Eating Out Of Order

By that I mean that, pretty much all my life, once I eat something I consider light or dessert, that's the last thing I'll eat that night.  I've just never thought I could, or at least should, eat anything else, and especially anything that would be polar opposite of that light snack or that dessert.  It just shouldn't be done -- else there would be chaos.

I have breached my rule the last two nights, and I feel bad about it.  Wednesday night, after suffering through a lethargic Loons Loss, I went home and ate several Girl Scout Cookies.  But I had to stay up to do the WMNSS.  While going through it, I felt my body telling me to go to bed immediately.  However, I had to stay awake to finish the survey, and I then developed this hunger for the deli meat I had in the fridge.  So, even though I ate dessert (the Girl Scout Cookies), I went into the fridge and and pulled out one piece of ham and one piece of roast beef and wolfed both down.  And they hit the spot, ngl.

Last/Thursday night, after a long and stressful night at work, I went home, downed a snack pack of Chex Mix, then made myself a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich, which was the only thing I was planning to eat for the night (and I was going to chase it with what turns out to be the remaining amount of milk I have).  But dammit, I got hungry, and so I finally ripped into one of the two pizza Lunchables I bought from the discount store close by me.  It was time I tried these for the first time; when I was young I was obsessed with the original Lunchables, where I would stack the cracker, meat and cheese in different orders.  But pizza?  Never had it till just this past evening, and though I wouldn't say it was the best pizza I've ever had, I didn't mind it at all.  I just feel weird, and wrong, to eat pizza after I ate a PB&J, which I consider both a light snack and, in some frames of mind, dessert.  Can I break free from my wrong order-eating sins tonight/Friday night?

Don't Share A Bath Towel With Your Parents

So Thursday night I went down to the master bathroom to take a shower.  It had been several days since I washed myself (adhering to strict Chinese/Lunar New Year taboos), and I knew I had to use the one downstairs because I used the one upstairs the last time I showered.

But you add those two things up and you can see how I forget things.  Not, like turning on the faucet, but remembering what I have to bring downstairs from the upstairs (aka my) bathroom.  One of those was bringing in my own towel.  I only realized this, however, once I turned on the water in the shower.  Whoops, too late.

While I didn't bring down my own towel, there were two towels there.  They're my parents', and they left them there when they left for Vegas.  Great, I'll just use them ... except that I don't know whether they washed them before they began wintering out in Nevada.  Now, I use the master bathroom sink to brush my teeth, so when I dry my hands I dried them on those towels.  So sure, I maybe shouldn't complain about using dirty towels.  But there is a difference between using my folks' towels to dry my hands and using them to dry my body -- right?

Regardless, I had no choice.  So I picked one of the two towels and I dried myself with it.  I used it as if it were my own, but all the while I was imagining my parents coming out of the shower doing the same thing.  Ick.  Glad I bought a robe (and I should blog post about the robe I bought very soon); once I got all of the big wetness off my body, I dropped that towel and got into my robe.

So the towel is going to be washed by me soon.  The imagery of my parents using what I had just used ... well, I can't wash that out of my brain no matter how hard I try.

I have a self-imposed rule that my blog posts now (I made this rule up several years ago) have to be at least eight hours apart so that my latest blog post has some shelf life atop the Wailing And Failing homepage.  Well, my last blog post is almost eight hours ago, but I'm tired right now and I don't want to wait the 10-15 minutes before it reaches eight hours, so I'm just going to blog about being meta and then go to bed.

Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year!

It feels as if the older I get, the more I hew to Chinese/Lunar New Year superstitions, as cockamamie they may be.  As I have gathered on the Internet, these are things one is not supposed to do and the time periods in which you cannot do them:

• For the first three days of the Chinese/Lunar New Year: Do not sweep, clean the house, shower or wash your hair
• For the first five days of the Chinese/Lunar New Year: Do not clean the dishes or do the laundry
• For the first 15 days of the Chinese/Lunar New Year: Do not take your car in for maintenance and/or repairs or use sharp objects
• For the first 30 days of the Chinese/Lunar New Year: Do not go to the doctor or dentist

That all seems silly, I know.  But I cleaned out the garbage, did the dishes, showered and trimmed my nails before midnight.  I also avoided meat and instead ate Culver's two-piece walleye dinner, bones and all.  Then again, I just realized that I used a knife to slice open oranges so I could make myself a tequila sunrise that I am drinking right now.  Welp, I guess I just damned myself to a year of bad luck.  Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year!!!

RIP, Fast Food Points

So once in a while I go through all my fast food apps, for which I have a lot.  I need to check on these from time to time.  Sometimes I do it just to look at any new foods or deals they may have.  Sometimes I do it as a way of climbing out of the rabbit hole I dive into while doomscrolling while not being able to pry my eyes away from my cellphone.  And sometimes I check the number of points I have on each application to make sure I haven't lost them.

A couple weeks ago (I think), I got an offer for free food from Chipotle.  Chipotle sends those offers from time to time.  This time around I got, I think, free guacamole.  I haven't had them in a while, so I ordered online and ate the quesadilla there; I went home to eat the chips and guac.  Later that night, I went to the Chipotle app to check that the points were there.  They were, but all the points I accumulated up to that point were gone.  At that point I had to look through all my other applications because I apparently didn't take that good of a look into them.  And I saw that I lost all my points at Popeyes, another fast food place I like.

Bummed, I am.  But I don't think there's anything I can do about them.  Obviously, if my parents scooted on out of here in the late summer/early fall like they usually do, I would have eaten at Chipotle and Popeyes before whatever six-month period or so that made my points expire, but they stuck around till after the New Year, and that is what probably killed off my points.

