Afterthoughts: This Past Month

Another quick February comes and goes.  Here's the update.

Thursday, February, 1, I sent TheDesire one of the Shepard Fairey library card last week.  Today she called me to say she finally got it.  Finally.  She then posted something on social media (above).  It's so funny, she was gushing at how nice a gesture this was.  She said something funny about me being a better friend to her than she is to me.  Truth.  Ha ha!

There's a new regular at Casa.  He's been coming in for the last few weeks now.  Vivian and I debate about him being homeless or not.  I feel like he might be, because he spends nearly the entire day at the library.  But whatever his homeless status is all I know is that today he vomited in the mens room.  I was helping a patron when he told me that he heard this guy vomiting in the mens room.  I told Vivian and then I went to check the damage.  It wasn't bad, but there was vomit not he rim of the toilet.  So Vivian told me to lock up the bathroom and put up an "out of order" sign and she would let Gitmo know about this.  Mainly so he could get a cleaning crew out to the library.

The cleaning guy came by after 5pm in the evening, I don't remember the exact time.  A little after the cleaning guy finished up that guy went into the bathroom again.  This time Reneh and I could hear him making what sounded like vomiting sounds.  Reneh and I couldn't believe what we were hearing.  The cleaning guy was still in the building, and this guy was vomiting again.  Vivian talked to him after the initial vomit and told him that he should at least clean up after himself.  Well, after he "vomited" the second time I checked and either he didn't vomit, or he did and cleaned it up.  What a fucking day.

I fell that I need to make myself smaller meals for lunch.  I say this because this week I felt full after eating just over half of the food I had.  I'm also pretty tired of all the food I eat.  I need to find something else to eat, menu-wise.  In short, I need to change what I eat for lunch at work.  Maybe that will help me also not get so sleepy after lunch.

Friday, February, 2, The wall holes have some sort of metal L shapes.  The workmen were bolting the Ls onto the the concrete.  I'm not entirely sure how this is going to work, but that's part of the wall that will then hold up the glass wall they're going to put up.  I need to see the plans again.

I ate sandwiches all week.  I was tired of sandwiches, so I grabbed a can of chili and put it in my lunchbox for today.  But, what I didn't have was a Coke for lunch, so I went over to the store next to the library to get a Coke.  While there I found they had this Italian cherry soda named "Dang!"  I picked it up, and since I was thirsty I decided to down it.  It was pretty dang good.  I will definitely buy it again.  I only wish I had bought two, instead of one and a Cherry Coke.  I mean, I love Cherry Coke, but it would have been cool to have this soda at lunch today.  Oh well, next time.

I heard from the circulation crew this morning that Grimace was sending herself some books to the Casa branch.  OK, that's fine.  They tell me that she made a big stink about the note left on the boxes.  The original note said "From Elizabeth," but she felt that was wrong.  Grimace then took that note and tossed it and wrote the one above.  It's a little hard to see, but it reads, "To Casa for Elizabeth 6 boxes."  Done deal I don't know why she made a federal case out of it.  Oh well, that's Grimace for you.

I was up at Brand when I performed another good deed for a patron, by going above and beyond.  Misa was helping a patron find a CD with a certain song on it.  The group was one I had never heard of, Romeo Void.  Misa kept insisting that I knew this song.  It's a punk song, I don't know a lot of punk songs.  Anyway, she left the desk and I decided to use her computer to do a search of my own.  Her search seemed lacking to me.  I didn't think she used the proper terms in the search box.  Sure enough, within a few seconds I had found the entire album of this group on Archive dot-org.  I told the patron, and I asked him if he wanted me to email him the link to the page.  Sure, he said, and I got his email and sent him the link to Archive dot-org .  Good deed, done.

When I got back to Central there were two dummies parked in the loading zone.  I called parking enforcement, but they didn't show up on time to give these dopes some tickets.  I'm pretty sure they didn't even show up.  I think I'm not going to call them again, because it's useless.  I took the picture above to have on this journal, not to serve as evidence.  But the lady on the phone tried to stump me by asking me if I had the license plate numbers, because otherwise she couldn't dispatch anyone.  I was like, what the fuck?  I've NEVER had to do that before.  Oh, but she couldn't stump me, I had the picture, and I told her the plate numbers.  But really this just means it's useless to do this again.  Getting angry about this isn't going to keep dopes from parking here.  And pretty soon they won't have that area to park anyway.  So, whatever.  I'm done caring.  No one else cares, and no one else helps me.  I'm done.

Saturday, February, 3, My aunt told me I should run my errands today, because the news was warning about an upcoming storm.  They advised everyone to stay at home tomorrow.  Hence me running my errands today.  I picked us up some food, gassed up the car, and went to the market.  It's been weeks since I've seen the cute self-checkout lady.

Until today.  She was wearing a sweater that had a huge heart on it.  It didn't immediately hit me that she was wearing it for Valentine's day.  I thought she was wearing a Chapulin Colorado shirt, like the one above.  I walked by the self-checkout area trying to tell her about my mistake.  But, I never got to because she was interacting with another patron.  Oh well, at least I got to check her out.

The security camera was buzzing my phone this evening.  It turned out it was my silly aunt moving around the living room.  She was placing plastic on the table in the living room (see above).  She does this because it was leaky there before.  That was years ago, BEFORE the handyman FIXED IT.  It hasn't leaked in that part of the room in YEARS.  What a dope.

