memetime

Also.

And:

@glautomotive Cant win at life can i?🤦🏻🤷🏻‍♂️ #MG #fyp ♬ original sound - GLautomotive

 

 

that was some weird shit

Last week a friend and colleague from college days organized a work-friends reunion.

I experienced that moment my grandpa always talked about, when he went to a VA reunion of his war buddies and walked up wondering, "Who are all these old guys?" I legit had that thought when one couple approached our patio table. Who are those old people. And then: crap!

It was fun but weird, most of us having lost touch other than the occasional social media stalking. Most of the friends I'm still connected with couldn't make it but I table-hopped and caught up with some fellow snarks and even met a couple new people. One guy with his arm in a sling regaled us with the story of how he broke the arm, which included a kiddie pool, a Wiffle bat, and a trip to Harborview. I also learned a former supervisor and Dave Matthews super-fan passed away last year.

I don't feel like the same person I was when we all worked together but it was good to remember a shared history, raise a glass, and then go the heck home.

what I'm watching (and wowza)

Movie time!

Yesterday I watched "Prey," a "Predator" prequel and a thrilling, economically told story. Watching Naru, a young Comanche woman, fight Predator of course, as well as French Canadian trappers and the scoffing of her brother and his warrior friends is a real treat. I had a writerly appreciation for the script, which sets up layers of detail and meaning that pay off later on in the movie without being too heavy handed. The overall theme--the impending eradication of native tribes--and the drum soundtrack are both haunting.

Other movies:

--"Plan B," about two young women in South Dakota trying to acquire Plan B within 48 hours of an oh-shit-sexual encounter, has a wry and funny vibe that reminded me of the Harold and Kumar movies. The story sags in the middle but mostly I enjoyed it, due to the strong female characters and sometimes sharp script.

--"Some Kind of Heaven," a documentary focused on several retirees at "The Villages," a community in Florida. Boomers gone wild in a way, with one old guy looking for a sugar mama, another getting caught with cocaine. Interesting and kind of sad.

--The new Dr. Strange. Don't waste your time. What a bloated mess. Ugh.

the heat

The heat this week was nearly too much.

We had a couple days in the 90's, which ain't great in the unairconditioned PNW, but the kicker was the two nights where the temps stayed in the 70's. Impossible to cool your living space, even with an ancient window unit. It felt like living in a stinky sock. By the end of day two, I felt distraught. Just sweaty and tired and breathless. Fortunately, Metro buses are air conditioned to the point of feeling like walk-in freezers, so I hopped aboard and cooled off briefly. 

Yesterday it rained and although it's still humid, I wept with relief.

laughing, yes

I needed a laugh today so here are some links that made me lol.

@brodywellmaker (mostly on Tiktok) doing a split screen checkout video.

Erotic Lizard Fanfiction

This is my new alarm. I am not kidding.

Also how did I not know about "The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo"??

why we're all tired (missed one)

why we're all tired

It's been a wild week in politics/news/life.

the dudes are back (to being really gross)

Now that we’re out and about again (sort of), the dudes are back to being really gross.

At a music event in Everett, a pleasant night on the waterfront listening to a funk band, an old guy in a stars-and-stripes hat grabbed my arm. Your coat looks like a muppet, he slurred. I backed away, just looking at him. He circled to my other side and took my other arm. A muppet, he repeated, in case I’d missed his brilliant witticism. I backed the other way, pulling free, wishing I could scream, Get your fucking hand off me you drunk asshole. But I said nothing and he wandered back to the beer garden. It didn’t seem worth the confrontation, so I just stood there, feeling like an object, the enjoyment drained from the evening.

*

Two nights later I sat in the back of a hot bus after a long day, four stops from home. Three guys hopped in through the rear doors, laughing, one carrying an open bottle of vodka and a trumpet. The first one saw me and moved to sit beside me, even though there were four empty rows of seats. Well hello, he said, as the two other men trooped in behind him.

I got up. My instinct in these situations is to get out immediately, or risk five minutes of painfully not responding, or responding politely and noncommittally even though I'm tired and just want to go home.

Where you going, the guy said, as I edged past them.

My stop is coming up. I’ll let you all have the back, I said.

What? You just assume I’m with them? I don’t know them! the first guy said, angry now.

My bad. Sorry, I said, and hurried to the front of the bus.

The three yelled insults from the back. She’ll let us have the back. Who does she think she is. Thank you soooo much. Stupid bitch.

I sat up front, staring resolutely out the front as they got nastier. No one else spoke and I got off the bus a stop early, at a busy intersection, in case the men followed me. I shouldn’t have sat in the back after dark, was my first thought. Not: how fucking dare they?

the card is going to work

I tested out Gig car last weekend. It's a pay-by-the-minute car share service with the option of pre-paying for a day-long rental. To go out of area you need not just their app but also a card to lock and unlock the vehicle, so I ordered a card back in June, waited 6 weeks for it to arrive, and finally ventured out of town last week.

The pluses: the day-long rental is about $100 for a hybrid, including gas and insurance, which is $40 to $80 less than Zipcar and probably $100 to $200 cheaper than traditional rentals, if you can even get one in the summer for only a day.

Minuses: the car locks itself after 2 minutes of being turned off, so if you get on a car ferry like I did, you have to unlock the ignition just before leaving the ferry, which causes some panic as you can't idle on a ferry and it's sometimes hard to tell when it's your turn to go. I tried using the card to unlock the car on the ferry and the car got confused because I was still in the Gig service area so I had to back out and use the app.

The scariest moment was when I arrived at my destination way out on the coast and saw I had no cell phone service, and realized if the card wouldn't unlock the car when it was time to go, I was stranded a mile off the main highway with a car that was basically bricked. I positioned the car so it could be pushed in neutral down the hill *just in case!* and it caused me some angst that night, as I did outdoor work and toasted cheddar bread on a fire and drank cider and tried to sleep but mostly imagined all the horrible scenarios of not being able to unlock the car. I made myself repeat mentally: the card will work, and finally slept.

The card worked perfectly by the way. Got in, loaded up the car and drove away, shaking with relief.