I have noted in the past (although I may not have discussed this on Wailing And Failing) that fast food chains have differing policies when it comes to when your points expire.  Some places say that you lose your points six months after you get those points.  Other places say that you lose all your points if there has been no activity (and that includes using points as well as accruing them) after a certain period.  I like the former scenario because if you do lapse, you only lose those points.  However, with the latter scenario, as long as you do something with that restaurant, you can keep points even if you earned them more than six months ago.  Of course, the best thing is for those points to never expire, but I don't think any of the applications I have are that generous.

While the permanent loss of what I spent so much to gain is awful, I have to admit there is a certain bit of ... freedom I feel.  Yes, circumstances forced me to fail, so to speak.  But that also means that I no longer feel obligated to go to Chipotle or Popeyes just to keep the points that I have ... er, had.  In fact, even though I like eating at both places, because I am back to zero with both of them, I don't know if I want to go back because I don't want to start getting points again with either place.  I've been scarred by how bad I feel losing them, you see.  Well, I did get points at Chipotle, but that was after I realized I lost all the points I gained before my order.  I might let those points die on the vine.

Maybe the lesson is, eat at every fast food restaurant you have an app for at least once every six months.

Hottest Babe In The Hooters Calendar: October 2025

It's almost the end of November and I haven't had time to research October.  But, even with a quick glance, I find this month to be quite underwhelming.  I might call it The Worst Month In Hooters Calendar History, but that wouldn't be fair because if this is not the first time I perused the month, I don't remember it.

There are only ten girls this month, and I will single out four of them.  The top two are on top based on a technicality I should revisit.  Without further ado:

In fourth place is Anna, out of Grand Prairie, Tex.  Pure blonde whose hair reaches down to her belly button, she is sporting a deep blue two-piece bikini.  Her top hides her small boobs, but I love her posing with her left wrist on top of her head while she is leaning against a wall.  Her bikini bottom is tied up with what looks like 70 feet of string, what with how it's tying up her bikini bottom.  But that hair, man, that hair ...

In third place is Anastasia, hailing from North Arlington, Tex.  She is wearing a pink/salmon one-piece that is cut out on one side, if that makes any sense.  But she has very light and wavy red hair, and I am a sucker for redheads.  Also, she has a beautiful face.

In second place is Fort Worth's Ruby.  She's wearing either a dark green or black (yeah, maybe I'm weird for not being able to distinguish between those two colors) two-piece bikini, and her wavy brown hair reaches her hips.  She's posed with her left side to the camera.  I don't see her ass, but I can see from the angle of her bikini bottom that she is showing ass while wearing that swimsuit -- not a whole lot, but technically, that's nudity, and so I am ranking her above all others (except one).  I am not seeing her ass, though, I'm mostly projecting, so I might have to rethink or make more exceptions to my "ass = #1" rule.

And that rule applies to the Hooters server in first place, The Main Girl, Chyna, out of Fort Lauderdale Beach, Fla.  The reason there are only two women this month is because her photo takes up the top half of the month.  She is lying on her front.  She is wearing a black two-piece dotted with white ... somethings or other.  She has piercing light brown eyes, though.  Also, she too looks as though she is exposing her ass from what little of her bikini bottom I can see by the way she is posed.  Moreover, I can say with confidence that she is more ass, and that is why she gets the top spot.

Like I said, I might have to revise my rule so that I need to see a Hooters woman's ass in the picture before I elevate her above everyone else.  Till then, congratulations to Chyna and to the other three women.  I ... might have the time to beat off to y'all, but if I do, it won't be any time soon.  Sorry!

Expenses Without Receipts

Starting from Labor Day, also known as Monday, September 1:

