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shadowkatWell, going back into the office tomorrow, but at least the nor'easter has moved on through. It wasn't as bad as they predicted. Most of the rain was this morning, and hardly any of the wind. We were supposed to have gusty winds this evening, but na da.
We shall see what tomorrow brings.
I'm dreading going back full time - the commute is painful at times, what with weather and circumventing train issues. Per my notifications today, they had an incident at the G train stop on Fulton - apparently a passenger needed medical assistance, which required the NYPD and the EMT's, and took over an hour to get cleared. (I get transit notifications on my phone regarding the G, so in a pinch, I can find alternative means of transportation. (Did I tell you that they finally replaced the old yellow and orange bucket seat G trains dating back to the 1990s with brand spanking new trains, with blue seats, and more standing and sitting space?). )
In my neighborhood folks are still wearing masks for the most part, although outdoors, it varies. The smokers are the worst. Avoiding a smoker on sidewalks is not easy - you avoiding their breath, the smoke, and the dumb cigarette. Ugly habit, smoking. (If you are a smoker...eh, never mind, I'm not sorry. LOL! After fifty-four years of tolerating it, my patience for smoking is gone.) NYC unlike other places around the US has for the most part, 70-85% compliance on masks and vaccines. Why? We shut down completely for a year. Shutting NYC down for a year isn't exactly something you just do. Also, we were the epi-center of the pandemic for a long time in 2020. In a way, we were lucky to be hit so hard, so fast, early on, because it scared the leadership and the inhabitants enough to actually follow the guidelines. Once we did, everything got better.
Think about it, NYC from March to roughly August 2020, had between 700-1000 people dying a day from the virus. We had no idea how many cases at that time, but by December 2020, we did, and it was 10,000 a day. And it was so bad in the city - that we had morgue trucks in the streets, and the whole city shut down.
March 2020 to March 2021 were frigging terrifying for most folks. The poor City is traumatized. It's coming back in stages, but it is being careful about it. Most people are wearing masks on public transportation, inside stores, pharmacies, etc. Masks are mandated on all public transportation and hubs, platforms and stations. They are mandated in all public indoor spaces, all museums, and all theaters. And there are vaccine mandates for all gyms, restaurants, bars, concert venues, movie theaters, Broadway theaters, museums, etc. Vaccine mandates for health care workers, city workers, teachers, etc. They are now insisting on it for the dingbat cops, transportation workers, and others. And most employers insist on vaccines now.
It's weird when I travel outside of the city, which is rare at the moment - it's as if I going to another world. People don't have masks on, and apparently not everyone was vaccinated. According to cubicle mate - Florida is horrible - most people aren't vaccinated, and very few wear masks. (I am avoiding Florida for the foreseeable future, which isn't that hard because I don't much like Florida. The only thing I like about Florida are the beaches and palm trees, and I can get that elsewhere.)
**
Some good news? Mother came back from her doctor's appointment in Charleston with good news from her doctor. Apparently, she can now bear weight on her leg. Cross her legs. And start driving again. The moment she said she could drive again, I exhaled in relief. It means she's mobile and not as dependent on other people. She still has some pain in the leg, but its not severe, and it appears to be normal.
I'm waiting another three weeks before making plane reservations to come down in December. I just want to be sure. I also may get refundable plane reservations - pay extra.
**
Crazy Workplace
Listened to the recorded Town Hall Meeting about the transformation. Mainly because I'd gotten a cancellation notice - I'm guessing because they realized I wasn't part of the operations group and had already been lifted and shifted.
It was amusing, the rest of the workforce is no happier than we were when we were summarily lifted and shifted. Not At all.
I deleted everything I said about it. Probably best to keep it to myself.
****
I've finished a couple of books. Also found out that a contemporary romance novel that I despised is being made into a movie. [Why's it always the bad contemporary romance novels that get made into movies? And, no, there are good books out there - it's just filmmakers lack the wherewithal to pick them or the taste. This actually was an entire thread on Romance Twitter. With everyone from Cat Sebastian to Courtney Milan chiming in. I'm not telling you the title of the book in question - I did write a review of it back in 2012, and I did not deign to tell you the title back then either, so why start now. It was this horrible misogynistic thing that romanticized domestic violence and glamorized the violent bad boy. Also to add insult to injury - the author turns out to be an alt-right white nationalist who supports the Proud Boys.]
Books I finished.
