Afterthoughts : This Past Month

No one can say that November wasn't fun for me, because it was.  On to the update.

Wednesday, November, 1, The new, but not new, outreach van is ready to face the masses.  Or so it would seem, with all the fliers that I picked up today from graphics.  One of the newer employees here at Glendale is Cindy E.  She was being forced by Krishna to drive the van all by herself and set up the story walk frame and do a story time all by herself in the park.  Not that anything has happened during these story times, but traditionally it's a two person job.  Last year and this year I helped out Vivian and TheNewCute with their storytimes in the park.  And the park that Krishna wants Cindy E to go to is a little shady.  Yes, it is during the day, but again, the tradition is to have two people there just in case.  One person backs the other.  It's just like on the desks.  In the old days they would never allow only two employees to be at a given location alone.  There always had be a full time employee with them.  Well, now that we're so shorthanded that rule is long forgotten.  Fucking shame.  Like I said, nothing has happened... yet.  God-forbid some nut comes into the library with intent to commit harm.  We are lucky that the ones that have come in have not attacked anyone.  Well, there was the guard at Central that got hit, but thankfully no one has come in with weapons.  Yet.

Cindy E told me today that she has told Krishna time and time again that she is not comfortable doing this sort of outreach.  Krishna insisted until Cindy E was crying and finally decided to cut her availability to just one day a week.  That day being Tuesday, and not that day that Krishna wanted her to do the outreach in the park (Wednesday).  I almost volunteered to help out Cindy E with the storytime, taking two hours in the middle of my route to help out.  But that wouldn't be helping Cindy E, it would only facilitate Krishna exploiting her.  Krishna is the worst.

I was at Grandview while Aurora was on a video meeting about the upcoming Dia de los Muertos event on Saturday.  I saw that TheNewCute was in the mix, and she looked like she was half asleep (see above).  I come to find out later that she was bored with the talk.  She did tell me that there was a whole discussion about food at the event.  Gitmo said he wanted to get some pizza's, like last year, but that Syco wouldn't let him.  Probably because it would come out of that budget.

TheNewCute opened the doors to this discussion when Gitmo asked her what time she wanted to have her dinner break.  TheNewCute responded, "Wherever the pizzas arrive."  That's when he told her that he wasn't being allowed to buy pizza.  But really that means it would have to come out of his pocket.  Not OK, but I think a necessary evil.  The event starts at 5pm, and most of us have been asked to work from 4pm to 9pm.  That's not a long time, but that is in the middle of the time that I will get hungry.  All I know is that I will likely take something up with me to eat, and maybe even a nice Coke to drink.

When I got to Brand it was lunch time.  I had pastrami and bread to make a sandwich.  I put the bread into the toasted and went to wash my hands.  I didn't register it at the time, but the timer was still ticking on the toaster.  It was only then that I realized that the toast was pretty damn toasty.  My sandwich suffered from the toast being too toasty.  For shame.

TheGirl and I had plans on going to Don Cucos in Burbank.  Those plans had to be changed to the Toluca Lake location, because TheHusband was going to be up in Burbank.  Bullshine!  Well, as if to make up for that the algorithm had the bartender at the Toluca Lake location make us extra strong margaritas.  TheGirl and I were flying.  I think they must have put something other than tequila.  Maybe mezcal.  Whatever it was, we both felt it.  Nice!

Thursday, November, 2, Walter Mercado, or as he was known to millions, El Walter, was a famous astrologer.  My Grandmother used to watch him, and even though we both knew it was just for "entertainment purposes," she did enjoy watching his segments.  I was thinking of him for some reason, and that made me remember my Grandmother.  I mean, she's never that far out of my thoughts.  But I remembered going into her room sometimes and when El Walter was on.  I do miss her so much.

I have some ice bags, for lack of a better name, that I use to keep my food cool in my lunch pail.  But, the plastic does break from time to time, which means it's less cold after time.  Today I replaced one of the sheets, because about half of the "cubes" have burst.  I have large sheets of these cubes, because I bought them in bulk.  Now my lunch will be extra cold.

Friday, November, 3, While looking for some things for the Dia de los Muertos celebration tomorrow I went into the office that the contractor is using to coordinate the children's room renovation.  While there I saw that they have the plans there.  I wanted to take more time to study them, but I was in a hurry.  I did snap the above picture that shows the main room and the overall look of what the children's room will look like when finished.  There's a lot of open space, but not many books.  The library hates books.

The route was not so chill today, because of all the Dia de los Muertos items I had to take with me.  It wasn't a huge amount, but enough for me to balk.  I can't imagine how much I'll have to haul to wherever on Monday after the event.  We shall see.

Other than that not much happened to report, except this minor thing that happened that nevertheless pissed me off.  I shouldn't let little things like this get to me, because people are gapping assholes these days, with zero regard for anyone else.  Here's what happened.  I made Adams my last stop today, and when I pulled up the last thirty minute parking spot was filled, so I parked in the red.  I went into the library to get the books and when I come out some moron is parked right next to me, IN THE RED.  I took the above photo after they left to show that there were PLENTY of open parking spots.  Why then, would this dummy park RIGHT NEXT TO ME?  I had to scoot by their car, because of course they parked close to the van.  When they left they had to contend with the open door in the back of the van.  I didn't close it to make it easier on them to get out of the spot.  They can eat shit.

Saturday, November, 4, Today was the Dia de los Muertos event at Brand.  It's usually held at Central, but it couldn't be hosted there this year, because of the renovation.  Because of that there was only one alter, rather than a dozen, like last year.  This year's celebration was tiny compared to last year's.

I don't have much to report about the night.  I worked the library table for a while, and then worked the alter.  Above is from the library's social media.  Of course it has to feature TheNewCute.

I was assigned to work the library table down by the Brand studios, which is somehow a separate entity from the Brand library, despite the fact that it's the same building.  Anyway, to continue, there was a moment when I was manning the table (pictured above) that a small boy walked by with his mom and sort turned to Julie and me and said, "I don't want to die."  The night before I was in my backyard thinking about how a hundred years from now I would be long gone, and everyone I knew would be gone.  I will be dead in a hundred years, that's for DAMN sure.  So when he said that I flashed back to that moment on my backyard bench when I was filled with dread at the prospect that I was going to die.  I think that thought lasted for about three seconds, before I tried my hardest to toss it from my brain.  Yeah, but that doesn't make it any less real.  That child has figured out that death is inevitable.  Humans now don't share a lot of common things.  But the one thing we will all experience is death.