• We start at Sunday, August 31, which was my last of four days at The Minnesota State Fair.  I noticed that did not get too many of the new foods because, like I said in a previous blog post, there wasn't a consensus new food (well, besides the soft serve beer, which may not be a food) that I would wait for hours to try.  (And by the way, the lines to the soft serve beer were non-existent.  It was hyped all over the place, as I did in that same previous blog post, but did it make enough money that justified a return on investment?)  There was that ube lumpia that I waited in line for, but it was getting late and the line didn't seem to move, so I bailed.  What I did get were the Maple Cream Nitro Cold Press Coffee from the Farmers Union; Granny's Green Apple Sucker Ice Cream; the new Aegean Dream beer from Dino's; a Cider Freeze, that iced apple juice in a plastic tube considered to be the cheapest Fair food you can find for many, many years; a corn dog (not a pronto pup, a corn dog, and it's the first time I've ever had a corn dog, I think); and an Aloha Pineapple Haze that was being sold only from the eating establishments inside the Warner Coliseum.  All told, I spent: $40.50.
• And Father paid me for getting Powerball tickets for him.  It's an Infusion of: $10.
• Saturday the 30th was the start of my alma mater's football season, and I'm glad they kicked ass.  This place upcharges for credit cards, and since the State Fair was replete with vendors that also did that, plus the Powerball being where it is right now, and I have used cash like I haven't since before the pandemic.  And this is a good thing because I should want to avoid giving away money if I don't have to, right?  With tip I paid: $32.
• Friday the 29th was my third trip to the Fair.  Had the yuzu meringue Croffle Cloud; the Bama! Lemon Sweet Tea mocktail; the Cherry Bigfoot Limeade Float from Tasti-Whip; the newest apple creation from the University of Minnesota, the First Kiss; a Bee-Nana Pie, one of the stalwarts of last year's rookie class of new foods; and the second time I had that Soft Serve Royal Raspberry Beer from West End Brews.  Total: $54.
• Tuesday, August 26 -- Father, paying me back for Powerball tickets, an Infusion of: $10.
• And I went to my game-watching bar to make sure everything was set for Saturday.  With tip I shelled out: $15.
• Monday the 25th: Father paid me back for Powerball, but I'm sure he didn't exactly pay me back on this date; I just put it here because I used cash on this day and I have a rule that if you are using one form of currency to pay for something, you need to use it again so it won't be lonely.  Anyway, this is an Infusion of: $50.
• To Sunday, August 24 ... I spent the evening going to Palmer's Bar, presumably for the last time, so I could see Cornbread Harris play as part of his longstanding Sunday night residency.  It'll end after three more Sundays because one of the owners stole from the century-old bar to pay for his drug addiction, and the other owners could not make up for that deficit, so they sold them the bar and, I assume, the land beneath it.  Fucking shame.  I tried to see Cornbread Harris play, but instead of the riser at the back of the bar, he just played on the floor at the front.  That meant there was a sea of people just standing in front of me, basically blocking my view of Mr. Harris for the whole two hours.  I was able to fight toward the band as other groups, who were talking to each other and not really there to see Cornbread, backed off.  But I got the feeling that in such a busy environment, everyone had the right to get close to the music as possible, so I cycled myself away, grabbed a second beer, sat outside and just drank through the end of the first set, intermission, and the beginning of the second set.  Not quite what I expected when my friend said we should go (she didn't join me), but I'm glad to have heard Mr. Harris and to be in that Minneapolis institution one final time.  Minneapolis Cider plus tip, tips for the band, and a mild polish sausage from a cart vendor who was just outside Palmer's: $17.
• Oh, before I took the light rail to Palmer's I dove into this, er, really clean downtown bodega called the Players Club.  I got Powerball tickets there totalling: $12.
• On Saturday the 23rd I went to The Great Minnesota Get-Together for the second time, primarily to see the Grandstand concert which was Atmosphere & Friends.  I wish I got the Somali Street Fries, but I had no idea at the time that the reviews would be nearly unanimous in their praise for it.  But I did go out on a limb and purchased the Sweet Squeakers (as well as a trusty small blueberry basil lemonade) from the Blue Barn; a frozen Blu from West End Brews (which I think is just LuLu's); and a Cherry Bigfoot Limeade Float.  Total damage: $44.75
• Thursday, August 21 ... went to the opening day (actually evening) of the State Fair since I got out of work at a decent hour to put in a properly long visit.  I usually go during the first day to knock off the mainstays I want to eat; my plan, even though I didn't really follow it this year, was to devote other visits to the new foods.  So, I got a pina colada from Manny's Tortas; the cheese curds from Mouth Trap; a honey lemonade (with tip) from the honey exhibit in the Agriculture-Horticulture Building; fried pickles; that soft-serve beer for the first time; a Minnecookiedough Pie; and a lychee colada from Union Hmong Kitchen at which I believe I got fucked out of six cents due to a combination of the owner not differentiating between cash and charge prices, the owner not getting dimes or nickels or pennies for change, and a really, really shitty cashier.  They had a new food for the Fair, but I stayed the hell away from them because I was upset.  Anyway, I notice that I usually get my fill of Fair food and drink once I cross the $50 threshold.  On this first day, I blew way, way past that: $72.75.
• To Wednesday the 20th, where I had the day off and spent the afternoon going to get my car washed.  I charged the wash, so I used cash for the tip: $5.
• I then got a shave from the learning school close by.  With tip: $14.
• Father paid me back for Powerball tickets, but I doubt he paid me back on this exact date.  An Infusion of: $20.
• On Tuesday, August 19 I fucked ***i*.  And thank Buddha inflation hasn't hit with her: $120.
• Monday the 18th ... I needed money to buy lottery tickets, so I stopped by the bank to get money.  I then walked over to Caribou to get a small mocha with oak milk, and I thought I might as well pay with cash instead of through the app.  I was shocked at how pricey it was.  Well, mochas these days are expensive, but I thought that oat milk for me was going to be free.  Turns out oat milk is free only if purchasing through the application; otherwise, it's a buck extra.  Well, shit, good to know.  But at least I got the trivia question right.  With tip: $7.03.
• Went to Hooters after work to use a calendar coupon.  Hooters also upcharges if you use your credit card, so I now primarily pay with moolah when at Hooters.  With tip: $32.
• Saturday, August 16 -- after watching the MNUFC Match I moseyed on over to the Midway Saloon.  I had a ton of beer that day, but I was thirsty, so I just bought a Coke.  With tip: $5.50.
• Father paid me back for Powerball tix, but I'm sure he didn't pay me back on this exact day.  Still, an Infusion of: $20.
• To Tuesday the 12th, where I went to my alumni game-watching bar to make sure 1) the bar was still standing and 2) that they would still welcome us.  With tip: $14.
• Father paid me back for Powerball tix, but I'm sure he didn't pay me back on this exact day.  Still, an Infusion of: $20.
• On Monday, August 11 I wanted to go to the Heights Theater to see Waiting For Guffman, which I have heard many great things about.  It's OK; it has those quotable lines ("I hate you, and your ass face!"), but otherwise it has that cringe mockumentary approach that I find somewhat condescending.  Paid money for the ticket, a small pop and popcorn, and tips for concessions and the organ player: $30.
• Back to Saturday, July 26 ... Palmfest was at Palmer's Bar.  It's a weekend-long festival of local bands just, you know, playing, which was Palmer's total reason to exist, and that reason was mover than enough.  Cover, an orange Jameson slushie, a Fulton 300, and tips for those two drinks came out to: $29.
• Wednesday the 23rd: Went to A Bar Of Their Own to watch a Women's EURO Semifinal.  It was raining cats and dogs out there, damn.  With tip I paid: $28.
• Father paid me back for Powerball tickets, and then some.  I think he paid me on this exact date.  An Infusion of: $20.
• Monday the 21st was the last week where **y said she could accommodate my, uh, carnal needs because her daughter was in class.  I hadn't been serviced by her in a long, long time.  Partly it was because of the distance, partly because she had people staying with her for an extended period.  But it was worth the wait because, like I said when I (kind of) blog posted about her, she bit my pee-pee.  Goddamn, that was glorious!  Total: $150.
• **y and I talked for a little bit, to catch up on old times.  She only went topless, but she put her bra and shirt on while I was laying on her daughter's bad, completely naked with my legs open.  But I had to leave, unfortunately.  Not only did she need to pick up her daughter, I had to go meet a friend who was only going to be in town until the next afternoon.  So I had to drive all the way from the south metro to the north to pick her up and decide to have a quick beer at this place I have never been to that's kind of close to where we both live.  She used her credit card for the both of us, so I paid her back for the drink and soup I got: $23.
• Finally, back on Saturday, July 19, after an alumni function, I made my (now annual) tradition of going to Tongue In Cheek to eat.  I was going to go for the steak, but because the guy sitting next to me did, I opted, for the second year in a row, for the ramen.  I think I was there a long time because I remember intently scrolling through my phone.  Anyway, with tip I paid a very, very expensive: $76.

