Blair

I have a new (to me) car! She's a 2000 Buick Park Avenue. She's old, but super fancy and quite nice. I'm very happy about this. I named her Blair. This is the Big Thing I've been talking about. I knew I was going to get this car, but I needed to make some things fall into place first. Now they have and she's with us!

This is a very good day. I'm very happy about it. I'm also exhausted from all the errands. Anyway, hello Blair. Welcome to my life.

And No One was Happy

I had this dream that for the last 20 years, I was part of this family that kept spinning in and out of reality. We went on all kinds of adventures when we were outside our own time and space and gained a lot of odd skills. Recently, we'd found out the reason for all the chaos and put and end to it. We could still spin where we needed to go, but we had control over it now.

In the 20 years that had passed, much had changed. Everyone else got older. Friends died or had children. People we'd not seen in ages could now be visited, but nothing would ever be like it was. The family had been so sick of each other, but as they came to terms with how different things were, they began to draw closer together. It felt so stifling.

This was one of those really emotionally-vivid dreams where I felt such joy at the prospect of having my old life back, only to watch that fade away as the reality of the time passage began to take hold. Even so many hours later, I'm still feeling the whole mess of it. There was the disorientation from the first part of the dream where I kept moving through space/time and then the happiness of getting that to stop and being victorious, only to realize it didn't exactly make anyone happier. Uggh.

Pointless Debate

Clinton and Trump had their first debate last night. Everyone assumed it would be widely viewed, though I think mostly for the same reasons people slow down to look at a car wreck. People either hate-watched one candidate or the other.  I'm not sure anyone's opinions were changed.

I think we should allow the independent candidates to be at these debates as well. Whether you vote for a major party or not, I think it does a disservice to the voters to not hear from everyone. Even if the voter decides to go with a major party when it comes to actual voting, the other opinions, options, and ideas should be discussed.

They let a massive number of people on stage during the primaries. We had tons of Republicans running for president. And really, they were mostly all saying the same thing. If we allowed Libertarian and Green to take the stage as well, the voters would get to hear all the various options for how to move forward as a nation.

I'm not saying this because I support the Libertarians or the Green Party (any more than I actually support everything the Democrats or the GOP have to say, for that matter), but I still believe they have the right to be heard. We need more ideas, not less. We need more solutions, not less.

It would make the debates far more interesting as well. The major parties are so caught in their narrative that having to face off with other people might give a level of gravity to the debates. I also believe more people would watch. More people might hear ideas that sound reasonable to them.

Then again, maybe that last bit is the part that scares everyone.

Monday Doing Its Monday Thing

I had this plan last night to go to bed early so I could get a nice level of sleep. That would have worked beautifully, but the people working for the electric company cut the power this morning. It was only out for 45 minutes, but it threw off my sleep schedule and basically sent my whole day into a tailspin.

I really wish this hadn't happened because, otherwise, it was a nice day. The weather is starting to level out and I didn't spend the whole day in a state of sullen dampness. In fact, I even managed to get in a good nap.

Tomorrow is the start of a week of me having to do stuff every day (other than Saturday). I'm hoping all of it goes well, as some parts are dependent on other parts falling into place. I've organized it as best I can, but as you know, my great plans often have unforeseen bits of reality that smack me in the face.

Other than that, I'm still sick. My throat has felt icky for weeks now. I'd love for that to end, but it's going to take a change in the pollen count. I would think my allergy meds weren't working, but I know they are. They're just not potent enough to deal with all of this mess.

Finally Cool

The next two weeks are going to be kind of tense for me. I have A THING happening. It isn't a bad thing or a cancer thing or dangerous thing. In fact, it's a very good thing which I will discuss when it's finally a done deal. But it involves a lot of steps and right now those steps haven't happened. The idea of them feels a bit overwhelming and I'm trying to just keep it all in perspective.

The weather is cooling down some. Maybe. It's cooler tonight than it has been. Maybe we'll finally start to get our Fall weather. I'd like that. September has been kind of a dick in that regard.

