OakMonster’s Den

I bought this from the Container Store.

That, my friend, is the gift from the Commuter Gods.

I am a sleeper on the bus. I usually put my head forward and stay put that way all the way to Downtown. On the way home, I usually lean back on my fleece scarf if I have the front seat, or sideway on the seat with back support. Either way, my neck wasn’t happy about the strain.

Comfort Creature Travel Buddy Pillow may be for kids, but I really don’t care when it’s this comfy. It has machine-washable soft fleece cover and stuffed with buckwheat hulls. The two “horns” fit perfectly on my shoulder so I can rest my head against the window just right. I can also lean back on a lower seat with the “horns” behind my neck and lean again it backward so I don’t chicken-neck around.

My neck is pain-free. And I must say, I have never slept so well on my bus.However, with the addition of this lovely pillow, my already stuffed commuter bag is really, REALLY full. The bag has been a little too heavy to heft around for a while now because of the emergency bottle of water. But along with my neck, my shoulder is beginning to hurt as well.

Ah, the joy of aging. But I digress.

I am now in search for a bag with wheels that are not obviously for a kid (like the Hello Kitty one I found yesterday at Target) or the usual corporate black. There was a lady in my building who wheeled in a lovely red bag. I complimented her on it, and she told me it was Kate Spade…or something fancy like that.

I so don’t have the money for that. LOL. But I hope I can find one reasonably priced one somewhere. Appreciate any lead, by the way.

ETA: The Commuter Gods REALLY love me!  I scored on the first online search and just bought this with zero shipping and super cheap on Overstock. And yes, I bought the lovely red one.

In “Day After Tomorrow”, a massive tornado ripped through Los Angeles.

Yesterday, a baby one touched down in Riverside.

Miraculously, nobody got hurt.

If you look at my Twitter history there, you’ll see my weather report from atop the 34th floor of Downtown Los Angeles.

After the week of heat, we were cooling down again.  And then suddenly, yesterday, rain clouds came out of nowhere and the rain poured for a good 10-15 minutes.  As in, sheets and sheets of it.  Looking out the north side of the building, it looked like snow.

Then it was sunny again.

Then it started to sprinkle and mist with the sun still out…but just on the northwest corner of the building.  I saw the sun was out so I was going over to the east side to spot a rainbow.  It was all sunny and dry on the other side.  Not even a trace of a mist.

But outside of the north east window, the super dark clouds loomed in the distance.

A few of us were thinking it, but didn’t say it.   With all of this weirdness in the weather, if the Big One hit, we wouldn’t be surprise.  Instead, we joked out loud about brimstones would be next to fall from the sky and that the Four Horsemen are on their way in from Riverside, but got stuck on the freeway.

I had a horrible time carpooling in to work with a bus buddy lady, and even worse when my colleague drove me home.

Completely wiped when I got home, I forewent making a batch of Absolutely Weevils cookies, and settled in on the couch for some pizza and my jug of cranberry juice.

And here we are again, back in the weird weather central, waiting for some light shows of promised thunderstorm and rain.

It’s too scary outside, y’all.

I am zapped.

Long, early start this morning with an event in Long Beach. Slipped a little bit in my new boots and now my bad ankle is swollen. Crazy rest of the day in the office as the bosses are getting ready to take off the next two days to do an executive powwow off site.

P-a-r-t-a-y!!!

Just kidding.

I can’t even try to do that with the amount of stuff I have to catch up on since this morning event took over my life this past week.

Treated myself to a “Chinese Reflexology Massage” at Red Persimmon, a nail place a few miles away. Sat there on the comfy couch for one hour getting my feet and neck and shoulders rubbed. Didn’t feel like eating dinner so I had a few mutant strawberries (they’re HUGE) and a few glasses of water before taking a dunk in a bath.

I feel like a jellyfish. Just a puddle of sinews and fluids here. Going to blob my way to bed now.

I’m sorry for yet another boring post. Well, hell. What do you expect from a jellyfish!

Good ol’ laughter.  It was unfamiliar.

I drove in to work this morning. Conveniently, an impromptu happy hour formed around Erin.