What do I have?  Ten years?  Twenty years?  Fifty years?  Certainly not much more than fifty years, for sure.  If... BIG if, I'm lucky, I'll have forty years left.  That's assuming a lot of things, for sure.

Thanks, kid.

From there let me take this to a different place and talk about bad framing of the picture above.  I cropped that pictures, but above this should be the one originally taken that night.  The cute intern took this picture, but she should have taken two steps forward before taking it.  My coworker Julie and I look so far away.  Look at all that wasted space on our sides?  What a shame.  Should I tell her?  I only want to improve her skills.

And for no other reason other than on this date back in 2004 I hung out with Talia.  We spent a lot of time in the backseat of my car that night.  At one point in the night I remember her saying we needed to see this one house up the street.  So we walked up and Talia showed me this nice house and told me the story of the neighbors that lived there.  She was always going on about how she would visit her elder neighbors when she was younger.  I think that must have been the happiest time of her life.  Anyway, at one point she was standing in front of the house and she lifts up her shirt (as seen above).  That's the thing about Talia back then, she would get naked at the drop of a hat.  On our first date she got naked in my car.  We couldn't do much because it was in a parking lot at the old LACMA, which used to be a May Company clearance center.  Of course, being a horny guy I loved that she would get naked at the drop of a hat.  Strangely enough we didn't have a lot of sex back then.  It wasn't until our second time around, when I was going to CSUN that we were sleeping with each other all the time.  I still wonder to this day if she had been abused by someone close to her.  Because after our relationships I wondered why she was so sexual.  Girls don't normally take their clothes off in front of their neighbor's fancy front gate.  And that's the thing, we would go to other neighbor's homes and she would get naked.  There was an abandoned house, well should say abandoned?  I guess no one was living there, but it wasn't complexly abandoned.  They had a little front yard that was enclosed by some sort of trees.  I mean you couldn't see anything from the street.  One day she took it all off and I photographed her.  Some night I would park my car and we would mess around in that neighbor's driveway.  Thankfully that was also covered from street view, so no one would see us.  Not that anyone walked in that neighborhood.  It's Bel Air.

Sunday, November, 5, I was ordering some breakfast from Taco Bell this morning while driving over there.  They assemble the food so fast that when I get there it's been sitting there for a few minutes.  I thought it would be a good idea to order it when I'm about half way there.  Well, I was doing that after inputting it at home.  I was just going to hit order on the way there.  I didn't expect that the app would tell me that breakfast hours are over.  It was barely past 10am.  Looks like Taco Bell's mobile ordering servers didn't update for daylight savings.  I ended up ordering a chalupa, something I never eat, because the breakfast item I wanted wasn't available.  It wasn't good.  Womp, womp.

I fucking hate it when the time changes, whether it be forward or back.  For the last few years now every time change has messed me up.  The worst is losing the hour in Spring, that's for sure.  This year it REALLY effected me when the time change was forward.  For nearly two weeks I was just not having good night's sleeps.  Now it's the opposite.  I sleep and sleep.  I got home today after doing my errands and went to the backyard to chill.  I must have started the same video three or four times, because despite it not being that long I kept passing out.  I mean I could not get enough sleep apparently.  It also doesn't help that I keep strange hours because I jerk off late into the night on the weekends.  ARGH!  I wish they wouldn't mess with the time anymore.

Monday, November, 6, I've said it many times, the weekend crews are trash.  Once again the weekend dopes stacked the book bins three bins high.  ARGH!  Just when I think they're getting a little better, or not getting any worse, they go and do this.  SOB.  Whatever!  They won't ever get it like I get it.

The municipal services building is not a place I visit often while on the route.  But, today I was asked to deliver a hand carry envelope to the so-called MSB.  Nothing wrong there, right?  That's where TheLooker works.  I went there hoping not to run into her, due to the awkwardness that it would cause.  I don't want to run into her and have to talk about the events of last year when she ghosted me.  I rather not talk about that stuff.  I was able to get in and out of the building without seeing her.  Whew!

I was tasked with taking a bunch of the junk from Dia de los Muertos back to Central.  I packed as much as I could into the van, as you can see from the picture above.  I've never packed the van this much, except the time that I filled it up with cardboard.  I wasn't able to take all the items, but Tony said he would take some stuff tomorrow.  I basically took all the Dia stuff along with some outreach items.  I left the outreach items for Tony tomorrow.

I went to McDonald's after work to get some food before visiting TheGirl.  While there I parked and right next to me was this turd that parked across three parking spots.  There was NO REASON why he had to park his car like that.  He could have simply parked his car in one space.  For reasons known only to this turd, he felt the need to park like a douche.  OK, douche.

Tuesday, November, 7, My schedule at Casa Verdugo has changed over the last few months.  I haven't changed my exit from home on my Tuesdays, so I still leave as if I was starting work at 9am.  But, I don't start until 10am.  I've found things to do, like dealing with errands and stuff.  Today I figured I would start to walking again.  That's what I did today, and boy was I pooped.  I walked around the neighborhood, only to quickly find myself tired and hungry again.  So I went into the market and bought a burrito that I heated up at work.  Not good.  I hope that walking more often in the morning will get me going.

It was a quiet day at work today.  Unusually quiet.  I was texting Vagabundo when he sent me the above message that was posted online.  It's apropos of this place.  The good people left pre-pandemic and for sure during 2020.  Then there were those who thought they could make a different... guilty.  And now what is left is the bad people and the hostages.  For sure the old Circ staff are hostages.  They can't go anywhere else.  I guess I'm a hostage as well, because I think my time to get out is over.  I've aged out.  Who is going to give me a full time job now?  This place certainly won't.  Everyone of the old timers think I deserve to get a full time job here, but the administration doesn't.  So fuck them, I'm asking for my raise and doing less work.