It's cool enough for me to knit again and I'm trying my best to finish the current project so I can get to the next one. I have quite a few things that need to happen before Christmas. I'm hopeful though. Very hopeful.

Truth Versus Beauty

I was watching some show last night and grinning about it. When I saw my reflection in the monitor, some old hag was staring back at me. I wasn't upset by this or ashamed of it. In that moment, it's what I looked like. It was the truth.

When I was a kid, people used to say that beauty is in the of the beholder. I rarely hear anyone say that these days, because I'm not sure most people believe that anymore. Beauty used to be in the eye of the beholder because we understood that certain things appeal to people and not to others. It seems to have changed.

Now beauty is often defined by how well one conforms to a standard. Do your teeth look a certain way? Are you within a certain weight range? Do you keep all the hair shaved off of your body? Can you contour your face? Does your vulva look like the vulva of the porn stars?

Is that what beauty has become? Is it all about erasing what is unique to the person? None of us take the damage of life in exactly the same way. No one scars the same or gets the same stretch marks. No one loses their hair in the same way or has the exact same patterns of hair on their body. These things, these flaws, define us. They are the truth of who we are.

Now, I'm certainly not knocking people's abilities to create illusions of beauty. As you know, I'm in awe of what people can do with hair and makeup. I find the structure of a well-disciplined body to be just as beautiful as anyone else would. I love the grace and power of it. Does it have bearing on the person who did the work? Of course. It says a lot about their character, but not everything.

How would it feel if the person who loved you and shared a sex life with you knew the way the hair grew on your body? How would it feel if they celebrated that? How would it feel to know they loved the wrinkles and freckles and crooked places? How would it feel to know those unique things were the cherished things? How would it feel to be THAT loved?

Fall

You're lucky to get this post. The internet was off for the majority of the day. It was an areawide  thing and everyone was mad about it.

Anyway, it's Fall now. Yay Fall! This means I'll soon get to my favorite holiday . . .you know, the one where we all get an extra hour and I get to sleep more.

I'll post more later.

XOXO

Sims Drama Max Has Really Broken Death

"You look like someone I once destroyed."

Max went to get coffee and terrorize the locals. While he was there, he saw Death again. Death wasn't there to fetch anyone. In fact, I'm not sure Death even DOES that anymore. Death just showed up to drink coffee and be sad about Max breaking his/her heart. If there was an interaction to write weepy poetry and read it out loud at the coffee shop (actually a little surprised there isn't), Death probably would have been doing that. As you can see from the pic I took, Max is completely unmoved by the Grim Weeper's sorrow. He offered Death the same haughty gaze he gives everyone.

After Max got his own coffee and stole someone's food, he proceeded to flirt with Death some more and then gave him/her the cold shoulder for the rest of his time at the coffee shop. Death tried to get some consolation in watching the cooking channel with some locals. I don't think this went well because Max saw one of his other lovers and did naughty things with them in a closet.

Later I spotted Death out fishing again. I also saw him/her at a party on the bluffs. I'm not sure Death is going to ever regain any kind of dignity over this. Max believes he should get some sort of special prize for this.

Seasonal Whinging

Looked at the blog from last year and my eyesight was so bad from allergy stuff that was having to make my fonts huge so I could see them. I'm coughing and wheezing right  now, but at least I'm not having to do that. Pretty sure that will change over the next few days. The electric company people are like RIGHT by us now. Things are going to get ugly in a pollen kind of way.

It's also staying unseasonably hot. I need to be working on stuff, but I just can't right now. Too warm. I'm really just kind of managing to keep myself floating along.

I have some things that will be happening in the next few weeks. I was panicking about them some, but now that I'm taking steps, things are feeling less overwhelming. That's good. Though lately it's been like I have two brains. One brain functions in panic mode and the other brain just calmly wonders what the hell we were panicking about.

In the meantime, I'm just going to try to stay as even as possible.

