna's body had been transformed due to her having a child.  But there's still something nice about her.  In short, I would still like to sleep with her.

When I got back to central I finished up the sorting of the few bins I had today and just before leaving I checked out the construction zone.  They put down carpet in one area last week, because this week they put in new shelves.  Not sure why this is happening, but it's happening.  Whatever, this is such a shit show.

Wed Feb 8, Not much worth writing about work.  I did flirt with Desiree the best I could.  I need to stop this flirting and finally just ask her out.  I've been waiting to ask her out until after Valentine's day.  I don't want to ask her out before Valentine's day, because that would put too much pressure on going out with her.  So yes, I'm waiting until after Valentine's day to try to ask her out.

It was shortly after starting my shift on the reference desk that my stomach started to feel ill.  And by that I mean bloated.  I also felt a wee bit nauseous.  I felt like a huge fart was close to the surface.  I also had cramping.  But, I survived my desk shift.  But as I left for dinner with TheGirl I started belching like crazy.  I was on the phone with a friend and the entire time I was belching.  I had her on mute in the moments when I was burping and the sound coming out of my mouth was like a yelp more than a burp.  I was not feeling well.

I still wasn't feeling well when I arrived at TheGirl's place.  But in no way was I going to miss our Wednesday night dinner.  When I got to her place TheGirl realized I wasn't my usual self.  I told her I wasn't feeling 100%, but that I still wanted to get dinner.  On second thought it might have been better to just go home.  But still, I wanted to go.  Dinner was OK.  We went to Burbank to a place that she likes, but that, based on the potato skins I had, isn't all that good.  I didn't even get to drink.  THAT's when she knew I wasn't well at all.  TheGirl goes to many places, but they are also limited, because she bring Cheyenne in tow.  Now I really don't mind having a limited assortment of restaurants that we can dine in.  But if I was feeling well going to this place might have not been that great of a choice.  It was in the trendy spot of Burbank, which doesn't say much to me about the taste of the food.  There's a lot of meh places there.  Strangely enough, I think we would have had a better meal had we been able to go to the new IKEA store.  Oh well, maybe I'll suggest it next time.  I don't think they allow dogs in there though.

I went home and took a dump and went to bed earlier.  My stomach was still cramping up.  The only thing that I ate that was different today was the scout cookies I bought from a former coworker.  I plan on checking their expiration date when I go to work on Friday.

Thu Feb 9, I stared work at 8am because I was told by Jade that we were going to take the stupid tables from Chevy back to their home branches.  But when it was 8:47am and Jade wasn't anywhere in sight I recruited another coworker to move the tables.  He was willing, because why not.  It got him out of doing other work.

My coworker and I went up to get the tables and threw them in the back of the van.  Because of the delay we were only able to take the tables to one of the locations that they belonged to.  We had to rush back to downtown Glendale to go to what I call mucus training.

There is a new payroll system in the city that was supposed to be implimented last year.  Typical of the city the thing was delayed for over a year.  But now it's nearly here.  Today's training was, to cut a long story short, pointless.  For me, anyway.  The things I had to learn on that thing could have taken five minutes.  There were things that had to do with the full timers and supervisors, but not me.  I'm a peon.  They made my life all the more simple with thing new thing.  The girl at the training was pretty cute.  She didn't know what she was talking about, but she was attractive.  Armenian, of course.  Still, I got paid for sitting there for an hour.  The girl teaching the course kept looking at me.  I may not be anything to look at, but I know when a woman is interested.  At least I like to think I do.

When I returned to the city hall complex during my delivery I heard the sound of TheDesire's voice in the background, speaking Armenian.  I knew what it was from, but couldn't figure why it was playing.  The source was a TV in the lobby of city hall playing old videos.  The video in question was of TheDesire reading a story to a bunch of kids in her native language.  I've seen the video many years ago.  I couldn't help but take the above picture and send it to her via text.  Deep down inside I still wish things would have worked out between us.  But wishing and holding on to that wish are two different things.  I don't wish us to be together any more.  It's not important to me now.  I tried my best, and clearly it wasn't good enough.  Clearly it wasn't meant to be.  I still consider her a friend, despite the fact that I don't want to interact with her.  She's still special to me.  But, she's in the past.