Sunday, February, 4, I'm nearly 100% sure that I didn't add detergent to the wash last week.  What happened is that I was pre-treating a shirt that had a stain on it.  Because I did that I think that I forgot the step of putting detergent in the machine.  So of course today I made it point to put detergent in the machine first thing.

I've lost a little bit of weight lately.  Not a lot, but enough to have to switch notches in my belt.  It's not a lot, but I see it.  I even see it in my face being a little less fat.  I basically have limited my portions of food.  For my work lunch I just make smaller portions of whatever I was eating before.  If I committed to walking more I could possibly lose more weight.  Gotta get on that.

It's nearly 10pm as I write this and its been raining all day long.  And it hasn't been on and off either.  It's been steady for the entire day.  It's kinda crazy.  The weather liars are saying that it will continue to rain continuously until sometime in the Tuesday evening.  Some forecasts say it will continue until Wednesday.

Monday, February, 5, It has not stopped raining since it started on Sunday.  There is a small leak coming from the water heater flue.  It's a slow drip that is coming down steady, but not hard.  I'll have to check the roof when, and if, it stops raining.  The thing is, my aunt almost had me convinced that there was a leak in the kitchen in an area on the other side of the same wall where the water heater is located.  I should have known the leak was part of her imagination.  My aunt put a container under the "leak" to catch the water.  I checked this morning, it was bone dry.  There's no leak there.  But now I wonder if she sees a leak.  She put down that plastic in the living room because of a leak there.  There was no leak.  Years ago there was in that area, but not since the handyman came by and fixed that part of the roof has it leaked.  Hmmm.

It rained throughout the route today, and it sucked.  This morning I was debating on what shoes to wear today.  I picked my work shoes instead of my work boots.  Dumb move on my part, because my work shoes are not waterproof.  Not even in the slightest.  If anything, I think they wick moisture to my foot.  By the end of the route my feet were wet and soggy.  I had some success in drying out my shoes and feet during the route by turning up the heat in the van and having them dry out.  A wee bit.  By the end my right foot was completely soaked.

That meant when I went to Pacific tonight to cover for Jade, I had to change my shoes.  I got my huaraches and put those on while at Pacific.  I wish I could say I had a quiet night at Pacific, because I didn't.  Three ladies, that used to go to Casa, came into Pacific tonight.  Within a few minutes of them arriving one of them, Traci, mentioned that one of the other regulars to the library was harassing them.  She went on to tell me that he has said things to them outside of the library.  She seemed so sincere that I had to spring into action.  I called the new assistant director and told her what was happening.  She gave me some advice to tell the ladies.  Basically to have them move, for now.  If he followed them or said anything then we have a probable reason to ban him for a day, perhaps more.  There was also the matter of the leak in the storage closet.  It was coming from a crack in the floor.  Not good.  It's definitely coming up from the foundation.  Brutal.

Tuesday, February, 6, I asked Elen if she got the librarian job at Brand, and she says to me, "I can't say."  To wit I replied, "That means you got it."  Sure enough she did get the job.  They announced it officially via email today.  It was really no surprise since she was the favorite going into the interview.  Elen is good, and she's nice.  She was a good choice.

Wednesday, February, 7, Stephanie asked me to help moving the giant bowl that was from an art installation last year.  She wants to get rid of it, but she also wants to transfer it to Brand.  She said she would be at Central today to help me move it.  Honestly, I don't need help.  It may be kinda big, but it's not heavy.  I was able to lift it, no problem.  I didn't see her at Central, and I even sent her a Teams message asking if I got the day wrong.  She didn't reply right away, so I just took it upon myself to grab it from the office in administration and take it to the van myself.  She did meet me at Brand later in the day, and she did help me off load it to the storage area in the basement.

TheGirl and I are always in a search to find a place to have dinner where we can take Cheyenne with us.  Cheyenne may not say anything, but her manor in the rare times we don't take her with us is telling.  She doesn't like it, because she expects to go with us.  I mean, if the monkey is going, why not her?  Tonight we tried Isabella's Italian kitchen in Burbank.  It was good.  I mean it's not like a 4 star meal, but it was good.  The thing is, TheGirl and I often don't have good luck when we try new place to eat.  Thankfully I can say that this place will be added to the dinner rotation.

Thursday, February, 8, My cousin's kid, Natty, is being dropped off at my house in order to spend time, waste time, before school.  I actually don't understand why she comes by, because when I was a lad I would go to school way before the first bell.  So I'm not sure if there's a rule as to how early the kids can arrive, but for some reason Natty has to come over to my place for a few minutes.  Anyway, she came by today, and when she left she once again didn't lock the front door.  She was doing well, because the last three, four, times she came by the door was locked.  Today, she left it unlocked again.  I'm not going to say anything to her mother absit her leaving the door unlocked.  I'm just done with stupid shit like this.

Gitmo called Casa today to say that a patron at Central took off without checking out her books.  This is because she claimed that someone at Casa Verdugo said that the books on the hold shelf were pre-checked out to patrons.  That's not a thing that we do, because of many reasons.  Of course that patron sucks for lying about any of us.  I'm pretty sure no one here said that.  Even Sue, who doesn't know much, would not say something like that.  She would just turn to one of us instead of answering the wrong answer.  She knows THAT much.  Because of this defamation, Gitmo had me take a picture of the sign that is on the hold shelf that specifically says a patron needs to check out the items either with staff or the self-checkout machine.

