Oh -- The Person Driving The Car I Dusted On The Road ... Works In The Same Place I Do ... Great ...

Yesterday/Tuesday morning, one of my nightmares came true.

So I was about to get onto the highway, but I had to cross over to the lane to the right in order to do it.  It was being blocked by a black SUV.  The lane it was on first breaks off to the highway going the other direction, and many times I see that cars in that lane go that way.  This one didn't, and I guess I was a bit surprised, because I tried to change lanes and I was ... I wouldn't say it was a close call, I saw the car, but we were, you know, close.  I then slowed down and filed behind it as we did the cloverleaf.  When we got onto the highway, that car was just cruising as I gunned it and veered off two lanes to the left.  I had to get to work.

I do get to work.  As I'm parking, maybe half a minute after I got there, I see that same goddamn SUV.  I noticed the license plate when I changed lanes behind it, so I know it's the same one.  And now I'm scared as hell that he or she knows that I was the one who got close-but-not-that close to it back up closer to our house, the directions to which he or she kind of now knows.

See, this is one of my nightmare scenarios: Getting into a road rage incident with someone who turns out to be a co-worker.  He or she might think why in the hell did I drive so fast if we got to the same destination within 30 seconds of each other.  Or ... he or she could be plotting his or her revenge for almost sideswiping him or her.  And dammit, I didn't even take a look at the driver!  He/She knows what I look like, but I don't know what he/she looks like!  Gah!  How stupid of me!

My Parents, Gah

Even though I have test scoring job right now, right this very minute, Mother wanted me to look up how to put a part in the brand new sewing machine she just bought.  And she wanted me to look up the instructions for the sewing machine tonight.  And Father gave me the Sugar Sewerwater Soup to eat again, even though I'm not done eating the bun he packed for me (which, by the way, Mother made for me).  And I have to drink the rest of the coffee I got from work.  And I want to drink the rest of the pop I have in the fridge, too.  And I need to do all this crap and hit the hay early because I volunteered to come in early for overtime tomorrow morning.

Man, why are my folks pummeling me with stuff when they know I'm still working in the evening?  I mean, I don't want to be bothered by their stuff when I should be working.  I want to do my own thing when I should be working!

Pop Socket Drop It! Pop Socket Drop It!

Bought a Pop Socket.  Can't use it anymore.  I'll explain.

I have been worried about not having a ... what would you call it ... a handle or an assist or something attached to the back of my cellphone for some time.  I have increasingly gotten worried about dropping it or someone snatching it from my hands in a public place.  Also, when I carry it, I have this tendency to cradle the bottom of it with my pinky.  I just Googled "smartphone pinky" and the results from reputable sites say that's a myth, but I kind of think it's like looking down at your phone: Do it long enough and you'll have a deformity.  I needed something that I could use to grip my phone with along my hand's biological lines.

My boss at the health insurance company when I was a temp first enlightened me about a gadget that you could stick behind a phone that could be used as a tighter handle for your phone.  It also could extend and stand on its side if you want to see a video without holding it.  The more I thought about it, the more I thought finding something to attach to the back of my phone was a no-brainer.  So I bought at Wal-Mart what I think is the doohickey people use for such a function more than any other: The Pop Socket.

I'll explain what a Pop Socket is quickly.  It's a plastic thing.  When it's closed, you see two circles connected to a bellows.  One side has an adhesive.  You stick that to the back of your phone.  And that's it.  You can pull out the outer circle so you can slide your fingers around the narrow bellows and between the circles to hold it securely in your hand.

At first it was great.  My anxiety over losing it via clumsiness or theft disappeared.  But some of the annoyances I thought I would have with the Pop Socket turned out to be quite true.  First of all, even though it does retract, it's still sticks out enough that I have a horrible time putting it in my pants without using my other hand to pull the mouth of my pocket open so I can slide it all the way in.  That gives me nightmares that my phone could drop to the floor because it's hanging out of my ass pocket less than halfway because it's blocked by the Pop Socket.  Also I realized something when I did prop up my cell on its side: I don't like to watch videos, so I don't care that I could prop it up on its side.  It's not heavy, so when I tap the screen with my finger, I nudge my phone, and I hate that.  Oh, and most of my apps can switch from portrait to landscape mode; I realized I find the reorientation distracting, and I actually don't like looking at my screen in landscape mode.  Yeah, I can change the settings to lock in the orientation, but whatever.  Finally, when I don't lie it on its side and instead push the Pop Socket in and lay it flat so it stays in portrait, the damn thing spins around.  That's annoying as hell too.

And still I planned on using it, at least for a while.  The peace of mind I have in being able to secure it is still indispensable.  So, when I decided I needed a change of pace and switched out my skin, I looked online to see how I could take the Pop Socket off the one I'm changing out and putting it onto the one I am putting in.  I was going to half-ass the job, to be sure, but I thought that using a credit card to loosen the Pop Socket, then gently peeling it off, then quickly sticking it to the new skin would work.

It did for about, oh, two days.  Then the adhesive quickly dried out because it came in contact with the air, I guess.  The seal was not at all tight, and then it started to loosen, and then I was able to pull the Pop Socket off my phone unintentionally.  This tutorial about how to pull this off mentions putting it in cold water before re-adhering, but this tutorial said that didn't need to be done, so I didn't.  Maybe it wouldn't have mattered and that you really could only stick a Pop Socket once, but maybe I should have dunked it in cold water just in case.  Or, maybe I should have kept it on my first case and not try to peel it off.

So now the Pop Socket is on my nightstand, sticky side up, its gobs of adhesive slowly solidifying.  Meanwhile the back of the North Stars skin I wanted the Pop Socket to stick to has adhesive remnants that I have yet to figure out how to completely remove.  (It's worse with my old Vikings Football As Football skin.)  I'm back to fearing that my phone will be stolen right out of my hand again.  But do you know what?  I'm OK with it.  Sure, it's about $15 down the drain.  But I see it as a test drive, and experience to learn that a Pop Socket is not for me.  So maybe I will instead find a handle that has a lower profile so I can easily slide it into my pockets and not worry about it spinning on me as I scroll through Twitter.  Something like the LoveHandle.  Yeah, that's the ticket.

Oh, and when I think of the words "Pop Socket," for some reason I think of this:

Sometimes I Don't Get Myself

There were a bunch of ... oh, how should I say this -- secondary forms ... that came in late Friday.  I had a feeling that my boss was going to declare overtime, and sure enough, he did -- for the next day, Saturday.  Seeing as I do not work Saturdays and that soccer was going on and that I was seeing my friend, I decided not to come in.  It's rare that I don't, but I do have a life, and I wanted to live that.

Then, yesterday afternoon my boss texts me and another person who doesn't work Saturdays that overtime has been approved for Sundays.  Again, I can't do it because I wanted to watch soccer.

I work Monday/today, obviously.  The people I'm with aren't the company people type.  I have seen overtime offered before.  And, for example, when I come in early in the morning (we're sometimes allowed to stay after our normal leave time, but lately I have come in early because of my test scoring job in the evening) there may be, oh, two other people who decided to come in early.  And we have, I want to say, 15 people in my Main Department?  So considering the huge amount of secondary forms that came in on Friday, I imagine that a lot of it would still need to be done even after the weekend's over.

So that led me to the conclusion/possibility that overtime would be approved for Monday/today as well.  However, the text my boss sent me did not say OT has been given for Monday.  But then, I thought, maybe I should check my company e-mail to see if there is any other message that was left for me.  And I did, and there there was -- sort-of; my boss, about four minutes after he texted this other person and I, said that OT was approved for Sunday ... and Monday.

My initial thought was, "Well, since I am working Monday anyway, now I'll go in early!"  But then ... well, why didn't my boss text me that I could have OT Monday?  Maybe he didn't mean for me to come in early on Monday.  However, he e-mailed me that it was acceptable that day ... so, why wouldn't I be able to come in?  And ... well, that's where I'm at.  If I came in at 5 this morning instead of 7, I don't think he would mind.  And if he did mind, if he didn't mean for me to come in for overtime this morning, well, he'd tell me to, like, leave early on Wednesday or something.

But you know what?  I'm not coming in early this morning.  Why?  Because I'd rather sleep in!  And so why in the hell did I even bother looking at my work e-mail?  I logged in to see if I could come in early.  I can come in early ... but now I won't come in early?  If I'm not going to come in early, even after going out of my way to see if I could, why even care to look?

Yeah, sometimes I don't get myself.

Toilet Paper In The Toilet

Sometimes, when I come home and use the bathroom, I see one, maybe two pieces of toilet paper floating in the toilet bowl.  Sometimes the water in there is white, and sometimes it is yellow-ish.  My working theory: Father blows his nose with the toilet paper and throws it in the toilet without flushing; peeing is optional.

Bothers the hell out of me.  I don't care if it's just toilet paper; that's gross, and I have no bleepin' idea why or how he can't just flush the damn thing.  But that I have seen it so often in my life ... why?  I mean, can't he just blow his nose and throw it in the trash, like I and normal people do?  Instead I see this garbage from time to time when I need to pee, and it sickens me and pisses me off.  I should confront my parents about this.

Sure, I'll Postpone Hanging Out With My Friend For Two Hours Plus To Deliver Egg Rolls, Why Not?

Yeah, so seeing my friend at the start of the Italy-Austria Match didn't happen exactly as I planned.

My parents decided to make a big feast of egg rolls, amongst other stuff, for lunch.  Excellent stuff; I loved it.  In exchange for doing so much work in the afternoon, they told me they wouldn't be making dinner that evening.  Cool; I might use that free chicken sandwich I got for signing up through the Wendy's app after seeing my friend.