Last week I was told to deliver a bunch of "Library open" flags to each branch.  Each branch needed them as soon as possible, because they wanted to have them out in front of each branch to show the world that they were open.  I delivered them, and of course I haven't seen them at ANY of the branches since then.  Until today.  FINALLY, outside the fucking gallery, Brand had one of their flags out.  But just look at the picture above.  Just look at the placement of the flag.  Not only is it hidden under a outdoor roof, but it's in the corner, where it will NEVER catch the wind.  Catching the wind being vitally necessary to the function of the fucking thing.  THIS is yet another example of the stupidity of this place.  I asked one of the guys, knowing the answer already, why they didn't have the flag further out.  You know, where patrons might actually SEE IT?  He told me, as I suspected, that the base didn't keep the flag from tipping over.  Of course it didn't.  Because as much as the base weighs, it doesn't weight enough.  A flag like this acts as a sail, and will catch the wind enough to carry it away.  But did the dummies that bought these things think about such a thing?  Yes and no.  They figured that they would have sand bags add weight to the base, thereby keeping the flags from flying off.  Of course they could have instead bought stakes.  Nope, those would have cost too much.  Well, of course I come to find out that they are going to buy stakes after all.  Fucking morons.

The construction continues.  They are making some progress, but it's sloppy work.  Really sloppy work.  But of course, what would you expect when they're under the gun to finish this thing by the end of April?  Oh, and that's the new goal, to finish up by the end of April.  I think it's possible, especially the way they're cutting corners now.

Fri Feb 10, My coworker H posted the above picture on her social media.  It confirms that I'm not invited to T's wedding.  Whew!  T is actually not a dope.  She knows I'm not a wedding guy, and didn't invite me.  Whew!

A woman came up to the reference desk looking to lay out some flyers.  She was attractive, so I gave her a little extra attention.  To make a long story short, she added me on FB and took the picture above with me.  Right in the stairway.  Yeah, super nice.  Found out later when I was added on FB that she's attached.  Ha, but I did see Desiree look at me with a tiny bit of jealously when I was talking to this woman.

The work buds reunited at Chichen Itza to basically say good-bye for now to Squire.  He is moving up to Portland in a few weeks.  The food was super yummy.  And I wish I ordered more, but I didn't want to get too full.

After dinner we dropped off Misa and then Vagabundo and I talked about how we are going to deal with new guy.  New guy seems to be on a campaign to discredit us.  He is always saying how we are either early or late to the branches.  Ah, we know that he doesn't do the route the way it was prescribed.  That's fine.  But don't shit on us.  Vagabundo thinks that new guy thinks of us as rubes.  I told Vagabundo that I think we should change the narrative that new guy seems to be selling to people.  When he says we're early we say no, we're not.  When he mentions anything we are to take an opposite position.  For now that's what we're going to do, because what he's doing isn't right.  Then again, I am starting to believe that new guy's questions are more because he thinks he's under the gun rather than us being under the gun.  Makes sense to me.

Sat Feb 11, I had a day off today and I wasn't going to pretend that I had work.  Fuck that.  I need to just rest one fucking day.  Besides, next week I'm going up north with TheGirl.  So yes, I just stayed home and worked on some of my projects.  Cleared out some boxes that I had here.  I always have this notion that I'll need them, but I never do.  Thankfully my aunt didn't ask me if I had a day off.

Mon Feb 13, When I got to work my coworker reminded me that I was to cover her last two hours on the desk.  I told her that I didn't realize today was the day, but I was all set for it.  The desk was quite busy in my two hour shift.  I won't go into the details, but suffice to say that this library needs someone like me who can just get things done.  Alas, they won't make me a full timer.  Not that I want to leave, but the Beverly Hills job I signed up for looks better and better the more I think about it.  I hope I have a fair shot at this.

I was having lunch when T started to complain about her wedding dress, and a friend that was invited, but her daughter wasn't invited.  Through this interaction I learned that those who are invited know they are invited.  And since I didn't get an invite, I now know I'm not invited.  Woo hoo!

I went over to TheGirl's, as is a Monday night tradition.  There is a big storm coming into the state this weekend, which would mean a terrible trip up north.  But, I have to say that part of me still wants to go.  However, TheGirl won't go, so we have cancelled our plans to go up to Carmel.  This seems to be a pattern lately.  The last trip was postponed for a month.  In about a month after that I was going up there for my annual Thanksgiving trip.  Now I just have to find something to do this weekend.