TheNewCute and I were exchanging text messages about this.  I pointed out that there have been studies that show that people will totally make up things to save themselves from being called wrong.  I think that's what happened with this patron, because people suck.

I haven't gone out for a walk at Casa in a long time.  I think the last time I walked around during my lunch hour was back in November.  Perhaps even longer, I would have to check.  Today, despite my right thigh hurting I decided to get out and walk.  I mentioned in a previous entry that I've been losing weight.  And to be sure, I want to lose more weight, but I also want to keep mobile.  My thigh hurting isn't an excuse to not move.

There was a pretty French tutor in the library today.  She was seated by the fiction books, but more importantly exactly where I sometimes look out on the library to just look at things.  I'm not going to say that I wasn't checking her out.  Her face was gorgeous.  But more than once she caught me looking while I wasn't technically looking.  One time I swiveled my chair from looking away from my computer to back facing my computer and boom, our eyes locked.  I'm not one to think that this girl has a thing for me.  No girl has a thing for me.  I don't ever go into any situation interacting with women where I think someone is interested in me.  I'm sure she now thinks I'm some kind of masher.  Jeez.

I really need to start opening my aunt's mail, in order to protect her from herself.  Her health insurance is run by a private company, but paid for by Medicare and Medi-Cal.  In all the years my grandmother was on Medicare and Medi-Cal there was never a bill.  Sure, they would send itemized lists of the doctor's bills and such, but all of them literally said "This is not a bill."  Just like the ones my aunt gets these days.  Only the itemized lists are from the health insurance company.  But they all says This is not a bill.  And EVERYTIME my aunt comes to me saying, they're charging me for this or for that.  While it literally says on top of all the things she shows me that it says this is not a bill.  I'm getting tired of her getting anxious every time one of these "bills" come in the mail.  This is why I say I need to open her mail, to filter some of this junk.  But, if I start to do that I'm fucking myself over as well.  Because then she will complain about not getting her "bill."  ARGH!  Why can't she get it through her thick skull that these letters are NOT BILLS?!

Friday, February, 9, I was behind the desk at Brand when I got an alert on my watch that there was an earthquake happening.  I couldn't read how strong it would be, but I knew that it was going to be over a 4.5 in magnitude.  This is because the app alerts if the magnitude is 4.5 or bigger.

Now the actual shaking anyone feels comes down to many factors, like how far someone is from the earthquake for instance.  I knew I only had a few moments to take action.  I turned to TheNewCute, who was helping a patron at the moment, and told her "We're having an earthquake," and I got under the desk.  I didn't feel any shaking though.  The only indication that there had been a quake was a slight sound the building made.  The sound was like when a house creeks when the temperature changes.  Misa told TheNewCute that she really felt it in the tower, but I didn't feel anything.  When I got home my aunt said the same thing.

Saturday, February, 10, I woke up at 9am this morning, but I didn't get out of bed until nearly 10am.  I woke up but I went back to sleep.  I wanted to get out of bed and take a shower, but I didn't do that.  I just lay in bed.  I was getting hungry and I got out of bed.  But I didn't take a shower right away.  I figured that I would get us food for my aunt and myself and then shower.  I got my aunt some Panda Express, but I wanted some Tommy's.  I picked up our food and went back home.  It was nearly noon when my aunt finally got out of bed.

Speaking of Tommy's, I ordered a chili to go and the girl behind the counter asks me if I want the large size for only $6.  The usual price is nearly four times that amount.  Naturally I said yes.  So now I have a boatload of chili in my fridge.  Speaking of the fridge, I noticed that all the food was really cold in it.  I checked and the fucking thing was set to five.  It's usually set at four, so I don't know who moved the dial, but it wasn't me.  So, it must have ben my aunt.

When I got back from the food pick-up run I told my aunt that the food was ready.  I typically turn on the TV and set the kitchen playlist on the Roku.  Today the TV started doing this blinky thing, as I call it.  It's a smart TV, but it doesn't work well.  My buddy Dane gave me this TV, which is one he found on the street.  It had been thrown out, but he took it and gave it to me.  It works, but it does glitch out sometimes.  Like this morning.  I turn it off and basically reset it.  Today it reset, but the fucking Roku kept saying that it could not connect to the internet.  I just wanted to eat, and not try to login fifty times, because I tried twice and the Roku kept saying that it couldn't connect to the internet.  ARGH!!  Because it wouldn't work I figured that I would just watch regular TV.  Of course this morning the stupid TV can't tune into any stations.  I could hear two of the stations, but the others were not coming in.  I gave up and just continued eating.  I was hungry, and my food was getting cold.  After I finished eating I checked the fucking Roku and it turns out it wasn't at fault.  It was my internet that went offline that was at fault.  The internet went offline yesterday, and now here it was going offline again.  Fuck me.  Nothing wanted to work.  It made for frustrating breakfast, because my aunt and I don't converse.  I don't want to converse, because she's bound to say something stupid about my drinking.  I don't want to hear it.

Sunday, February, 11, The girl in the striped yoga pants that I sometimes see at the market was there today.  I usually try not to stare at her.  Today I sorta lingered on the curve of her ass as she walked by.  It wasn't a stare, but I certainly lingered for about two seconds, perhaps.  For me that's lingering.