Then Mother told me that she was texting with my sister-in-law: "Hey, can you bring deliver some egg rolls to them?"  They live about 45 minutes away.

Now, I have, in the past, when I was a juvenile, not been able to contain how frustrated, and even upset, I got when my parents told me to do something, especially when I had planned to do other things.  And even though I didn't throw my egg roll down and throw a tantrum, which I had down I was a kid, I could not, in that moment, help but let out a little, "Shit."  To which Mother said she could do it herself, but that's ridiculous because she's in her sixties and it was going to rain, and besides, I felt bad for acting as though I didn't want to deliver egg rolls to my brother's place, even though I really didn't.  So I said I would.

But that meant I had to push back my coffee hangout with my friend.  But by how long?  That was difficult to calculate, even after checking on Google Maps that it'd be about 45 minutes down to where they live, then another 50 minutes back up, past the house, then to the coffeeshop we agreed to hang out in.  On top of that, I had to wait while Mother packed up the egg rolls, and I have to confess that I was scrolling on my phone so long that Mother had probably already packed them in a paper bag.  Oh, and I had to use the bathroom a few times, too.  Let's just say having it come out is the price I am willing to pay for it to taste so good coming in.

I don't remember the trip down there taking so long.  But the last time I went down there was Christmastime 2019, so I could be wrong.  Plus the rain might have slowed me down, or at least slowed down the cars in front of me.  I pushed the time I was going to see my friend to 3, then 3:45, then 4, and even then I didn't show up to the coffeeshop I thought we were going to (we had our wires crossed; I went to a different Caribou then the one she found online; the one I went to closed down and the one she found has no seats inside) until 4:15.  But no matter; once we found a place (I might blog post about this later; this was sort of an adventure and relates to coming out of the pandemic), we stayed and talked for about 90 minutes -- just like I thought we would.  Good times, even if I had to push our time back two hours plus.  And I did use that free chicken sandwich from Wendy's late in the evening.

Right Now, My World Is Ruled By Soccer ... And That's Alright With Me

During work the past couple weeks or so, both day and night, and sometimes when I'm just spacing out in bed, I'm thinking about the weekend, and making specific plans.  Specifically about one plan: How am I going to catch the international soccer tournaments going on right now.

For the sake of myself when if and when I look back at this blog post, I will note that right now there are two going on right now: The European Championships (also known as EURO 2020, even though it is 2021 [delayed, obvi, because of the pandemic]), a tournament amongst countries in Europe; and the Copa America, a tournament amongst countries in South America.  Both quadrennial tournaments, starting in 2016, aligned their schedules so that they would be played in the same Year, so this is the second summer I have had this specific, uh, conundrum I don't mind having about crafting many of my weekends around either watching or listening to soccer Matches.

I should, however, start with the workweek, where being able to listen to the sport has been a godsend.  The Euros happen during the daytime because Games are, I think, six hours ahead (ETA at 1:37 a.m. on June 27 that because of Daylight Saving here [I think] it's actually seven -- my mistake), so I've been catching their Games while at work, which is great.  (I have developed a frustrating knack for missing Goals getting scored because I had to, like, talk to someone or get up and use the bathroom, but I might talk about that some other time.)  The Copa America Matches are closer to the Central Time Zone, so I get to hear them (and, if any are on Univision, see them) after work ... but this Year is a little more complicated because for the past few months I've had this test scoring job that meets at night.  I'm not supposed to have the radio or TV on, but sports rules my life, so I have made a point of either listening to CA Games on Sirius XM or turning my television set on ... and having it on mute -- or not.

And while both tourneys are going on, sports is ruling my weekends, too.  I can go watch a Game on TV, and so I'm thinking of going to as many different pubs and sports bars as possible.  But it's hard to just hang out at one place for more than two hours, so either I am doing some serious bar-hopping on my own or, more likely, watching one Game while going out and then going home to catch the second.  That is what I'm going to do tomorrow; the Netherlands-Bohemia Match I'll catch somewhere, and then I think I'll come home early and watch Belgium-Portugal on TV because it's on free TV/ABC/Channel 5.  Then there are the last group Matches in one group.  Brazil-Ecuador will be on Univision, but I care more about the Venezuela-Peru Match because of those countries might be eliminated from Knockout play, and that isn't on Univision and it doesn't appear it's going to be on satellite radio, either.  Shoot.

I can make more complete, concrete plans with the tournaments reaching the knockout/tournament stage.  While I love going to watch the last Matches in the group stage, where, by convention, they're played at the same time and so I get to watch (or try to watch) multiple Matches at once, having fewer Games to plan for, while it makes me sad 'cause it means the tournaments are going to be over soon, means I know that on this date I have this Game, and so I can go maybe to this place, and if there is anything I need to do In Real Life, I can do it when there isn't soccer going on.

I'm rambling here.  I'll just tell you what my mindset is after this weekend:

• Monday there's a quasi-tripleheader of Games.  Round of 16/Eighthfinal Matches at 11 and 2, and then the final group stage Matches in the Copa America at 7.
• Tuesday EURO finishes up the Round of 16.  I wish I had time to break away from work to see England-Germany, but I guess I'll just listen to it on the radio.
• No soccer Wednesday nor Thursday.  Easier to plan, but now that I see that, I am really, really sad.

OK, I've changed my mind again because apparently it'll get really busy on Friday.  And that brings up a complication which was one of the reasons I wanted to blog post about this.  I work my main job second shift Filing, which means I'll be at work for both CA Quarterfinals ... but I'll be free during the day, and so I could, theoretically, watch the early, 11 a.m. Quarterfinal.  Might be better than if I didn't have to sub at work second shift; I would then be working my day job during the day, then have the test scoring job (which was extended, although I am excused from this for a few days) at night.  But then again, under that scenario, I could listen and/or watch all four Games somehow.

And then there's the other complication: My good friend is here from Texas, and while she is busy doing some estate stuff for her late mother, she has at least a couple hours to break away and see me.  But she chose the time (and I'm guessing it's the only time) this afternoon ... right in the middle of the Italy-Austria Match.  Not ideal, but my friend has to take priority.  Just wish we could meet this evening instead.  There are no Copa America Games then, and my plan on seeing *****a for a handjob fell through.

Yeah, I rambled a lot in this blog post.  Bottom line, it's a problem that makes me smile, and I'll be sad once this problem is over because that means the tournaments are over.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: United FC (Re-Entry!).  They haven't completely gotten themselves out of the 0-4 hole they dug at the start of the season; they're still out of a playoff spot.  But a 1-all Tie in Dallas Saturday (even though FC Dallas answered Franco Fragapane's opening Goal; it feels like a loss), followed by a 2-0 win Wednesday versus Austin FC in front of the first sold-out home crowd the Loons have seen in over a year and a half means that they are unbeaten in their last five Matches and are within hailing distance of the postseason.

The win over AFC is instructive for a curious soccer fan like me.  The two MNUFC players who scored are new to the squad this season: Fragapane in the tenth Minute, Adrien Hunou in the 18th.  I have lamented how seldom it seems that players on a soccer club stay with that club for a long or even medium length of time.  It appears as though soccer, more than any other sport, churns through players like the bonbons in that I Love Lucy sketch.  That's why it breaks my heart to have seen Christian Ramirez get traded and Miguel Ibarra get let go.  (By the way, Superman might be going to Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen, and Batman is toiling in the United Soccer League.)

And yet I cannot completely dismiss the results.  United FC have, since their third season, been a good team and, compared with the profligate LAFCs and Seattles and Atlantas of the Major League Soccer, they're punching above their weight, or at least at it.  And they've done so by bringing guys in and sending them out as soon as they don't serve the franchise's purposes.  For example, does anyone remember Bebelo Reynoso, the playmaker that speared the team's run to the Western Conference Final?  He got subbed out after 76 Minutes against Austin ... and he was a substitute for Will Trapp in the 74th Minute in Dallas.  And does anyone remember that Thomas Chacon was supposed to be the shit when the team signed him?  Is he still with them?  Did he ever play a single Minute for them?  And what's happening with Ike Opara, anyway?  (By the way, Brent Kallman remains the only player currently on the roster who played for Minnesota United when they were a second-division club.)  And they've righted the ship, through relentless player turnover.  I have had to get used to, and get over, saying goodbye to players I rooted for.  All for the club.

This team has yet to win on the road.  In their only Game this screening Week, they travel to Portland to play the Timbers Saturday night.

#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2).  These guys are a bunch of cock teases.  They swept The Bastard Washington Senators v.2.0 in Dallas over the weekend starting on Friday, then defeated Cincinnati at Target Monday, giving the ballclub their first five-Game winning streak this Year.  And then they drop the back half of the short midweek two-Game series Tuesday afternoon, 10-7.  And they begin a four-Game set at home vs. Cleveland with a 4-1 setback last/Thursday night, courtesy of former Twin Eddie Rosario.  Also, after Byron Buxton smacked a Home Run over the weekend (don't know which Game), making me reconsider my belief that the organization should trade him, he's fucking hurt again -- this time a fractured finger or some bullshit.  Yeah, a lot of guys are injured.  Still no excuse.

After finishing up with Cleveland, they play four at Comiskey versus the White Sox.  Going into the season the speculation was that Chicago could be the Twinks' rival in the division if they grow up fast enough.  Now, the Pale Hose are in first and Minnesota is last, 13 full fucking Games behind.

#-3: Lynx (Last Week: -1).  There is a lot of talk -- such as it is -- about the Lynx's furious 18-Point comeback at Atlanta on Wednesday to nip the Dream, 87-85.  It's the third time in as many Games Minnesota has beaten Atlanta.  That's great; the Jynx would have the best record in the WNBA if they only had to play the Dream.