TheDesire posted a picture from the account that I used to send her photos from, and I had to mention that I submitted a comment that hasn't been used.  There is STILL a connection between TheDesire and me.  I wanted to text her about this, but at the same time I knew that would be falling back on old mistakes.  So, I didn't text her.  But I feel weak right now, and I know that eventually I will text her and it will take me down an old path.  Not going to lie, if TheDesire gave me a chance to be with her today I would take it.  Even if it ended with the inevitable break-up.  It would just be a pleasure to be with her for a few months.  To know that I reached that peak again, like when I was with TheGirl.  Alas, it's not going to happen.  I can't lie that I have had this thought that if the opportunity came up I feel the need to kiss TheDesire at least once.  Just once.

Tue Feb 14, When I got to the parking garage at work I found barriers in front of the van.  I guess there can never be a time when I get to work and there isn't some sort of drama surrounding the van.  Never, ever.  Oh well, at least it was easy to deal with the drama of the barriers.  The guy working on the floor moved them for me.  But then came the work stuff.

For some reason there was a ton of bins waiting for the Pasadena delivery this morning.  I came to find out through Jade that Pasadena didn't come yesterday, because their library was closed for Lincoln's birthday.  Ah, what?  I thought the whole idea of President's day is to eliminate those separate holidays.  Oh well, they didn't show up.  Next stop was administration to check on the mail.  No hand carry.  When I went downstairs the only hand carry today was the money.  When I saw how many bins I had I knew today was going to be super easy.

And then came a special delivery request.  I was to take twenty chairs to Chevy today.  Since it was a light load I didn't mind it.  But what I do mind is this idea that these special deliveries need to be made.  There are so many chairs up at Chevy.  By their own admission there are over a hundred chairs up there.  But they are supposedly expecting a hundred twenty people up for some lame event.  Sure... how about expecting more like a dozen people?  Because that's the amount that will ACTUALLY show up.  Whatever, it was a small amount of chairs.  The above photo shows the chairs that I was taking and the other three photos show the chairs that were already up at Chevy.  But, they want their dusty chairs up at Chevy so be it.

Apparently today Valentine's day.  TheGirl gave me a chocolate heart.  It was nice.  I'm eating it slowly.  The one good thing about today was that there's a Simpsons related social media fedd that was posting clips from my favorite Simpsons episode ever.  When I was seeing TheGirl I even bought a t-shirt that said choo choo choose you.  Sigh.

When I drove up to the library after making all my stops I see some dope parked really close to the area where I park the van.  When I got of the van I noticed that the dope's car was running.  The person was looking at their phone and was just waiting in their car.  What more, they had a hoodie on.  Ah, a hoodie?  It's not cold today, by any means.  I've noticed that people drive around with hoodies on in their car.  I used to have a car that didn't have heat, and that's the ONLY time I was in the car with a hoodie on.  I didn't like driving that way, because it was more difficult to see to my sides.

I was heading back to the van after dropping off some books and I noticed one of the fire extinguisher boxes looked mighty beaten up.  Upon closer inspection I noticed that it was the old boxes.  This is just another example of the sorry nature of this construction.  I grant you that there is nothing wrong with the old box.  But it does look old.  It stuck out to me for that very reason.

I got back and finished up the route early today, since there wasn't that many bins to deliver.  I did a presort when I was on the route.  When I mentioned it to my buddy via text he only said, "Nooo."  I did save me time at the end of my shift, so I told my buddy nothing about it.  This is something I have to do.  He has his thing to do, and of course I'll back him.  But at the same time I have to do what's best for me and for everyone.

Jade came to me while I was sorting the bins and invited me to get pie over at the Americana.  I wanted to just get my job done and go, but he insisted.  That's when I realized that TheDesire was going with us.  That did incentivize going over and getting some pie.  The pie itself was whatever.  But it was kinda nice to spend those few minutes around TheDesire.  I forgot how nice that was.  Still, not going to go all crazy and try to pursue her again.  That has proven to be nothing but a lost cause.  Just pointing out how nice it was.  Like I said, the pie sucked dick.  I rather have Pie n Burger, which I have taken TheDesire to eat.