And once again I say to myself I have to do these more often.  Good through September 1.

Both My Fucking Parents warned me to never sleep in this new bed without showering first.

I got home, I watched TV, and I fell asleep, in this new bed, without showering first.  I thought about it; I went to work and to watch my alma mater at a bar last night.  But I was tired.  And that is more important than fucking showering.

So fuck them, goddammit.

Soccer Rules My Spare Time

This USWNT Match this/Saturday afternoon, by the way, is the fourth consecutive Saturday I will spend at Allianz Field.  The first three Saturdays were for United FC for Major League Soccer Games, and you can add a Wednesday Match I saw the Loons in for the U. S. Open Cup.  That's a lot of Games to see.  If you love it it doesn't feel like a chore, but I have to admit it's starting to get to me a bit.  I don't see how season ticket holders for baseball, basketball and hockey teams do it.

With work being such a bear these days, weekends are my only me time.  There are things I want to do, such as go through my stuff.  But (and sure, this might be just an excuse), when I have somewhere I have to go, my entire day revolves around that, to the point where anything substantial I need to do I rarely do.  What I do instead is, well, take a nap ... which I will do after I blog post this.  I might have time to juice a lemon for the cocktail I want to have after I come home, but that's all I'm doing besides the Match.

I still love soccer, and I still love MNUFC.  I might even go to a MNUFC2 Match or two now that I went to my first one a couple weeks ago.  But doing all this is a commitment, and I didn't think I would be such a soccer rube -- especially since I don't understand many and flat out don't like a few of their rules.  And in the meantime, it takes up a lot of my free time.  Oh, well.

May Have Crossed A (Time) Line I Shouldn''t Have Crossed At Work

This has never been spelled out as official or even common policy, but from what I have been told in the (way) past and from what I have been able to get away with, whenever there is work to be done that needs to be done but can't be done within your usual eight-hour work shift, you can stay up to two hours, or (duh) ten hours.  Because work in The Third Department has been kicking my ass ever since the holidays, I've done ten hours frequently.  Lately, the work hasn't been done within ten hours, so I've left it for the next day and, sometimes, for the person doing in position for me.

Regardless, for many, many years now, I have held that ten-hour overtime standard as sacrosanct, a sort of demilitarized zone.  Not that I've never crossed it; I think I have pulled in way more than ten hours on a couple occasions, although those were under extremely unforeseen circumstances, and I may have clocked out a minute after ten hours once or twice.  But it's pretty much a no-go, a line you don't you don't come back from.  Since the New Year, even if the work has been overwhelming, I have swallowed my pride, resigned myself that I couldn't accomplish all that I wanted to accomplish, and packed up and left at exactly ten hours.

Till yesterday/Friday.  There were tests I needed to prepare.  A lot of them, and that has been a major contributing factor to me staying late whenever I'm in The Third Department.  I have been trying my best to get through them quicker, but I have been making very little progress.  I remember that on Thursday, there was a test that had me so confused that I needed to talk to someone three times to figure out what to do.  I want to say that I spent at least 45 minutes on it, but it could have been an hour.  That was incredibly frustrating, and typical of my problems in trying to get through these tests.  Now add that lately there's been at least half a dozen of them every day I work in The Third Department and that they come in during the afternoon, and you can see how that pushes my day past eight hours.

That happened yesterday/Friday.  However, the tests that I prepared this time around actually were easy, at least easier compared to the ones I usually encounter.  I got through them faster than I usually do.  And that, to be honest, kind of gave me a rush.  It made me feel as though I finally "got it," that I in fact have "mastered" how to do them.