Monday, February, 12, My coworker Tony and I went on a run this morning to pick up and deliver some chairs from the Brand library to two other branches.  While on the run I took the items for those branches with me, which meant that I had done half the route and it was only 11:30 am.  I only had three more stops to go, well, four when you count the fire department.  So, I went there and then I took off back to Brand to have my lunch.  Even with TheNewCute not being there on Mondays, I like having lunch there anyway.  Mainly because it's nice and quiet there.

While driving the route I saw that Jack in the Box has a new burger they call Smashed Jack.  It looks good, but really it will come down to the beef.  A few years back all the fast food burgers I've had have meat that just tastes different.  It was a cost cutting deal, because almost all of them switched to cheaper meat.  I wonder if this is from the regular meat or some new meat source.  I read online that sales of these new burgers are twice what the company expected.  I better hurry and get one.

Krishna gave me some conversation hearts to take to Adams Square.  I noticed that they had new sayings on them.  They've been updated to say things like, "Bae" and "BFF."  Now if they could do something about the chalky taste, we're in for the win.

I got a Shamrock shake today and I don't know if I'm misremembering it, but I feel that it used to be more minty in the past.

Tuesday, February, 13, I said it before, but I'll repeat myself to say that I'm trying to walk more on my Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I have the opportunity to walk at least a half an hour before work on Tuesdays and during lunch on Thursdays.  It's not going to be easy when it's hot in the summer, but right now the weather is perfect.  And I have this nice neighborhood around the library, which means no more excuses.

I was filing the holds on the shelf when I noticed that the order was off... again (see above).  So someone believes that the letter W goes before and after the letter Y.  Hmm, how does that work?  This is not the first time this has happened.  Many of us have told Gitmo about this problem, but I guess he doesn't want to embarrass the person who is doing this, because he really hasn't done anything to fix this problem.  Sigh.  There is a way to do a "contest" to see who is better at putting things in order.  The person we all think is the problem, or persons should I say, would then come to light right away.  But oh well, I guess we'll just have to fix all the mistakes.

One in a series of "Here's this thing in lieu of a raise" items was given to all of the branches... BAGLES!  Yes, we got bagels, and some chocolates, in lieu of raises.  Eat up.  I had half a bagel today, because if my raise STILL hasn't gone through I can eat least enjoy a yummy bagel with a schmear of cream cheese.

I don't start work on Tuesdays until 10am.  That means I have extra time in the morning, because I usually leave for work at around 9am.  But, I don't sleep in on Tuesdays, I wake up the same time every day.  Like I said, that means I have some extra time in the morning.  I'm also horny.  I never thought to jerk off in the morning, until today.  I looked for a video with a porn star that is always a slam-dunk, guaranteed to make me cum fast.  Tori Lane is one such girl.  It only took two videos to cum.  I might just make this part of my regular Tuesday routine.

On a side note to this, my close up eyesight has been getting worse.  Where once I could read microprinting with my bare eyes, now everything small and close looks like a blur.  Some days the blur is slight, others very pronounced.  Which makes me wonder if it's the that jerking off can make you go blind.  Ha, ha, I guess the joke is on me.  Because I love looking at the world, but I also have nothing else to look forward to other than jerking off.  And having a good meal.  And chatting with TheNewCute.  And watching the hummingbirds fly around.  And... well, you get the idea.

Wednesday, February, 14, On Monday a crew of men were working on the sidewalk in front of Montrose.  I'm not sure why they changed this part of the sidewalk.  The claim was to be more ADA compliant, but I'm not sure what the differences are, other than it being smooth.  One thing that was a problem was right where the sidewalk meets the path to the library.  There was a small lip that the book cart would get caught in.  From the looks of it that lip is no longer going to be a problem.  Thumbs up.

Someone, I'm guessing from the construction crew, put more caution tape around the little garden in front of the side entrance to the library.  Good.  Too many dopes walk through the plants, which were growing so much before the spikes and the rope feel down in the elements.  Really what needs to be done is to have a fence around that area.  That probably won't happen any time soon.

I have a locker at Central that I have decorated with various things.  There are foam letters spelling out my name.  For some reason someone keeps moving the letter E from the front of my name and puts it on the end.  Also, the E is really just a number 3 flipped.  Whoever is doing this is also turning the letter all the way around to make it back to a number three.  Who would do this to my letter?

TheGirl and I went to Don Cuco's in Burbank, the one near Toluca Lake, not the one by downtown Burbank.  I had sopes.  It was kinda funny because we never acknowledged that it was Valentine's day today.  And you know what, it seems that it's not such a big thing for some people anymore.  Grigor said he was going to hang out with his buddies tonight.  Both them are married, and I guess their wives don't care that they aren't taken out to dinner or something.  Sign of the times, I guess.

Thursday, February, 15, But of course the day that my right leg feels almost normal I get a pain in my left knee.  What is going on.  I mentioned on Tuesday's entry that I want to do more walking around the Casa library.  But with these pains it's going to make it less fun.  Thankfully my knee didn't act up when I went on my lunch time walk today.  Whew!

The cute French tutor came into Casa again today.  She signed up for a new card, but it wasn't me that made it for her.  Karen helped her out, because I was busy on the phone when she came up to the phone.  I only overheard one thing, her first name.  Anna.

Friday, February, 16, My special delivery for the day was to take ten chairs, a speaker, a microphone, and a mic stand to Adams. There's apparently an author event on Saturday, and they wanted to have as many chairs as possible. OK.