Wed Feb 15, I was in the wake of TheLamp today on the reference desk.  I'm typing this very sentence and her perfume is lingering in the air.  It's quite nice.  This older gentleman that I work with mentioned how nice TheLamp looked today.  I concur.  She wore a dress hugs her curves quite nicely.  I did take some time to flirt with Desiree and of course LaFlor.  She's looking really nice these days as well.  ARGH!  All these wonderful women and I'm too chicken to go after any of them.

We didn't know where to go for dinner tonight, until TheGirl suggested going to Dog Haus.  Which really hit the spot tonight.

After dinner TheGirl wanted to show me that Warner Bros. studio replaced their regular show posters outside with Lego minifig version of their shows.  I posed Chan in front of one of my favorite show's poster.  Chan is adorable.

We got back to TheGirl's place and of course played with puppy.  Cheyenne was extra freaky tonight.

I came home and my aunt tells me, "I made more corn no the cob."  Ah, I didn't even get to the eat the previous corn on the cob she made.  Just before I left her room she added that she didn't know what to cook for me.  She made me some really terrible tasting meatballs a couple of weeks ago.  I naturally didn't eat many of them.  My aunt is right though, I'm pretty much sick of all food.  Only really tasty food makes me want to eat.  As I sit here I have to get ready for work tomorrow and the only thing I have to pack my lunch with is mac and cheese.  I fucking don't know when fucking mac and cheese became an entree.  But mac and cheese is NOT a fucking entree.

Thu Feb 16, I've been starting work at 8am.  But last night I forgot to set my early alarm.  Because of that I didn't make it to work until 9am.  Which is fine, I liked being able to "sleep-in."  But it meant that I had one less hour to do the route today.  Have to say that I did like being able to sleep that extra hour.

While I was sorting the bins for the route today I got an email from Beverly Hills.  I checked my phone to see if the email contained information about an interview.  No, it didn't.  It contained a rejection.  Oh well.  So much for THAT.  It would have been nice to have at least gotten a chance to get out of these two part time jobs.

The route was pretty normal today.  I've been pretty quiet and not really too interactive with people these days, because I can't stand them.  But of course people get different ideas of why I've become so quiet.  Emma did come out to talk to me while I was at her branch.  She told me that new guy mentioned to Dole that he doesn't like Jade.  And that he feels that we've been given more work to do without compensation.  He partially blames Jade for not doing the sorting.  And I guess by association he blames me, since I am doing the sorting.  It's not my idea of bliss to do the sorting in the morning and in the evening.  But it means more hours for me, and that means more money.  I have to mitigate my losses in hours.  At this point with me working nine and a half hours twice a week I'm up to nineteen hours a week.  Not quite to my old levels of twenty-four hours a week.  But, I'm getting there.  Back to new guy talking about Jade.  He told Dole that he wants to talk to the boss about Jade not doing his job.  I considered telling Vagabundo about this, but for now I'm going to keep this under my hat.

When I got back from the route Jade mentioned that there was an email sent out announcing the hiring of a new assistant director.  When I got home I checked out her FB and found a statement by her on her page (see above).  I just hope she's not a dope.  Because there are enough dopes at work already.

Christy Brinkley is in the news these days, because she's amazing looking.  She really is a freak of nature.  Sixty-three years old and she looks better than woman half her age.  Truly amazing woman.  I continuously make the joke that there is a picture of Christy getting older somewhere.  But the reality is she an anomaly.

Fri Feb 17, It's going to rain a lot today, and I would rather not go out in the rain.  But, I can't just stay home.  I can't enjoy a day off.  That's been proven time and time and TIME again.  My aunt just can't let me fucking have a day off without her asking me a ton of questions I have zero interest in.  Or constantly harassing me if I want to eat.  Hey, I'm a grown man.  If I'm hungry I know where to find food.  ARGH!  All I want is to be left along for ONE FUCKING DAY.  Obviously too much to ask for, and so I drive to San Marino to be alone in my office.  And of course the trip I was going to take this weekend has ben postponed to who knows when.  It's fucking bullshit.

There is a BIG rain storm coming.  Or so the news keeps on talking about it.  Either way, I went to the hardware store to get some pipe thingie to take the water that's coming out of the side gutter and channel it to the pavement.  My aunt wanted me to do this a while back, but I haven't had the time.  Since I didn't work today I only pretended to, I had the time to go buy the stuff needed.