Unfortunately there are ten other opponents in the league, and they're not doing so hot against them.  They're 3-7, to be accurate.  In the other Game this club played this Week, they got crushed by The Bastard Detroit Shock in Dallas Saturday, 95-77.  This loss was just two Days after they crushed the Wings by a dozen.  I can imagine Cheryl Reeve, once again, lighting up her team during Halftime of their matchup vs. Atlanta, and this would not be the first time this season she has had to micromanage her squad.  A couple veterans are on the bench and no one knows when they'll be back.  So unless something big changes, the Jynx have who they have, and going 1-1 every screening Week simply won't cut it.

They host The Bastard Utah Starzz Friday, then travel to play Phoenix Wednesday.

I've Been Running On Red Lately

Alright ... so this incident at my nighttime WFH test scoring job is still bothering me.  But I have to admit I've been a little pissy all week.  Can't put my finger on why exactly, but it's possible my attitude has colored how people perceive me, and how I perceive certain situations -- like that fucking snafu that happened last night.

Actually, I might be able to hone in on something.  It may not be the crux of my problems, but it's a problem.  I have gotten obsessed with leaving work -- in particular, I am now trying to avoid leaving when everybody else leaves.  That is around 3:30, when apparently the majority of people on my campus clock out.  In the past I have left when everybody else has left.  That creates a bottleneck of cars on the way out, as you could probably imagine.  But there's also this: Our buildings have only one way in and out.  So, when everybody's leaving at the same time, you can see sometimes half a dozen cars, maybe more, lining up where the end of the property line and the intersection meet.  And if there are enough cars, and if some of them don't get a move on, or if traffic coming from the other way stops them, we would move up and have to wait through yet another red light.  That's a goddamn hell when I don't have to hurry home.  When I have only so much time to eat and sleep before I start my second job, waiting for two and even three lights is unbearable and unacceptable.

So, what's my solution?  In the past, I have chosen to stay a bit later and let the wave of cars itching to leave pass by me so I don't have to go through the stress of waiting with other people.  But I can't do that while I have a night job, plus there are some weeks, such as this week, where I cannot get overtime, and therefore I have to make sure I top out at 40 hours or I will get in trouble.  So if I can't stay late and I don't want to leave when everyone else is, my current solution is to stay late on Monday, when there are fewer people at work so leaving just past 3:30 isn't that big a deal, and then make that up by leaving early the rest of the week.  I can beat the traffic leaving work -- right?

That's not happening this week.  For the past couple days I have been in the lab.  And the unwinding to get out of the lab -- it consists of putting things away, putting other things in other places, having someone open the door for me, then tossing the lab coat into a hamper -- is as long as a Japanese kabuki ritual.  It also does not make me look good when I leave earlier than other people in my group; not only are people thinking I'm skipping out from work, but the people in the lab really, really dislike getting out of their desks just so they can enter a code for one stranger to leave the lab because inevitably another stranger will ask to leave a minute later.  It takes time to find someone, then some more time to herd the other people in my group to amass at the door, before we can leave.

I thought I had built in enough time for all those contingencies, but for the past two workdays I have not been able to leave as early as I wanted.  Therefore, I am keyed up and I have been ... let's just say impatient with other people as I am trying to get out the door.  And by the time I start my car, I am in the thick of other people leaving simultaneously.  That gins up more feelings of bitterness and aggression in me, so I respond by gunning my car through the green light as soon as the coast is clear, even if my co-workers think they have the right-of-way.

That's what I've been doing this week because that is how I have been feeling this week.  Yes, this makes me look like a dick.  But since I've got shit to do, I want to get home as early as possible.  And yet what I have tried to do in order to get home as early as possible has not been enough, and it's upsetting me.  And unfortunately, this won't change unless I get OT or until my test scoring project is over.  I guess I could leave the lab even earlier, or not care about being stuck in the traffic on the way out of campus.  But that ain't me.  That might make it more difficult to deal with me.  But hey, I gotta be me.

Wow, There Was Some Work From Home Hijinks And Now I Don't Wanna Fuckin' Work From Home Anymore

Holy fucking shit.  Goddamn what happened last night ...

So for this test scoring project there has been some issues with using the technology that allows us to work from home, especially at the beginning.  Some of it, maybe a lot of it, comes from making sure you're muted in order for other people to work in peace without hearing someone.  But the collaborative aspect of this project requires us to use the microphone in case we need to speak to each other over the Internet.  It's just that we need to make sure we mute ourselves when we don't need to speak to each other.  Some of the group has forgotten from time to time, and so people either try to talk to them into muting, communicate through typed message to mute, or (and why this shouldn't just be the thing we all use I don't know) some administrator just mutes all of us en masse.

This happened to me.  And I will not take any responsibility for it, because it sure as fuck was not my fault.  I have noticed from time to time that this, uh, collaborative screen I am on has cut out on me.  I have been a good boy, and I have remembered to mute whenever we are in working mode.  However, when this screen cuts off -- again, through no fault of my own -- and I either bring it back or it somehow comes back to it by itself, it is not on mute.  I have no fucking idea how all that happens, and I don't know that it is happening until I hear complaints from the other scorers through this collaboration screen that they can hear everything I'm doing.  But I'm fighting like hell to get myself muted again.  It happened once when my computer was running very low on energy.  For some goddamn reason, when the computer went to sleep mode and I plugged the cord into my computer and got it out of sleep mode, I was not on mute on the collaboration screen, and so (apparently) everyone could hear me move my bed and plug my screen and hit ALT+TAB to get back to scoring papers.  I guess people were trying to scream at me through the Internet for three minutes before I realized what was happening.

Last night was fucking worse.  Out of the blue, this collaboration screen turned into the equivalent of the wait or processing screen; instead of seeing a circle of lines successively light up, there were three dots, one at a time growing bigger and then smaller.  I didn't know what the hell was going on, and for a minute I just waited for it to go back to where it was supposed to be.  When it didn't, I panicked.  I put in the URL for the same screen.  On this one I got in, and I immediately heard screams -- and I do mean shouting -- of "PUT YOURSELF ON MUTE!"  And on this screen you can see a graphic showing when someone is talking.  I saw my name was not on mute.  I hit the mute button a few times, but I couldn't fucking mute myself.  I then hurried back to the first screen, where it finally got out of the wait screen it shouldn't have been in in the first goddamn place, and I just closed that window.  I was able to go to the second screen and mute myself there, but apparently a supervisor had a mass mute button she finally used.  Whatever.

Two things stand out.  The first is the screaming.  When I got into the collab screen the second time, I was immediately dunked into a sea of blood-curdling cries of "PUT YOURSELF ON MUTE!"  There was this one scorer whose bug I saw on the screen ... my God ... and may just be me, but she was particularly fucking shrill, and loud, with her "YOU HAVE TO PUT YOURSELF ON MUTE!!!"  DO NOT FUCKING YELL AT ME LIKE THAT.  She pissed me off so much that it affected how I worked the rest of the night.  I would have been way more productive if not for this incident, but also for her.  I just wasn't in a good head space after her bullshit.

The other thing scares me even more.  In this caterwaul people were typing and shrieking out how they could hear sounds from my end.  I swear to God I have no idea what the fuck they're talking about.  The only sounds I was making were me furiously typing and stabbing at the screen to get to the right screen so I could fuckin' mute myself.  I am getting paranoid that my co-workers and supervisors are hearing sounds that I'm not making.  I mean, if they hear them (and they might be imagining things) and they're not coming from me, where is it coming from?  And how in the hell am I getting knocked off my screen, and then unmuted when I get back to it, anyway?  Does it automatically happen when my computer shifts into Power Saver mode?  Or is there something more nefarious behind all this -- like I've been hacked or something?

The first time I was told to mute myself (THROUGH NO FAULT OF MY OWN!) I made a point of putting my headphone volume all the way down to zero.  I am on mute anyway (or at least I should be), but I needed another layer of, well, protection so that people don't hear me, like, fart or something.  After this bullshit mess though I don't give a fuck anymore; I cut my microphone off.  You're not supposed to do that in case a supervisor wants to speak with you -- you're not supposed to have the radio or TV turned on, either, don't tell anyone -- but fuck that, I'll do anything to prevent somebody fucking yelling at me for being noisy when I have no goddamn clue what they're talking about.

And furthermore, even though I may cool off by tomorrow, I don't see the benefits of working from home anymore.  Fuck being able to work from your bedroom and not worrying about driving to work or needing to get dressed.  It's fucking not worth it if the technology suddenly, incomprehensibly breaks down and I continually get yelled at for something I didn't do.  Fuck, I'll drive half an hour after work for a job where my goddamn computer tries to play tricks on me, shit. ...

Hey ... More Work ... Yay. ...

Oh, so we got the news about ten days ago: This test scoring job has been extended by two weeks.  Apparently there is a lot of testing of kids being done, and they're being done in dribs and drabs, and apparently the project manager likes our work.

I don't mind getting more work; it's nice to be wanted.  But I have kept saying that being busy five nights a week after working at my main job five days a week has taken a toll on my energy and my comportment, and it continues to.  Still, I can't pass up an opportunity, especially if it's offered to me because I'm being so productive (shh don't tell anyone).

Nevertheless, since this is an extension, these two weeks are not considered a "contract" to which we scorers are obligated to show up every night and work once we agreed to the whole project.  In a situation like this, we are allowed to stay on if we have to miss a night because of, say, dinner out with your spouse, or a couple days due to a weekend vacation planned in advance.  Or, in my case, three days spanning Independence Weekend because I have to fill in for the Second Shift Filing person.  I didn't expect this test scoring job to be extended, and it didn't look as though anyone else was going to be able to fill in for her except for me, so I agreed to substitute.  I was worried that a different scoring project would be offered to me; because of my obligations to fill in for my team at work, plus finally wanting to have a weeknight to myself, I was prepared to finally say no after, oh, about three months of working four hours a night.  But if I don't have to be at my desk promptly every night of this extension, and if it is just two more weeks ... eh, I can do it.

