Catching Up: Saturday

No idea how well I slept. Can't remember. Spook was on  the bed for a while. Pretty much slept in, I think.

The only plan was to take Caltrain to SF and then Muni to VanNess & Market, and see my heart throb Melissa in On A Clear Day You Can See Forever. The original idea was the 6:14 which would get me to the theater just before curtain time (8 pm) but as usual I was way early, and had a choice between the 5:14 milk run or the 5:later express which would arrive 4 minutes later. I took the first one. It used to take an hour, I'm almost certain, but now it takes 1:25. So that put me on the bus at almost 7 (they only run every 20 minutes on weekends now) and at the theater at 7:15. If I had gone with the 6:14 train I would have missed the show.

But I was early enough to buy a snickers bar at Walgreen's across the street and take some cell photos of the magnificent building in which the theater now resides. It used to be the Masonic Temple.







Across the street there was a line around the block for something. Judging from who was in the line, I'm guessing rap group.

I had never seen the show, knew Streisand was in the movie (one reason I have never seen the show), but it didn't matter much because this was a rewrite where instead of the main characters being a woman and the same woman in a past life, this time the main characters was a gay man and the woman he was in a past life. And his shrink, who falls in love with the past life woman, causing the gay man to think the shrink is in love with present day him. Which puts a dent in gay man's boyfriend's plans to cohabit.

Melissa was the 1940s singer.

The production was okay, but a bit uneven. Only two or three of the musical numbers were memorable, and the rewriters made the mistake of saving the title song for the end, then repeating it ad nauseum. There was an outstanding performance by some of the players, including the Obligatory Fat Chick who is the shrink's assistant and in love with him, so she keeps setting him up on dates. Transference. There is a man about my age who played about 15 small parts, all very well. And a woman my age who played a few almost as well. The gay man's female roommate was excellent. She probably had the most lines besides the gay man & the shrink.

Gay man was so over the top flaming I was glad I was in the back row in case of spontaneous human combustion. He also had an annoyingly reedy voice. Shrink has a lovely baritone voice, but we only heard it on those rare times when he was all the way downstage, because at the 2nd to last performance he had forgotten he was not miked. Ditto for all of the ensemble except the two old people.

The tech was stunning for a no-budget show. Lighting colors were coordinated with a fancy faux proscenium which had backlight effects built in.

No set to speak of. Some very clever choreography, especially the trio dance between shrink, Melissa and gay man. When shrink goes in for the final kiss, Melissa fades back and the kiss goes to the gay man as the lights go out.

I stayed about 15 minutes after to get a hug from Melissa, which is always worth the wait. The show was long, I had already missed the 10:15 train, and when I walked out of the building the bus was just pulling out, so I took the stairs down to the Muni station and caught the N back to Caltrain. No 11:15 train, had a long wait for the midnight last train.

Sunnyvale at 1:30, figured I was most of the way there so went to Safeway and did my banana and frozen food shopping.

Home at about 2:30 am
To be continued

Catching Up: Sunday

When last we left our hero, it was 2:30 am Sunday morning, he put away the groceries, added a placeholder LJ post, ate some mixed fruit, shot up, and went to bed.

Even though the shooting up was in proportion to the Hgl reading, our hero forgot that it was in proportion to a much sooner bedtime, and at about 6 woke up with optical migraines so severe he couldn't see straight, a deep insistent hunger, and not a lot of ability to keep completely upright on his way to the kitchen, and his Klondike Bar stash. Hgl reading of 57, which is a major crash.

As usual, I took the medication to my recliner, turned on the TV, after 9 am back east so the Sunday Today type shows were on.

Except they weren't.

In my dazed and blood sugar depleted state, I did not understand what I was seeing on the screen.

I was seeing Orlando. At dawn. And an ad for the Tony awards. Tonys, Orlando and dawn. This is your brain on insulin. Any questions?

Low blood sugar episodes sap all my strength, so between the very last bedtime and that, I went back to bed as soon as I could walk straight.

Nothing on the calendar till 5:30, I didn't even get dressed until 3:30. Kept the shades pulled. Watched too much CNN and MSNBC, and I hate to say it but I felt no personal reaction. Just the intellectual ones. And the knowledge that if Sandy Hook's dead babies didn't make anything change, a bunch of dead what too many congresscritters still call faggots certainly won't make anything change.

There was one thing that annoyed the crap out of me, is the PC media have added a Q to LGBT. WTF? I am livid about that. In the 80s, those people stole the perfectly innocent word "Gay" from my vocabulary because they objected to being called queer, and now they WANT to be called queer? Jesus Christ on a pogo stick juggling chain saws, bowling balls and popsicles! I am done. From now on they are just people.

4:30, dressed, hauled my still whacked body to the car and met Janice for coffee in MV. She has offered to bribe me with Thai food at a very nice restaurant in return for fixing a bunch of computer issues. The biggest issue is she panics. She has used computers for 30 years and she still panics in front of them. Her late brother was a computer guru. J & I  met on the Internet before there was a WWW. Sheesh.

I was planning on going to a 7 pm storyteller's meetup after, but we talked till past 7:30, and the meetup host texted she would not be there, and only 3 others had rsvped.

So home, heated up a quick dinner, made sure I was done eating by 9, did the minimum on the computer, was more careful with my meds, and was in bed by 9:30.