When I got back home my aunt right away saw that I was putting the gutter extender outside, and helped.  She also mentioned that the side gutters were dripping.  I checked, and sure enough the thing was clogged and that's why water wasn't flowing.  I was a whirlwind and fixed these problems within twenty minutes.  Most of the problem was just adjusting things.

As you can see from the video, it was coming down in sheets this afternoon.

As I think about that that Beverly Hills job didn't even give me a chance to have an interview I remember something else that rejected me this month.  And I start to wonder if this month isn't just going to be about rejections.  One after the other.  If I ask Desiree out I don't want that to be the trifecta of rejections this month.  But every day I wait is a day some other douche is going to become interested in her, and vice versa.  Fuck everything!  I need a drink.

Sat Feb 18, If plans had not been changed today TheGirl and I would have been going up to Monterey.  I told TheGirl that we should still go, but then at the start of the week we both heard stories about the big storm coming.  And sure enough, it did hit... yesterday.

I was starting to put some notes together for this mythical book that I have said I wanted to write.  Well, I guess I just don't have it in me.  Not that I don't have the ability to write.  But that I don't have a story I want to tell.  My story is bullshit.  I need a completely original story.  With elements of stuff that I want to say.  But as of now.  A novel is not the thing I can write, simply because I ain't got shit for a story.

Sun Feb 19, My aunt left to visit my Godmother early this morning.  That meant that I had the house to myself for once.  I decided to eat breakfast in the old table my Grandmother bought for this express purpose.  I haven't eaten at that table in a LONG time.  I put my laptop on the table so I could still watch something while I ate.

I ate late in the morning in order to be hungry by the time I went up to CityWalk with TheGirl.  When we got there we needed to eat before going to the movie.  We ended up going to the Italian restaurant there.  We ordered up some booze and of course some food.  We ordered a second round, and barely had enough time to drink the second round and get to the movie theater.

Before our second round of booze showed up a photographer came up to the table and asked if we were willing to have our pictures taken.  Sure, why not, we said.  The guy then asked us, "So, are you a couple?  What are you?"  TheGirl and I both looked at each other and kinda paused.  We're definitely friends, and exes.  But how many exes still travel together?  How many still have dinner on a regular basis, like once a week?  How many have a monkey?  The only thing we don't do is have sex with each other.  And if I had said yes to that a long time ago I bet we would still be sleeping together.  We're just damn good together, couple or not.

The reason why we were out and about is because we were going to see the latest Fifty Shades movie.  Oh boy, where do I start?

I certainly didn't expect a masterpiece of any kind when I told TheGirl that we should see this movie.  But what I ended up watching wasn't so much a movie as a retelling of the story of paint drying.  Where to start?  The acting was stilted and forced.  It felt like everyone was a card board cutout with moving lips.  That is until the sex scenes, and there are quite a few sex scenes.  That's pretty much the only thing the two lead characters do in the movie.  Which is fine.  The irony is that one of the characters is said to be into BDSM.  However, what we have here isn't true BDSM, but rather some housewife's idea of what that might entail.  At one point the Grey character mentions that he's not a dominant, but rather a sadist.  I thought how much of a masochist for watching this tripe.

The "relationship" didn't feel like a loving relationship.  The whole idea is that these two really LOVE each other.  But how it comes off on screen is that this is a classic abusive relationship.  So you could say that the BDSM isn't physical, but rather mental in their so-called relationship.  Grey pretty much tells Anna what to do, and she does it.  Sure, she puts up a little bit of a fight, but she quickly acquiesces to all orders by Grey.  Most of the movie the pair are having sex.  It's not super exciting sex.  Again, ironically they mention how the Grey character views non-BDSM relations as vanilla.  However, the sex in the two movies is nothing but vanilla, even the supposedly BDSM scenes.  Nothing of true BDSM sex is actually explored in these movies, and of course that's the purpose.  The main purpose of making Grey prefer that kind of sex is to show that he's damaged in some way.  The implication is that only Anna can "save" him from himself and his past.