September Is a Brat

It seems September is going to defy my wishes. All this week we have weather in the 90s. This is not going to be fun. I was looking forward to transitioning to nights with no fans. That's not happening for a while. I actually wrote 'fangs' the first time. Hah! I'll always have nights with fangs.

Anyway, I'm tired. Today was stressful and I'm trying to wind down from that. I'll write more later.

The Lurker

I don't live in a massively big house, but it's decent sized. I have three bedrooms, a kitchen, a large living room, a laundry room, and plenty of windows. One would think that all that space would be enough for three cats to find their own spot to hang out.

And yet, I have two cats that want to lurk in the bathroom. For a while, it was the kind of zombie one. Now it's the white one. There is honestly no reason in  the world why they would do this, other than to annoy us.

The bathroom is the smallest room in the house. There isn't really a great place to sit. It's often wet. It gets a lot of traffic, which means the cat will often be disturbed. Plus, you know, people do unpleasant but needed things in bathrooms. You'd think this would be the last place a cat would want to be.

I needed to take a shower. I walk into the bathroom and there sits the white one.

"Out." I tell her. She glares at me.

I rattle the shower curtain. She hates plastic. "Out." I receive more glaring, but at least she leaves. I get into the tub and step on something. Now this is the cat that sometimes has trouble remembering where the litter box is so I panic just a little. Assuming the worst, I raise my foot. Not poo . . . but it IS a cat treat.

Sigh.

She needs to find a new spot to lurk.

Max the Sim Terror

Maximillian, my evil (and favorite) sim has just moved into a new house to celebrate his rise to the top of his criminal empire. His title is The Oracle and his daily duties at home include writing a new computer virus. This is something he always takes great pleasure in doing. Max takes pleasure in most evil things.

These are some of the things he's done, though by no means all.

Broke Death's Heart

Max witnessed the death of one of his enemies and enjoyed it so much that he started flirting with the Grim Reaper when it showed up. You can't really have a romantic relationship with the Reaper in Sims 4, but you can get Death interested enough in your sim to where when said sim starts flirting with someone else, the Grim Reaper gets really upset. Max did that. He laughed evilly when the Reaper's heart was breaking.

Mindwiping Victims

Because Max is alien, he can erase the memory of human sims. He often treats sims horribly and beats them up, then wipes their memories and consoles them out of their sad mood.

Fathering Bastards

Okay, I actually do this with a lot of my male sims (because I'm awful) but Max really excels in the fathering of bastard children. So far, he has ten kids. He only raises one of them. One poor girl has six kids with him. Every time I go to her place to check in on them, she's wishing he'd come over and propose to her. That won't happen.

Multigenerational Pain

Max hated the richest man in the city and became enemies with him. He went over to the man's house and sabotaged him enough to where he died. Then he seduced the man's daughter and moved into the house. He walled the man's sons up and starved them to death while the daughter was pregnant with his child. Once she had the baby, he gifted her with her brothers' urns and ignored her. Eventually she seduced someone else and moved out of the house.

Ruining Birthday Parties

Max is hated by most people and usually doesn't get invited to parties. One guy actually invited him to his Becoming an Elder birthday party and Max agreed to show up. I knew things were going to go sideways when the first thing he did was sit down by the guy's newly adult daughter and start flirting with her. By the end of the party, she was pregnant. In fact, she and Max didn't even watch her father blow out his candles because they were too busy getting it on in the closet.

Ruining Public Spaces

When Max goes to a public area, he will steal as many things as he can, freeze people with his freeze ray, and sabotage all of the plumbing. If there are any tvs or stereos, he destroys them for parts. He also pees in the peeing bushes to make them stink and stomps on piles of trash. There are a couple of public places that are so messed up that sims go into distress just wandering onto the lot.

I really love him.

The Best Laid Plans Crashing into Reality

When we moved into this house, one of my goals was to set up the file cabinets, organize actual files, and make sure that all important paperwork was in order. I honestly thought I had accomplished this.