With that said ... my contact at the test scoring place left a voicemail for me Friday.  She does not completely close the door on the possibility that we would be extended beyond July 9.  She doesn't think it will happen, but I'm guessing the pandemic, the cascading jumble of lesson-planning and testing because of the chaotic environment of hybrid and remote learning (none of which is consistent from state to state or even school district to school district), and the ensuing, incessant waves of essays that are coming in from all the states that administer the test we're grading have, according to her, generated a backlog that may not sort itself out in two weeks.  So who knows, I might be screwing up my body clock even more ... and for money ... for which I will probably always sacrifice my health and sanity.

My Jobs At Work Are Shifting, Again

I have said many times that I always hate a current situation, but when that situation changes, I hate that too.  Well, I admit that I feel that way, again, at work.

So for the past several months, due to one person leaving after many years, I have had to fill in at Filing off and on during the week.  I appreciate being cross-trained; it helps in case the company downsizes at our campus.  But I have documented on Wailing And Failing many times how I find that department frustrating, and sometimes how I just flat-out hate it.  There are the things that I've forgotten despite making those mistakes several times, there's the intermittent scrutiny from my supervisor, and there's That Guy who no one gets along with because he's equal parts insular and weird.

This may change now that I have been in Filing every week (even if only for short periods), but I've been working in there enough where I can say that, at least when it comes to working the day shift, it is not my favorite.  Not by a long shot.  I would say, in fact, that going to the lab is the only thing that might be worse, and depending on the day it might not be.

And this is where I get wishy-washy.  Whenever I go into filing and either screw up or take some passive-aggressive bullshit by That Guy the wrong way, I totally want to squirrel away and go to, like, Data Entry, where I can put my headphones on, listen to satellite radio, and key stuff.  It's those times where I would even prefer going into the lab, where I have to go down to the end of the building and grab a lab coat, walk all the way back, knock on the door and hope someone lets me in, then put on gloves, find some work, find a desk, set up my radio, set up the printer, log in, sit down (or stand up, depending on whether my back is hurting me), then finally start doing the actual work.  Leaving isn't all that much fun either.  I have to clean up, make sure the forms go through this window and the specimens are put there, then I have to wash my hands, hope I got everything, then wait for someone to open the door to let me out like I'm a dog who needs to pee in the backyard.  It's a total pain in the ass.  I did that last Monday, and the only thing I could think of was, "Damn, I wish I were in Filing!"

Which brings me to today -- well, Mondays in general.  Right now, as I have been for the past few months, I start off Monday mornings in Filing.  It's gotten better now that I think I remember how to do things, but between the work and getting set off by That Guy, more than not I wish I weren't there.  But then I remember that my two co-workers at Data Entry, where I usually am supposed to be Monday afternoons, usually have no work in Data Entry and therefore have to go into the lab.  And when I walk to our desks out in DE Monday mornings and they're not there, I imagine having to knock on the door desperately hoping someone hears and sees me.  And that's when I'm glad I'm in Filing.  A couple weeks ago I e-mailed my boss suggesting that since there is only one person in Filing on Mondays and two people out in DE trying to find work, maybe it'd be a good idea to stay in Filing all day.  And last Monday he told me to stay in Filing all day.

That idea, however, is not for the long-term.  They have finally found a replacement for the full-time Filing person, and she began training a couple weeks ago.  Once she's fully onboarded, there will be a slight cascade of shifting shifts that will eventually lead to a second person in Filing on Mondays.  I don't know when that will happen.  But once that does, I highly doubt that my boss will still tell me to go in there to start my Mondays.  That leaves me out in Data Entry ... and that means I will actually be in the laboratory, finding work that two people are more than capable of covering throughout the course of our Monday.  That change borderline terrifies me.  And I don't like it ... unless I do do it and somehow come to realize that I prefer that over Filing.  Or something might happen today that would make me run to that lab coat and happily wait by the door to do forms in there.  Who knows?

Addendum To: Where My Whores At?

So to give you all an update. ...

I bit the bullet and reached out to a couple of stripper girlfriends I haven't spoken to since the pandemic began.  One, **y, I tried to negotiate with, but she would have had to shoo her daughter out of her townhome, and then after I told her how much I was willing to spend, she didn't text me back.  The other, ****a, gave me some noise about, "Well, since you're my friend I thought you could tip me more, because I have to take out all this time just for you!"  You don't upsell friends, for fuck's sake.

So I'm all alone again, naturally, no woman available to yank, suck, and/or ream me to corporeal peace.  However ... out of the blue, *****a, my activist stripper girlfriend who is/was in Dallas, Messengered me: "What are you doing next weekend?"  She thought of me!  I'm happy about that.  Unfortunately, I have a friend (not a stripper friend, but, like, a real friend) who is up here (from, ironically, Dallas) and I want to see her too, and since I'm busy doing the test scoring thing during the week, I might have to resort to seeing both, somehow, next weekend, even though I really, really want to see soccer, too.

I'll figure it out.  I have to.

Hottest Babe Of The Hooters Calendar: May

For a month with big pictures but fewer women -- ten in all -- the pickings still are low quality-wise.  I can pick out four, however, and the chick in first place is an earned, bona fide first, especially since she heralds the future.

In fourth place is Jeriah, of North Charleston, S.C.  She's almost posing straight at you, and she doesn't smile nor frown but, uh, express herself neutrally.  She has her right hand on her hip and her left arm is up to her left bikini strap.  The more I look at it, the less impressed I am with the photo.  However, she has a good enough body, and I like the purple maze-like pattern on her lavender two-piece bikini.  Moreover, she doesn't have her arms in front of her (well, mostly in front of her), and I can't say that about most of the women in this month.  Good enough for me to rank her.

Third and second are tight, but in the end I'll give third place to Shayna, from Coast Mesa, Calif.  She's got a thick upper body with nice boobs, her blue bikini top has cross straps, and her left hair seems to be playing with her long, blonde hair.  And she actually has a smirk, too.  Wish she could turn her body more toward the camera, however.

In second place is Bri, out of Schaumburg, Ill.  She sports a black-and-lime green two-piece, and her Black skin sets off strikingly against it.  She's got tight abs and long, black hair.  And she's smiling!  And her arms aren't in front of her body!!  And she's completely facing the camera, too!!!  The more I look at it, the more impressed I am with the photo.

Finally, the top girl for May is Fort Worth's own Morgan.  I'm going to point out the negatives first, but she's still first, so bear with me.  She is sideways facing the camera, maybe a degree or two further than that.  Her neck is turned toward the camera, of course, but she is not smiling at all.  She's wearing a two-piece bikini that shows off her stomach, but you can't see because her side is facing us and it's obscured by her left arm.  Finally, her orange top is a full one: Her cleavage and arms are fully covered.  But what is not covered is, like, 70-5% of her ass.  Yes, the great thing about turning your body away from the camera is that you turn your ass toward it.  And while it's not a thong, you can clearly see that her bikini bottom isn't that much of a bottom.  You can see a lot of her ass -- and Morgan has a nice ass, too!  Best of all, I have snuck-read the following months ... there will be more Hooters waitresses showing ass, and showing more of their asses, too!!!  Woo-hoo!!!

So congratulations to Morgan and all the women representing in May.  And, yes, I will jerk off to all these fine women in due time!

Maybe I Should Have Mowed The Lawn Today

On the one hand it's been two weeks.  On the other it's been terribly dry.  Still, with our sprinkler system greening up the front yard (but not the back; parents recently decided they don't want the sprinklers in the back to be programmed to run), I've been looking at the front and I think the grass at least there is long enough for me to cut.

Proffered that to Father for lunch today.  He said it was not necessary.  I don't know about that, especially since there finally is going to be rain -- and apparently a hellacious rainstorm is coming -- tomorrow and it might behoove us to trim the grass, front and back, because it'll grow exponentially after the precipitation tomorrow.  But I didn't bring it up again, and I got really drowsy after dinner, and I fell asleep between around 6:15 and 8, and now as I type this it's too late, and blah.

Tonight Is Why I Do Fun Things By Myself

Once there was a movie theater in downtown Minneapolis.  Went to a movie once, late at night, by myself.  Got into an argument with some asshole.  He asked me if I was there alone.  I said yes.  That motherfucker laughed in my face.  I hate that I can't get over it, but that son-of-a-bitch has scarred my memory.

I say that as an entree into what happened last night.  A guy from The Resistance has been inviting me to online viewings of old movies.  I finally decided to do this.  Partially I did so because I want to keep on his radar; his networking skills and his constant needling of The Powers That Be at our alma mater are things he does masterfully, and I think I need to tap him in case I need him.  Also, the movie he and his friends were screening was Animal House.  There are many legendary movies I have not seen, and that is one of them, and I have wanted to see the film, so I thought this was a good time to finally see it.

That was a mistake.  It was primarily a mistake because of the environment in which I saw it.  I have friends.  I like friends.  But I don't like people who constantly talk during a movie, and this screening was fucking nothing but people who wouldn't shut up.  Well, I take that back.  I think there were about ten people watching.  Three of them spoke during the flick.  One of them tossed an occasional fun fact about Animal House, and that was appreciated.  One of them flapping his gums was the host/guy who invited me/part of The Resistance.  He kept opening his mouth, saying dumb and sometimes inappropriate jokes that weren't funny.  Oh, and he insisted on an after-movie Q&A where he dominated the discussion by asking what was everybody's favorite line.  Shit, man, can I just go?