Most of the "dramatic" scenes are nothing but narrative cul-de-sacs.  The is a moment when Grey goes off in his helicopter with his assistant and there's an emergency.  I could not stop laughing in my mind at the assistant constantly asking, "What's happening... what's happening?"  Ah... you're fucking going down!  The fucking helicopter is clearly falling out of the sky.  The best thing is that Grey never answers his assistant's question.  Even as the helicopter is plunging into a forrest.  In the next scene Grey's family, along with Anna, are gathered in his penthouse, waiting for any news.  The non-tension is "broken" when a news report comes on and states that Grey and his assistant have been found alive.  Two seconds later Grey pops out of the elevator.  Except for a little bit of dried blood on the top of his head he is fine.  Ah, why didn't he go to the hospital?  Might he have a concussion?  I have a friend that was rear ended in a car crash, and he mentioned how that "little" hit was something he didn't think would cause so much pain.  But it turned out he had a concussion.  Grey?  Nope, tis merely a flesh wound.  Immediately his family is out the door, and Grey and Anna have sex.  Again.

Their co-called relationship is purely a sexual affair disguised as a love affair.  Yes, there are times when sex is confused as love, and vice versa.  But none of the characters questions this relationship that is heading to marriage by the end of the second act.  Never is there a scene in which a friend of Anna's questions if she's in love with Grey or in lust.  Because I think the relationship is just that, lust.  These are two good looking people, but they are also uninteresting.  Grey is boring a his name.  He's good looking and super rich.  And seemingly only has to be at the office for ten minutes a day.  Anna is supposedly smart and well read, but aside from a moment when she mentions an up and coming author should be given a chance at her publishing firm, we never get anything that shows her to be smart.  If anything, she is shown as a big dope that simply lusts have Grey because he's a good looking guy.

In short, the entire movie played out like a pair of teenagers in their first or second real relationship.  They know how the mechanics of a relationship is supposed to work, but they have no actual experience in making a relationship work.  There is no compromise, no give and take.  It's simply sex and emotional abuse.  Anna is not empowered because she says no to Grey ONE TIME, she is entangled in his vortex.  He is boring man that seeks to control every relationship he has as if humans were robots.  And ultimately that's what Grey wants from Anna, a robot that will look pretty and have sex with him anytime, anywhere.

I know that TheGirl and I will go see the third movie next year.  I hope it's a lot more fun.  Something that can be made more fun of, MST3K style.  This movie wasn't fun at all.

Mon Feb 20, I spent the day doing nothing today.  This week is going to be a short week, but that usually means it's going to be tough.  Hence me wanting to rest.  I don't want to waste much more time not asking Desiree out.  I have to do it before the end of March.  I know, that's a BIG window, but I know myself.

Pictured above is my aunt looking inside my car.  Not sure why she does this, but she does it every once in a while.  This shot was captured by a camera I have for security purposes.  Not sure what she's looking to find.  Does she expect me to have a gun on the dash?  Perhaps some drugs or a dead hooker.  I just don't get it.

Tue Feb 21, I walked out of the elevator and was surprised to find nothing but white.  The plastic cover they use during the construction was in front of the door to the elevator.  I wondered if I could actually exit the elevator and make it to faux circulation.  I did, thankfully.  But still, every day is a new obstacle.

When I opened up the van there was a bunch of water waiting for me.  Not content with that Casa gave me more water to deliver.  But, Vagabundo will have to deal with that tomorrow, because the water is to be delivered to my first stop on the route.  I thought about how I'm so early today that I might just go back to Montrose and deliver the water, but fuck that.

I was so early on the route today that I didn't have lunch after my first stop.  I wasn't hungry yet.  I ended up eating at Brand.  Well, the park surrounding the library.  It was different, and it was nice.

I was super far ahead on the route today.  When I got to Pacific she asked me to help her out with a few things.  I did.  Ever since she had her child Krishna's butt, which was not small to begin with, has ballooned.  Still, maybe I'm just a horny bastard, but I could not stop trying to check it out.  Hate to admit it, but if she wanted to roll in the hay I would still go for it.  Admittedly it's because I'm a horny fuck.

I went to check out the construction tonight.  I'm not going to say there's no progress.  But some of the progress is slow and some is fast.  The stairway has been seemingly untouched for the last month.  The new bathrooms are coming along.  One already has the toilets installed.  Circulation looks like a bomb hit it.  No changes there.  The auditorium looks better, but still far from completed.  All in all I can't imagine they will be ready by the end of April, which is the new goal.  I seriously doubt they'll be ready by then.  I figure they will force an early opening and then continue working on things until September, which is when they will have the remembrance room and the computer lab.

