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shadowkatDidn't sleep well, and got up way too early with the intent to do laundry. (I got up at 5:34 am and was in bed by 11:30, and kept waking up.) So I'm glad I took today off - I was in a mood, and worse couldn't really focus until now. And lots of hot flashes.
Got into the laundry room - only to run into a guy who had gotten there a good hour or more before I did. (I got into the laundry room at 6 AM. The laundry room is allegedly open from 6 am to 9pm. When I first moved in, after eight years ago, prior to the pandemic, the elevator was locked between 8 pm and 6 am. Now it isn't - for the folks who store their bikes and other belongings in storage containers.) Anyhow, since it is the last chance to do laundry before we get new machines, and I had the equivalent of two - three loads - I stayed. The guy ahead of me had closer to five-six loads. He had three huge laundry bags full of clothing, towels and linens.
As a result, it took me over three hours to do laundry this morning, instead of just an hour and a half. (Because I had to do it around other people.) And, I almost lost a shirt and a sock - because the guy with the multiple loads, apparently came back with yet another one - and took out my clothes to put in his, without checking to see if he got "all" of my clothes out of the washer*.
**Note - when taking someone else's clothes out of the washer or dryer - please make sure you get all of them first, and aren't washing or drying them again with yours.) I'm proud of myself, I didn't get angry at him at all, was cordial, and even smiled good humored, and took them, with a kind shrug. It wasn't until later - that I let myself be annoyed.
And there were flies - albeit not as many as previously - they'd put up fly strips. I keep thinking I'm being bitten by them - but no, that's post-herpeutic neurlogia aka post-shingles. It doesn't happen all the time - or not enough to figure out how to treat it. Just every once and a while along the dermatological nerve of my left arm - I'll feel a sting - either on my wrist, finger tips, or near the elbow. I may put lidocaine on it again - that seemed to work last night. (And was suggested.)
I swear doing laundry shouldn't be this stressful. I never know when that room will be vacant and an obstacle course. Some days - it is, others, not so much. There's no telling. And whenever I think I've picked a perfect time - someone comes along and takes it from me. For a while there - weekday mornings at 6 AM was perfect. Then Thursday's at 5:15 pm. But alas, someone else always picks up on it too eventually.
Good news? The new machines will be more expensive and most likely dissuade the volume laundry users. And folks under forty. Also, I don't have to do laundry again until Thanksgiving. By that time, the new machines will be in place.
***
I'm struggling with my Spanish trip plans. I want to go. I'm just nervous about the trips. And they are booking really fast. People decide more than a year in advance to take these trips. I'm not that big of a planner. I wasn't raised that way. The best ones are expensive and too long, the moderate and possible ones - Rich Stevens - are getting booked too fast and too popular. Also 22-28 people may be too many for me.
It's hard traveling by oneself. I've done it for over thirty years, but it doesn't get any easier.
The other problem - is my Crazy workplace doesn't like allowing people to take more than one week at a time. I may try to float this by BYT within the next two or three weeks. But I really need to know now. Ugh. If I was retired - I could do what I want, but I also wouldn't have enough money to do what I want.
This is the reason I struggled sleeping last night. That and I was wired for some reason or other. I think I messed up with my beta blockers? And didn't get the three that I usually take. (They are miracle drugs - in the nervous energy department.)
***
Because of the sleep-deprived brain fog, and the irritability, I just binge-watched television shows.
* Lessons in Chemistry on Apple TV, starring Brie Larson, and based on the novel of the same name - is...compelling, but not as good as Julia (on HBO or as entertaining). It's supposed to be funny or a comedy, but I didn't find it to be funny. And spent a good portion of it - yelling at my television set.
It kind of brought out the misanthrope in me? There are maybe three-four nice men in the series? Everyone else, I wanted to smack into next week. There's lots of two-dimensional male chauvinist and sexist pigs in this series. And it is rather heavy handed in how sexist the 1940s, 50s and early 60s truly were.