The other guy, and he seems to be his friend, was even more fucking obnoxious.  He spent half the movie saying the lines aloud.  Yes, Animal House has lots of memorable lines, but they're memorable because the actors said them, not him.  And in the other half he was cackling like a goddman jackal.  Like Joe Biden said to Trump, I just wanted to say, "Would you just shut up, man?"

Hey, if people were talking around me in a movie theater, it would also be distracting.  But I could openly hate those people.  I was, for lack of a better word, "with" these people with whom I was watching the flick, so I don't think I could tell them to shut up, and biting my tongue in this situation kind of pisses me off.  Oh, and I wasn't completely focusing on the movie; I was scrolling through my e-mail and Facebook from time to time.  And on top of all that, I kind of forgot that the Utah Jazz was trying to stave off elimination from the Los Angeles Clippers.  I have made it a point to listen to the radio broadcast of the about-to-be-eliminated NBA or NHL team on Sirius XM.  But even though I thought I would break away from Animal House to listen to at least the end of the Game, I finally concentrated on the movie and forgot about tuning in, and so I missed inhaling the schadenfreude of hearing the Jazz broadcasters sound despondent at the horn of the loss that ended their team's season.  The movie wasn't worth missing that.

I don't feel bad about going to films alone now.  Last night reminded me why I do.  I wish I could see that motherfucker again the next I go by myself to see a movie.  He'd laugh in my face again, and I would fucking crush his skull.

Oh, and as for the film ... while I've wanted to see Animal House, I wanted to because everybody has seen it and I want to know what the hype is all about.  In the back of my mind, however, I had a suspicion that I wouldn't like it.  Gross-out flicks/sex romps aren't my thing -- not now, and not really when I was younger, either.  And yep, I didn't like it.  Just don't think it's funny.  And the stuff they do and show is incredibly, conspicuously dated now.  Fucking a 13-year-old?  Not in this day and age, buddy.  (Not really then, either ... or at least I hope not.)

However, I do like all the women's breasts that were shown in the movie.  I will touch myself to those images one day.  But, there are three women who show their privates (two their breasts and, apparently, [I didn't see this because I was surfing the Internet] Karen Allen her ass), and they are seen later in Animal House fully clothed.  It might be a stretch to say that the flick presents these characters as fully-respected human beings, but for a movie as degenerate as this, seeing the actors nude and then giving them lines after they put their clothes on stands out, and I think in a good way.  I will probably masturbate to their boobies and butties, but it looks as if a movie made when this was made was not so hung up about not just sexualizing but also "othering" an actress who agrees to take her clothes off on screen.  If this were a modern sex romp/gross-out flick, you can bet your bottom ass that the only women showing their tits will be glorified extras who portray characters that have no relevance to the plot.  That, uh, normalization of a woman's sex life has been lost in today's movies, and I think society needs to see that reality in movies and TV shows.  Just an observation ... and again, an observation I could have done without if I had listened to the basketball Game instead.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

Before I begin, I once again marvel at how short this Week's survey is: Two entries, just like last Week.  I note this because Minnesota United FC return to action Saturday, and therefore the WMNSS will no longer be as short as it is this Week (sigh).

#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -1).  Well, Napheesa Collier is back with the team and has been for several Games now.  And although the club drilled Los Angeles at home on Saturday and pulled away from the Wings in Dallas last/Thursday night, I'm still fixated on the middle Game of their Week, a 105-89 loss to Chicago at Target Center.

As with the Twins, the Lynx have been racked with injury; Natalie Achonwa, Aerial Powers and First-Round Draft pick Rennai Davis are hurt and there is no timetable as to when they can come back.  Even so, there is a nucleus of talent that should be better than their 5-6 record, in my humble opinion.  I thought Defense was the problem, but according to this roundtable discussion posing as an article on ESPN.com, it's the Offense, in particular shooting from three, that has kept the Lynx stuck in neutral.  Moreover, it's been reported that after Tuesday's loss to the Sky, Head Coach Cheryl Reeve torn into the team.  They responded by defeating the Wings, which is good.  But a veteran squad in what should be a good team culture shouldn't need to be cajoled by the HC to give more effort.  I am scared that the professionalism is going from this team.  I'm also scared that the team is starting to tune out Cheryl Reeve.

They play the Wings again tomorrow/Saturday night.  They then travel to Atlanta to play Wednesday.

#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2).  I and most other Twinks fans have already written off this ballclub well before this screening Week's 2-4 record.  But it is jarring, and maybe puts the final nail in the coffin, when the Manager throws in the towel.  I think it was after Sunday's 14-3 shitkicking at the hands of the Astros (at home no less), completing the series loss, when Rocco Baldelli basically admitted that this is a lost season.  For those in the back, the Twinks then lost two-of-three in Seattle midweek.

Yes, injuries have taken a huge toll on this squad.  Still doesn't matter; this team still has talent through the roster, and it doesn't absolve the nearly comprehensive swings and misses the front office took in signing free agents this Year.  So the question now becomes whether the Twinks should consider this season to be an outlier, trade only players on short-term contracts and fortify their core believing they'll bounce back next Year?  Or do you clear out, say, everybody except the players called up this Year, rip the foundation down to its studs, and begin a multi-Year rebuilding project?

I hate saying this because these "professionals" have proven to be so incompetent that blowing the whole goddamn organization might be the right thing to do.  But I am feeling as if there are still pieces that, while tradeable for good assets that'll help the franchise in the future, would be great and even vital to keep as building blocks for a reconstituted World Series contender.  And yet there are some whose time, I believe, has come and gone, and that we've seen enough of them and it's best for all parties to move on.

I'll be more specific:

• Trade Byron Buxton.  Yes, his WAR is still the best on the team (and considering he's been injured for some time now, that tells a lot about this team, very little of it good) and his pace in April was almost one for baseball's record books.  But he got hurt again, and maybe it's time to conclude that the he might be able to play half a season for you.  Is it worth getting otherworldly production if he won't be available for 60-80 Games?  He might get the best package for the Twins in a deal; do it.
• Trade Miguel Sano.  Too many up-and-down swings to keep him full-term.  He had that Week where he was hitting everything out of the park, but he gets into massive, demoralizing slumps that apparently, according to Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic, are getting more frequent and longer.  Trading both Buxton and Sano will signal a particularly bitter end of an era.  But seeing as they were hyped up as pillars of The Next Great Era Of Twins Baseball, only to fall way short of expectations, I think many of us are more than ready to move on.
• Keep Jose Berrios.  I do place a premium on homegrown talent.  And unlike Buxton and Sano, he has proven himself to be a good-to-a-very-good Pitcher.  Durable, too.  You can trade Kenta Maeda, unfortunately; his runner-up finish for the Cy Young last season has turned out to be an anomaly.  And you can keep all the one-Year rentals in the rotation, or don't.  But even if he might nab the greatest haul in return, you keep Berrios, at least for a few more Years.
• Keep Nelson Cruz.  It is alarming that his bat, which many thought to be reliable well into his forties, has deserted him.  But I trust that he'll get it back next Year.  Also, he is a great locker room presence, and he'll teach the young'uns finally getting called up to The Show how to win.  Unless a team is willing to part with a couple assets (one a bona fide prospect) for him, don't move him.

The rest?  Eh.  Do what you like.

They're in DFW for three this weekend.  Then comes the first two-Game series of the Year, at home Monday and Tuesday vs. Cincinnati.  After a rare Wednesday off, they'll host Cleveland for four.

The One Great Thing About Having Two Jobs

I think I've blogged about this before, but I'll say it again: Having this test scoring job at night after coming home from work during the day is kicking my ass.  I hate it.  It's sapped me of all my energy (even though I have managed to stay awake) and it's totally altered my sleep schedule.  I feel so exhausted at times that I regret doing it for the money.

However, I noticed something about the test scoring job that is peculiar, and it makes me ... well, OK with the project I'm working on, and I'm OK with it because it touches upon my OCD.  When we had orientation at the start of our project, we were shown a calendar listing pay periods and pay dates (and we get paid on Fridays, of course).  We get paid biweekly at this job.  I also get paid biweekly in my main job.  The notice that my paystubs on my, uh, ADP account are sent to me via e-mail, and it's sent just after it hits midnight on Wednesday, telling me how much I'm going to get paid that Friday.

I looked at the dates.  I then remembered the e-mail that was sent the week before.  I got paid by my real job the previous Friday, and therefore I would get paid two Fridays after.  According to the calendar I was looking at for orientation, my next pay date would be ... between pay dates for my real job.  These two jobs are taking turns paying me on Fridays.  In other words, ever since I got back on with this test scoring place, I've been getting paid every Friday.

That's freaking awesome!  It's great to know that my checking account is being replenished once a week.  I did get paid by the week when I was a temp, and I have always wondered why most of the working world pays employees every other week because I didn't see that much of a difference between getting paid weekly and biweekly.  (And the whole point is sort of moot because my checking account is as fat as it's ever been because I haven't gone anywhere for much of the past 15 months, so it does not matter how frequently or infrequently I get paid.)  It feels more secure getting paid weekly though, you know?  Regardless of whatever expense that blindsides you, you can always count on more money being shipped to your account every Friday.  That feels like a safety net.  However, I'm wondering why two large companies came out to have staggered pay calendars.  If a business is paying out every two weeks, wouldn't it be logical for all the businesses who do so to agree (not through some bylaw, not via some huge meeting or anything, but just logically) to pay all employees on the same Fridays?  How could one company's pay schedule get to the other biweekly pay schedule?

Whatever.  I've been getting paid every week for, oh, the past two-to-three months.  And it looks like I'll be getting paid for a little longer than that now. ...

Where My Whores At?