* Audio Book - The Partner Track by Helen Wong. It's okay. Wales talked me into trying it. I can see why Wales loved it, she works in an evil law firm. It just reminded me why I don't. It kind of is fantastical in places, and I found the heroine a touch irritating at times, but other than that enjoyable. It's about a Chinese-American (Ingrid) law associate on the partner track at a big firm, who gets sabotaged and ends up starting her own dream law firm. Not a romance novel, actually an anti-romance novel. The villain is the romantic love interest, which I kind of figured out half-way through since he was annoying and I kept wanting to smack him.
* Actual e-book or read - A Wicked Husband (Longhope Abby Book 3) by Mia Vincy - it can be read stand-alone by the way. I did.
I think it's Victorian, since it takes place during the industrial age.
And a historical (although like most of these? light on the history aspects). The hero is an industrialist and the bastard son of an Earl. Apparently his father's previous wife was revealed to be alive, which rendered his current marriage null and void, and bastardized all his kids, four of them, and disinherited them. Humiliated, his wife took off with her daughter, leaving the little boys to fend for themselves. Years later, the eldest boy, now a rich industrialist, agrees to marry the daughter of a Lord, after she's stood up by her fiance - so she won't lose her estate and home. The book doesn't delve too deeply into this stuff, kind of skirts over it, but gives enough to realize life was unkind to bastard kids and women. But very kind to entitled pricks. Anyhow after two years, living apart, Mrs. DeWitt - the heroine, realizes it can't be helped - she has to bring her wayward and somewhat drunken beauty of a sister to London for her debut. However, she needs to pave the way first - and convince her estranged grandmother to take her on. Only one problem, the husband she only saw briefly at her wedding, and even more briefly to consummate the marriage, has requested that she not come to London, and stay in the country. They have a marriage of convenience, and she can do whatever she pleases - just stay out of his way. But it can't be helped, so the hell with it, she goes to London, besides according to his Secretary, he's in Birmingham. Except, he pops back earlier than expected - they unexpectedly and unknowingly cross paths - having never really seen each other - and well comical and angsty chaos ensues.
I liked it because it focuses on the marriage. And the husband is rather unconventional. It also focuses on family issues, and the two working together to resolve them, and it focuses on grief - overcoming grief and finding a way to move on.
Note - I liked the hero a bit better than the heroine, who I found a bit daffy at times. Although he's daffy too.
Currently reading a book rec'd by Cat Sebastian... I Love You, I Hate You - All's Fair in Love and Law..
It's a rom-com, contemporary about two lawyers. Although it flips the dynamic a bit. The female lawyer is tough as nails, unruffled, sarcastic, and a corporate lawyer, who fought her way up from poverty (the working class variety) to get there. The male lawyer owns his own firm, is from a wealthy family, idealistic, and laid-back. They have hate-sex - one night stand - in the first chapter, and she's on top. Consensual sex. The set up is they are rivals in the court-room and hate each other, but best friends on social media - under pseudonyms (specifically twitter).
It's fun. And I like the banter. Doesn't require much conversation and just what I wanted for my commute at the moment.
In audio books? Nelson Mandelas Favorite African Folktales - it came out some time ago, around 2009, since it has Alan Rickman reading stories in it.
Featured narrators include Gillian Anderson, Benjamin Bratt, LeVar Burton, Ricardo Chavira, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Whoopi Goldberg, Sean Hayes, Hugh Jackman, Samuel L. Jackson, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Debra Messing, Helen Mirren, Parminder Nagra, Sophie Okonedo, CCH Pounder, Alan Rickman, Jurnee Smollett, Charlize Theron, Blair Underwood, Forest Whitaker, and Alfre Woodard, with a special message from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and original music by South African legends by Johnny Clegg and Vusi Mahlasela, directed by Alfre Woodard.
The Folk Tales were chosen by Mandela from every region in Africa, with all proceeds benefiting children orphaned and impacted by HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
I've heard one tale so far, read by Rickman, and am now listening to one by Whoopie Goldberg...they are great. I'm enjoying it immensely, more than the last audio book, actually, which made me grouchy.
****
It's raining again. Hoping it stops tomorrow morning. Also hoping I get sleep tonight. I feel sleep deprived and its making me grouchy.
I'm wearing purple tomorrow in honor of Survivors of Domestic Violence - tomorrow is National Domestic Violence Awareness Day - it's the hidden epidemic beneath the pandemic. I volunteered in my youth for Domestic Violence Women's shelter, and the Legal Aid of Western Missouri Domestic Violence Coalition - helping obtain orders of protection. Also donated all the information I had from both to a legal research project in law school on it. It's an epidemic and there appears to be no end to it.