Once again someone has made a mistake.  I know these are minor mistakes, but I'm still bringing it up.  I was fixing the bins, which were a bit of a mess, and that's when I found an envelope in the Chevy Chase bin that should be going to Adams square.  It was facing down, but the reason why I spotted it was that some dummy had put ONE book in a bin and then this envelope on top.  One book.  The other Chevy bin was not full, so that one book could have just gone in the other bin.  Which is where I did put it, and thankfully someone not doing their job correctly helped me find this.

A few months ago I helped a few patrons in the adaptive room, because I'm the only one that ever just jumps to help people when it's something no one has any information about.  Like that day I had to, on the fly, figure out how the book reader worked.  After a little bit of trial and error I got it to read.  That day I met this really pretty special needs assistant.  I don't know what her actual job title is, but you get the idea.  Julie.  I hadn't seen her since then, until today.  And, I finally got a picture of her to share.  She was friendly, and it seemed like she expected me to say something like "Can I have your number."  I thought about asking, but I don't want to come off as a masher.  I think she's really cute.  All the more reason why I'm sure she's not single, or interested in me.

I went to the market before going home, because I wanted to get some booze.  The pretty self-checkout girl was there.  I happened to go to the express lane, which is right next to the self-checkout area.  I got to check out her butt a couple of times while waiting in line.  But just as I got my booze in hand and turned around where I could talk to her some one needed help on one of the self-checkout machines.  Cock blocked, by a self-checkout machine.  The Algorithm just wants to tease me.

I checked online, Talia got her cookies.

Saturday, February, 17, I saw that McDonald's has some new bagel breakfast sandwiches.  One said it was steak, so I had to try it.  I liked it, but it was a bigger portion than I wanted.  I felt really full after eating it.  I think next time I'll have to get some salsa and add it, because it is a little bland.

TheGirl and I went to Santa Anita today.  It's become a sort of a tradition since we first went to the track about three years ago.  The track is fun, and I can day drink.  Woo!  That makes it the best.  The weather was pretty nice.  There was a fear that the rain that we've had all week would continue, but the gods made it so that it wouldn't rain on our Santa Anita day.

Upon arrival we both got on the ordering website to get some booze and food.  I ordered up a Manhattan and some yummy chicken taquitos.  They were much better than I expected them to be.  And they came with pico and sour cream and a nice green salsa.  I ate a late breakfast, so it was nice having a small option for lunch.  Had to have room for more booze.

Speaking of, TheGirl ordered up a margarita that was really good.  So good I ordered that for my second round.  Nice!

I've never bet on the horses, until today.  TheGirl said her friend ask if either of us would bet today.  I told TheGirl that maybe I should, but that I needed something to help pick which horse to bet.  Something like a favorite number, or color.  She said that MaryKay, her friend, liked the colors yellow and blue to base a bet on.  OK, we looked for jockey's and horses that had that combination.  We found one in the third race named Immelmann.  The horse ran in first nearly all the way.  Well, until the last turn, after which it faded fast and ended up in last place.  Womp, womp.

So I went online and made an account and boom, I was betting.  I had to add $10 worth of credit to the account, even though I just wanted to bet $2.  No problem.  Loser, first time out.  Next race had another yellow and blue combination.  Actually, the colors listed in the racing form said gold and blue, not yellow and blue, on the first couple of horses I bet on.  I mean, now I had to bet the entire $10 at some point.  But not all on one race, one horse.

I ended up betting on the favorite, California Tiger, in the eighth race, and I won $6.22 cents on that bet.  But, since I had bet a total of $10 then I was officially down.  But, it was fun actually winning.  When we arrived, TheGirl and I saw a man in the betting area cheering on the first race.  When his horse, which started in first place, started to fade to last place he became more distraught.  I guess that comes with the game.

Laffit Pincay and Willie Shoemaker are the only two names I know associated with horse racing.  And there's his bust.  He is still alive, I did not know that.  He is one of the winningest jockeys of all time.  Nice.  He's so famous that even I know his name.

We took a final selfie just before we left the box.  TheGirl has a much better camera in this new phone of hers.  I look so much like my father in the picture above.  We had a great time today.  Can't wait for the next time.  Maybe I can win some serious money.

Sunday, February, 18, I went to the local Jack in the Box to pick up some things to eat for my aunt and me.  I've had some issues in the past with this particular Jack.  Their service has never been very good.  My visits are usually frustrating due to their lack of good service.  I usually have to stand like a dope in front of the counter waiting, and waiting, and waiting, AND WAITING, for someone to ask me if they can help me.  I usually mobile order, so I know that they already have my order ready in a bag to just give to me.  So it's baffling that they don't just ask if I'm here to pick something up.  Today was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak.  I waited and waited, and finally the lady asked if she can help me, I tell her that I'm here to pick an order up, and she asks my name.  I tell her and she goes to the area above the fry rack and looks at the various bags for my name.  She hands me one and I ask her if the salad is included.  She looks me straight in the eye and says yes.  I grab the bag and I start to go out the door.  I notice there's no salad, so I turned around and head back to the counter.  The guy in front of me checked the time twice while we were waiting for the lady to turn around and ask if we need help.  I took there for ten minutes, until I just got frustrated and left.  Ten fucking minutes without her even turning to the guy in front of me to ask him what did he want to order.  That's just bad.  I left telling myself I would not return to this Jack ever again.  They have fucked me over for the last time.

