The Eleven-To- ... ? Trips Left To Take In My Parents' Minivan

Because of that goddamn smart key indicator light, I am not driving anywhere in my car.  I've done my research, and if that light stays on, at some point the car just won't start, and I can't let that shit happen if I'm, say, at work or at a Game or a concert or something.

So I've been using my parents' minivan as my main car for now.  I used it exclusively to drive to and from work, but only because it was second shift, traffic is usually much more manageable than first, and I wanted to give it some run.  I didn't expect to drive it to work any time this week, but, well, I am now.

Meanwhile, I checked to see if I could move up the time of my appointment from Thursday.  There's no way to do so without cancelling the Thursday morning drive-off by, I guess, two guys from the dealership.  And when I called yesterday to ask if they had any loaners, the millennial I got said, tersely, they only rent loaners at thirty bucks a pop.  A little too rich for my blood, especially if there is some snag and they have to keep my car for more than one day.  I felt a little burned by her lack of caring, but she can go fuck herself.

So I have at least until Thursday to keep driving the minivan.  And it isn't just to and from work.  No, because of my fucking laziness, I have to get this insurance claim done now.  No one from that fucking office could give me their Federal Tax ID number, so I'm going to wake up early this morning and just fucking go over there so I can get nine digits from them and then go to work.

Moreover, and I know I shouldn't, maybe I don't want to "control" myself.  Maybe I want to act as if the minivan is just going to be fine.  Why not?  Maybe I'm just paranoid when really, nothing is going to happen.  Thus, maybe against my better judgement, I am going to go out and do things as if everything's normal and there's nothing wrong with the minivan at all.  I will, in fact, give you a daily rundown for the rest of the workweek:

• Tuesday: U. of M. dental office - breakfast? - work - Cub Foods (to fax insurance claim) - Young Joni - home
• Wednesday: breakfast? - work - home - U. of M. women's basketball Game - home
• Thursday: wait for dealership people to drive off with my car - work - Chipotle and/or another fast food place
• Friday: work, but at this point I should get my car back ... right?

So I have to hope that the minivan stays upright and tight through at least 11 and probably way more than 11 trips before I can drive my car after dealing with that damn indicator light and what it means.  And hey, so far, that van's been a workhorse; I hear Siennas are considered to be very reliable vehicles.  Then again, for all my bluster and wish to believe all things are normal, I have to worry.  The van leaves massive puddles underneath it on the driveway.  Presuming it's oil, I checked the dipstick before leaving work, and I never understand where the level of oil is, but I think it's disastrously low, so my anxiety kicked in again, and once I got home I poured some oil into the engine case.  I felt no difference, so maybe it didn't need oil.  In fact, maybe it was full of oil, and I have just overfilled it, and that's equally as bad for the car, and if that goes kaput, I have no cars now.  And how in the hell am I going to find parking at the U.?  That minivan has a big ass, and I'm just going to find a spot alongside the street?  This is going to be a fucking disaster.

Jesus fucking Christ, these problems now are overwhelming me.

This Is What I Get For Not Opening Up The Mail

Have to update you on this claim I need to make in order to recoup all the money I spent on getting my teeth cleaned.  I felt in the back of my mind that the insurance company was going to get back to me saying it needs more information.  Well, they do; they sent me a letter saying they need a Federal Tax ID, and even though I was told over the phone by a representative of said insurance company that an NPI would be enough, I need to add this information and send it back to them.

I am freaking out over their, um, warning of "timely filing," the policy whereby they can automatically reject a claim if I take too long.  My problem?  The letter was sent last month.  I didn't open it until this afternoon.  I just looked at it and thought, "Nah," and chucked it, thinking I would get around to it.  Well, I did, and I am so scared af that I have passed the period of "timely filing" because of my boneheaded move.  I'm not going to even check because I'm scared to learn that I am too late.

I'm praying to the gods above that it isn't.  But the first thing I need to do is contact the office and get this damn Federal Tax ID.  Contacting them and only getting voicemail (which was not returned) was the main reason I couldn't get the claim sent quickly enough in the first damn place.  And I can't wait any longer.  So, in an advantage of working in The Fourth Department this week, I will get up early and drive down to the University of Minnesota and go to the office myself in order to get this information.  I have to.  And like I said, I hope it's not too late.

Expenses Without Receipt

Starting from Saturday, November 27:

• On this morning I got double-teamed by ******e (who says lives in Las Vegas but seems to come back to Minnesota every other week) and ***e*: $240.
• And then, my Buddha, I hope I have receipts for all the times I doled out cash back to Wednesday, November 10, when I got my shoes shined.  With tip: $15.
• And then I hop back to Friday, October 28, a day I had off.  I first went to Sidebar, the new restaurant right next to the famous Surdyk's wine bar.  I raved about my meal there, even though I ate too darn much.  With tip (got a sidecar with it -- I think?), I paid, in cash: $65.
• I then went to Crosstown to see ***e* for that handjob.  She still has the magic hands.  Cost: $120.
• We go back to Wednesday the 20th, when I took in the first show at the Guthrie Theatre in the beautiful (relatively) new place along the river.  Went to see What The Constitution Means To Me, a play that I have heard really good things about, but also had a cast member whose father I had the joy of meeting at one our alumni game viewings.  (That cast member was part of a rotation, and apparently his kid was not in the performance I saw.)  It's a though-provoking, mostly one-woman play about someone who won money as a kid touring the country and giving speeches about, well, what the Constitution means to her, and then reflecting upon the document and its blind spots and limitations as she becomes an adult and sees that not every American enjoys the freedoms the Constitution supposedly claims for us.  I got in the rush line about 20-30 minutes before showtime.  I thought I had to wait for others to purchase tickets at full price.  Instead, I had one group in front of me before I got helped.  The play was not sold out, which I am kind of stunned at given both what I think is the popularity of the play and that it was in its last week at the Guthrie.  Regardless, I'm glad I went, and I only had to pay: $20.
• I then went to our ex-charter's old spot to let the bartender know we're going to be there that Saturday evening for our Game.  And I bought a late-night meal as a show of gratitude for allowing us to watch there.  With tip: $14.
• Next we go back to Friday the 15th.  I had the day off where I did some reconnaissance for my about-to-be-married co-worker who's still looking for caterers.  So I went to El Taco Loco, a somewhat-recommended Mexican place (my co-worker's looking for Mexican) to eat for myself first and then get some that I dropped off for her at work.  I charged my own meal but paid cash for hers.  With tip: $10.81.
• I also went to get my shoes shined.  She had no change.  No matter; gave her the whole: $20.
• Oh, and then I went back to ***e* for an HJ.  She seemed desperate for money this month.  Total: $120.
• Finally, on Thursday the 14th I went to Volstead's Emporium, the hidden speakeasy in Uptown.  Went there to chill out after a long, hard day in The Fourth Department.  With tip I spent: $33.

And now the goddamn smart key indicator light has come back on.  I didn't go anywhere long or for a while.  Well, I did get double-teamed by ******e and ***e*, but that was this morning, and I used the minivan for exercise in the afternoon, and then I used it to go watch my alma mater's football Game this evening, so it cooled off for at least four hours.  If it was a fluke when it first came on, I don't think it's a fluke now.

Worse yet, I don't think this is something I can wait for them to fix, but I don't know if I can just come in and pick up a loaner car whenever I want to.  They have a deal whereby they can pick up my car from home, which is sweet because I wouldn't then have to pay for a loaner, but the earliest they can do that is Thursday, and I don't want to wait.  On the other hand, somehow getting the car into service, say, Monday evening might cost me a fortune because I have no idea how much a loaner costs, but I'd have fresh wheels to go where I want to go.

And on top of all that, I don't know if the indicator light is going to come back on again.  I wasn't able to reproduce it a couple weeks ago, but what if I try starting it tomorrow and the damn thing does not come on.  Wouldn't it still be a fluke?

Man, too much shit is going on right now. ...

You Know What I Hate Right Now? When My Mask Snags On My Eyeglasses

This bullshit has happened to me probably ever since I began to wear masks due to the pandemic, and I'm surprised I never blog posted about this annoyance until now.

Oftentimes, when I take off my mask (either to eat or drink something or to take it off to throw it away), it gets caught on my glasses.  And it's a pain in the ass to stop what I'm doing and use my other hand to take off my glasses in order to unsnag the mask from it.  It happened at least twice at work last night and pisses me the fuck off.

And the thing is, I don't know how it gets snagged.  I always put on my glasses before my mask.  Sometimes I can pull off my mask without a problem.  But sometimes I can't, and I haven't figured out what to do, or not to do, in order to keep my mask unsnagged.  Somehow, one of the ear loops catches itself on the wrong side of one of the temples or temple tips when I'm tucking that loop behind my ears.  How?  Still don't know, and that bugs the shit out of me.

One of these days I'll get so frustrated I'll break my glasses trying to rip off my mask.  This is getting ridiculous.  Has this happened to other people?  If so, have you figured out how to stop it from happening?

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

Twelve entries?  This is why I'm thinking of cutting down on the number of teams I follow once St. Thomas gets up to speed.  Oh, and Belated Happy Thanksgiving:

Positive Numbers: Timberwolves (Last Week: -6).  This might be the first time the Minnesota Timberwolves genuinely deserve not only the top spot in a WMNSS, but Positive Numbers.  Sure, they've been up here -- subjectively as well as objectively -- before, I'm sure of it.  But it's only because other teams have been worse and I felt pity on a pitiful franchise.  This Week is rare in which this team has actually earned its accolades.

They go 3-0 this screening Week, thereby extending their winning streak to five Games, the organization's longest in four Years.  But two things stand out.  First, all of their victories in this streak have been by double digits.  And two, the club's leading rebounder in all five tilts is ... Jarred Vanderbilt, a 2018 Second Round pick from Kentucky.  He and Patrick Beverley have brought a defensive presence that has not been seen anywhere on this squad probably since The KG Era.  And most importantly, it looks as though the Timberwolves have settled on a very good starting five: Beverley, D'Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, Vanderbilt, and Karl-Anthony Towns.