And then I remembered that I have all these other things that should be done before I leave for the day, and that I have, oh, less than an hour to do them.  I still felt good, however; those half dozen or so tests I thought would have consumed the rest of my ten hours, and there would have been a lot of hell to pay by my supervisor and boss for not getting to the other tasks they say should be done.  But I had time yesterday/Friday, and so I delved into that work ... and then my ten hours were getting close to being up, and I wasn't quite finished.  And then I saw a mistake that I needed to fax out again and, after deciding that fax could be done by my co-worker tomorrow, I changed my mind and thought it best I do it -- knowing that would probably push me past ten hours.

And it did.  I clocked out ten hours and ten minutes after work began.  Now, you may say what's the big deal, it's just ten minutes.  Like I have blog posted before, neither of my superiors have lately took me to task for staying an extra couple hours.  Heck, before she left work yesterday/Friday, my supervisor said I shouldn't go past ten hours.  However, I can see, from their vantage point, me staying an extra ten minutes is, to put it in a way, overtime creep.  I should tell you that on Monday, I overstayed my lunch break by ten minutes because I didn't set the alarm on my phone correctly and overslept.  The policy at that point is to stay as long as you overstayed your lunch break.  Well, I did that and worked ten hours total and still clocked out a few minutes later than that because I needed to tie up loose ends.  My supervisor and boss will know that I did that Monday, stayed a few minutes further than that yesterday/Friday, and start to question how long I am staying for OT, and why.

This all could change, and soon.  Next week everyone one of us are supposed to have a meeting about The Third Department, with a goal of getting enough of the work done each day so that no one is taking overtime.  I don't see how that is possible without a second person working in The Third Department at least half the day, but that is my boss' goal.  Maybe what I did this week is a sign to him that changes to this department can't come soon enough.  And maybe this will accelerate scrutiny of my work day and work processes.  Which would suck because, all the stress this job is putting me through aside, I do love making OT money.  I checked my bank account and saw that my latest paycheck is significantly bigger than the one before it.  Will this money train stop?

Pressure At Work --> Eating (Out Of Order) At Home

So I just ate a slice of turkey and colby jack cheese even though I ate a cookie and part of a brownie a couple hours before then.  I have a rule whereby if I have dessert, I eat no other food that night.  Dessert is the last thing you eat, so you don't eat anything else after that, right?

Well, I did, partly because I realized I bought more food than I can finish before my parents come home, and partly because work is still stressing me the fuck out.  I am absolutely convinced now that The Third Department is a two-person department, and firing one and letting the other retire without filling her position full-time has become a mistake because I worked back there, by myself, for another ten hours yesterday/Thursday and, once again, I still did not get everything done.  In fact, I think I left more work (for myself; I'm there again today/Friday) than I have ever before.  It's a combination of heavy work that came in late and one particular test that I swear took 45 minutes and talking to four other people, one of them three times, to finally figure out.  Tedious problems like that take time, and frankly, I don't have a lot working in The Third Department to spare.

What makes this day worse is I kind of told my boss about the workload I was facing.  He was about to leave, and as he normally does, he asks all of us how we're doing.  My thinking was there was no hiding or sugarcoating all the work that was still coming in.  I think he knows this and is at least tolerant about this; otherwise, he would be on my case for working overtime so often.  The problem this time around is that he asked me, semi-point blank, "How late (do you think you're staying)?"  I hesitated; part of me was really frustrated throughout the whole day (seriously, one comment that I decided to take wrong and I would have exploded -- that's how bad my day turned out to be) and wanted to let him know that, the other part wanted to keep my head down because my cover would have been blown, in a way, and then I would lose all the OT holding in all this frustration is for.  Luckily (?), my co-worker immediately asked him a question and he gave her his attention, and once he answered her, he left for the day.

I am afraid, then, that he will remember that he asked me how long I was staying yesterday/Thursday when he reviews my timesheet.  He then might start to impose time restrictions for me to prevent me from taking any more overtime.  That day is coming anyway, but like I said, I am holding my temper in just because of all the OT I'm racking up, so I want to do (or not do) all I can to not jeopardize the gravy train before I have to get off.  At the very least I am going to receive more scrutiny from my supervisor -- I will come in in the morning and she'll say, "Do this and I'll do that," and I don't how I will feel from such a direct order.  Maybe I'll be relieved to finally have some direction.  Or, maybe this is the start of being reined in to just eight hours of work per day.

So that's what awaits me today/Friday.  At least I will face it with a full stomach, even though I ate stuff after dessert

Making The Pieces Fit

First of all, in an addendum to my previous blog post, I am going to compromise and come in at 7.  I really don't want to report to work at 6:30, but since my call time tomorrow/Tuesday and Wednesday is 7, I guess I wake up at 6 for a third straight day.

Assuming I am not explicitly allowed to stay for more than ten hours -- and I don't know if I would want to anyway -- I am leaving at 5:30.  That gives me plenty of time to go downtown for a massage I think I want to get before my parents come home.  Through much of yesterday/Sunday, I was trying to see if I should get a massage tonight/Monday night or next week.  It is one of half a dozen things (I wrote it down in my day planner) that I want to do before they come home.  I want to do three of them this week and three next, just so I have plenty of down time/quiet nights at home/nights where I can begin throwing my stuff back into boxes to put them back in storage.