While on social media I saw a reel, or whatever it's called, of the new/old outreach van.  Krishna is featured showing people things.  The timing of the van is strange, since the new van is coming in January.  These jokers do things in such a strange way that it is like they are fumbling over themselves to fuck up.  Well, whatever.  Jade told me that he's going to have to drive the van with Krishna.  They are going to murder each other.  The other day Jade and Krishna, along with two union representatives, oh and Mala, had a meeting up in administration about Jade's performance at work.  Jade was telling me that Krishna is accusing him of not doing his work.  I will say that Jade is notorious for disappearing, but he also does get his work done.  It's able to sleep through most tasks, which means he can do something else on the side and still have time to do his main task.  That's how I've seen him operate.  It's just that Krishna is a bastard, and is a bad manager.  She made Cindy E cry a couple of weeks ago, because she would not take a no answer to Cindy protesting having to drive the outreach van, and set up the story walk at the park, on her own.  It's dangerous, and we never do events like this on our own.  Last year I helped Vivian and TheNewCute do their story walks in the park.  It's not that it's so hard, but you want that other person with you just in case.  That used to be the old rule on the desk.  No one was supposed to be alone on a service desk, just in case.  Cindy made herself unavailable, hence Jade having to drive with Krishna now.  Krishna wanted to pawn it off on Cindy.  Now Cindy is gone.  Good job, dopes.

I discovered a hole in the crotch of my pants some time last week.  I think it might have been Friday.  Whatever day it was, I quickly ordered a new pair of pants.  I still wore the hole-ly pants yesterday.  There was no way I was going to wear them tomorrow, but my new pants weren't schedule to arrive until Thursday.  Thankfully my new pants arrived today!  So I'll wear my new pants tomorrow.  Woo!

Wednesday, November, 8, Mala sent out a message yesterday, as is her tradition after most people have gone home to work.  The front doors are still busted.  The one door was working, but that died.  I remember seeing the repair guy's truck out front when I was leaving work tonight.  These doors will never work correctly, because as I've said dozens of time to people, the installation was flawed.  The work they did on the renovation was criminal. 

The lights at Central have been an issue since the reopening after the renovation, five years ago.  The contractor installed faulty lights, and of course now they have to be replaced one by one.  I wish they would just take a day and do all of them at once, because the main reading room is so dark.  The middle of the room is way dark.  And now that daylight savings is gone I really see it when I leave.  I get off at 4:30pm and that's just a few minutes before sunset.  Look at the picture above and tell me how does a director let this be the norm?  Another reason why DrDeath was trash.  I know he isn't all powerful, but how does he not go to city council and say "We need to fix a lot of problems that the last renovation didn't fix or made worse." 

At dinner TheGirl was telling me that she put all her eggs in one basket.  By that she means she put all her hopes into this one job at the bank.  She didn't get it.  Not only that, but her colleagues didn't get the jobs they were going out for either.  Seems that the bank doesn't want to hire people they just fired.  I mean, it makes sense.  If they wanted any of those people, including TheGirl, the bank would have transferred to another division.

TheGirl did say she has a bead on another job working with some TV stars mom's boyfriend.  I know, how many layers is she away from the actually TV star?  Still, who cares who it's for, as long as it's a job.  It may not be full time though, which sucks.  She's going to continue looking.

Thursday, November, 9, Ever since they transferred me to Central on Thursdays, instead of working at Casa, I've been a man without a task.  I say to people that "I'm a man without a country," but I'm meaning the same thing.  My Thursdays end up just being filled with busy work.  I guess that's fine, but oh well.  Mala did tell me that she will be giving me assignments for my Thursdays in November.  The funny thing is that there are only two more Thursdays that I work in November, which is the 16th and the 30th.  She gave me some easy task for this coming Thursdays.  It's fine, but I feel I should just be on the desk.  Call me crazy.

One task I was given today was hoping out with the garden talk event happening outside on the lawn.  It's a gorgeous day for it.  Anyway, I was tasked with helping with the set-up.  I was to bring out about a half dozen tables, and matching chairs for the crowd.  The good thing was that a lot of people showed up.  I'm glad.  Having to schlep around all those things only to have no one show up would suck so much dick.  What did suck dick was having to get the chairs out of the storage closet in the auditorium.  These mental midgets cornered a bunch of chairs and the stairs to the stage in front of the storage closet.  I had to move all the things you see in the picture above, which was about thirty chairs and the stairs.  I needed to get the dolly out of the closet, because it was the only way not to have to carry down thirty chairs.  No thanks.  I'll move this shit instead.  I don't know who did this, but it shows zero forethought.

As I said earlier, it was really going to hurt if I took all those chairs out for no one to show up.  Thankfully we had a full boat of people show up.  Whew!

It was nearly the end of my day.  I usually try to use the restroom before leaving, because of how I much I need to pee when I get home.  I hate that pressure building on my way home.  Some idiot made a mess in the men's room downstairs, so I had to go upstairs.  While on my way back downstairs Mala asked if she could talk to me about my Thursday assignments.  On my way out of her office I remembered that I was going to email her about the status of a new delivery van.  Of course I should have expected the answer she gave me, which was basically you're shit out of luck.  She said there was not even talk about that.  Just great.  Then she said that perhaps the outreach van could be used after the new outreach van is delivered.  Whatever.  I told her that van was trash too.  Someone gave me the suggestion that we should at least get a new seat in the van and I told her that perhaps we could just swap out the seat.  She liked that idea, and told me to email her about it.  Yeah, where emails go to die.  I tell you, this is some bullshit that I should have expected.

Friday, November, 10, My buddy Dane mentioned the last time we hung out that he wanted to to go to Knott's Berry Farm.  Today was the day.  I'm not super keen on Knott's.  The last time I was there was with TheGirl on some random new years night.  We didn't have a great time.  Good time, yes, great time, no.

One of the first things we did was go to Ghost town, my favorite.  We checked out the shooting gallery there, which is something of a few installation since the last time I visited.  We were both surprised that Knott's is now cashless.  We couldn't do anything with cash, which meant that Dane's money was no good here.  We later found kiosks that put cash value on little cards.  So like debit cards for the park.  Dane hated this cashless thing.  It makes things harder for him.  Still, the gallery was fun.  I'm not sure how I paid for me to play but it didn't allow me to play.  Oh well, it didn't matter.

Here's a picture of Dane at the undertakers.  Little things like this is what I like about Knott's, not so much the rollercoasters.

Our next stop was the bumper cars.  This has always been one of my favorites.

After getting off the bumper cars I had Dane take a picture of me with one of the many statues around the park of either ladies or cowboys.  This one is with the ladies.  I was going to put my arms around them, but Dane said to not touch them.  It's a different era.

Another favorite of mine is the Calico Mine train.  I was telling Dane while we waited in line that when I was a kid I loved the train, except for the last part when the train becomes a runaway train as we go downhill.  The train was making some strange sounds all along the trip, including the part that we were supposed to be a runaway.  That part didn't happen.  Boo!