They are locked and loaded right now, and they have thoroughly beaten some good teams during this stretch.  And they're starting to feel themselves, too.  I had to miss the Dranksgiving Night Game versus Miami, even though my friend had a ticket he could give me for free, because I was working second shift.  I regret it.  It was a packed crowd against a good team featuring a guy, Jimmy Butler, who humiliated the team in an ultimately successful effort to get traded from Minnesota.  He played the heel to the hilt.  Fortunately, Anthony Edwards wasn't taking no shit and decided to fight back:

What everybody is, and should be, talking about, however, is Ant posterizing Gabe Vincent on what eventually would be an Offensive Foul on Edwards.  But goddamn, this is fun to look at:

Ant and the Wolves eventually would pull away from the Heat, 113-101.  Stars were born and maybe torches were passed Wednesday evening.  And finally, it looks like the Minnesota Timberwolves have something special brewing.

With all that said, they've got a busy screening Week.  Tomorrow/Black Friday they visit Charlotte, who have gone 7-1 in their last eight.  They then play in Philadelphia the next night, come home to play Indiana Monday, then go back on the road to play Washington, D. C., Wednesday.

#0: Vikings (Last Week: -4).  I am going to visit my parents in Las Vegas some time next month, and of course I plan on giving in to my vice and gamble, mostly on sports.  I probably will parlay a few NFL Games, and if so, I might as well throw a dart to pick teams, because no one fucking knows anything about pro football, especially this season.

I thought the Vikes had a chance to defeat Green Bay.  I couldn't think up a path to victory; it's just that there have been more improbable upsets this regular season, and so why the hell not.  I did not predict that Kirk Cousins and the Vikings Offense would be able to pick their way through the Packers' once-impregnable Defense.  So while it was spine-tingling once again to see Dr. Aaron Rodgers march down the field, the Vikings did what they were able to do all Game (I was working it) and call a really good offensive Game script, featuring many more downfield passes to Justin Jefferson, that marched them down the field, too.  Their final drive got into Field Goal territory early, they were able to protect the ball, and Greg Joseph (who I think has kicked enough clutch FGs to earn some trust) won the Game for Minnesota with no time remaining.

With that Win, Minnesota jumps into the sixth seed in the playoffs.  Would fans be happy with that?  Will Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman keep their jobs if they make it to the postseason?  Because, recencey bias, things around this team feel good right now.  Let's see if the club makes it three in a row late Sunday afternoon at San Francisco, a team that is, like the Vikes were before Sunday, on the outside looking in -- and, unfortunately, they'll have to do it without Everson Griffen, who has suffered another mental health episode.

#-1: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -3).  Swept a home-and-home with St. Cloud St. over the weekend by a combined score of 11-3.  It's easy to believe because Minnesota's a blueblood, but they have won ten in a row.  They are now in Nashville to participate in the Smashville Showcase; this afternoon they play Mercyhurst, then play either Boston College or Colgate -- a team they played, and beat, twice at Hamilton, N. Y., when the Raiders were ranked third in the country -- tomorrow.

#-2: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -2).  Dutifully dispatched a pair of mid- or low-major tomato cans in a pair of bodybag Games over the screening Week.  They are 5-0 to start the Year, but make no mistake: This Year is going to be a learning Year.  I went to Friday's contest versus Purdue-Fort Wayne and the Mastodons -- great name -- scored the first nine Points of the Game.  No worries; they came back to whip PFW, 78-49.  And on Wednesday, they beat the Jacksonville Dolphins 55-44 even though they were actually outrebounded 46-28 -- yikes!  As Spencer Tollackson said on that Jacksonville U. radio broadcast (I was listening at work), this team simply does not have size, and that will be a huge problem once they face fellow BcS competition ... and that competition comes Tuesday, where they finally face a foe their own size: Pittsburgh, in Pittsburgh, Tuesday as a part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

#-3: Gopher football (Last Week: -9).  They easily did away with Indiana in Bloomington Saturday, 35-14, but that Win really is immaterial.  How we see this team's season boils down to the rivalry Game vs. Wisconsin this Saturday afternoon.  The Badgers are kind of down this Year, and the U. has Bucky Badger at home.  But the Golden Gophers have only beaten Wisconsin once since 2004 ... even though that one time was a 37-15 ass-kicking in Madison only three Years ago.

Minnesota was kind of in the race for the B1G West Division title, but the loss to Iowa severely damaged their hopes.  The Gophs can still win the West, but three things have to happen: 1) They beat Wisky; 2) Iowa loses at Nebraska; and 3) Purdue has to lose to the Hoosiers at home.  Yeah, it's more likely none of those things will happen.

#-4: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -7).  A third consecutive conference split, this time at home against Penn St.  They now sit 8-6 overall, 6-4 in the B1G.  They take a break from league play this weekend -- and go to North Dakota for two Games.  Man, those were the days.

#-5: Whitecaps (Re-Entry!).  It may not be fair that the 'Caps have started their season with four consecutive Games vs. arguably the best team in the National Wo ... excuse me, the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), the Boston Pride.  But they have, and the Whitecaps came home to TRIA Rink after getting swept in Beantown to play two against them, and they split.

This is all I know about the Whitecaps.  Well, they are at Connecticut next weekend.

#-6: Wild (Last Week: -5).  Slight blip as they faced steeper competition on the road.  Lost to Florida, a a franchise that's been in the wilderness for Years until now, and Tampa Bay (albeit in a Shootout after Minnesota mounted a furious comeback with not one but two Goals after they pulled Kappo Kahonen) on back-to-back nights.  They then were playing The Bastard Colorado Rockies in Jersey Wednesday evening but, and this is something, their bus got stuck because the Holland Tunnel was closed.  They got to the arena a half-hour before they were supposed to start the Game, so they pushed it back by half an hour.  And they won in a Shootout, 3-2.

With this 1-2 screening Week they still lead the Central Division, which is a position I am unaccustomed seeing this club in.  All this despite deep rumblings of a schism between Head Coach Dean Evason and Kevin Fiala, who appears to be in Evason's doghouse even though he not only is playing but is also producing, even scoring the occasional Goal.  I don't want to ruin chemistry because this team is on something good right now.  But if Fiala, or at least the Fiala situation, gets worse, well ... this team will be hard up against the Salary Cap for the next three Years, so. ...

This Week they host The Bastard Atlanta Thrashers in what I think is their annual Black Friday afternoon.  That starts a five-Game homestand; Tampa and New Jersey come here for quick return dates, and The Bastard Winnipeg Jets stop by, too.

#-7: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -1).  So I am still trying to get a bead on this program.  A great Week was followed up by a sixth-place finish in the Women's Battle 4 Atlantis.  They got spanked by second-ranked UConn Saturday afternoon, 88-58, but rebounded the next afternoon by beating Syracuse, 70-63, but finally got routed by Oklahoma Monday afternoon, 88-69.  Maybe their performance in this tournament is indicative of how good this team is -- and isn't.

Another busy Week, although they're in Williams Arena for all three tilts.  This/Friday afternoon they play Bradley, Sunday afternoon they play Texas-San Antonio, then on Wednesday night they play North Carolina as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

#-8: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: -8).  So they had that Walkover against Rutgers Friday because some disease was ripping through the Scarlet Knights team.  So they had a Week with which to prepare for a Sunday afternoon home date against fifth-ranked Wisconsin.  And they lost, thus they have gotten swept by our sworn rivals this Year.  But shit, at least they won two Sets on Sunday instead of zero back on October 1.

So they have slipped from ninth to tenth in the latest AVCA Top 25 Poll.  They remain around a Sweet Sixteen departure like they have been for most of the season.  They finish the regular season on the road this weekend: 15th-ranked Penn St. tonight/Friday night, then Maryland tomorrow/Saturday night.  Beating the Terps is a given.  But what if they lose to the Nittany Lions?  Could they actually fall out of a Top 16 seed?  Something to ponder for the NCAA selection show Sunday night in case the worst befalls these Goofers.

#-9: Gopher wrestling (Re-Entry!).  Yep, the grapplers are back.  And the grapplers are back to being fodder for programs that haven't fallen off.  Saturday night at Maturi sixth-ranked Oklahoma St. made the 11th-ranked U. its bitch again, 23-10.  Gable Steveson, who won gold in Tokyo over the summer but decided to take advantage of the COVID extra Year and came back, Majored in his match, 20-7.  But only two other Goofs, at 141 and 157 pounds, won their Matches.  The Cowboys got two Major Decisions in their rout.

This shit is getting fucking old.

Hosting South Dakota St. Sunday afternoon.

#-Infinity: United FC (Re-Entry!).  The franchise and the drag/soccer bar close to Allianz Field both hosted Watch Parties for MNUFC's First Round playoff Game against the Portland Timbers.  This was on Sunday afternoon, and if I got out of the Vikings Game quickly enough I think I could've made it.  But I didn't want to because 1) I was too tired and 2) I was afraid they were going to lose.  I mean, the Loons were the only team in the MLS postseason to allow more Goals than they scored, and I was scared that drought was going to continue even against a Timbers XI that has a leaky Backline.

That, I'm afraid, happened.  Franco Fragapane gave United FC in the 11th Minute, but Larrys Mabiala tied it up in the 43rd, then Sebastian Blanco braced in the Second Half -- one of which was a golazo that doubled as a dagger in the heart of MNUFC supporters -- and our side was dispatched with the quickness, 3-1.

Are we happy about their performance this Year?  I didn't think they were good enough to win it all, despite a few writers thinking they were contenders.  And yet I'm not sure if this club underachieved to the point where Adrian Heath would get fired.  Well, he just signed a contract extension, but still.  This team rallied from an 0-4 start, sure, but is that enough to hope for better for 2022?

Booster Blues

So I got my third/booster COVID-19 vaccine yesterday, and like after my second shot, I felt really oogy the next day.  However, I remember half-waking up this morning because my feet suddenly were ice cold, so I had to tuck my knees into my chest in order to not freeze my feet off, and I don't remember needing to do that after my second shot.