The plot? Elizabeth Zott is a talented chemist. But after getting fired from her job as a lab tech, ends up as a television talk show/cooking host a decade later. Actually what that doesn't tell you is...why she is fired, and why she isn't able to get a good job as a chemist. So I will, but behind the cut. In a flashback (second episode), Elizabeth is graphically raped by her "mentor" and the tenured professor who sponsored her paper. He closes and locks the door, then proceeds to rape her, she stabs him with pencil in the groin. And he files an aggravated assault complaint. She's told that she has to apologize to proceed with her PH.D or withdrawl with just her Masters. She withdrawls.
The woman head of her department tells her all of this. Years later, as a lab tech at Hasting's Chemical Labatories - she's brighter than everyone else, but the only female lab tech. All the other women are secretaries and participate in the beauty pagent. They force her to participate, and she manages to leave in the middle of it - when Calvin (the star chemist) throws up on her shoes (due to his allergy to one of the secretaries perfumes). They team up, and fall in love, until ...well, he dies (tragically) walking the dog (the dog has its own episode) and kind of predictably (and I'm guessing comically?). Elizabeth doesn't want to have kids, and told him as much, but guess what? She's pregnant. And eventually sending the kid to a private school - is the reason she does the talk show.
She's fired from the lab for being pregnant, although they already took away her lab tech position and turned her into a secretary.
By the end of six episodes? I wanted to kick a lot of men in the groin.
So, make of that what you will?
* The Buccaneers - this is the series adapted from Wharton's half-finished novel. It's not the first adaptation, albeit maybe the most modern, with the pop music in the background. Whomever adapted this - borrowed heavily from Shondra Rhimes Bridgerton.
It's kind of fun, if a little slow in places. And made me want to kick various male Brits, but not all men. So progress? In other words, for being a historical, it's not quite as heavy handed in regards to its commentary on misogyny and sexism throughout time. A little more even-handed in this regard, and focusing a touch more on classism. Most stories that are about the late 1800s/early 1900s do.
Has a kind of Pride and Prejudice vibe to it. Merchant class American heiress falls for Titled Duke, without realizing it. The actors are somewhat appealing? But I may be too old for it. You know you are too old - when Christina Hendricks (who is much younger than I am) is playing the leads' mother.
Both of these are on Apple TV.
***
On the book front?
I'm almost done with the audible version of Turn of the Screw by Henry James - I liked the play adaptation better. James is too flowery in his description for my taste. I really don't need graphic descriptions of everything. I can figure it out for myself. At any rate, I have an hour and thirty two minutes to go, and I'm bored. Considering this is a short work by James, and considered his most thrilling, I'm thinking I just have to accept the fact that Henry James is not to my taste and call it a day.
Picked up Barbara Streisand's Memoir My Name is Barbarafor a credit on Audible, and Stephen Fry's readings of various ghost stories, including MR James (my father once owned the collected ghost stories of MR James) - I don't know if they still have it. If so, I may ask my mother for that book.
[Damn, it's pitch dark at five now. I keep thinking it is eight o'clock and it's only five o'clock. My body is struggling to adapt to Standard Time. I really wish they'd stop switching back and forth. Pick one, guys, I really no longer care which.)
Also a free podcast of a comedian's take on grief and loss.
***
Gail Simone asked which comic book got you hooked? I honestly don't remember. It was an X-men comic. I'm thinking the Dark Phoenix Saga which I devoured in 1985, my freshman year of college. I'd not seen anything like it before - prior to that, comics in my head were all about male superheroes. Outside of Wonder Woman, women had no power or agency in comics or graphic novels. I was blown away by the fact that so many did in this one, also they were so diverse. There were five women with power in that comic. That blew me away.
Speaking of? I think the general public has burned out on superhero films and no longer feels the need to see them in theaters? The Marvels apparently cost $300 M to make, and only made $45 Million its first weekend. Compared to Barbie and Oppenheimer (which cost $200 million), that's nothing. Barbie and Oppenheimer made over $100 million their first week aout.