So I have a planned day off coming up and I wanted to loop back with ****e to see if we could get around to fucking after that weird anxiety attack that apparently led her to get her friend or john or whatever to take her to the doctor's or something.  I've tried texting her the past couple days but she hasn't replied.  She usually replies.  Either she's on vacation, she's ghosting me, or something's fishy.

There is another babe, *****a, who I could go to.  We also had plans to mess around, long time ago, but she's been caught up with protesting around the area.  I don't mind that; I think that's one of the sexiest things about her.  But I could use a good wank, and she's too busy fighting for justice to please lil' ol' me.  I understand.  I miss her, but I understand.

Oh, and my stripper masseuse, ******a -- I wanted to get a massage from her over the weekend, but she said she has been busy because her car was totaled.  Oh no!  I believe her, but damn, what bad luck for her.  Plus the stretch of the highway I use to get to her has been shut down the past few weekends, so I take that as a sign I shouldn't see her for awhile, at least until she gets her affairs in order.

I cannot reach out to any other stripper because I haven't seen nor spoken to them since the pandemic began.  So right now, I don't know where I can go to get my urges soothed.  Where my whores at?

Yeah, Working From Home Isn't Working Out ... For My Employer. It Suits Me Just Fine.

Nope, I have to admit this with less than two weeks left in the project.  I should have been professional about working from home and obeying their rules about not listening or watching anything and avoiding distractions and blah-blah-blah.  But I can't.  And I didn't.  And even though there has been a slight uptick in my production lately, it's still been below average.  Guessing that the supervisors being very nice, the other scorers picking up the slack, and not being so slow as to invite true scrutiny have been the only things preventing them from just telling me to buzz off immediately.

Sorry, but if I am able to listen to or watch a game while stuck in my bedroom, I'll do it.  I did it last night with the Copa America match between Argentina and Chile (on TV, Univision), then with the CA match between Paraguay and Bolivia (on radio, Fox Sports Radio through SiriusXM).  As long as I made sure I cut the microphone on my end, no authority figure on the other end could hear me.  And productivity, frankly, means nothing to me when I can listen to and/or watch sports.  Oh, and I have also just surfed the Internet inbetween papers.  Catch up on my e-mail and Facebook while doing this.  Again, as long as I don't get caught, why stop?

Now, the powers that be may look again at my statistics at the end of this and conclude that I am too slow to be asked to be hired back.  Maybe they'll give me a reprieve if and when the scoring site opens back up.  That would allow the company to monitor my work and behavior during the project.  But that, of course, would suck for me because I would not have anything fun to do while "working."  Let's just hope I get another chance next year.

Want To Let You All Know About This Health Thing I Have, Part Two

Over the past, oh, couple weeks, I have thrown up in my mouth, oh, a few to several times.  And it's not, like, vomit vomit.  But, you know, you're just mind your own business and some bile just comes up through your throat out of nowhere.  Know what I mean?  That is what is happening to me.

If I recall correctly, I have thrown up in my mouth shortly after I get up.  Oftentimes lately I've been lying down shortly after I eat.  I have heard that you shouldn't lie down so soon after you eat because indigestion and heartburn occur much more easily that way and thus ... well, puking in your mouth.  That also may be an indication I am eating too many fried foods and acidic drinks, i.e. Coke and Pepsi, and maybe I should cut down, but I know my lack of self-control when it comes to pop.

Every time I vomit up my throat I think I am scalding and scarring my esophagus with hydrochloric acid.  Do that enough times and I'll end up ruining my throat.  If that happens, well, you heard it here first.

Sorry, Leader.

I was supposed to be on a social Zoom call.  And I did -- about 40 minutes after it began.  I didn't want to be on there at the start because, frankly, I would have felt as if I would be the focus if I was there at the beginning, and I didn't want to be.  So I was "fashionably late," except that when I logged on, the host wasn't there.

I have to believe that the leader of this group -- the newly-appointed leader of this group -- opened up the Zoom, hoping people would be there, and when she saw her hopes dashed after half an hour of waiting for someone to come on, slammed her computer shut and thought to herself, "Why the fuck did I sign up for this if no one is going to talk to me?"  And I feel ... sad about that.  But ... I just didn't want to ... talk all that much.

I don't know what to do.

Want To Let You All Know About This Health Thing I Have, Part One

My left middle finger hurts if I move it laterally.  It hurts down to the end of my third/middle metacarpal, aka the bone at the other end, closer to the wrist.  I don't know how it got hurt, but sometimes you can't help but move your fingers in a certain way, and I noticed it.  And I don't know how I "fix" it -- well, besides finding a left wrist guard, which I am sure I have somewhere in my storage unit.

It feels better.  It feels OK now.  But what if it doesn't?

MacGyver Does It Again!

When I exchange rolls of toilet paper, I do, well, what anyone usually does: Throw out the paper roll and put the new roll onto the dispenser.  I always use the butt end of the paper roll to tamp down the toilet paper in the wastebasket -- I toss toilet paper in the trash and I don't throw it in the toilet because I'm afraid it'll clog up the septic tank and I know everybody says that toilet paper dissolves in water but still -- before I toss it in.

I think I thought this once before, but I did the replacement thing either yesterday or Thursday, so I can still see the paper roll in the trash, and I thought, "Wait ... that's paper.  That's recyclable.  Why don't I toss that in the recycling bin?  Why don't I fish it out of the trash and throw it in the bin (well, it's a bag we have on the floor next to the kitchen counter, but you know what I mean)?"  And even though I could still see it, it's not as if it's lying on top of the trash like the éclair George Constanza ate.  Plus I spent five minutes using a couple of antibacterial wipes to clean the bathtub drain of the hair and spit that's been clogging my showers; I threw those two wipes in the trash, at least one partially covered up the roll, and the, uh, wetness from the wipe and the hair and the spit and the water seeped into and onto the paper roll.

But I was able to get it out nonetheless without getting my hands dirty.  I used the tweezers to pinch it like that claw game, brought it out to the kitchen, and dropped it into the recycling bag.  Yes, I'm a smart man.

Do Eggs Smell Like Farts?

So even though it is his alleged "birthday" and therefore he shouldn't do anything, he made eggs for all of us for lunch.  And I haven't had eggs in a while, so I forgot that eggs smell like farts.  Or maybe eggs don't, or at least eggs that haven't expired don't, and therefore we just ate expired eggs, which is very possible because my parents stupidly buy all food in bulk, including perishables.

Well, I don't plan on going outside today.  If I have to shit, I've got the bathroom right there.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

Before I begin, I have to note that there are only two entries in this week's Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey, and this pure bliss by me.  It reminds me of the dogs days of the survey, when (until last Year at least) it was around this time where all the spring sports end and we're left with the Twins, the Lynx, and the Loons.  That's where we are now, and less so, because Minnesota United FC is on an International Break for the next couple Weeks.  So, unless big news breaks, I have to just fill out blurbs for two clubs, and that lets me take deep, deep breaths.

#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -2).  Well, they sweep a two-Game mini-series vs. the Atlanta Dream at home; squeaked by them by a bucket Friday, then blew them out by 20 on Sunday.  That gave the club a three-Game winning streak ... even though they had won just three Games.  They then traveled to Our Nation's Capital and dropped a close one Tuesday to the Mystics, 85-81.  Guess this means that the Lynx should only play Atlanta this Year.

Regardless, this is more than enough for this squad to garner the top spot in the WMNSS.  But there is still this nagging feeling the pieces aren't coming together.  I think the main problem rests on Defense, although I can't quite put my finger on what exactly.

The schedule quirkiness I touched on last Week seems to be continuing.  They will have had four Days off when they return to action Saturday night versus Los Angeles at Target Center.  They then host reeling Chicago on Tuesday before playing in Dallas Thursday.

#-2: Twins (Last Week: -3).  This ballclub has a particularly insidious way of making its fans overblow hope.  They took two-of-three over the weekend at Kansas City, even though both wins were by only one Run.  Then the motherfucking Yankees came to town for three.  Right now the Big Apple tabloids are crying in their sleep over the underachievement of their team right now.  And that has been the stark and permanent difference between these two clubs; the mediocrity The Media in New York City is assailing that organization for is miles better than the shitty record the Twinks have.  My fucking God, right now we would murder a New Yorker for a .500 record.

Oh, beyond the dom-sub relationship these two squads have, this series has been overshadowed by The Next Scandal That Is Supposed To Bring Down Baseball.  First we have The Steroids Era, and now, apparently, we have The Substance Era.  It's been a whispered secret for a while that the reason Pitchers' spin rates on baseballs is up the past several Years -- with a correlative rise in Strikeouts -- is because Pitchers have used sticky substances, such as this thing called Spider Tack, that they hide in their caps and belts in order to make the ball spin faster.  This is illegal, even though the history of baseball and its unceasing urge to push the envelope suggests it isn't.  And the Twinks Josh Donaldson has called bullshit on all of it, putting Pitchers on blast through The Media, even saying he has reams of smoking-gun evidence on certain throwers.

One such hurler Donaldson called out is Gerrit Cole.  He signed with the Yanks a couple Years ago after blowing up in ... Houston.  Yes, he was on the Astros squad during TrashGate, when it was discovered the team was reviewing pitches (which is also illegal) and tipped their teammates when they batted whenever a less desirable pitch was about to be thrown by banging on a trash can.  Cole was a First-Round (?) Draft pick by Pittsburgh, but he was a nobody when he signed as a Free Agent with the Astros.  Do you think Cole turning into one of The Best Pitchers In Baseball while on a team who cheated its way to a World Series is a coincidence?  No.  Cole deserves no benefit of the doubt and thus all the scorn of a fucking baseball fraud, and the fawning Yankees media can go suck a dick over its tribal defense of this son-of-a-bitch.