Random Photo of the Day
We shall see what tomorrow brings.
I'm dreading going back full time - the commute is painful at times, what with weather and circumventing train issues. Per my notifications today, they had an incident at the G train stop on Fulton - apparently a passenger needed medical assistance, which required the NYPD and the EMT's, and took over an hour to get cleared. (I get transit notifications on my phone regarding the G, so in a pinch, I can find alternative means of transportation. (Did I tell you that they finally replaced the old yellow and orange bucket seat G trains dating back to the 1990s with brand spanking new trains, with blue seats, and more standing and sitting space?). )
In my neighborhood folks are still wearing masks for the most part, although outdoors, it varies. The smokers are the worst. Avoiding a smoker on sidewalks is not easy - you avoiding their breath, the smoke, and the dumb cigarette. Ugly habit, smoking. (If you are a smoker...eh, never mind, I'm not sorry. LOL! After fifty-four years of tolerating it, my patience for smoking is gone.) NYC unlike other places around the US has for the most part, 70-85% compliance on masks and vaccines. Why? We shut down completely for a year. Shutting NYC down for a year isn't exactly something you just do. Also, we were the epi-center of the pandemic for a long time in 2020. In a way, we were lucky to be hit so hard, so fast, early on, because it scared the leadership and the inhabitants enough to actually follow the guidelines. Once we did, everything got better.
Think about it, NYC from March to roughly August 2020, had between 700-1000 people dying a day from the virus. We had no idea how many cases at that time, but by December 2020, we did, and it was 10,000 a day. And it was so bad in the city - that we had morgue trucks in the streets, and the whole city shut down.
March 2020 to March 2021 were frigging terrifying for most folks. The poor City is traumatized. It's coming back in stages, but it is being careful about it. Most people are wearing masks on public transportation, inside stores, pharmacies, etc. Masks are mandated on all public transportation and hubs, platforms and stations. They are mandated in all public indoor spaces, all museums, and all theaters. And there are vaccine mandates for all gyms, restaurants, bars, concert venues, movie theaters, Broadway theaters, museums, etc. Vaccine mandates for health care workers, city workers, teachers, etc. They are now insisting on it for the dingbat cops, transportation workers, and others. And most employers insist on vaccines now.
It's weird when I travel outside of the city, which is rare at the moment - it's as if I going to another world. People don't have masks on, and apparently not everyone was vaccinated. According to cubicle mate - Florida is horrible - most people aren't vaccinated, and very few wear masks. (I am avoiding Florida for the foreseeable future, which isn't that hard because I don't much like Florida. The only thing I like about Florida are the beaches and palm trees, and I can get that elsewhere.)
**
Some good news? Mother came back from her doctor's appointment in Charleston with good news from her doctor. Apparently, she can now bear weight on her leg. Cross her legs. And start driving again. The moment she said she could drive again, I exhaled in relief. It means she's mobile and not as dependent on other people. She still has some pain in the leg, but its not severe, and it appears to be normal.
I'm waiting another three weeks before making plane reservations to come down in December. I just want to be sure. I also may get refundable plane reservations - pay extra.
**
Crazy Workplace
Listened to the recorded Town Hall Meeting about the transformation. Mainly because I'd gotten a cancellation notice - I'm guessing because they realized I wasn't part of the operations group and had already been lifted and shifted.
It was amusing, the rest of the workforce is no happier than we were when we were summarily lifted and shifted. Not At all.
I deleted everything I said about it. Probably best to keep it to myself.
****
I've finished a couple of books. Also found out that a contemporary romance novel that I despised is being made into a movie. [Why's it always the bad contemporary romance novels that get made into movies? And, no, there are good books out there - it's just filmmakers lack the wherewithal to pick them or the taste. This actually was an entire thread on Romance Twitter. With everyone from Cat Sebastian to Courtney Milan chiming in. I'm not telling you the title of the book in question - I did write a review of it back in 2012, and I did not deign to tell you the title back then either, so why start now. It was this horrible misogynistic thing that romanticized domestic violence and glamorized the violent bad boy. Also to add insult to injury - the author turns out to be an alt-right white nationalist who supports the Proud Boys.]
Books I finished.