After my second shot I popped some, I think, Tylenol, and after feeling slow and sluggish in the morning and for much of the afternoon, I suddenly felt a lot better.  I did not take Tylenol this time around because I drank wine earlier this afternoon and I am making myself a cuba libre tonight, and apparently acetaminophen and alcohol are a bad mix.  I took aspiring instead ... and I still don't feel right.

Well, I just have to feel better by 3:30 tomorrow afternoon.

Drinks I Can Make Right Now

And why right now?  The Boston shaker I ordered online (through the Wirecutter, and I know I shouldn't be a slave to just one website ... but I am) is on backorder.  Damn you, supply chain issues!

I have been a slave to making only cocktails officially recognized by the International Bartenders Association.  But I have bought all these spirits (albeit in a small bottle -- 375 mL, not 750) already, and it's Thanksgiving, so I should help myself to a drink.  I have also bought lemons and limes already, and I need to use them in my drinks before they go bad.  So, in a way, I have to make drinks now.

Therefore, I re-scrubbed the list of IBA-sanctioned cocktails for ones that I just have to stir into a glass instead of shaking.  And, to be honest, I saw some non-IBA-sanctioned drinks that I've had before and for which I have ingredients.  By the way, I have bought club soda and tonic water already, too.  Just so I can stretch the use of the bottles I've bought, I've decided I can make those drinks, too.

With that being said, here are, for now, five drinks I can make right now sans shaker:

1. Screwdriver (need oranges)
2. Vodka tonic
3. Gin and tonic
4. John Collins (need lemons and to make simple syrup)
5. Cuba libre (need limes)

Was I That Late???

OK, so I watched No Time To Die last week.  It was my second time watching it.

It wasn't because I thought it was so good I had to see it again, although it's a really good movie.  (The ending in particular is nothing like anything in the Bond canon, and it is a really-needed shake-up.)  It's just that ... well, OK. ...

The first time I saw it was after a day where I was filling in at The Fourth Department.  Work was a bear, but I was able to get out, although I stayed after, in time to catch the screening of the Bond film.  I parked my car just at the screening time for the movie, but there are always previews and such at the beginning, so I figured I had time to use the bathroom and get popcorn and pop.  I did all those things in ten minutes, then I went to the screen showing NTTD.  In fact, this place has TV screens for signs, and the one right next to the door had the right movie and the right time.  I thought the door being open was a bit much, but maybe they were told to do it as a COVID-related circulation protocol.

I enter the theater screen and see that the film has already started.  Shit.  I am a completist when it comes to watching movies; if I miss the beginning, in all likelihood, I will pay a ticket to watch it again at a later date to make sure I see the whole thing.  I think I last did this for Moonlight, and I also did it for All About My Mother.  (With that being said, I have left in the middle of a movie to go to the bathroom, and I do not see a film again if I miss a minute or two under those circumstances.  Does that make me a hypocrite?)  Anyway, the first scene I saw was an action scene: Bond (Daniel Craig) and what I later understood is a new and very green operative named Paloma (Ana de Armas, who I believe got this part through Craig, her co-star on Knives Out, and who, by the way, rowrrrrrrrrrrrr) kicking ass in what I believe is Cuba.  I sat and enjoyed the rest of the flick, and as it went on I thought to myself, "OK, so I missed the title sequence and the Billie Eilish theme song ... but how about the beginnings of the plot?  I feel like I've missed a few things."

It took me a few weeks before I could catch No Time To Die a second time, and I made a point to look at my watch to see 1) how much time did the screening show previews before the movie actually started compared to the announced time and 2) how much of the film did I miss.  Got there on time, thank goodness -- well, not before the trailers, but those don't count.  And this time (I saw this at a different theater) it was about a half-hour after the announced time when NTTD began.

Turns out I missed a lot.  I did read the plot on its Wikipedia page, and there was scene after scene which helped me understand what I missed from the first time I saw it: The flashback that starts the flick; Bond and Madeleine Swan enjoying a romantic vacation; the assassins that find Bond; Bond saying goodbye to Swan; the capture of a scientist; Bond enjoying the bachelor life in Jamaica; Bond being asked by Felix Leiter to help him capture this scientist; the new 007 flirting and then confronting Bond; Bond saying yes to Leiter; then that action sequence in Cuba, which actually is a party for Spectre hosted by Spectre ringleader Blofeld, who is imprisoned back in London, and doubles as a trap for Bond but backfires because this "nanobot mist" intended for Bond kills all the members of Spectre instead.  Then the ass-kicking ensues.

Phew, that was a lot!  And once I saw a line and a scene that I remembered from the first time I saw No Time To Die, I picked up my watch.  It was 52 minutes after the film began.  Fifty-two.  You mean to tell me that I was 52 minutes late to the movie???  That ... that can't be.  Maybe I walked into the wrong theater and, like, the theater I should have gone in was the next one over, and that this TV sign was for that door and not the one I went through.  Or, and I can rest my head at night over this theory, someone at the theater lied to me.  Maybe I was given the wrong theater, or maybe the movie started earlier than it should have.  But goddammit, 52 minutes late isn't an innocent mistake.  Someone dropped the damn ball, and it wasn't me.

Nevertheless, I'll say this: Not only did being able to watch the movie from the start fill in details I didn't get by diving into the middle of the flick the first time, I literally was able to understand some of the lines I didn't comprehend the first time.  Also, going through the plot a second time, even the scenes I saw the first time, helped me with what was going on in the story.  It's a convoluted one, and I don't think all the pieces fit.  But I understood the motivation, how relationships between characters began and changed and, specifically, the idea behind this nanobot weapon.  I wonder if I should re-watch every movie I see in the theater -- assuming I get to the movie to see it from the beginning.

I Thought I Could Sleep In Second Shift This Week!!!

Yeah, things aren't going as I expected this week.  I was looking forward to it ever since I volunteered to fill in for the woman in Filing second shift.  With my parents gone, not only would I not be woken up earlier than I have to by their commotion (they're morning people, dammit), I would not be obligated to eat lunch with them before I go.  I would have all this free time on my hands with nothing I really need to do except get up and go to work ... at 3:30, which means I could technically wake up at 3 and make it on time if I hurry.  And if I do that, and I want eight hours of sleep -- well, that means I could stay up until 7 in the morning, which is the time I usually start my day.

That would be my ideal schedule this week.  Well, maybe not the go to bed at 7 part.  But I have no family obligations, so I can go to sleep when I want and not worry about waking up till the heart of the afternoon, so I am free of responsibility ... right?  Right??

The thing I didn't quite fold into this otherwise masterful plan were all the other things I want to do.  Those things take time, and they require me to prepare for them ... which means waking up way earlier than the absolute latest time I can be awake before heading off to work.  Consider my days this workweek and empathize with me:

• Monday: I have the November coupon from the Hooters calendar I have yet to use.  Also, my favorite waitress there (she's a cutie, you should see her) said when I last saw her there that she works Monday afternoons.  Well, since I have my late mornings free, this is the perfect time to use it!  Oh, and I went through all the suits I own to see which ones still fit me.  The ones that don't I dropped off at the dry cleaning locker room in the office building where my psychiatrist practices.  And then I bought Potbelly (avo turkey, 'cause Thanksgiving), but then I remembered that they toast all their sandwiches, so instead of bringing it eat at work, I ate it as soon as I got home.  Finally, I needed to stay up to do this thing for this network I work for.
• Tuesday: So, about Hooters?  Yeah, so I went there, and I was looking to see if this babe was working, and I didn't see her.  I did a lap around MOA because I need the exercise, then came back just in case she got in late or something.  But I still didn't see her.  Well, she also said that she works Tuesday afternoons, so instead of sleeping in a bit, I have decided I'd wake up around the same time I did yesterday morning to see if she's working today.  And regardless if I eat at Hooters or not, I have to swing by this fellow alum who has volunteered to give me a tank top.  And then I have to go grocery shopping.  Oh, and this could all be blown up if ***e* and ******e return my text and say they can double-team me with a handjob.
• Wednesday: I have appointments here that I set up some time ago.  I haven't gotten a shave because of the pandemic, but one day not too long ago I said, "Why not?  I'm tired of shaving myself," and made an appointment at this highfaluting place I've been to once before.  I then have to go to Subway to get my customary turkey sub that I'll eat for Thanksgiving.  I then want to test myself for COVID and then, and I'm truly excited for this, I managed to find a clinic and a time slot for my booster shot.  This comes at time where I won't have enough time to rest before going to work, but to get a booster, I don't mind skipping a nap.
• Thursday/Thanksgiving: OK, this is the one day I don't have to go anywhere or get up at any time.  I usually do get up early, however, to get a workout in.  You see, the community center opens up their ice rink in the morning for a family skate.  The gym is open at the same time, and until they close around 11, I get to exercise in preparation for all the turkey I will eat that afternoon and night.  The community center isn't doing that this year, so even though I won't get to work out, I do get to sleep in.  Also, I thought that I would make spaghetti, but with the kitchen faucet leaking water to the basement below, I am not all that keen on making a meal for myself.  There's that Subway sub, heating up leftovers, opening up that bottle of wine, and maybe trying out a cocktail with the lemons, limes, oranges and juicers I will have bought for this occasion.
• Friday: I originally planned this to see and fuck ****e, but goddammit, she's in the wind again.  My backup is ***e* and ******e, and that might come to fruition since they're also giving me the silent treatment.  I thought about shopping, but with coronavirus infections skyrocketing everywhere but especially in Minnesota, I think I can skip the frenzy this year.  I might actually sleep in this day if none of my girls come through ... or, I can use the time to exercise.  Don't know yet.