The last time I was at Knott's they had a ride called "Kingdom of the Dinosaurs."  That has been replaced with something called "Bear-y Tales."  It's a ride similar to Toy Story Mania at DCA, where you shot at targets.  I couldn't get my shooter to work every time, but I still racked up 139,000 points.  Not bad.  Dane said it was fun, but not THAT fun.  This is because we did wait in line for over an hour to get on the ride.

While in line for the mine train I made a reservation for the Knott's chicken restaurant for 2:30pm.  I didn't want to show up there and not have a table for us.  Because I didn't know what the wait might be.  But, Dane and I were already getting hungry around 11am.  We decided to get some food, but were thwarted by some of the places we wanted to try being closed.  I mean come on.  I saw online that they had new taco dishes to try, and the commentators said they were good.  But the taco stand was going to open at noon, and we were hungry now.  We ended up going to a place called the Boardwalk BBQ.  There we both ordered the boysenberry BBQ meatballs with mac and cheese.  Dane gave the mac and cheese a three.  I concur.  But I did love the meatballs.  I think I'm going to buy the BBQ sauce and make these at home.

It was finally suppertime.  Dane ordered the chicken dinner, and I ordered the pot pie.  I've wanted to have the pot pie for a long time.  They serve so much food.  Not only did I have the pot pie, but they also gave me a salad, a side of corn and biscuits.  Oh there was also a missing side dish that they forgot to give us.  I mean that's a lot of food.  I may be a fat fuck, but it's not because I eat so much.  For me it's the booze that packs on the weight.  That and leading a sedentary life.

The rest of the day went by fast.  The both of us were pretty tired, and I still had to drive home.  Both of our feet were beat.  I was glad to be going home.  I felt super tired when we were waiting for the train.  I wanted to leave then, but we stayed a little longer.  I was glad to hear Dane say he was tired.

Saturday, November, 11, I'm loving the cooler weather, but my aunt isn't loving it.  Today she dressed like a gnome while at the breakfast table (see above).  She told during the summer, so of course she's going to be cold now that it's actually colder.  Oh well.

A few years back I was walking in Long Beach when I came upon a Chuck E. Cheese's.  It looked very different from what I remembered.  It was all slick and polished, and had a muted color pallet.  I didn't think anything of it other than I wondered if this was the look of the future for them.  It was the future, and now all Chuck E. Cheese's locations will be without the iconic animatronic figures.  All except the Chuck E. Cheese that I used to frequent in Northridge.  I'm not sure how that came to be the only one that still has the animatronic figures, but it will be the only one.

Now I feel I should pay Chuck a visit.  How I came to frequent that location was that my cousin Beto stayed with us for a summer.  During that visit we would go to that particular Chuck E. Cheese and play video games.  We would spend hours there.  Our most played game was Crossbow.  Oh that was my absolute favorite game back then.  Good times.

Sunday, November, 12, I finally saw the cute self-checkout lady.  I was buying a lotto ticket when I turned around and there was a lady standing by one of the registers.  I admired her ass and just as I was looking away she turned around and I saw that it was the self-checkout lady.

Before that I saw the girl in the striped yoga pants.  I almost crashed into her when she turned a corner and she was right in front of my face.  I tried to give her a smile, but she just flew by me.  She was on the phone.  Alas, I'm doomed to simply run into these attractive women for the rest of my life.  Never making a personal connection.  Never getting so much as a smile from them.  Never any kind of acknowledgement.

Monday, November, 13, There was a huge fire under the 10 freeway this past Saturday.  It was so bad that now the 10 is closed from where it connects with the 110 on the west, and where it connects to the 101 on the east.  People were urged to not go to work, if you could work from home.  This is massive, because all freeways are necessary connectors to other parts of the city.  Sure, you COULD try to go on surface streets, but that's nuts.  I bring this up because I got a text alert asking to plan alternate routes, and to expect a lot of traffic in that area south of the convention center.  TheGirl mentioned that the message woke her up and scared her, because it was sent after she had already gone to bed. That does seem nuts, but I got the message just before 10:30pm.

I was at the city hall complex when I saw these two ladies walking around.  They both looked attractive, with nice big thighs.  When I parked the van to go to graphics I saw them again.  This time they walked next to me as I got the bin out of the van to take it to the graphics department.  I turned around and the ladies walked right by me.  Yeah, that's not remarkable.  What was funny at that moment that they walked by me the ladies were walking in unison.  So both of their nice and big butts moved in lock step with the other.  It was like something out of a cartoon.

I was up and Brand to have my lunch, where I spotted an attractive lady doing her workout on the patio.  She had a nice body, to be sure.  I checked her out, and there she was on all fours.  She was apparently checking out the footage she filmed for social media, I presume.  If it's not for the gram it doesn't exist.

Tuesday, November, 14, My neighbors have this nasty habit of parking their trucks so close to my driveway that it's hard to get out in the morning.  I live on a curve, so cars are already coming at my driveway at an odd angle.  When my neighbors park their car so close to my drive way, or in my driveway like today, it makes it hard for me to see around their car to avoid someone coming from the west.  And sometimes I'm so involved with looking to my left that I have little time to look to my right.  And because the cars are coming at a strange angle you have what amounts to me having to check my right blindspot area for cars coming from the east.  My neighbors have a daughter that drives a Mini Cooper.  If that car is parked where the van was this morning it's OK, because I can still see around and above the Cooper.  But I can't see around or above the truck.  Oh, and coming home is no picnic either.  I have to take a strange angle that leaves me exposed to a car coming from the other direction that is trying to undercut the turn.  Fucking hate this shit.

I have to get back into some sort of shape.  If not to look great, but to be better than a fat fuck.  I walked a mile and a half today.  Not a lot, but much more than I have in a long time.  I need to make this a regular thing on Tuesdays.  I need to try to get some weight off.

It was pretty slow at work today.  I had time to read my book, but I got really sleepy after lunch.  It was so difficult to keep my eyes open at one point.  I had to stand up at one point to keep from falling asleep.  I just remember that there was a point where I was reading the same passage over and over again.  After the third time reading one passage I picked myself up off the chair.

