Drunken Owls and Other Delights

As I'd said to one of my coworkers today (and also on Discord), I still appreciate the fact that I can have a super busy shift like I did today and feel exhausted by the end of it...but NOT stressed out. Every now and again I'm still reminded of how toxic the bank job was, and surprised that I lasted as long as I did.

But yeah, it was a super busy day today as expected, and I'm expecting tomorrow to be the same though probably not as chaotic. Then I'm doing two bookkeeper opens on Friday and Saturday. Those can be a toss-up sometimes, especially when we have our drive-up orders to process, and those have expanded significantly over the last couple of months. Some days I'm fine and I get all the bookkeeping done and perhaps a bit of ringing up to balance it out, but there have been days when I've done five to seven of these orders, sometimes one right after the other, and those are definitely exhausting. [Especially since upper management for some reason has decided to hyperfocus on how quickly we turn those around.]

Do we have anything planned for the holiday season? Not too much, really...on the 8th we're doing our annual visit to the opera house to see the Nutcracker ballet, and on the following Sunday we'll be meeting up with A's parents for lunch, but other than that we're once again just chilling out and relaxing. No complaints!

I was a bit annoyed that I had to work this past Sunday considering A and I had made vague plans to do a bit of Christmas shopping before the whole rush started but alas, it was not to be. I'm hoping I'll have next Sunday off so we can make up for it! On the other hand, I can't really complain because two good things came out of it: I'm not working on Thanksgiving (we close early at 6pm on that day anyway) and all my shifts are morning shifts. Yay no middays!

(Which reminds me, I still need to let the boss know to keep Sunday 12/17 open as that's when A and I are going to the Nutcracker this year.)

Mind you, our Christmas shopping these days isn't so much about bulk buying all sorts of huge gifts but to pick up fun things for either our own enjoyment or to send to friends as care packages: snacks, silly cards and toys, things like that. And we've pretty much given up on the tree this year considering that A Certain Cat (yes, it's Cali) thinks it's hers and thus climbable. One can only wonder what chaos would ensue if we'd had a real six-footer tree set up on the floor...

And speaking of Christmas, I am very curious as to what the first holiday song I hear will be. I can't really count the pumped-in music at work considering I hear it all day long and thus playing Whamageddon would put me out of the running within hours. Amusingly I thought I'd heard a Christmas song at the cafe across the street from the store the other day, only to belatedly realize that it wasn't "What Child Is This" but merely Ralph Vaughan Williams' 'Fantasia on Greensleeves', heh.

And lastly, I got my Covid and flu shots yesterday and thankfully I am feeling just fine, other than waking up multiple times pre-dawn due to having one hell of a migraine for some reason. So I'm just going to enjoy the day by doing laundry, listening to music and doing some writing.


Hope everyone has a good week!

It's been hovering around the 40s and low 50s here in San Francisco the last several days, so we've broken out the long sleeves, turned on the heaters, thrown on the sweaters and hunkered down in an attempt to stay warm. As I've said to A, this is the good thing about still wearing masks: our faces stay warm too! Our electricity bill is of course going up in response, but that happens every year, tbh, so we're used to it. Right now we're both sweatered up and drinking Irish coffees while we do our weekend chores, and we went for a short walk up to Fancy Grocery Store so we don't feel too guilty about hiding inside for the rest of the day. Heh.

So, how have we been handling Pandemic IV: Omicron Blues or whatever number it is now? As well as we can, really. Thankfully we live in a neighborhood where most of its inhabitants are like "yeah, we're wearing masks, it is what it is, I got my booster last Thursday, how's your auntie doing". And thankfully we have family and friends and neighbors who are vaxxed and boostered and sticking it out through the next unneeded sequel. Our plan to go see the new Matrix movie next Saturday has been cancelled due to the both of us not really trusting being in unmonitored crowds. We'll live, and I'm sure it'll be sticking around over the holiday and playing more locally somewhere at some point. But yeah, it is what it is. I personally don't find being homebound as frustrating as others might find it, but then again I'm someone who's equally happy kicking it at home as I am out in public, and so is A. We have our books and music and streaming platforms to keep us entertained and neighborhood shops to keep us fed. I know we're lucky in that respect.

So what else...? Anything else to yammer on about for the next-to-last Sunday of the year? Not that I can think of. I'm keeping busy with my writing. Feeling a bit stuck on both projects, but I'm powering through regardless. I'm making my end-of-year mixtape and thinking about my best-of-year lists. Got a few personal things I've been thinking a lot about, but other than that, it's been a quiet and uneventful end of year.


Here's to hoping 2022 is a bit more uplifting and forward-moving, yeah?

We did ALL THE WALKING this weekend! Okay, we didn't do a marathon, but we did a good couple of miles each day! Yesterday we walked up to 8th Ave to one of our favorite coffee shops (Rise & Grind, which is right across the street from the 8th Street gate of Golden Gate Park) and then all the way to Arguello and back, stopping for lunch burgers on the way back home. And then today we took the bus up to 6th Ave so we could have brunch at a recent find (Tastebuds, on the corner of 5th and Balboa). And OOOH YESS that was a fine choice of bruncheries! I got a chorizo-chili and scrambled egg plate called the Hangover Helper and it was sooooo tasty! We made our way back via walking on California (and resisted temptation to have yet more coffee), and I've been up and down ever since doing some housecleaning and laundry. I'm also writing multiple blog entries for the week as it's going to be a busy holiday weekend. It's mid-afternoon and it feels like I've done ALL THE THINGS.