So as you can see, just cocooning in until I have to get up in the afternoon is probably not going to be in the cards because I have all this stuff I have to ... well, a lot of it I want to do.  Well, ******e flew in for vacation this week, so if she didn't, I wouldn't have the urge to get jerked off by her and ***e*.  And I am running around buying food because of Thanksgiving and I always buy something with turkey.  Remove those two circumstances and that opens up a lot of time in which I can do nothing.  But yeah, all the other stuff I want to do.  Maybe I shouldn't want to do things.  I feel overwhelmed right now.

And Now The House Is Falling Apart

All I wanted to do was wash the dishes that are piling up.  And all I did was fill up the bowl with hot water so I could clean those dishes.  That's all I wanted to do.

When my parents left, I noticed that, when I turned off the water to the kitchen faucet, the water didn't completely, you know, stop.  It leaked a bit.  I thought that was a pain-in-the-ass because I could see and hear the drips coming for seconds after I supposedly it off.  But I could deal with it.

However, just now I let it run for a minute to fill up that bowl so I could get to cleaning dishes.  Then, I went downstairs to ... well, I ran water upstairs, and I'm scared as hell that there will be a water leak down there, and I hadn't checked down there yet today because I was at the Vikings Game, so my paranoid self went downstairs.  I turned on the lights, but then ... I heard something, like a -- dripping.  That's when I looked up at the ceiling.  It was dripping water -- not buckets, but a steady drip-drip, and I estimate right below where the kitchen sink is.  Fuck me.

I think it's stopped now.  But I can't see myself using the kitchen sink again.  Not only do I need it to clean dishes, I plan on making spaghetti soon, and that uses water.  Well, shit, man, I am going to have to compromise and do what I just did, which was go downstairs to the laundry/mud room.  I rinsed the dishes I could wash down there.  The water is the same, and yet it seems ... dirty down there, you know what I mean?  I cannot really get washing food and gunk off of dishes in an area dedicated to clothes.  The water coming out of the laundry room sink ... maybe is not the same as the water coming out of the kitchen sink -- that's what my mind believes.

Also, it is weird to look at dishes and yet smell ocean scent fabric softener, you know?  But that is where my dishes are drying.  And that is, until I get tired of it, I am going to wash my dishes and fill up a pot of water for my pasta.  Like the smart entry indicator light going on (it has not come on since, however) or the damn noises coming from the refrigerator, of course these goddamn things would all start to break down on me as soon as my folks go.  And all of these things only heighten my anxiety about leaving all of them to see my parents on vacation.  More and more, that seems like a bad idea.

I Now Have My Bar Arsenal (Barsenal?)

So about this time last year I blog posted about drinking hotel mini-bar-sized bottles of alcohol just to get by.  I don't know if I talked about this in length, but at the start of the pandemic and lockdown last year, I spent hours on the Internet looking up liquor and cocktails.  I then had a lot of time on my hands (hey, as did we all, amiright?), and I imagined that if this keeps up, or if I face another pandemic, making alcoholic drinks for myself would be the perfect way to spend my time.  If there have been larger and longer rabbit holes into which I entered from the Internet, I can't recall them.

I have since thought about drinking from time to time, and actually doing it.  I think around Thanksgiving 2020 was my first time, and my first time subbing in The Fourth Department a few months ago was my second (have I talked about this?).  But now with my folks gone, I'm ready to take the next step and actually begin mixing drinks.

First I bought the tools: jigger, juicers, and shaker ... well, the shaker recommended on The Wirecutter is out of stock, so I need to wait on that.  I then bought the liquor.  But it was important for me not to get the regular-sized bottles, which are 750 mL because I just wanted to dabble (at least for now) and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to finish the whole thing, especially since I was determined to buy several spirits.  So I decided I would only buy half-bottles only 375 mL big.  That filtered out all but the most well-known brands of each spirit, but hey, that's what well liquors are, and The Wirecutter had its recommendations for those as well.

In the end, I bought Prairie Organic Vodka (after I picked up PO's gin, which I returned last/Saturday night in exchange for the vodka), Tanqueray Gin, Bacardi (White) Rum and Hennessey Cognac.  Those liquors, along with lemon, lime and orange juices, yield full drinks I could try and do.  For variety's sake and because it popped up on many ingredient lists, I bought a small-sized Cointreau at a liquor store in downtown Minneapolis because there wasn't such sizes at Total Wine (where I bought the vodka, gin and rum).  That's the same reason I bought the Hennessey there.

With all those combinations there are several drinks I can learn to make.  I will list those at some point, I think.  In the meantime, the IBA-sanctioned vodka cocktails remain scant.  There are a couple vodka-based drinks whose missing ingredient is cranberry juice, so I might grab an Ocean Spray at the store.  And then, well, I have to either get or wait for a shaker.  But once I do those things and grab the pertinent glassware from the kitchen shelf, I'm ready to start shakin' and stirrin' drinks that I hope will knock my socks off.

Hottest Babe In The Hooters Calendar: October

Since my folks are now gone, I can now proudly display my Hooters calendar on the wall of my bedroom, where it should properly go.  I'm looking at it while I type this, and my urge to masturbate to all these gorgeous women continues.

October is a fantastic month, really.  There are a dozen beautiful girls, and my mind has wandered and lingered over all twelve at some point.  The Main Girl, Keaton of Humble, Tex., is wearing a full-length white bodysuit unzipped down to the bottom of her breasts.  You can't see them, not even her cleavage.  But the implication of that unzipping, combined with the wet look of her long, dark brown hair and her beautiful, expressionless face, is growing on me.  Well, as I type this, because I've kind of already made my list, and honestly, Keaton's not on it.  If I did this tomorrow, I might change the list.  That's how good October 2021 is, damn!

With apologies to Keaton and five other girls, I have bifurcated the month.  The six I want to single out are, in increasing order:

• 6th: Ashley, Atlantic City, N. J.  She's wearing a blue two-piece bikini, but her top is one of those fluffy, puffy, ruffled thingies.  But it looks like that top is hiding some big titties.  That gets her on the list.
• 5th: Madeleine, San Antonio.  Her bikini top is more like a cutoff t-shirt, which is kind of white trash to me, but really works on her.  Helps that she has a fantastic smile.  But it's kind of weird that the shirt is black and her bottoms are a blue-green color.
• 4th: Lynnin, Clarksville, Tenn.  Leopard print two-piece -- that's a plus.  Closed-lip smile -- works on her.  She is leaning slightly back while her left hand rests on a counter, and that really works because it gives her abs this sexy vertical ridge.  It looks as if she works out because those look more toned than maybe they really are.  And I just noticed that she has two barrettes in her hair, and you don't see that on a Hooters waitress, or a model, anywhere.  It ain't great, however, to be named after a fabric.
• 3rd: Briana, Sunrise, Fla.  Now this is where I get tripped up when it comes to ranking these Hooters hotties.  She is fucking devastating, and her pose makes her go bang! and I am hard just looking at her so I can describe Briana to you.  Darker skin, exceedingly long black hair that's wet because Briana was possibly told by the photographer to submerge herself quickly in the pool that she might be standing in.  She's sporting a yellow two-piece bikini, and her top has that wire that follows the contour of her breasts and cleavage, like someone pushed the middle of Briana's bikini top in and that part just stayed there.  (Her boobs seem to be a good size, too.)  Finally, her hands are up on her head, and that gives the impression she's stretching out her body, and goddamn she's got a great body, vertical ab ridge and all!
• 2nd: Lily, Ocala, Fla.  Briana sits in third because the top two babes achieve the requirement of showin' ass.  Side profiles aren't my thing, but Lily turns her ass toward the camera enough to show that she is wearing a thong-ish bikini bottom (colored white, like her bikini top) and thus exposing a good part of her hiney, which is firm and good-looking.
• 1st: Jordan, Mesa, Ariz.  Jordan swings out her ass more and proves moreso that she is exposing her butt.  And it's a great butt -- you know, the onion kind.  Being dressed in an orange two-piece -- the color of Hooters, after all -- is an advantage.  As a cherry on top, she's got long blonde hair and a gorgeous face.

So congratulations to Jordan, and don't worry, I've already jerked off to this month.  But I might have to again.  I might have to re-evaluate my list again because I can't get enough of October 2021 ... especially Briana, who, over time, might be The Best Hooters Waitress/Model In Calendar History -- my fucking God. ...

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -7).  OK, so the team bounced back from a jaw-dropping season-opening defeat at Williams Arena to Jacksonville by ripping off three Wins in a row this screening Week.  The most notable, if only because of the name, is Friday's 66-59 victory at Arizona St.  The Gophers then came home and beat a pair of mid-majors, George Washington on Sunday afternoon (albeit by a score of, ugh, 48-32 where one team [the Colonials in the first three Quarters and the U. in the Fourth] only scored in single digits each Quarter), and American Wednesday night, 73-56.

A more encouraging sign for this program came off the court.  National Signing Day was Wednesday, and according to espnW (although I'm refracting the news through the Golden Gopher athletics website), Minnesota has the 10th-best recruiting class in the nation.  I'm sure that the U. has never had a class that lauded.  Lindsay Whalen signed four players, and they're all One Of Us, headed by Wayzata's Mara Braun, the 28th-best incoming Freshman in the country.  Quite an impressive haul for someone who is in her fourth Year at the job and has had three (let's just say) non-notable Years before now.  For those reasons, I'm putting the squad up first this Week.

They are in the Bahamas this weekend for the Women's Battle 4 Atlantis.  First up early tomorrow/Saturday afternoon: Paige Bueckers and Connecticut.  No big whoop.

#-2: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -1).  It's mainly the women's b-ball recruiting results that pushed them over the top.  But I should give some dap the men's team.  They went into Asheville, N. C., and won the Asheville Championship by holding off Western Kentucky and, in Double Overtime, Princeton in the Final.  Ben Johnson's club is 3-0 to start the season and have a tournament trophy to show for its performances so far.

This upcoming screening Week comes a pair of tomato cans at the Barn -- Purdue-Fort Wayne this/Friday evening (a Game I am going to because I bought a ticket at the State Fair) and Jacksonville Wednesday night.