And yet tonight, when I go to find an important legal document, it is somehow NOT in the file marked for it. In fact, it is nowhere to be found at ALL.

I'm really kind of beside myself about this. It would be one thing if I couldn't find the thing in a massive clutter of unorganized paperwork. Lose a document in the big irresponsible mess? That's just what you get.

But no, I lose this thing after going through the EFFORT to actually organize everything, tag hanging files, and situate the paperwork . . . you know, like adults are supposed to do. If I was just going to lose it anyway, why bother going through all the work? And trust me, setting up a filing system is work.

Dammit.

Bad Eyes

I looked back at my blog from last year and noticed I talked about how my eyes were giving me trouble. They still are, though I believe that is mostly due to allergy stuff. Allergies have been such a mess this year.

I folded towels today and tomorrow (or the next day, depending on how I feel) I'll put my clothes away as well. Past driving my roommate to the store, that's about my limit of activity for now. I'm still not feeling super great.

Hopefully I can recover more during the weekend.

Positive Blips

I spent most of today being sick and uncomfortable. My head hurt. My nose was runny. My eyes wouldn't stop leaking.  It wasn't all bad. I was doing something I love and being with someone who brings me more joy than I ever imagined I would find. Today was also good because I know that RuPaul won an Emmy.

That is significant. Ru won an Emmy for a show about drag queens competing to see who is the best drag queen. And this was no token win either. It's a genuinely amazing show with a huge following. Sometimes I think the world is rolling backwards, then something like that happens.

So yes, good things despite my illness. Now if only the illness would go away.

When Trees Attack

Sorry I didn't blog last night. My body is kind of a wreck right now. The electric company has workers clearing tree limbs out of the way of the lines. This is a good thing in theory. It means we're less likely to lose power. In reality, however, it sucks.

The equipment is loud and jarring. They usually start working before seven and continue far into the day. The equipment is also huge and somehow ALWAYS on whatever street I need to turn on. I realize both of these things are First World Problems, but they still annoy me.

I could handle both of those if this wasn't making me sick. All the wood particles and leaves and pollen and god knows what else in the air has caused one hell of an allergy reaction. My throat feels raw. My eyes won't stop watering. Occasionally I'm blowing blood out of my nose. My roommate and the cats are just as bad. It's painful.

I know the limbs have to be trimmed, but I will be really glad when it ends. Living with the noise and inconvenience is one thing. Living in an achy, swollen sinus hell is just unacceptable.

There Really Is a Big Picture

Thanks to my best friend (seriously, thank you!) I saw Labyrinth in the theater today. I've seen this movie like a million times, but this is the first of those times to involve a big screen. Did it make a difference? Oh yes, it certainly did.

When movies are adapted to smaller viewing (in this case, VHS waaaaaaaaaay back in the day) certain scenes have to be chopped and edited in order to fit into the limited space. Because of this, the full meaning of scenes can be lost. For instance, in this movie, the masked ball is far more sensual and titillating in its original form. The scene with the garbage woman makes a lot more sense. Watching all the elements unfold together makes the story more complete.

The theater was full. I'm not surprised by this. A lot of people love this movie. It flopped when it was first released, but achieved cult classic status in the years to follow. We're 30 years past Labyrinth, and despite some very 80s elements to it, it still holds up well. I'm very glad I got to see it.

This is a day I will always remember.

Furniture Dread

It's supposed to rain and get cooler tonight. I'm seriously in favor of this. This weather is awful. I'm tired of being sticky and it needs to end. I'd like my autumn now, thank you. This has been one of those days where I just couldn't get comfortable. The sad thing is, there are a lot of those days.

Recently I was asked the order in which I would want things to be improved for fat people. Doctor's equipment, clothing, furniture, and cars. I said furniture first. There is a lot of reason to say clothing first, because, in terms of comfort, it's best to work from what is closest to you and move outward.