A patron came in today to pick up their hold.  They said that their book was not on the hold shelf.  I checked her account and it did say that her book was ready for pick-up.  When I looked at the hold shelf I saw her account information on the hold slip, only she didn't order that book, she wanted another book.  We went to the fiction shelf and sure enough there was the book she placed on hold.  I checked out the book to her and then went to the hold shelf to see this other book that was there with her account information.  I looked and the slip said the book on hold was, "A gentleman in Moscow."  Which is not what the slip was attached to, as you can see from the photo.  Grimace was helping someone when I was in the middle of this and she also had a patron that could not find the book on the hold shelf.  It turns out she didn't want it anyway, so Grimace was going to take it off the hold shelf and check it out and then check it back in.  But the book wasn't on the old shelf.  After what I just experienced I thought to look for that book on the shelf, and sure enough it was on the shelf.  I checked it in and it was routed to Pacific Park.  Two books within minutes of each other not on the hold shelf, but on the regular shelf.  I checked the slip from the book I was dealing with and it said that it was printed last Monday.

Mistakes can easily be made by any of us.  We have to keep our mind sharp on our tasks, or things like this will happen.  But I know that it's one of our less sharp coworkers that did this.  She works on Mondays with Vagabundo now.  He would never let this pass his eye.  But I know her.  She's kinda dopey.  Not all her fault, because she does have a language barrier to deal with.  But still, if you just match the name on the slip with the name on the book this doesn't happen.  I have to tell Gitmo about this.

About a year ago I installed a little fan right by the sensor that was giving me trouble with the water heater.  The sensor overheats, so the little fan keeps it from overheating.  But late last week and earlier this week I noticed that the pilot light went out again.  I restarted it two since Saturday.  Today I noticed it was out again.  Was my little fan not cutting it anymore?  In a way yes.  I checked and it was packed with dust bunnies.  I got a brush and an air blower and cleaned it all out.  I was amazed just how much dust had collected inside the blades.  I think I'll have to put the fan on a clean out schedule.

Wednesday, November, 15, The weather liars mentioned earlier this week that we were in for rain in the middle of the week.  It looked gloomy this morning, but there wasn't rain until I started my delivery route.  I stupidly forgot my rain slicker, which meant that I had to go back to Central to get it from my car after the start of the route.  Thankfully it didn't rain a lot the rest of the day.

I went to treasury this morning and saw that Marie was dressed nicer than usual.  She told me that she was going to be at Brand later in the day.  TheNewCute had mentioned to me about an audit happening today.  Adding two and two together I knew that I would most likely see Marie at Brand.  Sure enough I did, and it was a dream.  Marie's body is an abundance of sexual energy.  Sigh.  I've said it before, there's zero chance that I could see Marie naked.  But that doesn't stop me from dreaming.

I cried at dinner again, and I really have to stop being such a bitch.  I get so emotional about things that it's off pudding to TheGirl now.  I was pretty good for a long while.  But for some reason we got on some subject that I can't remember now, but at the time must have made me super sad.  I do remember talking about my mother at one point.  Was that what triggered me?  Not sure.  Either way, I need to cut it with the booze at dinner.  Either that or only talk about the weather.

Thursday, November, 16, I arrived at work and one of my coworkers started talking about how crazy it was last night.  Apparently the rain caused a leak in the conference rooms in the corner of the building.  He had some pictures, but the pictures don't do the disaster justice.  I went up there and boy, it was worse than I saw.  Conference rooms D through F were completely flooded.  Conference room D took the worst of it.  When I went into that room it looked like a rainforest with the amount of water dripping from the ceiling.  I helped dump some of the water caught in the trash cans, but once the city guys showed up I was told they would take over.

Mala sent me a text saying that she needed me to cover a shift at Montrose, Emma called out sick.  That's fine, it was a better prospect than trying to find something to do at Central.  Montrose was the first branch I worked in the system.  Ever since then I've worked every branch, but Montrose was the first.

It was a good shift.  I don't think I've ever worked a shift with Desire, but I did today.  It was a long day today, but it was nice to work in a place that I missed a lot when I stopped working there.  It's still a nice branch.  Too bad they don't send me to work there on Thursdays.

Friday, November, 17, I finished up the route early, so I went back to Central early, and it was a good thing because there was a moment where I starting getting craps on my lower stomach.  They were getting worse, so I went to the upstairs bathroom to poop.  I didn't have diarrhea per say, but it was runny.  I was in the bathroom for probably ten minutes, but thankfully everything came out.  The pain didn't come back.  I wonder if I got food poisoning from the breakfast burrito I had this morning.  I was little hungry when I went up to Montrose, so I decided to get something to eat.  Maybe I should stick to burgers from Burger King.

I don't remember much of tonight's commute, I was so sleepy.  I hate it when I am so sleepy during my commute.  I think I need to figure something out, like maybe get one of those "energy" drinks for times like this.  Hmm.

As I write this it's 11:32pm.  I've been dozing off the entire night since after dinner.  Hell, since I got home, as I said before.  But now I'm ready to jerk off.  It's the only thing I look forward to doing on the weekends, so there's no way I'm going to miss it.  I think I'll turn off my weekend alarm and sleep in tomorrow. I took a Covid test when I got home, because when I finished up the route I was feeling really, REALLY, tired.  I was also really sweaty, despite the circulation room usually being cold.  So I wondered if it was me or the room.  My coworker said the room was warm.  OK, but then I had that stomach thing happen.  That and feeling a little achy made me take a test.  It was negative.  Hmmm.

Saturday, November, 18, Mick's subs, a place I've gone to for nearly thirty years, has closed.  I got the shock today when I went to pick up some sandwiches for my aunt and me and found that the lights were out.  When I got closer I was able to see the small sign in the window saying the business had closed.  No other explanation.  Knowing how things are these days, it might be that they raised the rent on them. 

The first time I went to Mick's was a day where I was driving with my mother down Ventura Blvd.  I don't remember why, but she wanted to stop at Michaels, which was a craft store on the corner of Ventura and Lindley.  She told me it was going to be quick, but that's a relative term.  I was both hungry and thirsty.  I finally just walked towards the gas station on the corner to see if I could get a drink.  On my walk there I noticed this place called Mick's.  It was a sub shop, so I went inside to get a soda.  The place smelled so good.  Their specialty was cheesesteaks.  I only went to get a drink, but I ordered a cheesesteak as well.  I went back to my car so that if my mom did come out she wouldn't have to wait for me.  I finished my sandwich and almost finished my Coke.  It was then that my mother finally came out of the store.  After that day I went back many times over the years.  I remember going with my Grandmother I don't now how many times.  But now, the dream is over.  I'll have to find another sub shop that makes cheesesteaks in the Valley.