* Audio Book - The Partner Track by Helen Wong. It's okay. Wales talked me into trying it. I can see why Wales loved it, she works in an evil law firm. It just reminded me why I don't. It kind of is fantastical in places, and I found the heroine a touch irritating at times, but other than that enjoyable. It's about a Chinese-American (Ingrid) law associate on the partner track at a big firm, who gets sabotaged and ends up starting her own dream law firm. Not a romance novel, actually an anti-romance novel. The villain is the romantic love interest, which I kind of figured out half-way through since he was annoying and I kept wanting to smack him.
* Actual e-book or read - A Wicked Husband (Longhope Abby Book 3) by Mia Vincy - it can be read stand-alone by the way. I did.
I think it's Victorian, since it takes place during the industrial age.
And a historical (although like most of these? light on the history aspects). The hero is an industrialist and the bastard son of an Earl. Apparently his father's previous wife was revealed to be alive, which rendered his current marriage null and void, and bastardized all his kids, four of them, and disinherited them. Humiliated, his wife took off with her daughter, leaving the little boys to fend for themselves. Years later, the eldest boy, now a rich industrialist, agrees to marry the daughter of a Lord, after she's stood up by her fiance - so she won't lose her estate and home. The book doesn't delve too deeply into this stuff, kind of skirts over it, but gives enough to realize life was unkind to bastard kids and women. But very kind to entitled pricks. Anyhow after two years, living apart, Mrs. DeWitt - the heroine, realizes it can't be helped - she has to bring her wayward and somewhat drunken beauty of a sister to London for her debut. However, she needs to pave the way first - and convince her estranged grandmother to take her on. Only one problem, the husband she only saw briefly at her wedding, and even more briefly to consummate the marriage, has requested that she not come to London, and stay in the country. They have a marriage of convenience, and she can do whatever she pleases - just stay out of his way. But it can't be helped, so the hell with it, she goes to London, besides according to his Secretary, he's in Birmingham. Except, he pops back earlier than expected - they unexpectedly and unknowingly cross paths - having never really seen each other - and well comical and angsty chaos ensues.
I liked it because it focuses on the marriage. And the husband is rather unconventional. It also focuses on family issues, and the two working together to resolve them, and it focuses on grief - overcoming grief and finding a way to move on.
Note - I liked the hero a bit better than the heroine, who I found a bit daffy at times. Although he's daffy too.
Currently reading a book rec'd by Cat Sebastian... I Love You, I Hate You - All's Fair in Love and Law..
It's a rom-com, contemporary about two lawyers. Although it flips the dynamic a bit. The female lawyer is tough as nails, unruffled, sarcastic, and a corporate lawyer, who fought her way up from poverty (the working class variety) to get there. The male lawyer owns his own firm, is from a wealthy family, idealistic, and laid-back. They have hate-sex - one night stand - in the first chapter, and she's on top. Consensual sex. The set up is they are rivals in the court-room and hate each other, but best friends on social media - under pseudonyms (specifically twitter).
It's fun. And I like the banter. Doesn't require much conversation and just what I wanted for my commute at the moment.
In audio books? Nelson Mandelas Favorite African Folktales - it came out some time ago, around 2009, since it has Alan Rickman reading stories in it.
Featured narrators include Gillian Anderson, Benjamin Bratt, LeVar Burton, Ricardo Chavira, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Whoopi Goldberg, Sean Hayes, Hugh Jackman, Samuel L. Jackson, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Debra Messing, Helen Mirren, Parminder Nagra, Sophie Okonedo, CCH Pounder, Alan Rickman, Jurnee Smollett, Charlize Theron, Blair Underwood, Forest Whitaker, and Alfre Woodard, with a special message from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and original music by South African legends by Johnny Clegg and Vusi Mahlasela, directed by Alfre Woodard.
The Folk Tales were chosen by Mandela from every region in Africa, with all proceeds benefiting children orphaned and impacted by HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
I've heard one tale so far, read by Rickman, and am now listening to one by Whoopie Goldberg...they are great. I'm enjoying it immensely, more than the last audio book, actually, which made me grouchy.
****
It's raining again. Hoping it stops tomorrow morning. Also hoping I get sleep tonight. I feel sleep deprived and its making me grouchy.
I'm wearing purple tomorrow in honor of Survivors of Domestic Violence - tomorrow is National Domestic Violence Awareness Day - it's the hidden epidemic beneath the pandemic. I volunteered in my youth for Domestic Violence Women's shelter, and the Legal Aid of Western Missouri Domestic Violence Coalition - helping obtain orders of protection. Also donated all the information I had from both to a legal research project in law school on it. It's an epidemic and there appears to be no end to it.
Random Photo of the Day