The furniture thing popped into my head first, however, because it's a constant issue. Almost all of the stuff I sit on is uncomfortable. When I go out to eat, I always have to worry about how uncomfortable the seating will be. Every time I have to go to a new place, there is a slight panic about the furniture situation. It makes me a difficult friend to have, because there are many times when I will opt out of going some place because I know I'm just going to be uncomfortable.

I honestly can't imagine what life would be like to just always assume you'll be fine on whatever furniture a place has to offer. That is a privilege I don't have in my life. The idea of being able to go where ever I wanted and know my body would be accommodated is honestly the most lovely of thoughts. Ugh, it's actually kind of depressing me because that SHOULD be the way it is (because thin people could still sit in the chairs that held fat people too), it isn't. Any 'going out' situation is always one of dread for me.

You know what helps ease the dread? Cooler weather. I'd like some of that now, please.

Draggy Month

I'm not sure why, but September seems to be dragging. Maybe it's the heat. Maybe it's the fact that new shows will be starting later in the month. I'm really not sure. I just know that it feels like it should be far later in the month. Time, however, does not work the way I wish it to.

For the most part, I am pretty sure it's the heat. The heat index was 94 today and it actually felt worse than it did back in August. I woke up a few times last night and it was rather unpleasantly warm in my room. I need to start working on projects. It's supposed to be cooler by Saturday. Hopefully, everything will feel better next week.

At least Drag Race has started. The third episode is on tonight. Even the clip I saw of it was really great. I love this show so much.

Disassociation

I've had this blog for quite some time now. As you know, I tend to reread my old entries to see what was going on a year ago (or a few years ago). I realized tonight that I never go back and look at anything before 2014. In fact, part of me almost forgot that I had a blog before then.

Now occasionally I'll have to look something up to find out exactly when something happened (a repair, for example) but even when I do that, I feel like I'm looking at something now forbidden to me. It's as if the posts written by pre-2014 belong to someone else.

Clearly I did exist before then, but . . . did I? As I've written before, in some ways, I feel the same as I did before the hysterectomy, but in other ways, I really don't. This makes sense, of course. I AM different. Parts of my body were removed. You know, that's the part that drives me kind of crazy sometimes. Parts were removed, but not parts I saw. We get so fixated on the outside of our bodies that we forget about all the secrets on the inside.

Looking at posts before 2014 to me is as hard as going into the bedroom where my grandmother died. I pretend like that room doesn't exist because it's too hard for me to think about what happened in there. I guess this is part of the grieving process.

Not Temporary

“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”

The above quote doesn't get a citation because it's somewhat disputed as to who actually said it. It is, however, at the root of what I want to talk about today. And no, we're not talking about socialism. We're talking about the damage that can happen when we view our situations as temporary.

My roommate and I were talking about activism today and how frustrated we get when activists focus on issues that really can't or won't be changed. The example he brought up was how certain communities who have high HIV rates will ignore that (even though activism when applied to dealing with HIV has proven to be quite helpful) and instead look at fluff issues that really don't affect anyone's lives.

The discussion eventually turned to fat activism (or factivism, as I like to call it). This is a new thing, really. Fat people are beginning to talk about the issues of being fat and how we'd all like to not be treated like hell just because we are fat. It's complicated, of course, but at the core of the issue, it's also important. There are so many places in my life where my being fat causes problems because society isn't accepting or welcoming of fat people.

This gets really frustrating when it comes to places where fat people SHOULD be welcomed. A few months back, I went to a bbq place where the tables were so close together I had to move a couple of them to even navigate myself to the table. The chairs were narrow and very uncomfortable. It annoyed me, not just for me, but also because this is bad for business. A lot of fat people like bbq. Make a place that is comfortable for them.

Businesses like that are nowhere near as frustrating as doctor's offices. There are scales that go up to 1000 lbs. There are chairs and tables that hold people who are larger. There are larger blood pressure cuffs. And yet, so many doctor's offices don't use them. Why? We know we have a high population of obese people. Why not have equipment you can use on  them? Why not have chairs that can hold them comfortably? Or at least, please have chairs with no arms. Even THAT is better than nothing.