Monday, November, 20, There was a post online that talked about an article that said that people with people that take naps have bigger brains.  In that case, I must have the biggest brain because all I do is nap.

I walked up to the front doors at Montrose with the credit card stickers in my hand, which is why I was looking at the door with my full attention.  And there it was, under the open/closed sign... a sticker pronouncing "Free Palestine."

This is such a complicated thing, because of the history of that conflict, and how things are working out right now.  I'm pretty sure the city and the library don't want to openly say something to endorse one side over the other.  I opened the door and told Kerri about it, and she told the branch manager, who took a picture of it.  I had started to take it down when she asked that I leave it so she could take a picture.  I had already taken the above picture.  Down it went.

I had a McRib tonight after work, and before going to TheGirl's place.  I'm not sure, but I think this year's McRib tasted better than last year's.  I have to have more than one this year.  I wonder if I should try it with the pickles, now that I'm trying to eat pickles.  Next week.

Tuesday, November, 21, I received an email from my old supervisor Kvon talking about how I could receive a free turkey for Thanksgiving.  The city's IT department likes to send out fake emails to test us on our ability to distinguish a real email from a phishing email.  Well, this email looked really fake but also, Kvon was fired a couple of months back.  I reported it as a phishing email and I got a pop up saying I caught the fake email.  I texted TheNewCute and she said that in her case it was her supervisor that supposedly sent the email.

I was checking on the road conditions on the coast highway, and it looks like there's a road closure around Lucia.  This means that Ilsa and I will have to take the 101 all the way up north.  I told her that it's not as scenic a route, but that there is no other choice.  This does make it a little easier to travel since the 101 is pretty much a straight shot, while the coast highway is curvy all the way up.  It will mean we have the potential to get to Carmel faster.  It is messed up that I won't see that gorgeous coast though.

I've been on an Arizona tea kick lately.  I bought a can last week, and today.  I only got a can today, but I was so close to buying the big bottle.  Maybe I'll buy it on Sunday, when I go to the market.  I'm not sure where this want to drink the tea came from, because I have so many teas at home that aren't sweetened.  This stuff is, but it's subtle.  I like the taste, I guess.

Wednesday, November, 22, Every day there's some new bullshit at the library.  Today's BS was that the main lights were off.  I was told that it was because the roof guys were working on something.  In reality it turned out that it was a third party contractor that tripped the breakers.  There was a crew outside drilling holes, for a core sample.  I wonder if it was them.  We didn't have lights until after we opened.  Jeez.

If that wasn't enough, there was concrete on the floor of the adaptive room.  How does that happen?  There is no sign that the construction guys knew this happened.  I don't even know when it was cleaned up.  From the looks of it, there was a ceiling tile taken out in order to break off some concrete from the pipe hidden in the ceiling.  Why someone didn't notice that a huge chunk of concrete fell to the floor I don't know.  It's evidence that this renovation is shit, and is somehow already worse than the last one.

TheNewCute mentioned that she was going to attend the potluck at Central.  I had no plans of attending, but if she was going to attend then I would have to, right?  I picked her up from Brand and we both went to the potluck.

The potluck was pretty nice, and well attended.  I sat next to the new librarian, Karen.  I like her, she's fun.  She has a good attitude, that's for sure.  That's what's important about Karen, she isn't corrupted like the rest of these children's room ghouls.

I came to find out that these dopes broke the side door.  Since Monday the side doors have been hard to close.  This is because these idiots jammed the stanchions under the doors, misaligning them.  So now they are busted.  I mean, why would these dopes JAM the stanchions under the doors?  There is zero reason for that.  Fucking idiots!

TheGirl likes chamoy, which is, according to Google, "Chamoy is a sauce made from dehydrated fruit such apricot, mango or plums (or a combination of these), chili powder, salt, sugar, and a little citrus juice," with her margaritas.  She found some at Walmart and bought it so that the bartender at Don Cuco's can place it on the rim of our glasses.  The only problem was that the chamoy was way thick and didn't come off the glass so easily.  TheGirl and I tried licking the chamoy off the glass, but it wasn't easy.  This literally misses the point.  For me the chamoy was a bust.  Next time I'll just take the Tajin.

Thursday, November, 23, On almost all of my trips up north I have stopped in Solvang or Buellton for a pee break.  This time was no different.  Since I didn't eat breakfast I was feeling a little hungry, a fact I told Ilsa.  So we stopped off at Andersen's for some pea soap, and a pit stop.  I asked for two small soups, but damn are the containers big.  Still, the soup hit the spot for the both of us.  The only one that didn't seem to be in the mood for soup was Chloe.

After what amounted to brunch we were off and running.  I made another pit stop in SLO.  I tell you, it feels to me like I can't go more than a than an hour, hour and a half, without having to pee.  I knew for the next leg of the journey that I would have to make it longer.  I decided to try not to drink that much so I could make it all the way through.

We made good time and made it to Carmel just after 3pm.  But by then I was feeling the need to make a pit stop.  According to the pictures I took we left the gasoline station in SLO at 12:41pm and arrived at our hotel in Carmel at 3:08pm.  I actually made it that long without having to go, but by the time we were nearly to Carmel the pressure was rising to about an eight out of ten.

The big thing I was looking for was the food on this trip.  I booked our dinner weeks ago, to assure we would have a table.  These days it's nothing but reservations.  If you don't have one, prepare to go somewhere else. Casanova's is a restaurant TheGirl and I went to years ago when we made one of our trips to Carmel.  It was so long ago it was before they owned Cheyenne.  Chan was around, but not Cheyenne.  That last time was the last time I went to this restaurant, but it was also the best meal I've had in Carmel.  Which is saying something, seeing how many meals I've had there.  Both Ilsa and I ordered the cannelloni, plus she added oysters to her order.  She insisted I try one.  I've never had oysters, and I don't understand the appeal of such a thing.  I gave it the old college try and did find why people would like this stuff.  However, it's not really my cup of tea.  Maybe some day I'll have one again.  Yeah, I guess that's not a winning endorsement.

After dinner we walked around the town.  This is probably my favorite thing to do in Carmel.  We didn't have an itinerary for this trip, which always makes me feel like I'm not getting things done.  I like itineraries because you know what you're going to do next.  Not knowing is sometimes good, but sometimes not.