Which things to do and when has become like solving a puzzle.  There are a lot of restrictions I have place on myself because of my OCD.  For example, beyond the 3-and-3 thing, I had a rule where I won't go downtown more than once a workweek.  That's been thrown out the window because there's a chance that I will be going to the Timberwolves Game next week.  If that's the case, and I still want to get a massage, I'll have to go downtown twice this week because I'm going to a concert at First Ave. on Thursday.  Oh, I should go back ... I could have gotten a massage from a place closer to home, but there is no female masseuses working Monday evenings, at least not apparently.  And I can't fit in a massage any day the next two weeks other than Mondays, so even though this place downtown is more expensive, I think my body is worth it, so I'm getting one tonight/Monday night.

Oh, another thing ... there might be a stripper awards party -- yeah, I know, right? -- next Monday night I will go to.  One of my ATFs, *****a, is one of the organizers, and I would like to see her.  But you have to dress up, and the ticket is kind of expensive, so I don't know if I want to go.  If I don't, I will eat at a fancy place downtown -- which is one of the half-dozen things I want to do before my parents come back home.  So you see how I'm trying to make all these things fit, and how it could drive one crazy?

Oh, one final thing -- I have to go to bed now.

Hottest Babe In The Hooters Calendar: January 2025

Another year, another 12 editions evaluating the waitresses of Hooters.  It grounds me.

The month grew on me as I continued to look at the women posing.  Of the dozen in the month, I can actually pick out seven that catch my eye and do other things to other parts of my body.  In ascending order:

In seventh place is Angeleah, out of Springfield, Mo.  Long-ish blonde hair with dark roots, she sports a black two-piece bikini.  I like that she's posing her nice and tight body straight at the camera and that she's hitching up the sides of her bikini bottom.  I don't understand her grimace, but, oh well.

In sixth place is Savannah, hailing from Aurora, Colo.  Long red or brown hair, her two-piece is vertically striped in the colors of the rainbow.  Not a fan of her left arm swung in front of her stomach.  But rare is the Hooters server with skin as alabaster as hers.

In fifth place -- and just to warn you, the hotties between fifth and second I've just changed, they're so close -- is The Main Girl, Sarah, of Sarasota, Fla.  Brunette is wearing a Hooters-branded two-piece bikini.  Her eyes are narrowed, so either they're bewitching or sleepy, whatever you think.  What makes this picture, though, is the swimsuit, in particular the top, which is kept together with strings laced together like a shoe.  Very interesting.

In fourth place is Kyelie, out of Mesa, Ariz.  Hey, she's the classic big-booted Hooters blonde, and she's wearing a crocheted light-pink two-piece.  Her tanned body is erection-inducing, and she's pulling on the strings of several bikini tops and bottoms hanging as if they're drying in the sun, which gives me unfounded thoughts of her switching from those to what she's wearing now.  The only problem is that she's posing off to her side.  Still great, though.

In third place is Jazzlyn, hailing from Pelham, Ala.  Long, black hair, she is sporting a shimmering gray two-piece bikini.  Again, I'm not a fan of arms in front of stomachs, but in her case, she's pulling down the string between the two triangular parts of her bikini top, as if (wink, wink) she's about to pull her top off.  Also, she's got piercing, pale blue eyes.  I could drown in them and die happy.

In second place is Nashville's Kendall.  Long, dark blonde/light brown hair, gold two-piece.  She's not completely facing forward, but she's facing enough forward, and the more I look at her photograph, the more I'm stunned by her awesome, curvy fucking body.  She's got that strong slit down her front and everything!

Finally, in first place is Ryan, of King of Prussia, Pa.  This babe with the long raven-hair (which goes down to the middle of her back) wears a navy two-piece bikini bordered in white.  She is posed completely to the side, but that gives us a good look at her ass, namely that her bikini bottom is slight enough to expose, I'd say, half of her butt, and so this goes under the rule that any Hooters waitress showing off her ass automatically gets the top spot.  Also, as an added bonus, from this angle I can see she has pretty nice-sized tits.

So congratulations to Ryan, and to all the waitresses of January 2025.  I have already touched myself to all of them Saturday morning, but I might just touch myself to them again!

Happy New Year!

So I'm getting really superstitious -- maybe you can call me radicalized -- when it comes to heeding and obeying do's and don'ts for the Chinese/Lunar New Year.  I'm not showering or cleaning anything, and I hope I never run into a situation where I need to use sharp objects.  In fact, I woke up at 11 and have done literally nothing.  Maybe I should continue to do that.

Well, I have a research study I'm going to in the early evening, so I will be doing something.  I think going out and undergoing a taste test is allowed for Lunar/Chinese New Year.  Also, I didn't see anything about not spending money on this day, so I just hit up one of my stripper girlfriends on a booty call.  I didn't think I would have anyone cum over, but I'm bored as all get out.  But she just texted me that she's going out to work.  I didn't know she found a job.  I plan on using my free item from the Taco Bell app after the taste test, so I will be spending money then.  And actually, I just subscribed to two models on OnlyFans for a month, so I already did spend money on this New Year.  OK, never mind.

I should at least go through my stuff, setting aside (and not throwing away) any papers I no longer need.  But I will take a nap first ... even though you're not supposed to because taking an afternoon nap because that means you'll be lazy all year.  I actually don't have a problem with that!

I Should Survive The Subway Sub, Right?

OK, so I got a footlong from Subway and ate half of it before going into work.  I stashed that other half at the work fridge and remembered to take it with me when I got done, which is something I was afraid I would forget to do.  What I did forget was bringing it from the car to the refrigerator at home once I got home.  Instead, it stayed lain on the passenger-side mat until I realized it wasn't in the fridge when I checked yesterday/Sunday morning.