Not much else to report...still writing, still revising, still rereading!

Hope everyone has a lovely holiday!

It's the end of the weekend, errands have been completed (for the most part) and A has started her final vacation week of the year. Do we have anything planned? Well, considering that our lovely state and city is currently under the Covid lockdown starting Monday, we weren't about to go on any trips. If anything, we'll be doing the usual: walking around the neighborhood, visiting the parks, sleeping in, and shopping local when needed. Which reminds me...we'll be doing our grocery shopping tomorrow, and we're banking on a) Monday morning not being all that busy, just like always, and b) the recent hoarders haven't bought up every little scrap whether they need it or not. Our shopping list isn't too long, but hopefully TJ's will have kept things under control.

As for Christmas shopping? I still need to do more. I feel like I haven't bought all that much for anyone at all, least of all A, so within the next day or so I'll be doing some final purchases and quick visits to local shops. We shall see.

Healthwise, we're doing just fine other than the occasional sniffliness from allergies or headaches from high humidity. We're avid fans of masks and social distancing, so we're good there.

Hopefully I should be able to sneak some words in this week! We shall see... 

It's been kind of an odd week so far.  Monday we woke up to having absolutely no hot water for most of the morning (our landlord emailed us late last night and got it fixed ASAP, so yay!), and then at around 9am our internet went out and stayed out until around 4pm.  So basically: I couldn't shower until midmorning, and couldn't get online or do Day Job work at all.

So what did I do most of that day?  Revision for In My Blue World, of course!  I spent a good four hours or so on it, taking my time and shaping it into something that worked.  It felt good to spend that long on it, since my openings are almost always the section that needs the most work!  I'm still a bit nervous about getting this done in time for Worldcon, but I'm determined to get as far as I can with it.  The fact that I'm working on that, AND writing the last few scenes for it, AND finding time to create the cover and postcards for it, AND writing scenes for the Apartment Complex story, AND dealing with the Day Job (and and fookin and :p ) is daunting of course, but again -- I'm determined.  As long as I'm moving forward, that's all that matters.

[Oh -- and I made another mixtape that day too.  Those are always fun to make, even after all these years!  It takes exponentially less time to do nowadays, considering that I'm just taking a bunch of mp3 copies and shuffling them into an order I'm happy with and then retagging them, but it's still fun!]

We have today off, of course.  No big plans, though I do have some blog work and writing work to do later on.


Hope everyone has a nice July 4th! :)

Record Store Day is coming!! :)

I will of course be heading over to Amoeba Music over in the Haight on that day, as always. (And, as usual, will most likely be wearing a music-themed tee shirt from either Diesel Sweeties or Questionable Content. ;) )

Don't forget!! :D

Hey all, long time no post. I've been busy with work-related things and writing-related thoughts and life-related errands, so it's been a quick and event-filled week all around. Added to the fact that I've been bravely fighting a cold since last weekend. All things considered, I'm happy my head is no longer as Comfortably Numb as it was on Monday and Tuesday, though the occasional stuffiness is annoying.

That said, various and sundry things over the past week or so...

--The work-related move went well, as I managed to avoid most of it by being on vacation. My instincts were correct and I was able to pack my entire belongings into three boxes in twenty minutes. My work area is spartan that way; always has been, or else I wouldn't be able to find a damn thing. I'm in a smaller cubicle in a smaller floor space, but on the plus side I'm about twenty feet from two different doors for ease of escape if need be. It's quieter and cleaner too, not including the ridiculous amount of moving boxes still sitting around.

--Lots of packages mailed over the last week to parents, family and in-laws for Christmas, so stuff that wasn't ordered straight from Amazon or elsewhere is now on its way or already at its intended destination. Most packages have reached us, but we're still waiting on a few.

--Later today we'll be heading into town to see a musical version of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, which Emm purchased tickets for. Interestingly enough, the music and lyrics were written by Stephin Merritt, he of The Magnetic Fields. Should be interesting! I'm just hoping that the weather will behave, as it's been rainy and windy over the past couple of days. Such is Bay Area winter, though...

--Forgot if I mentioned this, but we both decided that the best way for me to celebrate me becoming an old man turning 40 is to go to Disneyland. We plan on also going to California Adventure across the way as well--this is the section that has the Muppets--so this will further prove that though my body's getting old, my brain is still that of a kid. :)

--With the end of the year being about two weeks away, it's high time I started up on my Year End Music Review. I may post it this weekend or next weekend, depending on if I have the time. Looking over the past year, I've heard quite a lot of nifty songs that I think will make the top 20 or so on my personal list. More on this soon!

--Oh! Also, and I'll put this in bold so skimmers will see it: The Great Book Purge of 2010-11 is coming soon! Been awhile since we've done these, and we're starting to accumulate piles of books again that we've read and don't want to keep (or never read since buying years previous and gave up on). This will probably take place after the first of the year once the holidays are over, so I'll let you all know when it starts.


...and that's the State of JoncWorld at the moment. We should be achieving normality sometime soon. Have a happy and safe holiday season, kids! :)

xposted from Facebook...



Watch out for those candied yams! :)

Reporting from the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco (a few miles away from the quiet Richmond area where I live), Booksmith on Haight has A Kidnapped Santa Claus set up in a nice mid-store area surrounded by other classic Christmas-themed books. Why yes, I did in fact buy one! :)