This Happened

[Elle]

My husband says co-worker X is being so super nice to me lately, when for a long time I've assumed for good reason he didn't like me, because I am in a position to help or harm him. I.e. it's all fake nice and not real. I am obvs a sucker for it because i can't imagine it's just fake nice. But it matters, actually, what the truth is. I'm not suited to deal with this. I barely understand myself and definitely cannot fathom other people's feelings. Kind of at Asperger's levels of failure, honestly. I can socialize with people easily and empathize easily, so it never occurred to me, but as I've learned more in adulthood and read thing to help understand my kids, in every other way that's pretty accurate. So all this solicitousness that makes me think I might finally be real friends with someone important to me, after years of vaguely uncomfortable uncertainty, had better be real. Or I have to somehow toughen up.

[Elle]

Just went to pick up takeout and I was sure that my order was sitting on the counter because the description was attached and it was exactly the same order that I had made. Yet it was actually someone else's order. And the menu has lots of stuff on it so it's not like that's an easy thing to have happen. One of my great psychological weaknesses is the difficulty believing that coincidence like these which are doubtless very common in the world are actually coincidences. Like I have a hard time believing that they didn't somehow screw up the takeout orders rather than believing that someone else made exactly the same order at exactly the same moment. Yeah that is probably what happened and I should find a way to be comfortable with all that sort of thing.

[Elle]

Walked into the kitchen yesterday to see a bowl on the table containing a fork and the greasy, unpopped contents of a bag of microwave popcorn. A few kernels were on the ground. I attempt to reconstruct what might have led to this situation.

[Elle]

My poor child is going to be so mad at me. I took her to a babysitting class and she has to be the oldest participant in the room by at least two to three years. I think other people are willing or desirous of having their children babysit at very young ages but I'm basing my babysitting plan on ability of the child to handle her siblings and not on any arbitrary age factor.

[Elle]

As day wore on, became clear I was poisoned by some trace amount of allergen. Now also clear if I were Hillary, media would be alternatively digging my grave and accusing me of sinister mendacity. I plan to donate a dollar to HRC for every crap story like that I saw today, because Spite.

[Cazmonster]

Yeah. Need to send a few bucks. Cause having to wear her outfits in any kind of heat must be terrible.

[akiva]

[Elle]

She might have been wearing a bulletproof garment for things like this 9/11 memorial, too. It is unreal to me that this is being painted as incredibly dramatic evidence of her dishonesty and frailty, when it's much more evidence that she powers through shit like a boss even when she should be taking a break (for some reason the word STAMINA keeps flashing by... ). The day she was diagnosed with pneumonia she had a huge schedule, like nearly every other day. The day that Trump gets even 1/100th of this level of unfair media scrutiny, I will be amazed. I'm pretty much sold on voting for her now, though, because Gary doesn't know where Aleppo is and all of my husband's arguments about the sexism baked into this thing are becoming more powerful by the day.

[Cazmonster]

Found out I have to work on election night. We're having a taco bar at work to celebrate TACO TUESDAY!

[Mike]

So appropriate.

[Zen]

In a massively inappropriate, yet hilarious way...

[Elle]

Hope they bring a truck.

There is another fucking mammal living in my house, and no, nobody had a baby or got another pet. An Unauthorized mammal of unknown type, though it makes The Worst chittering noise, lives in the wall of my office. The dog is no help. He's like, whaddya want I should do, dig into the drywall? Yes, dog, that IS what I want.

Work is so crazy that I have worked dawn until dusk and had no shower and there is no end in sight, and my husband is still at work.

[Eliahad]

Who has two thumbs (that don't work) and dropped their phone on the floor face down so the screen glitched and he had to go get a new phone today? Me! That's who!

[Mike]

I still love you. You know we're all here for you. You'll get through this, Eli.

[Cazmonster]

I love all you guys. We should do an internet taco dinner.

Man, I really, really want tacos now.

[Elle]

I was preparing to do something semi-annoying for work that would require, you know, thought, argument, etc. Then a "higher authority" unrelated to this topic sent me an email that completely plays into my hands, full of data and making the entire case for me. Problem, suddenly solved.

[Mike]

I have had a very similar incident recently, and I feel like Elle in that I can't reveal ANY details, but...

There is a particular practice that I find distasteful, but it is relatively widespread. I've decided I'm tired of letting it slide by, and I'm going to make a case against it. But passions about this are high, and people feel very strongly about maintaining this practice for reasons of "rightness" and "fairness". In fact, I'm pretty much a lone voice against it among the people I work with and deal with on a regular basis. I have the points of a very stirring argument outlined in my head, but I know I'm going to have to do some research and have facts and numbers and stuff if I'm going to get anyone to take me seriously.

So I start doing research, and on my very first Google search, I discover that the practice is actually banned by our organization, and furthermore, it's been banned, because it's technically illegal. Wow. Argument complete. That was way easier than I expected.

[Zen]

When we went to Parent's Day at my daughter's school last weekend, I was spending time hanging out with her and a couple of her friends and I realized something: in the flashback dialog that I had been writing earlier in the week for Book 2... one of the characters sounds exactly like my daughter! She calls everyone things like "Sweetie" and "Honey" and is sarcastic as hell... I didn't realize this while I was writing...

[Zen]

So... Hamilton was AWESOME! Not only that but my daughter actually let me take pictures of her and post them places! She's only let her friends do that since about 7th grade... A great weekend! We also had brunch at a place called the "Wheat's End Cafe" which was great for my ongoing gluten-free experiment. Fantastic English muffin Egg-Bacon-and-Cheddar "Sandwich" (a fork was really necessary to eat it) and really good coffee, and we had a nice walk around the block waiting for our table and got to see some gorgeous architecture in Lakeview community of Chicago.

[Elle]