Anyway, Cole was the SP for Wednesday's Game.  And Donaldson hit second.  So they met in the Bottom of the First Inning (delayed several Minutes because of a downburst of rain).  No, Cole did not bean Donaldson.  But he did strike him out, and mean-mugged him like a bitch as The Bringer Of Rain brought himself a seat in the dugout.  Cole K'd Donaldson again.  Now, it's likely that Cole didn't have any substance he rubbed on the ball on Wednesday because of all the heat and scrutiny.  But this is the injury-riddled Donaldson of 2021.  And this is the massively underachieving Twinks of 2021.  Cole won that Game for the Yanks, but in no way does his pitching performance exonerate him.  He could have slathered fucking K-Y Jelly on his hands and still struck out Donaldson twice Wednesday night.  Gerrit Cole is still a cheating motherfucker.  So Michael Kay and all the rest of The Yankee Propaganda Machine can stop licking Cole's asshole, for fuck's sake.

And of course the Yankees come here and sweep the ... wait, what?  The Twinks actually came from behind to win last/Thursday night's Game in the bottom of the Ninth??  And they did it off of Closer Aroldis Chapman???  And they did so without making an Out in the Inning?!  And the sequence of outcomes went Single-Home Run (tying the contest at 5)-Single-Home Run (a 7-5 Twins Win)?!?!  And those four Hits came in the last five Pitches Chapman threw -- with those two Homers and the Single inbetween them being the last three Pitches Chapman threw?!?!?!?!  Wow, that's ... strange, and not very Twins-versus-Yankees-like.  Wish I were there.  But the Twinks still lost the series.

At some point I'll touch on the bad injury luck this club has suffered.  It just won't be this Week.

Wish I could attend a tilt this weekend because the Astros are in town.  But it's really hot out, and I should stick around the house on Saturday.  Guess I'll have to sport my "Houston Asterisks" cap at Target Field next Year.  After the weekend, they play the Mariners in Seattle for three starting Monday.

Smart Purchase, Or Nah?

I am a season ticket holder for Minnesota United FC.  The way it works is an amount is withdrawn from my checking account every month; the new price is set some time in August for the following season's ticket.

Of course, everything went upside down last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.  The withdrawals, however, continued until it became clear Major League Soccer was not going to have fans in the stands for any of their Matches for the rest of 2020.  If I recall correctly, the automatic withdrawals stopped after it was decided that the cost of my season ticket for the 2020 season would stay the same for the 2021 season.  Whatever money that had been taken out for my 2020 ticket would be kept in my account as a credit; resuming back in August 2020, I would have the balance of the amount I still owed divided by 12 automatically withdrawn until I paid in full for my 2021 ticket.  (That didn't happen at first; there was a snafu whereby I paid my old, "normal" monthly installment instead of the credit-reduced one.  But it all got straightened out, no worries.)  In that sense I was kind of lucky; the MLS season stopped two Weeks in, and it just so happened that the Loons were on the road for the first two Games of the season, so there was no prorated price that needed to be subtracted because I attended a Game.

Anyway, MNUFC assumed (or, more likely, hoped) that the 2021 season would be completely back to normal.  Nope; the beginning of the season was still played with a very small number of fans.  Because of that, automatic withdrawals were frozen once again, until circumstances were such that Allianz Field attendance could come back to 100% capacity beginning with the contest against expansion side Austin FC on June 23.  At that point, however, the organization gave STHs like me a chance to opt out.  In that case, all the money withdrawn from my accounts would remain as a credit and be applied to the 2022 season, when we should be able to get this pandemic hell behind us.  (If one didn't want to opt out, United FC would take the whole credit, start the automatic withdrawals back up again [at least I'm assuming], and give you the remaining, uh, 14 home Games for 2021 as if it were a full season, and then you'd just start paying for 2022 in August 2021.)

I opted out.  Part of me is still skittish about attending mass-crowd events, even if it is outside; I am in particular freaking out over what I hear from some experts about a resurgence in coronavirus cases starting in the fall.  Part of me has planned for things to do besides going to soccer Matches.  As an STH you kind of need to build your life around the team; without Games to go to last Year, I have to say it was liberating to be able to do other things, and I naturally looked forward to doing other things throughout the summer and fall without paying any attention to the fact that I have a season ticket with a sports team in town.  And, part of me didn't like that we would be paying the full price of our ticket for only 14 Matches when it's usually, I think, 18.  Yes, a pandemic forces you into making decisions that are unprecedented and may in fact be completely made up.  I still don't like it.  So I am going to keep the money they already took from me and have them pay next Year's ticket with it.

However ... I still would like to go to a couple Games.  And beginning yesterday/Wednesday afternoon until 11:59 p.m. last/Wednesday night, I and other STHs were given a window whereby we could purchase tickets for the first half of what remains of the season on an individual basis.  We could buy up to ten tickets regardless of how many STHs we have, and you can sit anywhere and not just where your season ticket is.

That works for me.  In fact, I am going to think of the 2021 season as an experiment.  My season ticket is the cheapest one, and it sits high above Allianz at one end of the pitch (namely the one closest to the supporters section, aka the Wonderwall).  It's not bad, but in summer evenings the sun aims its beams right on my side of the stadium, and I freakin' bake.  As long as I don't have to pay for a season's worth of tickets, I think I would like to sit on the other, shady side of The Nest -- both to beat the heat and to see what it's like on that side, from which the players come and where the box seats and suites are.

There are several Games in the fall I figure I can't attend because I will be watching my alma mater's football Games.  But that still left about, oh, ten or so Matches I could go to.  And then I saw the individual prices for those elite seats, and then I thought maybe I could go to, oh, three or four this Year.  I texted my friend; she said I could tag along with her this season if she has an extra ticket.  She was pitchside but now is in a section right above the players' tunnel.

My exclusive window compelled me to bite the bullet, select a couple dates, and select a couple seats (not the same one) to purchase.  At the payment window there is an option of using your credit card.  However, I was told in the e-mail about the possibility of opting out that I could use the credit I have on my account to buy those seats.  And I did.  Now, one ticket is close to the pitch on the shady/elite side of the stadium.  The other is what I might move my season ticket to if I get a larger, steadier income; it's located on the sunny/poor side, upper level, but right at the half-line and I think I am low enough where I can see both ends of the field without any obstructions.

I don't remember exact amounts.  But, I had about, uh, $350 in credit.  Those two seats alone cost about $150.  So, instead of using that bulk amount to pay for next Year's ticket, I used up, what, 40-5% of it for two Games?  When many of the Matches will be shown on free TV?  And when it's possible, or at least theoretical, that I could buy them for cheaper once they hit the scalper websites?

Shoot.  Maybe I'm a fool.  And maybe I shouldn't think about this so much.

On Sunday, as we were having lunch, Father blurts out, "Since you're not working, if you have time, mow the lawn.  It's up to you."  Well, since it was up to me, I, uh, didn't mow the lawn.  I had plans.  Besides, the sprinkler system had just shut off, and the grass was too wet to mow.  Also, the grass on the front and back lawns didn't seem to be that high; couldn't it wait until next weekend?  Finally, it was fucking hot as hell out, and I did not want to swelter in the heat.  (That my parents were to tend to their garden after eating lunch ... well, let's just say that it was best for me to get out of there for the whole afternoon.)

Fast forward to Monday.  I come home from work.  That front lawn has gotten a trim.  It was as hot Monday as it was Sunday.  Father really must have been bored.

And now, unfortunately, I have to wonder if his "suggestion" over lunch to mow on Sunday was, in fact, a demand.  And that since I didn't do it but he felt he just had to do it, I owe him.  That sucks, because his alleged birthday is Saturday, and all I planned to do was to stay home and mow the lawn.  With that plan blown to smithereens, what do I do now?  And is Father going to come down on me for not doing what he wanted me to do?

Those "Monoclonal Antibodies" Commercials Bother The Hell Out Of Me

Hey, have you seen those Regeneron commercials?  I see them in the late afternoon/early evening, during the pre-early evening local news and Jeopardy!, which runs 4:30 here in Minneapolis-St. Paul.  It's the one where, for some goddamn reason, all these people on screen keep talking about "monoclonal antibodies" --- like it's a mantra, and like it's a household name.  And then in one commercial someone informs an elderly woman that she has COVID-19 before (and I am taking this off memory, so I could be wrong) that, uh, this clinic representative tells her about "monoclonal antibodies."  And in another commercial someone jogging on the beach calls up her grandmother, who tells her the devastating news that she got the 'Rona, to which the granddaughter says, "You need to get on monoclonal antibodies!"

I could embed the commercials onto here, but I find them so strange and off-putting I do not want to give them the publicity.  It feels as though these "monoclonal antibodies" do work in preventing anyone who has been stricken with COVID-19 from getting seriously sick.  Lying about its efficacy is not what bothers me about these advertisements.  Instead, well, I've got a bunch of other things that grind my gears about 'em:

• If you're fully vaccinated, do you really need "monoclonal antibodies?"
• Why repeat the phrase "monoclonal antibodies" so often in these spots?  It makes the actors in them sound like they're in a cult.
• Why is this spot trying to make the clunky phrase "monoclonal antibodies" a thing?  Stop trying to make "monoclonal antibodies" happen!
• The overacting by the grandmothers is amateurish.  Maybe I am scoffing at the diagnosis these characters have because I'm fully vaxxed and so I don't care, but the commercial is making it sound as though they have Stage 4 cancer and they're going to die by the end of the week.  Not saying COVID isn't potentially a death sentence, but let's just say that you don't need Meryl Streep to convey the supposed gravity of such news with authenticity.

