Well Well Well - Look Who's Back!!

 I went to LACMA today to see how the new building is coming along. It's starting to look cool! They've got the "blob" thing created in concrete and it expands over Wilshire but they have a long way to go. The lady behind the counter told me at least another 2 more years! It does look cool though. Way bigger than I thought

Yeah so, it's been quite a while since I've updated this blog. I just found my password again for this thing! Why am I always losing that 😛

Also, it's been super stressful at work because there was yet another layoff last week. That makes 4 since I started in 2018! so basically I per year. Oh well, I really am super grateful to have a job but wow I can't believe this company is even remotely in business.

So what's been going on since April you ask? Let's see... well I have been up to Big Bear twice one in June and recently again in October - it's always awesome! but they no longer have Cabins4Less it's now AirBnB Wander Collective and like 25% more expensive with cleaning fees now. But at least its still available to do book - just a little more expensive. Also went to Palm Springs with Cass, Aurora & Sierra for a long weekend - it was sooo awesome! We ate at a lot of awesome restaurants and did a short day hike into one of the nearby mountains. We stayed at a motel that had different colors for each door. And then there was my trip to Malibu for my birthday where I stayed at The M hotel. That was really cool it was down the street from the Pier and I explored the Santa Monica mountains and drove out to the vistor's center which was ridiculously beautiful it even rained a little bit. Other than that I did a couple nights at Hi-View Inn which is always fun. We had a quiet Thanksgiving at Gma's house (they went to Houston for Thanksgiving) do Denise, Air, Cass, Aurora, Sierra, and I (plus the pups and Mr Bunny) headed up to Gma's house and made mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce and a few other things - soo good and Denise helped get a lot of stuff cooked

We Celebrated everyone's birthdays up at Gma's too since last time I wrote here. 

I helped Cass get her car fixed about 2 weeks ago because her transmission went out ouch!! So we took it to Aamco and they took about 2 weeks to get it fixed and then had to bring it back in a few days later right after Thanksgiving because there was a weird noise when going in reverse, but they found the issue and fixed that too! So wow that was a wee bit $$$$ but she's got her car back and I've got Yari back and all is good. Vanny needs some love next. I really want to get the rust and body work done, but all sorts of other expenses jump in the way. Some of which is Ubering Ariel all over California as she's been working a lot in the movie industry. Most of what she's been doing is school projects but she's starting to get a few professional paying jobs recently so awesome! And Cass got a job at Philz and I did a trial run to order a coffee last night while she was not working because it takes me a couple times to figure out what the hell is going on in life and I didn't want to embarrass her if I  showed up while she was working. Because the older I get the more I don't like being in social situations so things ususally go bad pretty quick and it usually causes a scene. So I decided to go into Philz last night after work and nobody was in there so I casually walked up to the counter and waited for the Bartista to take my order, but he wasn't having it and only kept pulling tickets and making more coffees. This went on for a good 5 minutes before I asked him if I should order with him, but he pointed to the cash register and said to order over there - ooppsie! and it was kinda awkward because niether the cashier or the bartista asked if I needed help (which I obviously did) but once I got it figured out I got my coffee and headed out into the night for my beach drive which I am still very much doing every night. I don't know my last post I intended to reboot my life and there were a few half-assed attempts but I haven't put in the right effort and everything has stayed the same. And to be honest that's not a bad thing!! 

Rebooting my life!

 So I was driving around today and headed towards the beach because that's what I do. And boy it seems like thats all I ever do now. My life has become a huge circle of driving. I get up in the morning and head to work, work for god knows how long in an empty office (no seriously....there is absolutely nobody else in the office. A woman who managed the mail twice a week used to come in but apparently she got the memo that after the 3rd layoff in as many months the corporate psychos running the company have now decided to close the only office the company has) sooo anyway, after work I head back home and make sure to take the beach way home because why else would you bother to sit in all that goddamn traffic if you can't at least stare at the ocean! So then I pull over at a gas station and buy a ridiculously expensive Starbucks energy drink for like $4 (I don't know how I started this terrible habit, but wow it's expensive) so then instead of taking a left and heading back to my small and dirty little apartment I keep going straight and fight the traffic towards the beach and drink my stupidly expensive energy drink and listen to jazz until I run out of road, and then turn around and head back home. I usually arrive back to my apartment around 7:30 pm and lay on my bed scrolling through Reddit and watching YouTube videos of airplanes with sketchy landings (trust me I know but I'm old but I find this completely amusing for some reason). Then to sleep (kind of because I get up another 4 times over the course of the night because of all the caffeine I just sucked down) and this and only this is what I have been doing over the last 2 1/2 years ( maybe even longer....) Even on the weekends I get a coffee and just aimlessly drive around Los Angeles for hours and hours - like it's bad. I'll drive from Torrance to San Pedro then out to Downtown Los Angels and head back home and take a nap, then get up an hour later and drive around the beach for another 2 hours drinking more coffee! All of this is absolutely ridiculous. 

