Maura's Illuminated Manuscript

I went to the Blue Moon for some house music and got mid-20th century Christmas music & jazz instead. Yes, I like jazz and yes, Brit was running things, and yes, the local house heads started to show up shortly before I left around 2000. And why would I leave so early?

Because I got paged for work. I'm on call into the new year. I did manage to get home in half an hour, handle the stupid* situation, do stuff that I hope will make a recurrence less likely, and go to bed late.

Mayunn, I feel like I deserve a Christmas break at this point.

Oh: I stopped by Scarecrow Video for the first time in over fifteen years to rent "Sinners" on DVD. I now have an account there under my current name. What took me so long?



*Stupid because our service uses an vintage 2010 open source queueing system that sometimes makes jobs just disappear. Or get stuck. The fix has so far taken nine calendar months of one or two developers' efforts on average. The worst of it should get fixed early next month, and the whole thing should be done by spring. Le sigh.

Bummer #1: I woke up at 0310 and couldn't get back to sleep.

Bummer #2: I broke something at work, and I wasn't around to fix it because I was at the dentist.

Bummer #3: The Halloween party that I wanted to go to so badly has been cancelled due to the hosts' need to recover from COVID.

But! I have backup and other plans for this week, next week, and the week after that. So take that, bummers!

It keeps raining in the morning just heavily enough to keep me from riding my bike.

Two things are driving me meshuggah lately: the company that runs the world's favorite search engine, and the SSO that I have to use. The latter explains why I'm writing an entry in the early afternoon.

But! I have plans to see Tacoma Girl, Dancer, and the Tickler over the next couple of weekends. Happiness.

Circumflatulation continues. No, I won't elaborate.

Nightmares and anxiety dreams are messing with my sleep. On call is... never a dull moment. I'm so looking forward to tomorrow night with Dancer at the Catwalk reunion. And no, it won't be NC-17. Or at least if it is, I'll be surprised and delighted.

I made my first ever meatloaf on Tuesday, using the recipe from How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. It was pretty good, but I think my oven runs cool. That'll just give me an excuse to make it again until I get it right. The Wendling is OK with it, which is important.

T and I took two buses each way for the long trip to Equinox Studios. Yes, it's the same place I went with Dancer last month, but this time there were food trucks and bands.

Why something special ("Very Open House") in December? I've just answered my own question: many of the artists were selling at least a few Christmas-themed goodies. I wasn't there for holiday shopping, though; I was mainly there to hang out with T.

Speaking of T, she seems to be doing pretty well with dating. That's because she's working the apps but, as I told her on the southbound 132, every time I think about going back to the apps I also think, 'Do I have to?' She agrees that maybe now is not the time for me to do that.

But! T & I had a good time. We battled the crowds through the twisty maze that is Equinox to explore as thoroughly as we could manage. There were several times when I wished I had budget to buy and space to display things I saw there; I did collect a couple of business cards. There were eats from food trucks. And I believe that was the Chaotic Noise marching band that we heard, and they don't suck. Neither did any of the other bands I heard.

The weather, however, did suck at times. It's Seattle in December; waddaya want? Luckily, I was ready with The Coat, which garnered all the compliments, and my beat-up umbrella.

I had wanted to go to the Mercury afterward to see some rarely-appearing old friends, but by the time we got back to my house on the bus and I finished with on-call nonsense, it was 2245. I stayed home with my FOMO.

But! Yes, Equinox! Highly recommended for a friend date or a date date.

I feel as if I've had an unusually virtuous weekend what with all the mass transit and not much alcohol. I hereby resolve to be a party nun for the rest of the month. And boy howdy, will there be opportunities for that:

1. The latex gang is going out for drinks on both the 19th and the 26th.
2. A date with Dancer on the 20th.
3. I have a ticket to the mini-Cascadia festival right here in my neighborhood on the 21st.
4. There's also a fetish event the 21st, but I had to skip it.
5. B invited me to the Blue Moon on Christmas Eve. I may have to go just out of curiosity.
6. The night of the 25th is always off the hook at the Mercury.
7. I have... plans on the 28th. Ahem.
8. The Wildrose's 40th anniversary is the 30th.
9. The Tickler is coming up to go to the Keith Haring show with me on the 31st, followed by New Year's Eve at the Monkey Loft.
10. The annual gathering on New Year's Day at chez C.
11. The women's munch at the Wildrose is on the 2nd.

Madness!

Yay: I didn't expect it, but Dancer wants a hot date on Saturday night. Oh, hell yes. And if I'm sore the next morning, it won't be from lifting heavy objects. Ahem.

Bah: Do you know what's worse than "Hurry up and wait"? "Wait, then hurry up." Come on, people.

Yay: Funny Lady and others in her extended circle are gathering for eetz tonight a half hour walk from my place. I'm so going.

I dodged a layoff bullet yesterday. Go me? No, I put it down mainly to luck. Between that at the never-ending Situation I've felt better.

Good things lately:

1. Dancer is coming to take me out for dinner and grocery shopping in a few minutes, hence the brevity of this entry.
2. Le Coin with the Tickler & Funny Lady on Sunday, after much planning and one postponement.
3. Circumflatulation is going well.

My boss was precipitously let go two days ago. I could tell early on that his reports thought better of him than his peers or higher ups, so I'm sad but not surprised. Luckily, we've got someone very knowledgeable and competent stepping in, at least temporarily. Work has otherwise been meh: dealing with the quirks of a creaky old system gets in the way of the more exciting work of replacement, i.e. business as usual.

But! Happy things abound:

1. The Mighty Orb has returned.
2. Tacoma Girl is back from Spain, and she's going to tell me tales while I serve the sake that I picked up from...
3. ...Uwajimaya last night. My excuse for going there: I needed spicy beans for ma po tofu. And I note that they have both Huy Fong Sriracha and its new competitor, made by their erstwhile pepper growers. (There was a civil suit that Huy Fong lost.) For the same unit price, Huy Fong's bottle is bigger. Based on that and my knowledge that Huy Fong Sriracha cures the common cold, I stuck with what I know.
4. Thence to ladies' night at Greenwood Hardware. I got rosé and popcorn as I picked up food waste bags and a new duster, 20% off. I've never seen so many women, or a higher percentage of women, in a hardware store in my life.
5. I got to see the sunset from Phinney Ridge, which hadn't happened since I moved away.
6. The Tickler arrives later today, and I'm nearly ready.
7. I get to see gement this afternoon! Will wonders never cease?

MyCo's Seattle office is a casualty of both acquisition and COVID. That didn't stop them, however, for inviting employees in the Seattle area to a pretty decent dinner at Ben Paris. I wore the Sydney outfit, natch.

Ten people RSVP'd yes. Six actually showed — damn Seattle — and of those five were pre-pandemic hires, including me. Le sigh. Yeah, more frequent gatherings would be nice, but they can't replace actually working in the same place for getting people to know each other, know what's going on, and fostering a company culture.

Took the train to the north end with our Jersey-boy IT guy. A stranger asked me if I was wearing Fluevogs. I was: the Deliverance Lu with the scalloped heels and pointy toes. So I got to explain the cult of 'Vogs to the IT guy. And he tried to explain why he loves football to me.

I dunno. Do I miss the office? I'm completely not sure anymore.

Tonight, ack_yearight. Tomorrow, a play date (?) with the Train Platform Lady. Monday, the Womanhandler. Tuesday, a first date off an app with someone who seems... a bit woo, but hey, that describes a lot of my friends. Besides, hi, welcome to the queer women's community. But the point of this paragraph, though, was that it's an awful lot of social to pack into the next seven days. Can I handle it? I do believe so.