Because of a misunderstanding I thought that TheGirl was inviting me to go out for dinner tonight.  I was wrong, but I was at her place anyway, so I visited with Cheyenne.  Oh my monkey, she was bouncing all over the place.  Even though she's wearing a protective cone around her head.  The poor thing hates it, but she needs to have it while her eye heals up.  Which should be by Monday.  TheGirl has taken the week off, using her vacation time.  Which means she doesn't know when we will be able to travel.  It won't be for a while, that's for sure.  I told her that we could go for a day trip to Santa Barbara.  She liked that idea.

Wed Feb 22, Pseudo supervisor really isn't one to push me too hard when it comes to doing my assigned work.  Just as long as the work gets done on time.  She did tell me today that come the end of the year she will rely on me much more to prepare for the next open house in January 2018.  It will be the tenth anniversary of the new library building.  Anyway, she says that during that time of year she will possibly be gone for a month or two.  And she will need me to head up the planning for the open house and the bookmark contest.  It's going to be interesting.  But, at the same time it's a good thing.

Oh, and the reason I posted the above photo of a rainbow is because there was a rainbow visible from the library.  Pretty cool.  What wasn't cool was me being cockblocked when it came to Desiree.  I wanted to chat her up today, but every time I tried a patron would come up or the fucking phone would ring with a passport question.  ARGH!

Tonight was National Margarita day, and for dinner TheGirl and I went to a Mexican restaurant that we often go to.  We can't take Cheyenne, but since TheGirl has been nursing her all week she needed to get out for a little while.  Well, I had two margaritas in addition to the whiskey I had before.  I didn't even eat much since I was all chatty.  I get that way when I drink.  The booze really hit the spot.  Both of us needed it.  Poor Cheyenne will still have to wear that cone on her head for a few days more.  Poor thing.

Thu Feb 23, Not much happened on the route today, but some things happened before the route.  A couple of weeks ago a backpack was lost during the route.  For some reason this focused some light on Vagabundo and me.  Well, to make a long story short, none of us could find this thing.  None of us knew where it went.  None of us could remember the last time we saw the backpack.  But on Tuesday I was in the Friend's of the library room and I thought I saw them.  What I saw didn't register right away.  But last night I had this thought that the backpack I saw might have been the misplaced one we were all looking for.  I went past the friend's room and grabbed it and took the above picture in order to sent it to the person who lost it.  I wanted her to see it to confirm that it was the backpack in question.  Sure enough, after I emailed her she confirmed that it was the very same backpack.  Woo!  My little detective work had found her backpack.  Good deed of the day done!

The route today was whatever, but I did want to mention one thing.  On Tuesday I had water bottles waiting for me in the van.  And then I picked up more bottles from one of the branches.  OK, that was done.  Well, not quite.  Today at Casa there were four more sets of water bottles waiting for me to deliver.  I just don't get why all this water is going from one branch to another and then back again.  Vagabundo mentioned how all this water is for an event in June.  JUNE!  These motherfuckers.  All I could do is fucking laugh at the stupidity and absurdity of the whole situation.  It's just how they do things.  Stupid.

Fri Feb 24, Work was pretty busy on the reference desk today.  Lots of little things, lots of questions, and lots of events happening.  During all that I tried to chat up Desiree, with little luck.

Speaking of that, the obstacles that the patrons put up between Desiree and myself are one thing.  But the fact that I'm a coward, and don't want to be rejected, is another.  Both things combine to make me wonder why I even bother to even think that I can somehow overcome my frailties.  I say this, because history has taught me that I won't overcome being scared to be rejected, and I just won't ask her out.

After my shift I helped record another library podcast.  We ran through it a couple of times and did it in one take.  We're getting to be really good at this stuff.  Woo!  I really like doing this stuff.

Sun Feb 26, Work was busy today.  Not much to report about that.  But I do want to share something funny that I saw while checking out the strategic plan for the library, which was done a few years back.  The comments gathered were recorded on the record.  One person said that the library was the, "Most terrible place in the city."  I could not stop laughing at this line.  Just priceless.