I no longer write

I no longer paint

I no longer self publish my poems

I no longer work out

I no longer give a shit 

I'm just driving around in my car staring at the ocean, the night sky and people

And to be totally honest I am soo sick and tired of it

So today - I've decided to reboot my life! What does that mean exactly? Well, I guess for everything I am doing I am going to stop and for all the things I'm not doing I'm going to start. 

You want to know if I'm actually going to do this? Well, I ate a fucking salad today!

T'is been raining in L.A

Ah the rain on Monday, so nice!

Ah the rain on Tuesday, beautiful!!

The rain on Wednesday and Thursday, unbelievable!!

The rain on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Oh fuck we gotta move!!

It seems like the "Atmospheric River" (all three of them) have come and gone and left behind 2 years worth of water 💧💧💧💧 Very wonderful. Oh, did I ever mention my van has a few holes in the roof? 

It does....
It most certainly does 😅

Just a Monday

 Nothing exciting to report. Just work on a Monday bleegh! Worked on cleaning the apartment over the weekend and hung out at Barnes&Noble on Saturday night in DelAmo. So conflicted about that. It had been a long while since I had hung out at Barnes yet somehow it was not exciting. I dunno I've been in kinda a funk lately....I think I'm ready for a big ass adventure! working on it! 

It's been raining. A LOT! And I miss blogging!

 It's raining tonight. It's going to rain tomorrow. It rained yesterday and the day before and the day before. The week before and the week before that! It's rained so much people aren't talking about the drought we used to be in and in Big Bear? like 5 feet of snow last week! and another 2 feet by Friday! It's amazing and I love it, but deep down inside I know the climate is totally broken and the whole country is either freezing or buried in snow. so it goes I suppose!

I totally forgot I was using this blog to re-start my blogging again...and realized how much I missed it until I was reading Simply Lesa on Blogger (or Blogspot whatever the hell they call it now). I'll keep her blog open in another browser at work and just read a few paragraphs. and yesterday realized how awesome it is. I wish I could find this blog I used to read it was called something like Happy Accidents and was about a low income guy who had a bike and a small apartment. He would talk about how much he loved his bike and would post really low fi camera pix of his new reading glasses. I've looked for it over time, but I can't seem to remember exactly the name of the title. I ever looked through my browser history and couldn't find it which makes me think it was one of the blogs I'd only read at work. oh well - I really loved that guys blog. it's such an art form to to a blog concise and low-fi. 

I'm giving up trying to keep a consistent schedule blogging. it'll happen when it needs to, but I really do love doing it. Let's see, what's been going on recently....

- Elon purchased Twitter and fired everybody then made the remainder of the team go "intense hardcore" and sleep in the office to show their dedication and he just fired a bunch more of those people (ooopsie!)

- ChatGPT came out in November (2022) and kicked ass so much that Microsoft tried to integrate it into their Bing search engine which amazingly surreal results (the "BingBot" asked a reporter to divorce his wife and marry it LOOLL!)

- The war in Ukraine is now 1 year old (horribly sad)

- Turkey got hit with a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and many aftershocks that were just as powerful (absolutely tragic)

- Trump still isn't in prison yet and decided to run for president again in 2024

- Mass shootings skyrocketed in 2023 

- Red states want to get a "divorce" from the US

I've been spending more time in Vanny! I've put in blackout curtains and now have all the windows covered which has made it great for parking at the beach and climbing in the back. I still have to 2 rows of seats in and not sure how far I want to build everything out because I discovered that Vanny has a bad case of rust around the front windshield and read doors. With all the rain there has been alot of water that got in and the carpet is really really wet. So not sure what to do but once the rain does stop I'll see if I can get an estimate to get it repaired.

Speaking of repair, last time we talked I was involved in a hit and run. Miracously, my car just had minor damage to the front bumper and the guy sped off in his white Mercedes with his front tire falling off! I didn't get his license plate number because my dashcam unplugged itself....which is totally bizarre but I wrote it off as the event happening exactly as it should and let the Karmic Wheel deal with this guy instead of chasing him down. oh well - everyone was totally fine and I got  the hood painted too - so all is well with the car.

And I got a beach cruiser for my birthday! I put lights all over it and on the wheels too. But it's either been ridicouly cold or raining so I haven't been able to really take it out on the road yet. but it's awesome. I'll post some pictures soon.

Ok, this is getting a little long-winded. I'll keep this blogging thing up because apparently I have quite a bit to say lately 😂