Friday, November, 24, Years ago there was a place in one of many cute courtyards in town called Club Jalapeno.  TheGirl and I went several times, and even when she didn't travel up to Carmel with me, I would make it a point to eat there at least one night of my trip.  Sadly that placed closed a long time ago, replaced by a place named Stationary.  I have, from time to time, checked out their food on social media.  It looked good.  The one thing that interested me was that they had chilaquiles.  I don't know many places in Carmel that make them, so I told Ilsa we should try to go there.  Now I woke up and was walking around town by 8:20am.  I checked three places, Stationary being one.  If Ilsa was ready it would just be a matter of me walking back to the hotel and we could eat some chilaquiles.  But as with TheGirl, Ilsa takes some time to get ready.  Not only that, but the both of them have dogs that they have to tend to.  We didn't get in line for Stationary for another hour.  I know because of the time stamp on the pictures I took.  By that time there was a line, and I knew we didn't have a chance of getting seated.  Sure enough, when we got to the end of the line to put our names in, the host said that we would get a table at around 10:45am.  Oh really?  As we walked away I told Ilsa that by that time we will have already finished our breakfast, as we walked to one of the other spots I scoped out.  One of new places in town is called Carmel's hidden gem.  We walked over and thankfully the place was not busy.  It had some people, but it certainly wasn't packed.  We had a seat and of course got our order in.  I remember looking at my watch and it was 10:21am when we left the restaurant.  If we had waited we still wouldn't have had breakfast.  See, that's the thing with me.  I rather do things earlier in the day when there aren't that many people around.  Point Lobos is a good example.  I'm there when they open, and I'm usually leaving by the time the mass of idiots are arriving.

I've come to realize that I really hate people.  They're all such dopes, and always around.  I see why locals hate tourists, because they're like locus.  By the way, my country fried steak was really good.  The country fries and eggs were yummy.  Perhaps the chilaquiles were good too, but I'll never know now.  There was this lovely looking woman across from our table.  She was not a spring chicken, but she had a super figure.  I checked her out more than once.  I really wanted to get a picture of her to show here, but alas there was no chance.

Ilsa and I then drove to Monterey to check out some local history.  Many times I've traveled up to Monterey and never found the Colton Hall museum open.  But, today was my lucky day.  Colton Hall was cool.  Afterwards we went exploring the surrounding neighborhood.  I was getting tired though, and we stopped off for coffee.  I realize now that I just want to day drink while on vacation.  I have to figure out how I can do that.

We ended up going to Cannery Row, despite it being a touristy spot.  We did go by the building that inspired the book by Steinbeck, and gave this area its fame.  Too bad the Pacific Biological Laboratories were closed, because they do have tours.  Still, it was cool to see after reading the book.

We went back to Carmel to rest up.  My legs were giving me issues the entire trip.  I woke up with cramps on Thursday, and had them every morning I was on the trip.  As I write this I still have issues, and it's Sunday.

My eating schedule was thrown off by Ilsa's not eating schedule.  She often tells me how she goes nearly the entire day without eating.  She often says she doesn't have breakfast.  That's nuts, because even when I do have breakfast I will often be hungry by 10am again.  This is if I get up at around 6am to 7am and have breakfast at that time.  It's usually a work day thing, since I have to be at work by 8am.  Naturally I was hungry with all the walking we did.  Ilsa had the idea to go somewhere and have some drinks and perhaps a small snack.  We ended up at a place I went to with TheGlrl.  I know I've ben saying that, but it's because we came up here a few times, even after she had Cheyenne.  Forge in the forest is one of TheGirl's favorite places.  Today it was just the right spot to go with Ilsa, because she had her dog in tow.  I ordered up some fusion sort of thing, Reuben egg rolls.  They were pretty tasty, and they hit the spot.  Because when we ate them it was just past 4pm, and dinner wasn't until 7pm.

Demetra cafe is yes, another place I went with TheGirl.  The two places I've been to in Carmel that I thought were super are Casanova's and Demetra cafe.  The highlight of Demetra isn't just the food, but the entertainment.  There used to be a little man that would come out of the kitchen and sing like an angel.  Well, now he is an angel.  He passed away a couple of years ago.  The food is still amazing and there is still great entertainment.  It all made it a night to remember.  There was a moment where my heart swelled and I loved being in Carmel.

Saturday, November, 25, Ilsa and I got ready at different paces this morning.  I was ready to go early, but Ilsa was a little slower.  She wanted to walk her dog and possibly go to the store that sells Carmel related items.  I showed her where the store was and checked it out really fast.  Then I got hungry and I thought of where I might get some pastries or maybe a breakfast burrito.  No luck with both.  Ilsa texted me to ask where I was, and I made my way back to her location.  Then we both went looking for some coffee that she wanted.  She found her coffee and I found my breakfast burrito.  But both the burrito and her coffee was bland.  Womp, womp.

Ilsa requested one last stop before leaving, Carmel beach.  We went to the main parking area and it was packed.  I knew where to go though.  We drove to the southern part of the beach and found somewhere to park the car.  Ilsa took her dog Chloe on a walk on the beach.  Her dog was quite happy on the beach.  After that we were off for home.  It was 11:40am.  In years past I would already be on the road at that time.  Oh well.

On our way back home Ilsa said we should stop off at Morro Bay to get some food at Giovanni's.  I've passed by that place so many times, but I have never had the chance to eat there.  Today was the day, and it was kinda meh.  I wanted to get fish and chips, but the order was five pieces, and there is no way I'm finishing that in one sitting.  So I ordered the fish tacos, which should use the same fish.  Like I said, the tacos were meh.  The only thing I really tasted was the cabbage.  Shame.

Sunday, November, 26, Today was back to normal day.  I picked up some breakfast from McDonald's for my aunt and me.  I was craving pancakes and sausage, so I ordered that and a McMuffin for my aunt.  It kinda hit the spot.  I say this because I noticed that the food tasted a bit bland to me.  The sausage hit the spot.  When I was a kid and we would order the pancakes and sausage at McDonald's I would always cut my sausage like a pizza.  I still do that to this day.  Yummy.

My aunt wanted to get some socks and a warm pair of pants.  She asked me to drop her off at Marshal's, to see if she could find something she liked.  She didn't have much luck finding socks that are 100% cotton.  At home I told her that it would be hard to find 100% cotton socks, because those kind of socks tend to get loose in the wash.  That's why most socks today have some sort of artificial fibers like nylon to keep them tight.  She said she was going to Target on Monday.  She did buy some pants though.