#-3: Gopher women's hockey (Re-Entry!).  In a sign that women's hockey still is in an embryonic stage, the Gophers just curbstomped the Rochester Institute of Technology -- which is a top-flight women's hockey program -- at Ridder Arena over the weekend by scores of 10-0 and 7-1.  Better Wins than Losses, but ... come on, now.  A slightly-tougher foe this weekend, as the U. does a home-and-home with St. Cloud St.  Tonight's (Friday night's) contest in at the Cloud, but Saturday's return date, at Ridder, constitutes the 2021 United States Hockey Hall Of Fame Museum Women's Face-Off Classic.

#-4: Vikings (Last Week: -9).  They didn't blow out the Los Angeles Chargers (who, throughout its history, is one of the most enigmatic franchises in American professional sport), but Sunday's 27-20 Win was a bit more, uh, comfortable than all the other Wins (and, come to think of it, Losses) that have come so far.  The Defense's inability to lock down is still there, and the Offense remains shambolic a lot of the time.  The big differences in this tilt was an emphasis of throwing the ball down the field to Justin Jefferson (which they did) and Head Coach Mike Zimmer's decisions to go for it on critical plays actually succeeding, none moreso than the decision to, yet again, go for it, this time on 4th & 2 call from L. A.'s 36-Yard line.  Dalvin Cook took the ball and hustled around the right side of his line and got four Yards, the First Down, and the Game.

This was played at SoFi Stadium, the place the Chargers play (I think rent-free) from the Rams.  I listened to the Game on TV, and even though I saw a lot of baby blue and I heard cheers when the Chargers made a big play or the Vikings got penalized, I don't believe it.  I still think the crowd was majority Vikings.  It was a similar situation to when they played the Chargers at the Los Angeles Galaxy's stadium in Carson, Calif.  Someone posted a picture of the heavily purple-clad crowd in that soccer stadium on Twitter.  I asked if he could glean a percentage; he estimated it was about 80% Vikings.  I don't think it was 80% Sunday, but I would bet some money that it was a majority.

Nevertheless the Vikes are on the outside looking in on the NFC playoff picture.  And now they have Dr. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers coming to town.  Green Bay current has the #1 seed in the NFC, but I have the feeling, for no reason at all (not like you need to have one in this NFL season) that Minnesota will play the Cheeseheads tough.

#-5: Wild (Last Week: -3).  It is always a good day when The Team That Was Stolen From Us gets beat by the Wild!  That's what happened last/Thursday night -- beat the ever-lovin' shit outta them, actually, 7-2.  Before the Game I went back-and-forth with a bunch of Dallas hockey thieves on the comment section of The Athletic's piece (well, it's a Michael Russo joint) about Ryan Suter visiting the X as a member of the Bastard North Stars.  I worry from time to time that there aren't enough Minnesota pro hockey fans still bitter about that team being taken from us, but those that are showed up to berate these Dallassholes.  And all is right with the world.

The Week for them started with a 4-2 Win at Seattle, avenging the Kraken beating them earlier a few Weeks ago.  But inbetween those two Matches was an inexplicable 4-1 loss at home vs. ... San Jose?  I thought all the California teams are supposed to be bad this Year.  There was talk after that defeat that Kirill Kaprizov just isn't working as hard as he did last Year.  Well, he got a Goal and three Assists over the BNS, so maybe he's back!  Besides, right now they're tied with The Bastard Atlanta Thrashers atop the Central Division, so it's all good regardless of how much production comes out of Dolla Bill Kirill (his preferred nickname, even though Kirill The Thrill is better).

This Week they are out east: Florida and Tampa Bay in a tough back-to-back this weekend, then at The Bastard Colorado Rockies Dranksgiving.

#-6: Timberwolves (Last Week: -8).  Speaking of The Athletic, Jon Krawczynski is that publication's beat writer for the Wolves.  That squad, fresh off of putting on the afterburners in the Third Quarter of their 107-83 beatdown of The Bastard Minneapolis Lakers at Staples the night before, followed it up with a turgid 129-102 humiliation at the hands of the Stapes "renters," the Clippers.

Krawczynski's gamer may be an all-timer.  He just ripped the entire fucking franchise a new asshole, yelling at them for their lack of execution and heart and making fun of them for again believing they summited Mount Everest after just one good Win.  I have never seen a beat writer go after the subject of their beat like that in a long time, if not ever.  And frankly, that gives me hope that journalism isn't dead.  Sports "journalists" nowadays are so dependent on, if not thirsty for, access to the team that they often will self-censor in order to maintain that access.  Krawczynski obviously didn't give a shit; he told the truth about these Timberwolves instead.  That's what you call reporting.

And, frankly, the ballclub has played much better after that piece.  They lost a close one to Phoenix,99-96, but that extended the Suns' winning streak to I believe ten, so ain't no stopping them now.  Then the Timberwolves actually followed that up with back-to-back victories at Target Center, 107-97 over the Kings Wednesday night and 115-90 over San Antonio last/Thursday night.  Maybe what this team needed was a kick in the ass.

I didn't realize that the Wolves had five Games this past screening Week.  This Week will be quieter.  They finish the homestand hosting The Bastard Vancouver Grizzlies Saturday, jump to the Crescent City to face The Bastard Charlotte Hornets Monday, then come back up here to play Miami Wednesday.

#-7: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -4).  It's a competitive Week where splitting a two-Game series gets you third from last.  Such as it is, as the Gophs lost then won versus Ohio St. at Mariucci.  And I just took my first look at the PairWise for this season: The U. is tenth, safely in even as an at-large.  Not bad.  Host Penn St. for two.

#-8: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: 0).  Well, that was a fucking buzzkill; the team's six-Game winning streak came to a crashing, crushing end Sunday, to then-ninth-ranked Purdue, in four Sets, at home, on Alumni Day.  Triple yikes.  So, maybe they will finish in the Sweet Sixteen after all.

This is interesting ... tonight's/Friday night's home date vs. Rutgers is cancelled.  It's because there is a rash of illnesses plaguing the Rutgers program now -- but the school says it is not related to COVID-19.  I didn't know an illness that's not the coronavirus could wind up cancelling a Game.  But it has, and under Big Ten rules, the Scarlet Knights forfeit and the Golden Gophers pick up a Win.  I don't know how to calculate that for Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey purposes.  This might change in the future, but I will just credit the forfeit/Win for next Week's survey because the Match was supposed to take place tonight/Friday night.

There is another Match scheduled this Week (for now), and it's a damn doozy.  They host fifth-ranked Wisconsin in their final regular-season match at Maturi.  Any chance to move up to a two-seed rests on beating the Badgers.

#-9: Gopher football (Last Week: -6).  Yeah, another opportunity to break through has been lost as the Gophers fall at Iowa, 27-22 Saturday and spend another Year without Floyd of Rosedale.  They lose their lead in the B1G West Division as well.  They (along with Purdue) sit one Game behind both the Hawkeyes and Wisconsin for the lead.  A date in Indianapolis no longer appears to be in the cards.

Oh, well.  At least they visit Indiana, winless in-conference, Saturday afternoon.

Fridge Noises

Noticed this just before my parents left: The refrigerator in the kitchen is making noises.  Not all the time, but once in a while I would hear this hard hum, and then it would stop, and then it would start again.  There will be a series of these hard hums, and then it'd stop.  Never heard such things before.

Do the compressor coils need cleaning?  Is it the water filter?  Is it something worse?  Because it's probably something worse, knowing that I want to take a vacation next month.  Dammit.

Do You, Uh, Crypto?

Oh yeah, I wanted to talk about this. ...  So back when I was trying to snag a Rolling Stone concert ticket, I had to double back to Craigslist because StubHub fucked me.  The guy I texted seemed really cool, and unlike all the others he did have PayPal, so I could just transfer the money to him.  Unfortunately, it appears as though he was not hip to the restrictions placed on the ticket he got.  He did not buy the ticket he sold to me; instead, he says he himself bought the ticket from another person, and so when he tried to pawn it off to me, he couldn't.  We cancelled the deal, and he gave me my money back, thank goodness.

With that being said, he tried to chat me up after we undid our deal.  And guess what?  He's into crypto!  He just, like, segued into it when I thought we were done texting: "Hey, do you do crypto?" or something like that.  And I didn't want to say that I think it's bullshit currency designed only to rip off unsuspecting newbies' money.  I instead said that I don't know much about it, to which he gave me links to these online tutorials.  I said I would get around to them.  I'm not lying per se, but I haven't gotten around to them, and I don't know when or even if I will.

Hey, he seems like a nice guy.  And he showed he's a stand-up guy, too.  But he just tried to casually slide our conversation into talking about cryptocurrency and I'm all, "I'm just trying to see Stones, man!"

Saved The Heinz BBQ Bottle!!!

Phew!

OK, some background.  Heinz had a line of barbecue sauces that supposedly represents famous American regions known for BBQ.  They still have it, but they may have trimmed some flavors and they have updated the design and packaging.  I was obsessed with getting all of them -- off the top of my head there were or are Kansas City, Memphis, Texas, Kentucky, Hawai'i, and Carolina -- that I bought all of them.  And this was at least several years back when they first came out.  I didn't care how long it took for me to go through them or that we already had BBQ sauce -- I wanted them and I bought them all!  (For the record, I think I bought, like, four of them because those four were the first that came out.  The Kentucky and Hawai'i ones came later, and I bought those before 2018 because, well, the expiration dates on both caps are 2018.  I'm not sick, promise!)

Once I went through a bottle, I made sure I washed it, emptied out the insides, and stored it in my storage unit.  But the latest one I went through, the Carolina mustard one, I left in there as my parents cleaned out the fridge several days ago.  I didn't put two and two together until I opened up the refrigerator and saw that that bottle was gone.  Shit!  Why didn't I think of grabbing that bottle before my folks did?

So it's in the trash.  What to do?  Well, I wanted to know if Heinz still made Carolina mustard BBQ sauce.  It looks like they do, but they have updated the packaging from what it once was.  I got to have the old bottle!  But I'll have to look through the trash in order to do it!