You see, Erin helped Dave with this big ol’ project. So he wanted to pay her back in alcohol for her good work. We jumped on that bandwagon and ended up at the Spring Street Smoke House. There we met up with Erin’s roommate and his friend…who are probably going to be reading this later on. So, hi guys!

We were bitching about work. We were talking about cats. We were talking about crazy friends. And the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. We were talking about grease on your hands. Taking naps. Telling embarrassing stories about each other. And many other inappropriatenesses.  Over a face full of pulled pork sandwich and with a pint of Angel City Abbey ale, I realized, “Oh my god. I haven’t had this much fun in a long time.”

Seriously. I laughed my ass off. I had really good food. I enjoyed my company thoroughly. The only downside is that I AM the driver. Haha.

Afterward, I went to drop off Erin at her place and got to meet her and her roommate’s cats Munkin and Werm. And a yard that Athena would’ve been happy in if they didn’t have issues with neighborhood dog.

Dammit. I miss that cat.

Overall, it’s been a great evening…made me forget today at the office. Even if it was a blur of a day, it was still a hell of a day.

Live to fight another day tomorrow. To all, a good night.

Athena has stirred up a lot of emotions for a lot of folks.

The neighbor downstairs apparently gathered a petition to send to the landlady to get Athena back after hearing that she was released to CSULB campus. She said she has almost 80 people on the petition. (But, shouldn’t the petition came from the people who actually live in the complex?)

Another lady who spotted Athena’s listing on Craiglist warned me about a local guy who’d go around “adopting” cats to torture them. Then she continued to help Athena find a home. If I can go get Athena from the campus, the lady and her friend would keep her overnight and take her to a shelter they volunteer at.

Pat O. at the office believes that if Athena loves us enough, and the campus is about 3 miles away, this weekend we might just see her on our doorstep. If that is the case, we can actually get her to a proper shelter.

I have been doing mad research to see campus policy on stray cats. I found an article a few years back that looks promising.

Trappings of the campus cats are conducted weekly during the spring and summer months, and monthly during the fall and winter months.

Trapped cats are taken to a licensed veterinarian, who provides a general physical examination, performs spaying/neutering and provides all vaccines and deworming.

Cats who are gentle (and were previous house or dorm pets) are kept and adopted out…

This article may be old, but that there makes me feel a LOT better about her situation. I am hoping to confirm this fact with someone at CSULB though.

*

With all of the madness going on, I still have time to enjoy myself a bit.

I baked like a mad pastry chef on Monday night to prepare for yesterday’s potluck. The theme was “Spring Buzz” with tinge of leftover Cinco de Mayo as the featured entree I had catered are fajitas. Nonetheless, I stuck with the theme and made lemon cupcakes with blackberry bumble bees on top. See?

And last night, Brandon took me to sushi and sake. Well, he had teriyaki chicken and green tea. *I* had the sushi and sake.

A big. Honking. Glass. Of REALLY good cold sake. (Mu is the brand. Thanks Brenda for introducing me to that.) That was soooo needed!

Nice and buzzed, we then went to browse video games, then booze at BevMo, and then we topped off the evening with frozen yogurt and 2 more hours of television.

I may not have a community cat to play with, but through Athena, Brandon and I seem to have found each other again.

Bits and snippets vverheard on the streets of Downtown Los Angeles, where the immigration march tomorrow is going to vastly affect everyone’s commute home.

A: Why do they have to pick the rush hour to have an assembly? This is so inconvenient.

B: Um, isn’t that the point of a protest?

A: Yes. But what about MY rights to go home on time? MY rights to not be stuck in traffic? MY rights not to have to take the day off so I don’t get stuck in all of this mess?

You know how we can disperse the crowd really quickly tomorrow? Put up immigration check points along the route with transport buses at the ready.

C: Why don’t we just declare May 1st a holiday every year then, so we don’t have to be stuck in this mess all the time?

D: Because they would just pick another non-holiday day to march.  Like May 2nd.

C: Oh.  Well, they should just march on the weekends when there’s nobody here.

Why don’t we do this? On May 1st, we all head down to Mexico City and block THEIR traffic during rush hour.