I went to the market after dropping off my aunt at Marshal's.  The lady with the striped pajamas, aka yoga pants, was there.  She and I actually saw eye to eye at one point today.  She, of course, gave me the blank stare.  I never thought I had a chance with her, given the circumstances.  But then today a new clerk talked to me when I was in the elevator.  She's pretty, but way young.  She said she was tired.  I told her I used to do what she was doing for a living.  I wanted to tell her it gets better, but that isn't true for everyone.  I wanted to tell her about that book I read this year, and how we may not be able to choose our situation, but we can choose how we deal with it.  I didn't, but perhaps next time we meet.

Monday, November, 27, I've stated how attracted I am to Marie from treasury.  I don't get to talk to her much these days because she has different duties.  So I don't get to talk to her often.  Today we got started talking about bad supervisors, because I mentioned Krishna's behavior.  This meant that Marie, in all her glory, stood up from her chair and blessed me with a closer view of herself.  Sigh.  Why must the world mock me so?

Because of the holiday there weren't that many books to pick up and drop off today.  That made for a chill route.  The weather was so nice that I decided to have a picnic at lunch.  I had a sandwich, so I didn't have to warm anything up.  It was a good day.

My sandwich wasn't too good though.  I don't know what I have to do to make my sandwiches taste better.  I gotta figure something out.  I had planned on having sandwiches all week, with some of the meat that Ilsa left me from the trip.  It didn't wow me, so I'll probably just take some chili with me tomorrow.

The book "Born Standing Up," by Steve Martin, has come into my life in moments when something significant is about to happen.  In the past it was the start of a new job, a new relationship, and a promotion.  We shall see what happens now.

Since I got to work early, a little past 2:30pm, I was in the building at a time when I'm not usually there.  There was still some construction going on in the front, so I figured I would take the book truck around the long way though the southern door.  When I was in the hallway I saw a girl with a ponytail.  It was TheLooker alright.  I was able to avoid her. 

At the beginning of November the city sent out some bags for patrons to fill with Thanksgiving stuff, food basically.  Like canned items.  The other day I picked one up from Casa, and didn't think anything of it, since it was the day before Thanksgiving.  I might have thought how close it was to the date to make a difference, but what do I know?  Well, today I saw it in delivery for city hall.  Today.  Four days after thanksgiving.  I looked at the bag and it said that the drive was until November 13th.  So yeah, another fail.  It's bad enough that the two cans were the worst items, but then we didn't get them to those in need.  Just awful.

Tuesday, November, 28, I start work at 10am on Tuesdays.  I've been going to work early in order to take a walk around the neighborhood.  This is why I left for work at 8:30am.  It's a good thing I did, because of some stupid repair work on some guardrail my commute today was an hour and a half.  I barely made it to work with two minutes to spare.  And worse of all on top of all that I had to fucking pee so hard when I was getting off the freeway.  I really thought I might piss my pants today.  Fucking hate this shit.  This was the beginning of a day where a lot of little things just didn't go right.  Case in point, the following.

One of my coworkers had a birthday last week, but they didn't celebrate it at Casa because he was out on vacation.  So the children's librarian waned to celebrate today.  I was told it was going to be at 4pm, when he arrived for work.  I would think it would be a little after 4pm.  I waited a little bit, but then Grimace said that the children's librarian was in a meeting.  That did it, I was out of there.  About fifteen minutes later I get a message on Teams asking if I was still in the building.  No, I said.  The children's librarian mentioned that she was going to get chicken from the Ralph's in about fifteen minutes.  So yeah, it was good that I left.

Wednesday, November, 29, The lights are still out at Central. It very much looks like we will remain in the dark for a long time.  If the city wanted to, it would pay an outside contractor to be here in mass and take care of this right now.  But the city doesn't care, so we remain in the dark.  This is just typical.

These days I come up on Montrose and I find some strange stuff.  Last week it was the free Palestine sticker on the window, and this week it's a big bag that looked like a body bag.  Inside was a cushioned pillow with the print of a world map.  I'm not sure why they would bring this to the library and think that we would want it in any way.  I don't know if this thing is full of fleas, or other bugs.  No thanks.  I showed it to the branch manager and then took it out to the trash.  People must think the library is like Goodwill.

When I got to Chevy today there were a bunch of junk books.  I took them with me to dump at another location.  I would have thrown them out at Chevy, but the firemen were playing pickleball, and I didn't want to go past them with all that trash.  I threw them out at Brand.  People give the library junk books thinking they are priceless.  I once had a patron bring in the rattest of books and asked when they would be in the collection.  When?  Never.  I told them that and they took them back.  Thanks, I don't want to deal with your trash.

TheGirl and I tried a new place tonight.  It's in the Burbank Media center.  No one can claim that the Media Center was the busiest mall in the world, but a few years back you could say it was as busy as any other mall.  I guess you can still say that, it's just that now malls are not that popular.  I mean, there was a fair amount of people there, but there were not a lot of stores.  There are areas of the mall that are empty storefronts.  Actually, the Media Center isn't as empty as some malls are in terms of storefronts.

Anyway, the place we went to was Mediterranean style.  It wasn't bad though.  The portions were huge, and the wine was good.  I noticed a couple of girls eating inside.  They seemed to be on a date together.  I told TheGirl that I thought it was a lesbian couple on a date.  Both ladies just had THAT look like they were trying to impress the other, but not in a friendly sort of way.  Oh well, good luck to them and their young love.  It's so hard to find someone these days that I really hope they are happy together.

Thursday, November, 30, Once again I don't have an assignment today.  But that's OK, I kept myself busy.  Actually, I was probably the busiest person in the building.

I had to be on phones, and I helped Ru with her fiction book project.  There were a lot of little things that I can't even remember now.  I'm tired. 

I can say one thing that came to mine just now.  I finished up with Ru's project and she took her book truck with her downstairs.  We parted ways and she says, "Hey... are you coming to the city holiday party."  I walk towards her as not to yell from across the reading floor.  I told her I hadn't thought of going.  She said I should go, because she was going to be there.  She said she was volunteered to go.  Gee, now I feel I HAVE to go.  A personal invite from Ru is nice.  Maybe I can buy her a drink.

Actually, I was feeling kinda weird tonight.  My stomach hurt a little and then I pooped.  After I pooped and felt better, but I was also super tired tonight.  I passed out a couple of times from just being tired.