You would think with as many obese people as we have in  this country, it would be obvious that we would have thing suited for their needs. We don't, though. At least, not that many. And the quote I gave above is exactly why. Fat people look at their situation as temporary. They believe they are well on their way to being a non-fat person and then the world will fit them too. They believe this even if they have hundreds of lbs to lose. They believe this even if they have been fat all of their lives.

Why? Because instead of being taught to deal with our current reality and work to make the best of it, we're taught that all the bad stuff is temporary and if we ignore it and just try to change the cause of the bad thing, we'll be okay. It's a nice theory, but it's also magical thinking.

You have no way of knowing if you will ever get out of your situation. You may always be fat. You may always be poor. You may always be disabled. You may always be single or childless or whatever other situation you see as undesirable. And yes, you can work towards changing that situation, but in the meantime, you are STILL IN IT. So what can you do to improve it?

To use a pretty basic example . . . I need a new bed. My bed is old and lumpy and there are some places where things poke out. This situation will go completely away when I get a new bed. Thing is, new beds are expensive. So yes, I can set up a little fund and label it 'new bed' and toss cash in there when I get some, but that will take a while. And emergencies happen, so it's possible it may never happen. In the meantime, I still have to sleep in this bed.

To that end, I flipped the mattress and requested a higher quality mattress pad for Christmas. If things get worse, I can always duct tape down the poking out parts and put some old blankets down as an extra layer of protection. By addressing the current situation (instead of just hoping it will go away), I am able to find ways to make it as comfortable and easy on me as possible. My life is improved.

There are people out there who believe that making the bad situation more comfortable is wrong. They think if you ease the suffering of the poor (or fat, etc), then these people will be tempted to NEVER get out of their situations at all. They'll find contentment and just stop trying to improve. Is this possible? Oh yeah. It happens, sure. I don't think that's a good enough justification for not doing it though. To my mind,  this is just as stupid as when Gramma would buy me clothes that were too small to 'encourage' me to lose weight. It neither helped me to lose weight nor addressed my current need for clothing.

Trust me. Getting clothes that fit me does not encourage me to stay overweight. In fact, when I'm in clothes that fit well, I'm more comfortable and more likely to move around. When people have their needs met, they're more likely to actually find their way out of their bad situation. This makes sense. Being uncomfortable is exhausting.

Kicking Summer Out

This looks like it will be our last week of weather in the 90's. After that, we should start the cool down. I'm hoping this happens for two reasons. One, I would really like mowing season to end because there is no aspect of mowing that I like (other than short grass) and two, we need a good window of time for us to deal with the bushes.

It needs to be cool enough for us to work outside without dying, but not so cold that the bushes and  trees sustain damage in the process. If we had a proper amount of autumn weather,  this wouldn't be a problem. We never get quite enough to my liking.

Speaking of autumn, we had our first pumpkin-flavored thing this year. The roommate bought some pumpkin and white chocolate cookies today. They were pretty good, but they needed more pumpkin. Maybe in a few weeks they shall have more.

Foxcatcher

I knew Foxcatcher would be a good movie, but I was in no way prepared for the level of emotional squirm it would give me. The acting is stellar. Everyone is so humanly awkward that it just sets me on edge. I've seen straight up horror movies that made me feel less icky than this.

Steve Carell's portrayal of John E. du Pont is intense and increasingly creepy in a way that made me dread every moment he would be onscreen. For someone best known for his comedies, Carell is often overlooked when it comes to his dramatic roles. Honestly, I think he's better in them, especially the darker ones. Foxcatcher is certainly a dark movie.

In many ways, it's the same kind of sick in the pit of my stomach feeling I had watching Boys Don't Cry. I guess that makes sense. Both movies are based on true stories about a murder victim and the person who killed them. In du Pont's case, I can see why they argued insanity, but at the same time, while I do believe the man was insane, I also think it was the kind of crazy one gets from being raised so stupid rich that relating to normal people is practically impossible.