Our usual bus route is going to be affected and therefore the bus buddies have been plotting a way to work and home since Friday. We saw the “alternate route” plan on the bus today, and we all had to laugh.

The “alternate route” not only explain how they’d get from the depot, passed City Hall and into my side of town. You know, the City Hall, where the assembly of 100,000 strong is supposed to gather?

The only change on the route is to alter a right turn 2 blocks earlier than the usual route, which still leads into the tail end of the assembly.

OCTA don’t seem to do their research.  That is just sooo Orange County.

But anyways. As for me, as a LEGAL immigrant who paid my way to be here legally–and no, I’m NOT getting into that again–I am working from home tomorrow.

I couldn’t take the bus if I want to get home before, oh I don’t know, 8 p.m.  And driving in is certainly going to be a mess.  Thank god I have a project that is needed to be done but I couldn’t get my focus on.  And then I also volunteer to use the high focus time to attack another project as well.  My boss is kind enough to let me work from home.

I have been having a horrible case of ADD in the office.  It’s not completely self induced but the environmental wasn’t helpful to me keeping my focus either.  So much is going on and so many people are asking for so many things.  Way too hectic (and sometimes just too much damn drama) to concentrate sometimes.

It’s funny that I need to be a home to actually find peace to work.  I am super excited about it.  Can hardly wait to get this project out of my hair!

Someone asked if I’ve heard this one yet.

“What do you call two Mexicans playing basketball?”

I replied, “jumping beans?”

“No…” the someone laughed. “That’s so wrong.”

“Well, what do you call them then?”

“Juan on Juan.”

Yes.  We both will be keeping our day jobs.

Last night at 410 Boyd, my drinking buddy Big Papi talked about life as a minority at an Ivy league university and in the mainly old white dudes law practices. He said that he actually appreciates the fact that other people underestimate him.

“They think I’m lazy or stupid or something else. So I work harder. And when it’s my time to shine, those fools won’t even know what hit them,” he said.

“The Art of War,” I added.

“Damn straight!” He put ‘em up and we high-fived.

Same thing applies to the administrative professionals. Some people think of them as the lower class citizens of the corporate ladder. Kids fresh out of college. Adults with GED. Or somebody who are somewhat not very qualified to be doing anything else but “assist”.

Think again.

These guys are the ones keeping things rolling for an organization. Imagine the workload or what all you’d have to do without those guys! Who would help you collate stuff? Who would pick up the phones or screen any calls? Office supplies? Forget it. That meeting you want with an exec–both in or out of the office–never going to get it without the help of an assistant.

It’s like what Chef House said that you should never piss off your wait staff. In your office, it’s these hard working folks who you want to appreciate the most. Your life is a lot easier because of their help.

I would advocate being good to your admin folks year long, but since it’s a designated day, be extra nice. It’s like Valentine’s Day for your special coworkers.

The reason why I feel a little bit passionate about this is that I used to be an admin professional too, so I get it.

Therefore, my admin ladies all got a sunflower on their desks today.

…for my smart ass mouth.

*

A coworker walked by saying something something…either “I could eat a horse” or “I just peed like a horse”.

Me: Wait. Did you just say a horse or a whore?

Him: *laugh* Both.

Me: So…you’re a whore horse?

Erin: He could be a horse whore.

Me: A horse whore?

Erin: [Knowingly] …yeah…

Me: But being a horse whore, isn’t that kind of…

Erin: I’m not going there…

Me: …donkey show-ish?

Erin: …and you just have to go there, don’t you?

When I told this to Brandon later last night.

Me: You know, nobody else in the office would go there. But I just had to. I mean, if it’s not me, who else would go all the way?

Brandon: People at the donkey show would.

You see why we get along so well?

*

Apparently, folks on the bus were talking about luxury cruises out in the Indian Ocean getting robbed and hijacked.

Tony: Do you guys remember that one ship? The [Insert a Ship Name Here]? They got hijacked a couple of years ago?

Me: You mean that one where Steven Segal popped out of the kitchen and saved the boat?