And Now It's Monday

Up at 7:30, was dressed when Automation Guy phoned to chat at about 9. Because I was about to head for Kaiser MV for a fasting blood test the doc reminded me to take. Got to the lab at about 10, now it costs $35 when it used to be free pre-medicare. Long wait for the Obligatory screaming/nursing baby. Bled at ab out 10:30, then took myself upstairs to the doc's office where there was another wait for my BP check. Nurse was pleased with what I had been told last month was too high a reading. 142/xx My xx is always under the prescribed 70. Used to be 120/xx was the target. Nurse today said it's now 140. A second reading 5 minutes later was under 140/xx. So I was good to go.

I could have walked, but did not want to take up clinic parking space when there was a free lot right under the Bean Scene, proprietor of fine pastries and beverages. And much to my surprise, there were several spaces for electric cars, so I parked in one even though all the chargers were in use (2 spaces per charger). Walked across the street to B of A and got some Yuppie food stamps at the ATM and took 10 of my Caltrain dollar coins inside and traded for a pair of fins. (Yesterday to pay for parking I put in a 20 and the machine gave me 15 dollar coins).

Back across the street and was disappointed to see the coffee shop had no pastries in stock. I settled for a slice of chocolate mousse cake and an iced coffee. Took those outside to the tables in the shade, and read from the Kindle app, and latched onto MV's wifi and Facebooked and Instagrammed.

In the morning there had been a couple of calls from a NJ number which I let go to voicemail, but there was no voicemail message and no email. While I was at the Bean Scene, there was a another call, this time I took it, and Indian recruiter calling from NJ with a contract possibility at YouTube which I'm pretty sure I was already rejected for, but I told her for $50/hr I'd consider it. She said she would email the job description, but nothing came in the next 10 minutes.

Back to the garage to put my tablet in the car, and when I saw there was now a free charger, instead of going home I plugged in the car and got out my laptop and headed for the library next door.

Set up my laptop, and there was email from NJ. I confirmed the hourly rate, attached my resume, and sent it off. And got a reply asking if I could do C2C. I asked her what that was, she replied it means Corp To Corp, if I have incorporated myself they can offer a higher rate. I replied that no, I have to be W2.

Been looking for a mortar & pestle for some of my Thai cooking, and online they are expensive and hard to tell quality, so a little out of my way, but I went to the Asian market closest to my house (there are no longer any big ones near downtown MV). They had all kinds of other stuff, but no M&Ps. I stocked up on garlic & ginger and they had a good price for red delicious apples. Also picked up two small soup bowls to replace a couple of casualties.

Now I was closer to Ranch 99 in Milpitas, so I headed there.
Much to my surprise, Ranch 99 had no M&Ps either. But they had Dungeness crabs for less than $3 a pound so I bought two. They wanted twice that for live ones, but no thanks. Made the mistake of going to their deli for fat bombs, ended up buying a whole roast duck and about 3 lbs of BBQ pork. It was now 2:30 and I was getting hungry, and the center that R99 is in is a cavalcade of Asian eateries and jewelry stores, so I walked the north side of the U, but the only place that was open was the Malaysian place. So I walked across to the south side, but the Thai place was closed and all its signs were in Chinese anyway. Just before getting back to R99 there was a shop catering to all the restaurants, but also selling retail. It was kind of Asian kitchen heaven, so I walked all the aisles, replaced missing spatulas, and found a whole bunch of M&Ps, settled on a marble set. Very heavy, solid, and small enough for the small portions I make. Also found a tea ball on a chain, much better than the one on a stick I have.  Happy, brought that to the car and started for home via the back roads.

As I was pulling out, I got a call from NJ, but it was some dude from the same recruiting company who seemed to be trying to hijack the account from the woman, but my bluetooth kept cutting out so all I heard was his really bad accent and some mumbling. It looked like his PBX was on the fritz. Or maybe he was calling from India, but I don't think so because it would have been 4 am there.

Home, unpacked, unloaded the laundry from the dryer, put the whites into the dryer but it was too warm to start it up.

Delivered from Jet was the 3 3-lbs bags of Costco walnuts. They cost me $11 each, at Costco they are $20. That was the only deal I saw on Jet which was really a deal.

Eventually the crabs got cooked, and food was transferred to quart freezer bags. The crab went into the fridge, I'll probably have one tomorrow for lunch. Most of the duck and pork is in the freezer, with a sandwich bag's worth of each in the fridge. The M&P, bowls and spatulae are in the sink, awaiting dishwasher critical mass.

Oh yeah, I also brought in the garbage bins.

Interrupted this to have some food. One baggie of duck pieces. Earlier, Spook was staring at me putting the duck into bags, so I ripped off a piece and put it in her food dish. She delicately pawed it out and batted it to the linoleum, and walked away. What kind of cat doesn't like a piece of duck? I also ate half of a week-old container of cut cantaloupe, which has started to ferment. Tangy! And a few potato chips. May have a popsicle later.

Just checked my lab results. Everything done except the A1C, and they are all better than the last 10 times. Through no fault of my own. Credit the non-snacking nature of unemployment.

The Warriors lost at home, handily, partly due to the NBA suspending one of the key players for the game, on a call which should have gone against the opponents. Next two games are away. Boo. Hiss.

Emailed the woman recruiter, asking her what's going on.

Plans for tomorrow:
I don't think I have any except eat some crab.
Maybe Baylands.