And this all leads up to the most important question: Why in the hell is Regeneron trying to sell itself?  A treatment staving off death from the coronavirus isn't the kind of product you can just buy off the shelf.  In fact, it's not really a product.  You can't really get it when you want to get it, you know?  You have to come down with the coronavirus, and that's when the Regeneron becomes something you want to have.  You don't really have a choice of when you use it.

But that doesn't stop Regeneron from planting in the brains of people (well, anti-vaxxers, since people who are fully vaccinated probably won't come down with the virus to the point they need to be hospitalized) that if and when they come down with COVID, they have the God-given right to DEMAND from those damned doctors and nurses that they need this "monoclonal antibody."  And again, I'm not saying they're falsely advertising.  But doesn't it seem so damn skeevy that they're pushing this drug as a consumer item in order to make a buck off those teetering on the edge of death?  Regeneron isn't the only one; really, any drug manufacturer that is advertising on TV is guilty of hawking with the toxic mix of fear and empowerment.  I'm singling out Regeneron because 1) I'm seeing their stupid commercials every day and 2) it is being advertised as treating a plague whose pandemic we're still under, and so I am disgusted by the opportunism behind this ad campaign.

No, I will not just not watch if I don't like it.  I think they need to pull these ads, then tell drug companies they can't advertise on television anymore.  Seriously.

So Many Clothes I Need To Rotate Them, OCD Style

Last Monday, also known as Memorial Day, I stayed in and actually did some work around my bedroom.  Well, sorta.  I didn't read through my stuff or throw things away.  Instead, I did what is supposed to be an annual rotating of my shirts and pants.  There is one hamper where I keep my excess pants and jeans, so all I do is take out all the jeans and pants I have been using from my drawers, put them in the hamper, and replace those with the ones in the hamper.  (There are way more in the hamper than I can put in the drawer, so I have to keep several -- well, many -- in the hamper.  I hope I remember which ones I need to rotate in next year.)

However, there are three hampers full of t-shirts.  And while I was replacing the ones in the drawer, I got confused as to which hamper I should replace those t-shirts with.  I just picked one I think had the t-shirts that I have not worn the longest, but then I ... hesitated.  I looked at another hamper and, for some reason, I thought that the t-shirts in there have been there longer than the ones in the hamper I was going through.  And so I put all the t-shirts I had in that hamper, threw that hamper back in my closet, and took out this other hamper, from which I took out (only some) t-shirts and rotated them into my drawer.

I have no idea if the t-shirts now in my drawer are ones that I haven't worn in ... well, if I only do this rotation thing every year, and I have three hampers, well ... three years.  It could have been two.  I could have worn them last year; shoot, it was the pandemic, so I easily could have forgotten that I wore these t-shirts last year.  But I thought I had a fleeting fear when I did this last year that I had a system in my head where I thought I could remember which hamper I needed to take from the following year, and of course I have no damn clue which hamper I had used most recently because I flat-out forget which hamper is which.

It's useless to try and figure it out now.  I have decided that I have a hamper I am going to take from next year, and -- wow -- 2023 and -- double wow -- 2024.  But what I should do now is throw a note in each hamper reminding myself when I do this next year which of them I should take out next year and which ones the following.  I haven't done that yet; I have Post-It notes I took from work, but I wonder if getting a larger sheet would be better because then it wouldn't get lost inbetween my t-shirts.  But I should do that before I forget which hamper I've decided to use next year and which beyond.

One other note: Like with the pants and jeans, each hamper has way more t-shirts than fit in the drawer.  So for every hamper, there will be a few that I simply don't have the room to use.  Which means that, at least theoretically, beyond the three-year rotation I already have for all my t-shirts, there is a more than likely chance that there will be some t-shirts I will not be wearing for up to six years.  That's a lot of stuff.

That Zoom meeting ... actually went well.  I didn't think anybody would show up, especially since I spent the first ten minutes waiting.  But then not one but two people popped in, and we spent the next half-hour introducing ourselves to each other.  And I don't think there were any too uncomfortable silences, and although I had scheduled it for an hour and they verbally gave clues that, you know, they were good to go at about a quarter till till ten till 9, what we did say to each other I think was very informative, and they both seemed very nice.

Phew, I think.  I hope I made a good impression.  And I hope I can somehow keep these meetings going.

To Buy Something Without Trying It On First

I had recently made the decision to buy sandals.  It's hot out, and not wearing socks would be a good thing.  The last time I had sandals, Tevas, were good, even though I don't remember if it was so long ago it did not occur to me that I had flat feet, and therefore I don't remember if those sandals were good for my flat feet.  Anyway, the strap broke and ... are they in the boiler room?  Anyway, I have softer, closed-toe slip-ons, but they are, well, not open-toed, they do not have support for my flat feet, and the bottom is started to tear so I can't wear them in the rain anymore.

So that is the environment in which I decided to buy sandals.  And I had it in my brain that I was going to buy a particular brand of sandal: Chacos.  That was the brand recommended to me by ... well, I do not think it was the last podiatrist I have seen, but the one before him, and that would have been close to a decade ago.  But he suggested it, and he's an expert, and when I started to do my own research on the Internet, I found that a lot of people with flat feet liked wearing Chacos.  Now, I still had it in my head that there was a lot of intense work done to craft footwear to the specific needs of a person with flat feet; I actually thought that some Chacos representative would measure all the parts of your feet, ask for your aesthetic preferences, and tell you that it'd be, like, three months before they come back with sandals they made just for you.  Apparently that's not how it's done.  If you have flat feet, there are ... sandals you can buy.  Maybe I don't get it.

Anyway, even though I had "Chacos" rattling around my head for years, the decision to actually buy them ramped up in the past week or so.  I combed through the World Wide Web to see if there was a particular brand of Chacos people with flat feet get: No dice.  I also was looking for a sandal that I could not only walk around in, but take a hike in.  The best Chacos for those were ... um, all of them.  OK, so I guess I should buy the cheapest one, right?

Not so fast.  This is footwear, so people on the Internet did recommend that I go to a store and try them on.  Which makes sense, but it's something I haven't done in a while, and I bet a lot of people don't do that anymore.  Because we all friggin' buy things on Amazon now, we don't look at them in person at a, say, Best Buy to see if it fits us or if it would look good in our kitchen or wherever.  It doesn't seem to matter to us when the convenience of buying -- let alone the probable lowest price -- makes buying on Amazon a no-brainer.  Also, those who do make it out to a store maybe are "showrooming," where they do seek to see what the product physically looks like to make sure it is right for them, then buy that item online because it's cheaper to buy it online.

"Showrooming" is the smart thing to do, but not the ethical thing to do, so when I went out to a shoe store yesterday afternoon, I did so with the intention of buying a pair of sandals.  And I went, and for a Friday afternoon in the death throes of a pandemic, I guess I was surprised by how busy it was.  I looked at the Chacos, uh, wall of sandals, kind of hoping some shoe salesman would come up to me and ask if I could use any help.  But they were all busy helping other people.  And my shoe shiner was going to leave a half-hour earlier than she usually does, so I decided to split; I planned on going today, this afternoon, to another shoe place, where I would have time to try on sandals to find the best pair for me.

However ... when I was working the test scoring project from home last night while going through my e-mails (I shouldn't do that; my bad), bleepin' Amazon sent me an e-mail for a pair of Chacos at a steep, steep discount.  Damn you, algorithmic, tailored marketing!!!  And like a damn whore, I bought a pair -- online without ever putting that brand of sandals on my feet, ever.  They were $30-5 cheaper than they were at the store; I couldn't resist.  And I have a ... uh, insignificant amount of guilt for buying them without properly vetting them.  And it is an insignificant amount because I think about the opposite.  How would I feel if I did buy a pair of sandals at that shoe store yesterday afternoon, only to come home and see later that day that I could have bought a pair of Chacos at more than 30% off?  I'll be honest: I know I would be kicking myself for buying them at the store.

Welp, let's hope these sandals fit.

Expenses Without Receipts

Wow, I haven't done this in a while.  But since I have so few EWRs, it's not such a big deal.  Starting from Thursday, June 3:

• Well, we need to go back to Sunday, May 30, where I pushed my schedule so late that when I dropped by ******a's place for a massage, she told me she only had time to massage me for 25 minutes instead of our usual 50.  Twenty-five minutes isn't enough time, so I only have myself to blame for halving my massage.  But at least she acceded to my request to massage my whole ass.  That felt nice!  And on the bright side, it only cost me: $40.
• I'm going backwards this date ... one of the reasons I did push my schedule so late was because I insisted on going to Hooters and using a coupon.  I am feeling more and more confident that I can eat indoors with people around and act like it's normal.  I am still inflating what I usually add in tips to help "the little guy," even though Hooters is far from a mom-and-pop operation.  Still, with tip, the 20 boneless wings (the coupon gave me ten free if I paid for ten) set me back: $24.
• Oh, and before that I went to Glam Doll.  The Night Moves was available, but I opted for a new donut that had a thin slice of pie crust stabbed on top of it.  Nice filled donut.  I also rounded up tip to pay: $5.
• Back to Saturday, April 24.  Man, I used to get stressed over how many EWR entries I had to fill out during a month, and now I'm stressing out about how there are so few I do that I am filling a blog post with two months' worth of them.  And these dwindling line items are filtering down to the same things.  To wit: I went to ******a's place on this day for a massage, a "full session" one.  Cost: $80.
• Saturday the 17th -- ******a, again: $80.
• And I finally dug through my back pockets to store new quarters that should be in mint condition: $1.
• Friday, April 16 ... fucked ****e, for: $120.

So, uh, yeah.  That's it.  Even though this stretches back to April.  I keep saying this: I need to stay on top of this.

Anyway: Good through June 3.