Got into the laundry room - only to run into a guy who had gotten there a good hour or more before I did. (I got into the laundry room at 6 AM. The laundry room is allegedly open from 6 am to 9pm. When I first moved in, after eight years ago, prior to the pandemic, the elevator was locked between 8 pm and 6 am. Now it isn't - for the folks who store their bikes and other belongings in storage containers.) Anyhow, since it is the last chance to do laundry before we get new machines, and I had the equivalent of two - three loads - I stayed. The guy ahead of me had closer to five-six loads. He had three huge laundry bags full of clothing, towels and linens.
As a result, it took me over three hours to do laundry this morning, instead of just an hour and a half. (Because I had to do it around other people.) And, I almost lost a shirt and a sock - because the guy with the multiple loads, apparently came back with yet another one - and took out my clothes to put in his, without checking to see if he got "all" of my clothes out of the washer*.
**Note - when taking someone else's clothes out of the washer or dryer - please make sure you get all of them first, and aren't washing or drying them again with yours.) I'm proud of myself, I didn't get angry at him at all, was cordial, and even smiled good humored, and took them, with a kind shrug. It wasn't until later - that I let myself be annoyed.
And there were flies - albeit not as many as previously - they'd put up fly strips. I keep thinking I'm being bitten by them - but no, that's post-herpeutic neurlogia aka post-shingles. It doesn't happen all the time - or not enough to figure out how to treat it. Just every once and a while along the dermatological nerve of my left arm - I'll feel a sting - either on my wrist, finger tips, or near the elbow. I may put lidocaine on it again - that seemed to work last night. (And was suggested.)
I swear doing laundry shouldn't be this stressful. I never know when that room will be vacant and an obstacle course. Some days - it is, others, not so much. There's no telling. And whenever I think I've picked a perfect time - someone comes along and takes it from me. For a while there - weekday mornings at 6 AM was perfect. Then Thursday's at 5:15 pm. But alas, someone else always picks up on it too eventually.
Good news? The new machines will be more expensive and most likely dissuade the volume laundry users. And folks under forty. Also, I don't have to do laundry again until Thanksgiving. By that time, the new machines will be in place.
***
I'm struggling with my Spanish trip plans. I want to go. I'm just nervous about the trips. And they are booking really fast. People decide more than a year in advance to take these trips. I'm not that big of a planner. I wasn't raised that way. The best ones are expensive and too long, the moderate and possible ones - Rich Stevens - are getting booked too fast and too popular. Also 22-28 people may be too many for me.
It's hard traveling by oneself. I've done it for over thirty years, but it doesn't get any easier.
The other problem - is my Crazy workplace doesn't like allowing people to take more than one week at a time. I may try to float this by BYT within the next two or three weeks. But I really need to know now. Ugh. If I was retired - I could do what I want, but I also wouldn't have enough money to do what I want.
This is the reason I struggled sleeping last night. That and I was wired for some reason or other. I think I messed up with my beta blockers? And didn't get the three that I usually take. (They are miracle drugs - in the nervous energy department.)
***
Because of the sleep-deprived brain fog, and the irritability, I just binge-watched television shows.
* Lessons in Chemistry on Apple TV, starring Brie Larson, and based on the novel of the same name - is...compelling, but not as good as Julia (on HBO or as entertaining). It's supposed to be funny or a comedy, but I didn't find it to be funny. And spent a good portion of it - yelling at my television set.
It kind of brought out the misanthrope in me? There are maybe three-four nice men in the series? Everyone else, I wanted to smack into next week. There's lots of two-dimensional male chauvinist and sexist pigs in this series. And it is rather heavy handed in how sexist the 1940s, 50s and early 60s truly were.