*

Brandon and I went to pick up fish and chips last night. Brandon went up to the counter to pay for the food, and then we spotted IBC Root Beer and Jones Soda cream soda we suddenly must have.

Brandon discovered he only had a dollar left.

Brandon: Babe, you’ll have to pay for the sodas. I don’t have any more money.

Me: Well, what the hell kind of a date are you?

The fish lady had a field day laughing.

*

So I take the bus most of the days for my 30+ mile weekday commute.  Not only I was doing my part on saving my mental health by doing that, I was also helping the environment by not driving.

Of course, it would only be appropriate that on Earth Day, I drove to work.

Even more appropriately, I had to drive to work because we’re going to happy hour tonight.  Indeed, I HAVE to drive to go drinking.  Fucked up, isn’t it?

Seriously.

Friday was a combination of hard work and fun. Nhien and I managed not to hurt ourselves while moving all sorts of boxes of our printed matter around the office and worked up a pretty good appetite. We grabbed Celeste and Pat and headed to Sushi Go 55 and the rest is over there.

We came back just in time for me to throw the office birthday party. With yummy stuff from Delilah Bakery, everyone had a happy afternoon, all hopped up on sugar! I mean, all 6′ 5″ of Canadian Greg scooted over to us on this thing that another coworker used during his recovery from a knee surgery.

Saturday was spectacular! My Adobe Acrobat class is still going at the pace of molasses, but at least there was something new to be learned. However, while I waited for the instructor to explain to the old lady in the front why she had restart her machine or something else, I managed to join the cult of Twitter, did the food blog entry, AND played a few games of Bejeweled on my iGoogle.

Hey, at least I managed my time well. If I’m going to get stuck there, not learning anything while the old folks catch up, I might as well do something productive, right?

Later on that afternoon, we FINALLY got to take Olaina to Las Brisas in Redondo Beach. Back in their high school days, Brandon and Justin would ditch school and drive around for adventures Brandon’s Jeep. It was destiny when the Jeep ran out of gas a few pushes away from Las Brisas. The boys have been eating here whenever they are in the area ever since.

Justin and Olaina were up in the area to hunt for their new place to live. And they found one today in Redondo Beach. Signed, sealed, and delivered! Woohoo!

And for dinner, I made a spectacular dinner without actually having to leave the house for the store: bacon-wrapped cod with caper-shallot sauce with a side of peas and carrots. Oh yes, I am good.

And on Sunday, she rests.

Like, until 10 a.m.

And then it was on like Donkey Kong for the rest of the afternoon, starting with a trip to Fry’s and a pit stop at Fresh & Easy. Then I helped Brandon patched my windshield seals back onto the car. Folks who replaced my windshield in September did a horrific job. A few months after the replacement, the seals around it started to separate. Finally this past week, the one around the top actually popped off in parts. I would be driving down the freeway with this thing flapping about, banging on my roof. The lack of seal also brought on a nasty howling/whistling, depending on literally which way the wind blows. If the homemade cure doesn’t hold, Brandon’s going to take the car back to the folks by his work.

Then again, with the gas price the way it is, he is going to start driving my car to work anyway. Sheesh! $35 for 8 gallon? I damn near cried at the pump! But I digress.

I then started the laundry, including my bedroom curtains which had been pinning them double thickness…which I intended to wash then sew together after dinner…which I pulled out of the dryer and found a tag that said “Dry Clean Only”…and which are now slightly less green and when folded in half and sewn aren’t exactly the same length.

I am an everyday fuckin’ Martha Stewart, I tell ya!

At some point while waiting for the laundry, Brandon went to take a nap. Athena followed me up hung out in our apartment for a good half hour, a new record for her. I couldn’t do anything around the house while she visit because a) sudden movement still scares her and, b) I don’t trust her alone in a room just yet. After all she IS an outdoor cat that wondered in off the street. Who knew what kind of bad habit she had picked up.

But the half hour crawling around the floor after Athena (because getting up suddenly would freak her out a little bit), following this purring, paw-pawing, cute-as-hell black fluff ball of a cat was well worth it.

Pretty much just about anything “busy” I did this weekend is well worth it.