I went to the market and saw the self-checkout girl bouncing around the self-checkout area.  I didn't try to make eye contact with her at all.  Why even bother?  She clearly sees me as a Frankenstein monster, so why should I try to make time with her.  Actually, all ladies see me as some kind of Frankensteinian masher.  I say this with some confidence judging by the way they look and react to me.  Clearly I am a hideous monster in their eyes.  So yeah, I just walked passed her when I was done bagging my things.

The above picture is from last night, just before going to bed.  My right leg was hurting after it not really hurting on Saturday.  My shoulder was also in pain, and I'm not sure why.  I don't know why my leg hurts.  I don't remember injuring it.  Hmmm.

I think I mentioned that I bought a lifetime membership to the website Mr. Skin.  If you didn't know it's a site that has nudity from movies and TV shows.  It features actresses that have gone topless, or nude in some way.  Its a pretty good site, I must say.  I will get a name of an actress in my head and I will head right over to the site to see if that actress has done a nude scene.  Today's name was Marina Sirtis, most famously from the TV show Star Trek the next generation.  Sure enough, she did some nude scenes, and they were great.  The above gif is part of a longer scene where she is topless the entire time.  Who knew she had such a nice chest?  Now I do.

Monday, February, 19, Just before I got into the shower this morning I looked at myself in the mirror, and I could see that I have definitely lost weight.  I mean look at me.  I'm now using yet another closer notch on my belt.  I don't know how much that is in actual weight, but I am getting skinnier.

I do love having three days weekends.  Sadly this is the last one I can think of until June, I think.  Some day I need to have enough money that I don't work at all.  Yeah, right.

Tuesday, February, 20, I was at the desk at Casa when I got a notification about something appearing on Teams. There were two announcements, one being that the public restrooms were flooded.  The other was that the leak upstairs was active again.  The bathroom thing isn't something new, since some dopey patrons purposely stuff things into the toilet.  Like last time some fool took the plastic urinal cakes from the urinals and stuffed them into the ADA toilet.  Like why?  The leak is something disheartening, because it's a new roof.  It shouldn't have ANY leaks.  Yet, for some reason that section of the roof leaks worse than before.  Hell, there wasn't even a leak in that section of the building.  Just more fail.  They should have built a new building instead of renovating a nearly fifty year old building.

Wednesday, February, 21, When I got to Brand I gave TheNewCute an envelope with her name on it.  Inside was some of the old cash receipts that we don't really use anymore.  The library is the last department in the city that uses these things.  The only thing is that we don't have any directive as to what we are supposed to use instead of these receipts.  There isn't an official replacement.  Most of the branches don't have these anymore, except for Brand and Central.  Brand uses them for their photo permits.  Central uses them for lost books and other fines.

It's obvious that TheNewCute liked the fact that she now had these receipts.  This will likely be the last they'll get.  I know, because I was the one that would pick them up at the Perkin's building in the past.  The last time I picked them up I picked up like thirty of them.  But the lady that stored them and gave them to me is now gone.  And how things work now is no one passes down any knowledge, so I'm sure no one can tell me where they are now.  And as I've said, no other department in the city still uses them.

When I got back to Central I started taking the book bins out of the van.  In between the second and third trip to and from the van a jackass parked his car really close to the back of the van.  This made it harder for me to get the bins out of the back.  I had to twist to get the bins out thanks to the shithead.  Why must there be so many stupid and careless people in the world?  There is almost always some drama in the loading area, because people are jackasses.

TheGirl and I went to the Smokehouse for dinner. I don't have much to report from dinner.  We had a good time, and good food.  TheGirl had fish and chips and I ordered the Reuben sandwich.  The booze always hits the spot.  It's kinda a miracle that we still do this Wednesday night dinner.  It's something that we both look forward to.  It's just about the only thing I really look forward to these days.

Thursday, February, 22, I went out for a walk today during my lunch hour.  I didn't do much walking until now.  It's perfect weather for a walk.  This time I walked up past the usual street I turn on.  I decided to go one more block past Louise all the way up to Campbell street.  I turned North and when I got about half way up the block I noticed one of the houses had a treehouse in front.  How cool.  I would love to have a treehouse.  It's like, the best thing ever.

When I got home from my late night at the library I found that my aunt had made some enfrijoladas.  I don't mind her cooking things for me to have for dinner, but I just wish she would do it a Monday and not on a Thursday.  See, we have this patter where we don't eat home items on the weekends, and Thursday is practically the weekend.  Why not maximize the food over time ratio to its fullest?  No, not my aunt.  She minimizes it.  Shaking my head.

Friday, February, 23, I've noticed that the sidewalks are green these days.  The cement in front of my door is looking really green as well.  Everywhere I see green in cracks of sidewalks, and even my own driveway.  It's certainly a result of all the rain we've been having lately.  I love it though.  The Valley is a place that is constantly being beaten down by the bleaching effects of the sun.  At least for now I'm getting to enjoy the green of the winter of rain.