The plot? Elizabeth Zott is a talented chemist. But after getting fired from her job as a lab tech, ends up as a television talk show/cooking host a decade later. Actually what that doesn't tell you is...why she is fired, and why she isn't able to get a good job as a chemist. So I will, but behind the cut. In a flashback (second episode), Elizabeth is graphically raped by her "mentor" and the tenured professor who sponsored her paper. He closes and locks the door, then proceeds to rape her, she stabs him with pencil in the groin. And he files an aggravated assault complaint. She's told that she has to apologize to proceed with her PH.D or withdrawl with just her Masters. She withdrawls.
The woman head of her department tells her all of this. Years later, as a lab tech at Hasting's Chemical Labatories - she's brighter than everyone else, but the only female lab tech. All the other women are secretaries and participate in the beauty pagent. They force her to participate, and she manages to leave in the middle of it - when Calvin (the star chemist) throws up on her shoes (due to his allergy to one of the secretaries perfumes). They team up, and fall in love, until ...well, he dies (tragically) walking the dog (the dog has its own episode) and kind of predictably (and I'm guessing comically?). Elizabeth doesn't want to have kids, and told him as much, but guess what? She's pregnant. And eventually sending the kid to a private school - is the reason she does the talk show.
She's fired from the lab for being pregnant, although they already took away her lab tech position and turned her into a secretary.
By the end of six episodes? I wanted to kick a lot of men in the groin.
So, make of that what you will?
* The Buccaneers - this is the series adapted from Wharton's half-finished novel. It's not the first adaptation, albeit maybe the most modern, with the pop music in the background. Whomever adapted this - borrowed heavily from Shondra Rhimes Bridgerton.
It's kind of fun, if a little slow in places. And made me want to kick various male Brits, but not all men. So progress? In other words, for being a historical, it's not quite as heavy handed in regards to its commentary on misogyny and sexism throughout time. A little more even-handed in this regard, and focusing a touch more on classism. Most stories that are about the late 1800s/early 1900s do.
Has a kind of Pride and Prejudice vibe to it. Merchant class American heiress falls for Titled Duke, without realizing it. The actors are somewhat appealing? But I may be too old for it. You know you are too old - when Christina Hendricks (who is much younger than I am) is playing the leads' mother.
Both of these are on Apple TV.
***
On the book front?
I'm almost done with the audible version of Turn of the Screw by Henry James - I liked the play adaptation better. James is too flowery in his description for my taste. I really don't need graphic descriptions of everything. I can figure it out for myself. At any rate, I have an hour and thirty two minutes to go, and I'm bored. Considering this is a short work by James, and considered his most thrilling, I'm thinking I just have to accept the fact that Henry James is not to my taste and call it a day.
Picked up Barbara Streisand's Memoir My Name is Barbarafor a credit on Audible, and Stephen Fry's readings of various ghost stories, including MR James (my father once owned the collected ghost stories of MR James) - I don't know if they still have it. If so, I may ask my mother for that book.
[Damn, it's pitch dark at five now. I keep thinking it is eight o'clock and it's only five o'clock. My body is struggling to adapt to Standard Time. I really wish they'd stop switching back and forth. Pick one, guys, I really no longer care which.)
Also a free podcast of a comedian's take on grief and loss.
***
Gail Simone asked which comic book got you hooked? I honestly don't remember. It was an X-men comic. I'm thinking the Dark Phoenix Saga which I devoured in 1985, my freshman year of college. I'd not seen anything like it before - prior to that, comics in my head were all about male superheroes. Outside of Wonder Woman, women had no power or agency in comics or graphic novels. I was blown away by the fact that so many did in this one, also they were so diverse. There were five women with power in that comic. That blew me away.
Speaking of? I think the general public has burned out on superhero films and no longer feels the need to see them in theaters? The Marvels apparently cost $300 M to make, and only made $45 Million its first weekend. Compared to Barbie and Oppenheimer (which cost $200 million), that's nothing. Barbie and Oppenheimer made over $100 million their first week aout.