So the government says (until last Monday, but hey, scientists thought it's a rule, so I'll follow it) that you shouldn't allow unstable food at room temperature for more than two hours (and one hour if it's really hot outside).  Well, I think it was barely above freezing when I got home, and it dipped well below freezing overnight, so that would arrest any bacteria that would've formed in the sandwich, right?  Sure, I drove the car to The Current's concert at First Avenue on Saturday night and I put the heat on, but that was only 45 both there and back at most, and besides, it had to have been much colder down on the mat, right?

Just ate the rest.  I noticed as I bit in there was a bit of ... iciness in it.  I looked and saw that a bit of frost formed on the lettuce.  So the sandwich did freeze overnight in the car.  I was hoping 13 hours of it being in the fridge, which is set at 37 degrees, would "warm" it up to where there wouldn't be any ice, but guess not.  I know from previous bad experiences that my gut and excretory system do not like cold items in general, so I now not only have to worry about eating this sandwich that might have been too hot, but also eating this sandwich that might have been too cold.  And I'm doing this before a workweek.  Great.

Choosing Not To See LeBron

This has crossed my mind whenever The Bastard Minneapolis Lakers come to town: This might be the last time I see LeBron James play.  I remember it was either the first or second Year he was in the NBA, and I got a Timberwolves ticket just to see him play.  He was the obvious focal point of the team, and he showed flashes of athleticism, but nothing that made me say, Wow, this guy is the second coming.

Didn't know at the time he would become LeBron James, and now he is The Greatest Basketball Player Of Our Generation.  But I don't know when he's going to quit.  He's still going strong, which is fast becoming one of his best-ever attributes.  Still, as a basketball aficionado, I should want to see him before he retires.  We just don't know when that is.  I don't know if James knows when that is.  I just know that for at least the past two seasons and possibly more, I thought that I should buy a ticket, just in case.

Unfortunately, that realization only comes when I do The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey and realize The Team That Was Stolen From Us v.1.0. is coming, and by the time I think what I'm doing the night of the Game, I realize, or decide, I can't go.  Like this Week, and today; they're in town to play the Timberwolves.  I actually do have the time.  In fact, I could decide to not go exercise, which is the plan, buy the ticket on a scalper site, and leave for downtown, right now.  But ... well, I haven't exercised in a while, I need to go to my storage space to start bringing things back home and ... shit, I'm using my OCD as excuses not to go, namely that I went to a Timberwolves Game last Week (and saw them lose), and I'm paying cash for everything today and buying a ticket means going online and using a credit card, and I don't want to do that.  So, for all those reasons -- nearly all relatively superficial -- I'm not going.

But that's the gamble, isn't it?  LeBron James keeps playing, and he's showing no signs of slowing down.  But one of these days he's retiring, and depending on how he announces it, the prices for his Last Dance will go through the roof.  It was one of the reasons I decided not to see Lakers Games in the past, and yet tonight's Game is as cheap for that team as I've ever seen it.  Still, I'm not going tonight, and I'm hoping he doesn't say he's quitting the sport next year.  And even if he doesn't, I wonder if I'll finally take the time and prepare to see him, probably for the last time, next season, and not push it off and hope he'll still be playing.

When All The Time In The World Turned Into No Time At All

Had it all planned out yesterday/Thursday afternoon.  After I got my COVID shot, I would go to the drive-thru at Jimmy John's, pick up the sandwich I ordered through the application on Tuesday, drive to work and, until I had to punch in, rest in my car and, maybe, nap.  My shot was for 11:30, and I didn't have to report until 12:30, so maybe I was giving myself too much time, but I thought I would be OK.

Well, man, things got fucked up.  The drive-thru was backed up.  And then I saw a note on the speaker that said it was out, so everyone who ordered had to order at the window.  How long does it take to get a sub you order at the drive-thru window?  I didn't really think about that question.  Instead, I waited.  I waited for about 25 minutes at the drive-thru.

What I should have done I didn't even think of until I finally got up to the window and said to the guy that I ordered and paid for a sandwich -- and saw my sandwich, leaning up against the window.  I had a fleeting thought through my head as I was waiting in line that my sub was already done; I just needed to pick it up.  Well, why in the hell didn't I just park, go in to the store, and ask for it?  I designated my order as a drive-thru, but really, I could've just went in there and told them I didn't want to wait.  They would've gone to the drive-thru window, grabbed that sub (which I think was done at around 11: 15, according to the receipt, so more than an hour before I got it), and I could have been well on my way.

So, why didn't I?  And this is when I get so critical of myself.  I just wanted to shut my brain off, I guess.  It was just very, very easy to wait in my running car for as long as need be.  Also, I queued up at around 12:05.  Again, I don't know how long it takes for a sub to be made, especially one where you order at the window because the speaker doesn't work, so the other workers don't have advance time to make it before you get up to the window and pay.  But I thought I had time.  And by the time I realized it was going to take a long, long time, and I was running out of time to get to work, well, there were cars behind me and I was stuck in the drive-thru lane.  They should make sure drive-thru lanes are two lanes long so you can bypass, for whatever reason.  By the way, I was five minutes late.  Could've been worse, but it obviously it could've been better.

Maybe there are extenuating circumstances.  I really do think that if the speaker box was working, that would've meant enough lead time for the cars ahead of me to get their sandwiches and leave faster.  Also, it was lunchtime, so maybe I should've known that there would be a long line.  But I'm figuratively kicking myself for not realizing and/or not thinking that I could have spared myself a lot of time and drained energy if I just changed my thought process.