Yes, I know I gave some spoilers there, but then again, the facts of this movie have been public knowledge for years now.

The Movement of the Art

Last night I spent 15 minutes watching a video where Adore Delano explained why she felt she had to leave RuPaul's Drag Race Allstars Season 2. Her reasons boiled down to why she honestly never should have gone on the show in the first place. Adore's only 25 and I tend to forgive the boy for a lot. I think it's difficult to see one's potential at that age. It's also very difficult to own one's artistic choices.

I wish Adore would have stayed on the show, because to me, one of the most interesting aspects of Drag Race is the ongoing conversation/debate about what drag is and what it can become. Adore is a fresh voice in that discussion because she chooses to take her inspirations from women who went against the normal standards of beauty, creating new kinds of iconic cultural images.

What's so amazing about that is how so many people dismiss drag as just this joke of a thing. It's not something to be dismissed at all. It brings in so many other facets of art. There are performance aspects, like singing, dancing, acting, and comedy, but also the visual aspect. After all, the drag artist paints himself into a new image. He sculpts the illusion of the female form with padding and clothing.

It's a complex art in practice and an even more complex one in philosophy. The drag creation can be a facet of the artist's personality or an impression of something outside of him. It can be there to make people uncomfortable or there to please them. Drag can celebrate or question our gender norms, all the while entertaining us. It allows people to be brave.

I wish Adore could have stayed. I think the doors for what is acceptable for drag would have opened even more if she would have. I understand that it wasn't healthy for her and I respect that. Perhaps another time.

Cart Saga

One of the complications of living in my grandmother's house is that I inherited all of her stuff. Now, some of her stuff is awesome and beautiful. Other things are items she picked up at yard sales, meaning they are who knows who old. My living room furniture is a good example of this. She picked this stuff up while I was in college from a yard sale. It looks pretty 80s and so I assume that's when it was built. I have no idea how it's staying together, but honestly, when it falls apart, I'm not going to feel bad about it. It's served way beyond its intended use.

The bigger items are easy to account for, but there are also a lot of little things in the house that probably have seen more years of service than they should. Today, (most of) one of those items was put to rest.

Since we moved in here, we've had a cheapass blue wire cart in the bathroom. It holds various bathroom items and sits between the toilet and the tub. It's very useful (in theory) and makes dealing with the bathroom a lot easier.

As I said, it's also old as the hills. It's been flaking off large clumps of blue paint since we moved here.  Under the paint is rust. Sometimes the cats would try to use it as a bed and it would collapse. I've talked before about how skinny my cats are. There is no reason this thing should have fell apart, but it's ancient and rickety.

Anyway, my roommate purchased a new wire cart. It's white and has one more shelf than the blue one did. Today I put it together and replaced the blue one. Having the nice, clean, taller, spiffy cart gives the bathroom a whole different feel.

Now, I said I got rid of MOST of the blue one because I did keep some parts of it. I repurposed the shelves by hanging them on my metal storage shelf in the living room. They now give me some extra space for smaller items. I'm rather pleased with this, though we all know how my grand ideas often don't go so well when reality hits them smack in the face.

But for now, I'm feeling very practical about the whole thing.

Sizes

So ever since the new Windows 10 update, nothing is staying a stable size for me. Part of this has to do with the fact that I tried to enlarge everything (because I am old and can't see crap) but also because once that was awful, I dis-enlarged everything and somehow, no settings stayed the same. Every day, I'm getting different sizes of things. Some of them I can see fine, others . . . not so much.

Anyway, so now I'm trying to adjust to this. I just wish the thing would stay one size. Well, honestly, I wish it would stay one size I can see. That would be quite nice.

We had a good day today. I hung out with my best friend in the morning and then celebrated my roommate's birthday with him. He picked out a place for us that we'd never been and it turned out pretty good. They had great fried okra. I am a fried okra ho.

The place was really comfortable and I liked that. I think making your restaurant comfortable is just as important as the food you serve. If I'm not comfortable there, I'm not going.