I got curious today as I walked into the library.  There's a little side door by the windows in circulation that is the fire exit.  Circulation used to have access to that door, but they closed it off during the renovation.  Like why?  Why would they take away a fire door?  Also, there are only two doors in circulation and they both exit to the same hallway.  What if there was a horrible situation like some guy shooting up the library.  We would be trapped in circulation without a viable way of getting out the outside.  That door was the way out.  I know that if something did happen we could still go through that door, since they did such a piss poor job of closing it off.  You can see that once you're on the other side of the former door.  Talk about mickey mouse work.

The new cleaning lady at Brand cleaned the two remaining plexiglasses.  Something the old janitor didn't ever do.  She mentioned how they were really wobbly. TheNewCute and I looked at them and she mentioned how broken the plexiglass was.  I told her the other day that most of the plexiglass shields were gone from the other branches.  Casa is the only branch that has a complete set of shields from when we reopened.  After checking the ones at Brand TheNewCute and I made the executive decision to take them down.   She was going to ask the branch manager to confirm throwing them away. It's a formality, they are both broken, and hanging on by a thread.

Mcdonald's runs a promotion on filet-o-fish sandwiches during this time of year.  My aunt must have seen this promotion on TV, because she asked me to pick up a pair for dinner tonight.  I picked the pair up and they were as small as sliders.  I joked to someone that the filet-o-fish was super tiny now, but is ridiculous.  For this promotion prices each filet-o-fish at $2.99, instead of the normal $5.84.  I mean $2.99 is too much for one at this size.  I can't believe Mcdonald's sells these small sandwiches for nearly $6 normally.  This follows the trend of things shrinking in size yet costing much more.  Mind you, I do like my portions to be smaller these days, but this is not OK.  I rather just get the cheeseburger.  Although, that's not super tasty these days.

Saturday, February, 24, I often like to try new menu items at fast food joints.  Sometimes the item is good, sometimes not so much.  Today was a not so much.  I tried the Cheesy chicken Crispanda.  It's a take not the empanada idea, but it's not done too well.  I found that the taste of the chicken was meh.  Also, there was barely any meat in the the thing.  I won't be buying this again.  It's no Mexican pizza, for sure.

I was feeling like fish and chips since last week.  I found that there was an H. Salt up on Saticoy.  I'm pretty sure I won't go back though, because the fish wasn't that tasty.  You have to know that I've been going to some good fish and chip joints for a while.  That place in Burbank called the Auld Chip Shop is really good.  That's pretty much the standard for fish and chips in my book right now.  Live and learn.  Next time I'll just go there if I want fish and chips for my aunt and me.

Sunday, February, 25, When I woke up this morning I had an alert from a few hours before saying that my Amazon delivery had been made.  It showed the time stamp of 4:18am.  I mean, is this a thing now?  How does my pair of pants get delivered at 4am?  I like that I got the pair of pants super early, because that meant I could wash them this afternoon.  Now I can use them on Tuesday.  Still, I wonder what happened that the delivery was made so early.  I guess I'll never know.

I did check out this thing online and one person on a discussion board claims Amazon delivers 24 hours a day.  Hmm, I'll have to follow up on that.

My aunt asked me to get some stuff from the Super King market.  While there I went through the ice cream aisle and I found Rompope pops.  I HAD to get them.  When I got home I had one, and it was pretty good.  That's one of my favorite flavors, and I NEVER find it anywhere.  The only people that seem to have it are the street vendors.

When I go the get gasoline it seems that eight times out of ten there is some drama.  It's can be so many different things, but today it was a guy blocking the pumps.  I didn't even see him by his car.  A few moments after I took the above picture he comes out of the mart and just leaves.  Clearly he didn't pump any gas.  Meanwhile, as you can see in the picture, he took up two pumps and parked right in the middle of the aisle.  As a courtesy one can park closer to the pumps to allow passage of a car to the side.  Not this jackass.  Hate people like that.

Coke has been trying new flavors.  As all things some are hits and some are misses.  Today I tried the so-called "Spiced Coke."  The spiced part was OK, but the main added flavor was raspberry, which I don't like at all.  I drank just enough to try it.  After that I poured the rest out.  it was yuck.

I have said here that I've lost some weight over the last few weeks.  Today I wanted to try on a pair of overalls that I bought last year, but could not wear because I was too fat.  Well, I'm happy to report that I was able to wear the overalls for the first time.  They are a little tight in the stomach area, but not bad.  I don't have to suck my stomach in.  They just fit a little snug.  Yay!!  Now I have to actually wear them out.

Monday, February, 26, I have a lot of junk that needs to be looked at and tossed or kept.  Last night, when I went to try on my overalls, I saw that the drawer I had the overalls was full of shorts.  I mean I must have at least twenty or twenty-five pair of shorts.  I best start wearing them more often.  There are some that I can toss, or donate.  I'll have to go through them on the weekend or maybe like on a Tuesday.

I've mentioned it before, someone is messing with the letters on my locker at work.  I got to work today and sure enough someone messed with the letters again.  What I want to know is who is doing this?

McDonald's introduced a new dipping sauce for their nuggets, and it's pretty good.  I can describe the flavor as sweet and picante.  It's too bad that this can't be a permanent flavor.

I got a notification saying that my credit score had gone up.  When I checked my Capital One app for the results it showed that my score went up ten points to a score of seven hundred eighty three.  Ten points?!  That's pretty fucking great. A few months ago my score went down five points, and I was wondering why.  Now I wonder why it jumped ten points.  Either way, it's a great thing.