Then again, I have had cases where it took longer for me to go in and order than it was to just drive through.  Maybe I need to set some routines in my head so I don't need to use much brain power but use enough of it to help me.  If I can order, and if it can be made, in advance (and I already paid through my mobile app), it would then be better for me to park my car and go in.  If not all of those conditions are met, there is no great advantage gained than if I go through the drive-thru.  Maybe that's a hard and fast rule I should put into long-term memory.  Of course, I don't think I'll be working 12:30-9 for a long time, if ever, so maybe I won't have to set this thought process in mental stone.

I'm just pissed that this happened.

I Want To Just Lie In My Bed All Day

Have to admit that my anxiety is getting the better of me now.  It's the car, and then this thing with this guy I know after we mixed it up about Trump.  But work is getting very precarious right now.

Yesterday/Monday morning the first thing everybody in the back room was talking about was our new attendance policy.  It's tightening up.  I don't really know how it's going to affect me, but the cushion for being late is just about gone, especially if something comes up and you don't call in well, well ahead of time.  One of my co-workers just had a baby, and she has had to call in "sick" because her son was.  Under these new rules, she figures that if she does that a few more times, she's fired.

I may adjust like I always do.  But things are different, much different, than when I started there.  The other three people in the back yesterday morning have been at this company longer than I have, and they were reminiscing about how fun it once was to come to work.  It's not fun anymore to work there.  If it's not the rules and policies getting more draconian, it's (at least for me) the lack of work that makes me wonder how long am I going to be there.  One of my other co-workers has noticed the drying up of work and the shrinking workforce going along with it.  And by the way, there were only four of us back there.  There were days not too long ago when there were seven, eight people back there, and we all had work to do.  And I think we got through all the work we had, just the four of us, yesterday.

I started to really, really look for other jobs tonight.  It may have been this new attendance policy or the talk amongst us about the company's future, but I very, very scared that they are going to leave the area -- or, at the very least, my boss will use my Internet surfing to fire me, maybe as soon as tomorrow.  Happened to my other co-worker, bless his soul.  Right now, with the way work is (or actually is not), I think the company will get along just fine without me.

And with the lack of work comes the lack of money.  I've seen my bills and I've seen my checking account; dammit, it's as low as it's ever been.  And with a potentially huge car repair bill coming up -- I am trying to bring it this week and not next -- I am getting tired of spending money.  It's no fun seeing my funds dry up because I'm eating out.  So that's another reason I just want to stay not just home but in my bed.  Won't spend money lying in bed.  Don't have to worry about my job or losing my job.  Don't have to worry about the car making funny noises while I drive it.  Don't have to worry about this dude potentially coming to my house to kill me, or getting me cancelled by my current employer (my goodness, he could do that, couldn't he?).  Nope, it's just me, having shelter and safety and sleep ... and maybe not worrying about my parents one day dying.

People Not Obeying The Rules Of The Roundabout/Circular

So at the best and closest Target near me (there is one that might be closer to me, but they still don't have self-checkout, and it's a slow clusterfuck, at least the last time I went there, so I avoid it), they reconstructed the street outside it to add a modified roundabout/circular.  It's hard to describe how it's modified, but most of the traffic on this true two-way out of Target is shunted to the right, so if you want to go left, you have to basically make a U-turn through the roundabout/circular, like I did just now.

Once you're in the roundabout/circular, you keep moving until you get to your exit.  That means that if you reach the roundabout/circular, you need to yield until there's space to enter it.  I have now seen assholes not obey that rule twice.  Second time happened just now; I think a White chick in a white car went right into it behind a car that did yield, like they had a green light.  She was immediately taking a right right out of the roundabout/circular, so I honked her ass as I moved past her.  The first time happened some time ago; the guy in the old white sedan, who also went in right behind someone who obeyed the rules, had a bumper sticker that said either "It's a Plandemic!" or "It's a Scamdemic!"  Hate my decision, but I decided not to honk at the Republican psycho.

Look, it's a narrow residential street.  But because there's a Target there, the traffic before this reconstruction was a shitshow.  This roundabout/circular is needed.  Now, reactionary bitches are rebelling by not following directions.  Goddammit, I almost got into an accident, especially just now.  That better fucking not happen to me.

Why Did I Look?

What I usually do during the Timberwolves' recent run is do my damndest not to check the score until I absolutely have to.  That means I usually don't get on my phone so I absolutely avoid Twitter/X and Yahoo! Sports and Apple News.  It's been a very effective way to get off my cellphone.  I don't know if the rash of naps I've taken in the evening coincides with my "rule."

I try my best to avoid the score when I turn on the radio on my way to work.  I wait until I hear the montage by Brandon Mileskie, the producer of The Common Man Progrum on KFAN at high noon the next day.  It feels like an easy way to ease into knowing the score, especially if it's bad.

For Game 1 of The Western Conference Finals, however, I did something different -- stupidly.  First thing yesterday/Wednesday morning I looked at The Athletic.  I did so because I thought I had just heard good news.  I didn't hear the score, and I didn't hear something like, "The Timberwolves won!"  But I heard enough good news that I thought they had won, so I went on the app anticipating good news.  And unfortunately there wasn't any; they lost, 108-105.

And yes, this brings up how I heard good news when I just woke up.  I guess I imagined this good news, or I was still on a high of the Wolves going into Denver and defeating the Nuggets in Game 7 of the previous series, or maybe both.  And I admit that the score on The Athletic application had to load up, and in the half-second it was I realized what was going on and so the pessimistic side of me kicked in and I told myself, "Welp, hope the news is good."  And it wasn't.

Man, why did I look?