And so I did.  Did so just now, after work.  (It helped tremendously that, surprise surprise, there was no overtime offered after work.  If there were, I would have stayed, gone home, rested, then gone on to see No Time To Die, which I am going to do after I blog post this.)  I stole some disposable gloves from work, put a cloth mask on top of the surgical mask I used at work, and dove into my own trash bin.

I was hoping not to get myself too dirty.  All the bags I saw I used my hands to squeeze and prod, hoping to feel a shape of a bottle so I only had to open that bag.  Eventually, I got to a big bag, and although I couldn't feel any plastic in there, it was possible that a bottle was right in the middle of it.  I didn't want to open it, but I had as much "PPE" that I could find, and if I was serious about getting this bottle, I would open this damn bag.  So I opened that damn bag.

And guess what I found?  The bottle of Heinz Carolina mustard!  And it was drenched in other nasty, smelly crap!  And I took that bottle to the laundry/mud room and am washing the hell out of it in order to get it clean.

I am not ashamed to say that whatever has happened at work (and it wasn't great), and whatever could happen on my way out to the movies (fingers crossed), today is a good day!  I was able to find what I wanted to find and was afraid I had lost.  That is a save in my book, and I am so grateful.  Phew!

False Alarm?

God, I have so many things I could talk about now.  But I'll address the one thing that's giving me the most anxiety right now, and that's my goddamn car.

So after I panicked like shit over the smart key indicator light last night, I made an appointment online with the dealership to bring it in Wednesday.  However ... I was going to try and use the other key fob when I drove my car this morning.  There was nothing to indicate that this indicator light is dependent on the fob; if anything, the start engine button, and the entire contraption behind it, appears to be the problem.  I just tried it anyway because I couldn't think of anything else to do in order to diagnose the problem.  I immediately default to feeling helpless when it comes to cars breaking down.

Well, wouldn't you know it?  I use the other fob, I push the button, and there was no light.  It didn't come on when I drove home from work, either.  Does this mean this is a fluke?

So, before I used my parents' minivan to drive to the gym, I took the old fob (the one with which I got the scary indicator light from last night) and started the car with it on the driveway.  It started, and the smart key indicator light went out along with all the other dashboard lights immediately after I turned the engine on.

Great.  The only explanation I can come up with this is that I was driving my car everywhere Sunday night.  I took it to the airport, drove back, stopped off at Target, came home, went to my storage unit, went back home, and I turned on my car to go to work to get a couple hours of overtime in precisely when Mother called and said their flight was postponed till the morning.  That is when that indicator light came on, so maybe it's a signal that things got so hot in there that the connections behind the on/off button started to wear or fritz ... or something?

At this point I kind of want the light to go on and stay on, because then I can go to the dealership and point to that light and say, "See?  Fix this!"  But in the morning I am going to take my old fob and use it to at least start the car.  If the light goes on, well, I am taking tomorrow off work and getting to the bottom of this.  But if it doesn't, and if my car runs just fine, at the very least that means that the button has cooled off to the point where the light won't come on.  I would then have to cancel the appointment for tomorrow because I cannot reproduce the problem and I therefore would be telling them to look for something they can't see.  Like I said, I kind of wish that the light just shows up again as proof that there's something wrong with it.

And mark my words, as soon as I cancel with the dealership (and tell my boss that it turns out I don't have to take tomorrow off after all), that fuckin' smart key indicator light will go on and stay on.  Such is my shitty life.

Wow, The Shit Really Hit The Fan Tonight, Didn't It?

Well, I don't want to say too much because 1) I want to keep some things to myself, 2) I think if I say too much I'll jinx things, 3) I'm tired and 4) I wouldn't know where to fucking begin.  Let's just say that I was both a little too eager and too complacent in thinking I take all my stuff out of storage to get a head start on cleaning that shit out before I had to go back to the airport.

What's worse is something that is both not related to that and yet totally related to that.  A goddamn light came on in my car.  It's the smart key indicator light.  My car drove fine, and I was hoping it wouldn't be a big deal.  But once we got back home and I looked it up on the Internet -- well, fuck, I have to take a day off in order to get this fixed because apparently you don't want to not get this fixed.  And of course this happens as ... (sigh) never mind.

So I just got set off by My Mother.  I just went downstairs to check on luggage, and on my way back up to my room My Mother asked me to cancel the free trial of Apple TV that she made me set up for her months ago.  I was my Generation X Luddite self going on her computer to cancel the subscription before I saw instructions that it had to be done on her iPhone.  And of course, along the way, I was screaming at her because I have no idea what the hell she's talking about and she accused me of wanting the free trial when it was all fucking her.

Everything's all good now.  But nowadays I am so triggered when she gets to be like that that, frankly, I'm glad to see my parents are going to go.

Stayed After Work, But This Time It's OK

I stayed late both Thursday and Friday in My Favorite Department.  It's OK because overtime was offered for the week -- well, for outside in my Main Department, but frankly, I've stayed late when I've been back there and my boss hasn't said anything.  Anyway, I forgot why I stayed after on Thursday.  But on Friday, I had to do this thing, namely put in order forms that are waiting for answers because they are incomplete.  

Ever since the start of the fall we have had a bevy of forms that are incomplete, and that will last, according to one co-worker, until New Year's Eve.  With so many, and so many that we will have to match up once the answers come in, I could not just leave this folder that came in Friday afternoon all catawampus.  I saw that I had about ten minutes left before my shift was over, but I just had to do it.  My OCD was kicking in, and if I put those in order now, the person doing my position the next day will have a much easier time matching them up with the answers -- dozens of which, by the way, came in in the afternoon, and I could have stayed and done them myself, but at some point you just have to call it.

There were some other things I had to do, including cleaning up the workstation I was working at the past two days.  Once it was all over, I had clocked out 40 minutes after I should have.  That is about the same amount of time I stayed after my last day working at The Fourth Department just a couple weeks ago, and I complained like hell about it here on WAF.  But this past Friday?  No worries, unless my boss starts asking why I stayed so late.

So, what's the difference?  Why is being late 40 minutes one day a huge problem and 40 minutes another day no problem at all?  Well, the nature of the job I am doing when staying late has something to do with it.  But also, and frankly, it's will.  In short, I wanted to stay after on Friday because I really, really had to do this thing before I left.  However, my life in The Fourth Department was slowly ebbing from my body, and all the crap that I had to do before I left was making me pissed off in a slow boil kind of way.  Contrast that to working in My Favorite Department, where I wanted ... well, again, it was my OCD talking, but I did not feel hemmed in and prevented from leaving.  This was something I wanted to do of my own volition, even though this was not really a passion project per se.

Moral of the story, I guess: Time at work after you should have left work is a matter of perspective.

I was going to talk about either staying late for work or the fact that ****e has not gone away.  But my parents just had a huge fight that got loud.  They scream at each other from time to time, but when I hear loud noises and not just loud voices, well, I get up out of my bed, look at my hands and hope I can ball them into fists fast enough if need be, and walk out to the yelling.

And there, I saw a bunch of things taken out from underneath the kitchen sink.  My Fucking Father was there.  I conclude that he is cleaning, maybe.  Then, My Fucking Mother slammed the backdoor shut and scurried downstairs, screaming to the point of tears at, I'm guessing, My Fucking Father complaining to her about, I'm guessing, how she's not cleaning the way she's supposed to.

If My Fucking Father is telling me to clean my room, he can do it his fucking self.

Anyway, I'm not sure who's at fault, but I don't give a shit either way because I have been victimized by both.

God, can they just fucking go already?

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

My God, we have a long and busy WMNSS starting this Week.  This is why I am thinking of cutting down on sports after St. Thomas fully onboards to top-flight.  Anyway, here goes:

#0: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: Positive Numbers).  So the volleyball club is rolling right now.  Make it six in a row after a pair of sweeps on the road against then-#25 Illinois Saturday and Iowa yesterday/Thursday evening.  Their last three Wins have been on the road, and that's a monumental feat.  The only reason I'm busting these players down from Positive is because the caliber of opponents pale in comparison to beating two Top 10-ranked teams.

Nevertheless, this screening Week's sole Match is a pivotal one: The eighth-ranked Golden Gophers host ninth-ranked Purdue Sunday afternoon (it starts a half-hour after the Vikings Game -- shitty timing, Big Ten Network).  They still have to prove their mettle in the NCAA Tournament, but a Win here would convince me even more that this squad ain't so bad after all.

#-1: Gopher men's basketball (Re-Entry!).  I'll admit this is a perfunctory placement.  Every local team below did not go undefeated this past Week, even though the U. male ballers kicked off their season with only one Game and it was a bodybag one.  Nonetheless, Missouri-Kansas City (they're called the Kangaroos) actually gave the Gophs a tussle till about eight Minutes left in the Game, at which point New Head Coach Ben Johnson put the accelerator down and boatraced UMKC to a 71-56 victory at the Barn Tuesday night.

The adage applies here: I always give a mulligan to a Head Coach in his first Year.  I have no idea what the season will bring.  I'll just, you know, observe.  They are in Asheville, N. C., this week for the Asheville Championship.  They play Western Kentucky tonight/Friday night, then either South Carolina or Princeton Sunday.  I've wanted to visit Asheville, N. C.  I hear it's a place that's both beautiful (the Blue Ridge Mountains are nearby) and progressive.  And yet Madison Cawthorn, that bigoted Republican cripple, is the Representative of that House District.  I don't get it.

#-2: United FC (Last Week: -3).  Well, they did what they needed to do: Get a Point to get into the Major League Soccer Playoffs.  Yeah, they blew leads of 2-0 and 3-2 out in Carson, Calif., to the Los Angeles Galaxy (my first MLS love) Sunday, but they somehow didn't completely fold.  Other results meant that the Galaxy had to win in order to get into the postseason, but the Loons denied them by tying.  (In an odd circumstance , the two sides that were in playoff contention in the Western Conference but were eliminated on Decision Day were the two Los Angeles teams ... and they join the three XI's in Texas as the Western Conference organizations sitting out this postseason.  It's California and Texas out, all other states in.  Weird.)  It hurts, but then again, I saw the Galaxy eliminate MNUFC at Allianz with my own eyes, so meh.