On my way home I got that itch I get that makes me check my work email.  Sure enough, there was an email announcement that declared Nancy P was going to be the new circulation manager.  I really thought that Isis was the one to get it, but I did feel that she had a big chance at the job.  I wonder when she is going to start.  I just hope she leaves me alone to do my job.  I'm kinda used to not having a supervisor.  Ha!  I guess we'll see how good of a manager she can be.

Tuesday, February, 27, The morning was really busy at Casa today.  There were a lot of items in the bookdrop, and magazines to be processed.  I half thought that the Monday crew didn't do their job yesterday.  But I figured something else happened.  I later talked to Vagabundo and he told me that they did get the bookdrops, but that someone may have missed the night bookdrop.  Whatever.  I was able to get it all done, but because I had my mind on my work I missed my break.  At around 11:20am. Grimace comes out of the back office and admonishes me to go take my break.  I leave and it's 11:22am.

When I came back from my break there was a moment where Vivian turns to me and says that she's going on her break.  Because of the busy morning neither of us went on our break at the proper time.  I was supposed to go at 11am, but ended up going at 11:22am.  Grimace is about fifteen feet from Vivian, who has turned and is going to the other room.  Grimace calls out to Vivian and Vivian turns around and says to Grimace, "Can this wait?"  Grimace may or may not have heard that.  Vivian looks at Grimace with a look as if to say, "What do you want?"  Grimace tells her, I just wanted to remind you to go on your break.  Vivian stood there and just looked at her with amazement.  She then says, "I know," and left.  Grimace then looks at me with amazement at Vivian's reaction.  I was kinda lost as well, but that's because I didn't know what had happened during my break.  Apparently Grimace said something to Vivian.  What it is, I still don't know, but it must have been harsh or something hurtful.  How do I know this?

When Vivian came back from her break she started shelving some books.  Within a few minutes she comes up to me, as I was also shelving, and tells me that she's going to go home and that Mala is going to show up to cover for her.  Internally I'm like, "What in the world."  I could see she was getting sad by the look in her eyes and I ask her if something happened while I was gone.  She didn't say a word, but her eyes start to tear up, which make mine tear up.  She then nods her head and walks away.  Wow!  What must have Grimace said to her?

The rest of the day Grimace just kept saying that Vivian must have been feeling really sick that she had to leave immediately.  Yeah, sure.  I wonder if Grimace is playing along or she knows what was said hurt Vivian.  All I know is that this is going to hit the fan.

While Mala was looking to find desk coverage she turns and tell me that my next paycheck will reflect my raise.  And that the raise is going to be retroactive to December.  Very nice!  It's everything I could ask for.

I went to the market after work to get some booze.  I usually just use the escalators, but today I felt like doing a little walking, so I went up the stairs.  Right at the top of the stairs was one of the flower shop girls.  Boy, did she have a kicking figure.  It's kinda crazy how many random ladies have gorgeous bodies these days.  It's a mockery going into that market.  Wait, it's a mockery to go anywhere with these ladies.

Wednesday, February, 28, This Vivian thing is getting way serious.  When I walked up to Central this morning I noticed that Vivian was going into the building.  She waved at me, but did not stop to talk.  I didn't see exactly where she went, but I KNOW that she went upstairs to administration.  Probably to tell her part of the story.  Grimace is going to find herself in a shit storm.

I made Chevy Chase my first stop of the day because I had a special assignment at Brand.  Kerri was there and we got to talking about somethings, including Vivian vs Grimace.  I told her how I saw Vivian at Central this morning going up to admin.  I told her what I knew about what happened yesterday.  She told me that she would no longer defend Grimace as her union representative.  Just like Jade, Grimace has a long rap sheet and now no one wants to represent her in her HR matters.  The new rep, Leslie, also doesn't want to represent her.  Grimace is a menace.

About two weeks ago the new girl, Stephanie, asked me to help move some of portable walls.  Sure, I said.  I forgot how unwieldy and heavy these portable walls are.  I found out soon after the walls came down.  Before that it was a game of hurry up and wait.  I don't mind getting paid to stand around, but eventually we had to actually do some real work.  It took nearly an hour for Chloe to separate the two walls.  After that I grabbed the wall and tried to slowly bring it down to the dolly.  Hell, that was only half of it.  Stephanie and I had to take the walls down to the basement, and that wasn't easy since part of the journey is downhill.  We finally took the walls down to the secret room by the blower and I told her never again.  Stephanie is not going to bring these walls up to any of the artist from this point forward.  Good idea, these walls suck.

Thursday, February, 29, Not much more Vivian and Grimace news today.  Grimace is playing me or she really thinks that Vivian is out sick.  For now it's just go be interesting how this whole thing manifests itself in the coming weeks.

Vivian was "Working from home" today, so technically she wasn't out sick.  This I know.  Because of Vivian's absence Grimace had to stay at Casa today.  She has this brusk way of dealing with people that I haven't chronicled here before.  She comes off kinda angry and aggressive with the patrons.  You can tell with some patrons because they just look like they're saying, "Back off, lady," with their eyes.  I see it.  Grimace can't read the room.

Other times she gives them too much information.  Misa does that when she makes a new library card she will start reading off some manual in her head that she thinks the patrons need at that moment.  What I do is I ask them if they're looking for a book or have some other question.  That way they direct what information I give to them.  Grimace just shoves a lot of information into their laps and the patron is left confused.  It's too much.

Which brings up the idea of how we all need a training refresher.