After work I went with a friend of mine to Pie n Burger.  I've told this friend that this place has great burgers and pie.  I hadn't been to Pie n Burger in a long time.  The burgers are REALLY good, but they are also a bit expensive.  But the pie is the best in Los Angeles.  My friend liked the burger, but he loved the pie.  I have to go back more often, and have more pie.  Our waitress tonight was a cute Latina.  Wish I could have gotten a picture of her.

Mon Feb 27, My buddy sent me an email this morning, sent to him by Jade.  You can read it above, but basically my buddy didn't place the outgoing Pasadena bins downstairs on Friday.  Of course Jade saw that this morning and wrote this email.  I have to say, my buddy has said that he doesn't have the time to do the sorting.  Which is fine.  But at the same time I do have to say that he's saying this because he wants to leave work at what was our old route time.  And, because if he stays he will go over his hours in total for the year.  So, I have to partially side with him, but at the same time he still has to do his job.  And not bringing those books downstairs looks bad.  It makes my buddy look like he doesn't want to do his job.  The sorting is one thing, but the bins are our domain.  I didn't respond to his email or his text about it.  I'm honestly absolutely tired of everyone and everything.  If my buddy continues down this path of not doing things that are now in our domain of what we do then it's going to make him look bad.  In short, I think that my buddy is wrong in this.  Not that Jade is all that great, but it really isn't his job to take those bins downstairs.  And clearly new guy isn't going to do it today either.  In our talk my buddy last night mentioned that he didn't care if the bins weren't sorted when he arrived on Wednesday or Friday.  He said that he would take those bins that were sorted and the hell with the ones not ready yet.  I think that's unfair.  Yes, someone should be doing this sorting and such, not the drivers.  But, this is what we have to deal with due to the fucking construction.  I feel that now I'll have to carry more of the burden.  And how is that right?  I can't wait for this fucking renovation to be over and we can just go back to the old route.  I told my buddy not to challenge Jade on things, because Jade has protection and he is like a coiled snake.  OK, I didn't tell him that, but I meant to say that.  Jade is dangerous.  As witnessed by this email sent out to not only Les but Les' boss.

Tue Feb 28, The route was pretty standard, but I did want to report that it's on.  New guy is spiteful towards the Pasadena driver and has continually left the bins for him on layer high (as shown in the photo above).  In the past I fixed them so they were four high, and so did Jade.  But no more.  Today the Pasadena driver got the full view of what new guy thinks of him.  No more protection.  New guy wants to not do his job properly that's on him.  I'm not going to do his job for him.

When I got in Jade started telling me how new guy was throwing bins around yesterday, and was generally angry.  He was cursing and unhappy with having to sort the book bins.  Welcome to my world.  Believe me, I don't want to do it either.  But if I don't it doesn't get done.  Jade has abdicated this job to me.  I have to say that it has its good and bad things.  I get more hours, but it also enables Jade to do one less thing during the day.  Not that it's an easy task, but because of my actions doing this it did force the other drivers to have to do this task.  Though they really don't HAVE to do it.  Still, I can see that Vagabundo felt inclined to do it as well.  But new guy didn't feel the need, and that's his choice.  But then to clash with Jade isn't a good idea.  Jade is a snake, and he waits for things like this.  Jade has the protection of being a full timer, and new guy has zero protection.  But, knowing new guy he doesn't know when to pull back and establish a better position.  He seems like the type that will just keep going until he burns all bridges.  Well, that's on him.  I just know that I've thrown in with Jade for now, because we have a common enemy... new guy.  I told Jade last week that new guy was talking shit about him.  Today he told me that he heard that new guy was talking shit about me.  I told Jade I didn't give a shit, because I just do my job.  But now, we're in this together.  Jade isn't all that great either, but he has a way of getting to new guy that I don't.  All I can say is that this whole thing is a delicate game that I have to play.  I have to balance all the parties.  Not easy.

I drove Mulholland Dr., because why not.  I stopped at one of the overlooks and behold, the San Fernando Valley.

Went to the Huntington to check out this thing called the Orbit Pavilion.  Which is a work of art that tracks satellites and projects sounds made from those signals being processed through a synthesizer.

Went to dinner and the tree in the middle of the restaurant patio was all lit up, and it looked nice.