Now, fifth-seeded Minnesota United will travel to fourth-seeded Portland on the 21st to take on the Timbers.  It's the first time the Loons have to go on the road for their first postseason Match.  The Timbers have a leaky Defense, but Minnesota scored fewer Goals than any club still playing.  I'm worried that Portland will just key on Bebelo Reynoso and stop the Offense cold.  We'll see.

#-3: Wild (Last Week: -4).  They just lost last/Thursday night in (Las) Vegas, 3-2.  It was a Game where the Golden Knights actually led 3-0 after two Periods, the last of which started on a dumb play by, uh, Matt Dumba.  After the Game, Dumba owned up to his, and these are his words, "Fucking dumb mistake."  Well, I'm glad he's admitting to it.

That broke a four-Game winning streak and ruined what could have been a perfect screening Week: They survived at Pittsburgh in a Shootout, routed Zach Parise and the Islanders at the X, and made mincemeat out of The Soon-To-Be Houston Aeros Wednesday night.  They're off to a fast start and are tangoing with St. Louis atop the Central Division.  It pisses me off that they lost to Team Born On Third Base And Thought It Hit A Triple, but they'll have more chances against them.

This Week: A return trip to Seattle to avenge their Loss to the Kraken, then home to San Jose and The Team That Was Stolen From Us.

#-4: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -1).  A split at Wisconsin.  Fair, although they had a lead in Friday night's matchup, blew it, and then lost in Overtime, 4-3.  A comfortable 4-1 Win the next night made things better.  It's Ohio St. for two this weekend at Mariucci.

#-5: Whitecaps (Re-Entry!).  Remember the NWHL?  Well, it's now the Premier Hockey Federation, or PHF.  We have Leagues and an Association, but not a Federation, but let's run with it.  Anyway, the Whitecaps began their season last weekend at the team that beat them in last Year's Final, the Boston Pride -- and they got swept, 6-4 and 1-0.  Humbling.  I'm on their e-mail list, and over the summer I saw a slew of messages about the team signing this player, and re-signing that player.  I hope it congeals, but I really hope they can get over the Pride hump.  And it just so happens that they'll have that chance next weekend because Boston comes to Tria Rink for a two-Game series.

#-6: Gopher football (Last Week: 0).  OK, this club puzzles the shit out of me.  They won four in a row, become bowl eligible, and appear to have put Bowling Green behind them, and then they lay another goddamn egg like this -- at home, like with Bowling Green -- last Saturday to woebegone Illinois, 14-6.  It doesn't matter that you're down to your fifth-string Running Back -- they should've destroyed the Illini.  But the running game P. J. Fleck relies on got continually swallowed up (only 89 Yards total), Illinois' running game was on the move (185 Yards total), and Tanner Morgan once again showed that he can't carry a team all by himself: 200 Yards, but two picks.  Stupid fact: Illinois Head Coach Bret Bielema still has never lost to Minnesota.  Never.

They're still somehow in first place in the B1G West, although Purdue of all teams is nipping on their heels, courtesy of an upset of Michigan St. on Saturday.  But the Gophers this Week travel down to Iowa City and fight Iowa for Floyd Of Rosedale.  The Hawkeyes are down, too; which squad will be less down and hoist the pig early Saturday evening?

#-7: Gopher women's basketball (Re-Entry!).  Minnesota has signed a Top Ten class this past Week ... and yet somehow opened up their season Tuesday afternoon (once again it's the women taking the shit-ass times) at Williams with a 69-66 Loss to Jacksonville.  They were outscored 15-9 in the First Quarter but took the lead at Halftime, 32-29.  The key stretch was in the middle of the Fourth, where the ... Dolphins ripped off seven in a row to go from down three to up four, and they never relinquished it.

You know, I wonder if the hiring of Lindsay Whalen was a set-it-and-forget-it deal: She'll be on the job for ten Years at least, and the fanbase and boosters won't care how bad her teams are because, hey, she's Lindsay Whalen.  You know?

I do at least appreciate the aggressive scheduling.  They are in Tempe, Ariz. to face Arizona St. tonight/Friday night, then come home to host George Washington Sunday afternoon -- an hour before the Vikings Game begins.  Yet again, I don't understand the shitty timing.

#-8: Timberwolves (Last Week: -5).  Yeah, this is the Timberwolves team I know and hate.  But I think I've said that before.  A perfectly winless screening Week (0-3) extends their losing streak to six.  They blew an early double-digit lead to the Clippers Friday and eventually lost by 20.  I was working out Monday while watching the Woofie Dogs blow a lead late in regulation to The Bastard Vancouver Grizzlies, and even with a miracle Three-Pointer by Karl-Anthony Towns to get that tilt into OT, the Grizz won going away (and beat the spread, if I'm not mistaken).  And then on Wednesday the Wolves got a healthy dose of Andrew Wiggins, who was all over the fucking place and dunking on his old team at will.  Where was this fucking motivation when you were up here, Big Wig?  And Golden State crushed the Woofs by 13.

Their four-Game roadtrip ends with a mini-residency at Staples Center whereby they face off versus The Team That Was Stolen From Us (Beta) and the Clippers back-to-back this weekend.  They then have a four-contest homestand with Phoenix Monday and back-to-back tilts vs. Sacramento and San Antonio Wednesday and Thursday.

#-9: Vikings (Last Week: -6).  Yeah, the ViQueens are done.  They had a 14-Point lead on The Bastard Cleveland Browns twice.  But the fucked-up clock management issues came up again, and the Offense that was humming to start the Game browned out in the Second Half.  The Defense actually made some momentum-changing plays, foremost of which was Anthony Barr's deflection to himself for the Interception in Overtime.  But then the godddamn Vikes O go three-and-out to hand the ball back to Baltimore, and then the D reverted back to its sieve costume, and then Justin Tucker ended our (and maybe Mike Zimmer's) misery with a Field Goal to win it.

The National Football Conference is so top-heavy that Minnesota is still in the hunt for a Wild Card spot.  But do you really think this team is any good?  And is anyone willing to lay money on the Vikes this Sunday, when they travel to SoFi Stadium and, well, "host" the Los Angeles Chargers as three-Point underdogs?  I sure as shit wouldn't.

The Rest Of The Workweek Should Be A Breeze!

Monday was normal.  Well, it was on the meager side; it got to the point where work was so slow that we were sent into the lab to do stuff.  I don't like doing that, but hey, it's part of the job.

Tuesday was the most hectic day of the week, probably.  I was up on my feet scanning forms in the afternoon, and that's a lot, but it's something I know to do, and I don't have to communicate with anybody else (well, not really) in order to do my job.

Moreover, I brought in fancy chocolate for the two big rooms I work in, out in keying and the actual room where my other three positions reside.  I hadn't brought in fancy chocolate in a while, and so I thought it was time.  I've been worried in the past because there would be a bunch of chocolates left over after I present them early in the day, as if they didn't really like the chocolate I bring.  My supervisor also brings out chocolate, and the group usually plows through them by the end of the day.  I have a theory: The ones she brings are the fun size, well-known brands that are individually wrapped.  My fancy ones are unwrapped and come on their own doilies.  Maybe people are freaked out over the unwrapped chocolates and think unwrapping their own ensures they're fresh, or even safe?  Or, maybe they know a Snickers or a 3 Musketeers but don't know the high-end boutique chocolatiers that I buy from.  Yeah, maybe it's that.

Anyway, for the data entry room/hallway, at the end of the day (I don't know how the other people in the other room liked it; unlike data entry, which I doled out around 10, I gave theirs at the end of the day simply because I was too busy), out of the box of 16 chocolates, only two were left over when my day was done.  We actually had a long day that nearly all of us had to stay after for because the work didn't get done in time.  I kind of think that those people were finally relieved to leave, and so treated themselves with a chocolate.  Well, maybe that, or maybe it was the fact that my supervisor called in sick.  Since she usually brings in chocolate, we would have been out of chocolate if not for me.  Therefore, maybe they were desperate for any chocolate.

I'm bringing in a lot of threads here, so forgive me for jumping around.  My supervisor still remains cold with me.  I guess we're just not people on the same wavelength.  It is what it will be.  But I wonder if she was going to get all pissy with me bringing in chocolate if she were to do the same thing.  So I got a break in not needing to, well, compete with her.  I gave out my chocolate, the co-workers seemed to like it, and at the end of the day, I ate the two pieces left over in my car before I left the parking lot.

Oh, and another thing.  My supervisor wasn't the only person who called in sick.  The other girl with whom I do not get along also called in sick yesterday.  I'm sure she wouldn't go for the chocolate, and I'm sure I wouldn't care.  But without her there, there was zero chance I would have a run-in with her.

So, to sum up Tuesday: The two people I have clashed with the most just happened to call in sick, and I was the one to supply chocolate to the group, which appears to have been warmly received.  Those two people might have been back to work today ... but I wouldn't know nor care, because I took the day off!  And for tomorrow and Friday, I won't have to work next to them because I am working in My Favorite Department the rest of the week!  Where I likely will have only one job!  And I get to sleep in!  And then go off in the evening and do my own thing!

Now, to sum up my whole week: It's a fantastic workweek!  I don't have to compete for people's affinity for chocolate, my co-workers like the chocolate I bought, the people I don't get along with are there when I'm not and vice versa (that's a fantastic series of coincidences that might not ever happen again), and the work, while busy at times, is manageable.  Throw in that I'm only working four days this week, and this workweek is bliss.  I have to stop and appreciate how lucky and fortunate I am.

Of course, things could go south if something unexpected happens the rest of the week.  Maybe I have willed that into existence just by blog posting this?

Nightmare

Just woke up from an evening nap.  These are weird.  They're needed because I was so tired working during the day, but if I sleep too much (as I did tonight) it'll throw my sleep schedule off so bad.  But I'm taking the day off tomorrow, so it's all good.

Anyway, I had this nightmare where an electronic device -- I think it was my satellite radio? -- would not turn off no matter how many times I tried.  It would just ... either turn itself back on or it would stay on.  And then things came flying at me, like static electricity but times a thousand.  And I didn't know what the bleep was going on.

And then I woke up.

My God I have paranoid nightmares.

I'm Hurting All Over

Although I never feel that way to start, by the end of it I'm glad I worked out.  I'm still trying to fight my weight.  And not only am I trying to counter that with elliptical and some time on the treadmill, I am starting to incorporate stretching and kettlebells, too.  I've looked up some exercises online and, assuming I'm doing them right, I feel like I'm getting stronger, and that's something I need (regardless of whether or not I shed pounds) as I, ahem, get older.

With that said, since I've started working out on the regular, my body has started to hurt.  Oftentimes it's my knee joints, which I feel when I'm pounding on the treadmill.  (I also feel it sometimes at work after I have been sitting for some time; I don't know if they're related.)  But tonight the outside of my shins hurt, and bad.  I'm guessing working out those muscles while doing the kettlebell did it.  But if you do the exercise properly, it shouldn't hurt, should it?

Some years ago I picked up free boxes of Osteo Bi-Flex.  At the time I couldn't think of a reason I would use them.  Well, I can now.  But does it work, or is it just quackery?

Three-Day-Old Coffee

Did not notice until I was preparing for today last night that I still had not finished my cup of coffee from Friday.  Whoops.  I forgot; it was an oversight.

I'll drink it, but I'll probably mix it in with the coffee I'll get today.  Not to say it's poisonous, but if there is anyone that drinks three-day-old coffee, I have not met that person.

Car-ma

After work and eating at Jimmy John's, I wanted to blow off some steam by walking around the Sculpture Garden in the dark.

I was wrapping up my walk.  Going up the sidewalk to where I parked my car on the street, a car came, stopped, and began to back up in front of the front-most car in order to park.  This car came in hot, and then this dipshit driver began to back up faster than he should have.  He was swerving his steering wheel back and forth, but he wasn't slowing down.  Well, he did slow down after he hit the car behind him.  And he hit it hard.  And he hit it, oh, six feet away from where I just stopped and stood, looking at what the fuck he just did.

The asshole driver got out.  I looked at him for a semi-second.  He then went to the back to see the damage he did.  I glanced at the driver's license.  I saw that the car he hit, like his car, was kind of shitty.  I thought, for a semi-second, that I should call out the idiot for what he did.  But then, finally, I just walked away.  What could I do?  Scream at the guy?  Take a photo of the guy's license plate?  It's the pussy way of thinking, but what if he had a gun?

Walking up to my car, there was another person who had stepped out.  I believe she heard the accident if she didn't see it.  I guess I looked at her because I needed to know that someone else was witness to this bizarre incident.  The guy, by the way, didn't drive off.  I don't know what he was doing, but he was still there when I drove off.

And when I drove off, I thought to myself, "I'm gonna get it.  Because I didn't make that guy pay for hitting that car, my car is gonna get hit."

Well, fast forward to this afternoon.  I stopped by a park to get one more good, autumn walk in; this apparently is going to be The Last Good Weekend Of The Year because the snow and cold is coming in later this workweek.

Going back to my car, I noticed a couple black spots in the front of my car, just above the license plate.  Was it just dirt?  Nope.  Course not.  It was the body of my car.  The silver paint was scraped off because some motherfucker backed into my car.  I could see scrape marks around it.

Now, did it happen as a result of me not doing anything about the accident I saw?  That could have happened before Friday.  But ... I like to think I am an observant person, and I don't think I saw that any scrape marks before then.  And, I went downtown and parked on the street after walking at the Sculpture Garden.

Karma did come back to bite me, didn't it?

Goddammit.  But what the hell was I supposed to do?  Call the cops?

My Fucking Team Sucks

You know, all the Losses my alma mater's football team is taking piss me off.  And this might be just recency bias; you catch me after any of the other Losses and I would probably tell you that was the worst fucking Loss I've ever seen by my team.  But tonight's (well last night's technically) Loss was the worst fucking Loss I've ever seen by my team.  The other team got shelled their last two Games, everybody's up in arms and want to throw out both the Head Coach and the Athletic Director, and they're so out of sorts that they seem more fucked up than my team.

And yet they won.  They weren't great.  They weren't even good.  Repeatedly, the other time tried to give the Game away, but my team said, "Nope!  We're tanking this one!"  Consecutive three-and-outs.  The refusal to go for it from midfield, especially in the Fourth Quarter when time was running out.  The shitty Quarterback play.  Wide Receivers continually being unable to separate from their defenders.  And, finally, the goddamn shit-ass tackling.  They pulled away at the end to the point where they even covered the ten-Point spread.  Good job, assholes!

And Work Went Back To Sucking

I may have a more nuanced assessment of how The Fourth Department went for me on Monday, or a week from now.  But the good vibes early in the week curdled into a sudden mass of suck yesterday.

Things felt really good yesterday morning.  Like I said, what I thought was key to managing The Fourth Department was the amount of workload I had to deal with.  Amazingly, it was not as much as it had been my previous sub stints.  And it wasn't in the morning.  There are stages of work I group the papers I have to work on into, and there is an order I need to do them.  My benchmark in how my day is going to go depends on how early or late I get to each stage.  The big one for me is the new work I have coming in.  Those are important because no one knows about the problems with these yet.  But it's been dictated to me that forms that are already in the system need to be dealt with first because these involve samples whose results people have been waiting on, and the longer the results aren't known, the antsier our clients get.

Anyway, the old stuff I got out of the way early, earlier than the previous three days.  That meant I started on the new stuff way earlier than I had even compared to the rest of the week.  Once I crossed that benchmark those previous days, I felt like I had a leg up, so yesterday I felt even moreso.  I actually thought I could get out on time.

Boy, was I wrong.

I don't know what happened, exactly.  The new stuff wasn't voluminous.  In fact, the number of forms I had to deal with were smaller than in previous days.  Now, a co-worker has to give me some work once it gets so many days old, so those forms folded into my work, but still, it wasn't enough for me to think that I have to stay late.  It's just that ... well, at some point in the afternoon, going up to scan in a form for the umpteenth time, I thought to myself, "Geez, there are more of these than I thought."  When I got done with all that stuff, the new stuff and the stuff given to me by my co-worker, I had an hour before I was supposed to leave.  And the replies from all the people giving me the answers I need were waiting for me in my inbox.  And I needed to take my break.

Getting answers is something I have been told I need to stay late for.  No worries; one of the things that has slowed down for me in this position is processing the replies for the numbers I need.  That doesn't overwhelm me anymore.  Unfortunately, it felt as though that a lot of people replied to me last night.  Guess that's a product of finishing up work before the weekend.  Again, I wasn't bent out of shape about about that because I at least knew what to do.  But, and I'll be damned, I had, like, three or four questions that were all, "Hey, can you do this?" and I have no idea what the hell that person wanted.  So I had to stop what I was doing and figure out what the hell to do with this problem.  And for these curveballs, I had to bother my supervisor, who was out working overtime in a different part of the building and company.  I'm not sure how much of a time suck dealing with these weird issues were yesterday, but it took me over the edge stress-wise.

By the time I got done with everything, including the end-of-day stuff, I clocked out of work 75 minutes after my shift.  That is as late as I have ever stayed after work working The Fourth Department.  That is incredibly frustrating after staying late only 20 minutes the previous two days and only ten minutes Tuesday, and that was only because my supervisor chatted with me about a problem I was willing to leave until the following morning.  One of the eventual outcomes of understanding how this job works is getting to leave when you're supposed to.  Seventy-five minutes is bleeping insane, and it feels as if everything I worked on and tried to improve upon completely unraveled yesterday.  I hate it.  I absolutely hate it.  Oh, and I couldn't get myself tested for COVID because I got out of work too late.

I bought minibar-sized bottles of whiskey and bourbon.  I bought them as a treat for myself for this particular job; if it was a long, bad day, I would come home and, to reward myself, take a swig from both bottles before going to bed.

I actually didn't need either bottle Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday because I thought things went relatively well.  That wasn't the case on Friday.  I took a nip from both, and then I went to bed early.  Because I needed and deserved it.

---

Two other things I noticed/had happened to me during my time in The Fourth Department this week that I don't like.

First, back to the end-of-day stuff.  I need to do that to check that I have crossed my t's and dotted my i's.  There is a series of things I need to do in our software that eventually leads to the testing of urine and blood samples.  It's a lot of documentation that lets the relevant people know that these samples are here or there, if you know what I mean.  Well, in checking, I saw that I didn't one step at least, oh, half a dozen times.  It involves attaching e-mails to a piece of software we all use to let people know these samples are being tested.  That's not as bad as stopping samples from being tested, but my greater concern is how many times I failed to do this.  This is a step that I understand has to be done, but I just flat-out forgot to do them so many times yesterday.  I forgot a few times each of the previous three days, too.  I'm scared that this is going to continue to happen because of the blizzard of tasks I need to do in this job.

Second, and more worrying, is the run-ins with rude people I will eventually have to deal with.  I was concerned that at some point I would get a call from either someone with the company or a client who wasn't going to be, uh, mannerly.  That happened, or appeared to happen, with this bitch of a nurse who called me about a report of who she only had a social security number.  I rarely use SSNs because we are told not to unless that's the only information upon which we can search.  Well, that happened.

Also, this was the first time I ever got an inquiry about results from someone on the outside.  By law and by policy, I am to never release results.  I can tell them when the report is released, but not the details of it.  And so I was thinking of what to say to her when I finally got around to bringing up the report, and she then said she'll call me back and hung up.    Not a fan of hemming and hawing?

Goddamn, if that woman ever deigns to call me again. ...