things I did before breakfast

cleaned inexplicable dog feces out of the laundry room
mopped the laundry room floor'
unstopped the toilet
swept and mopped the living room floor
unclogged the toilet
mopped the bathroom floor
took out the bathroom garbage
believed an impossible thing

and still couldn't believe they weren't here to see it

Whose story is this, anyway?

So I've been trying to find out more about the Senate and House races. To me the most remarkable thing is that, like this story at the Washington Post"Dole among losers as Democrats gain in Senate," in case that horrendous link doesn't hold up, some of the newspapers are less concerned with the Democratic victory than they are with the plight of the poor Republicans and their "task" going forward. What the hell?

Isn't the story here the general changing of the guard? Isn't the interesting thing the quality of the congress with these new people in it? Apparently, for the Post, as well as for the LA Times, the interesting thing is the Republicans.

Oh well. I mean, the Republicans are interesting, they are still there, still evil, still powerful, and still willing to go to any horrible lengths to serve their own narrow interests. But surely that story is for Thursday morning, isn't it? Isn't Wednesday morning the day to contemplate the winners?

By the way, it looks like Mary Jo Kilroy is going to win in Ohio after all.

the sadistic parking garage lady

So I've been driving to work most days. I'm sad and burnt out and I want to get out of the house at the last minute and get back to my dog as fast as possible. And I don't want to be late to work after I told everybody I feel better about things now that I have an exit date.

So I didn't have any parking change. So I figured I would park in the garage near to where I work (locals: the one with Little Shanghai and Atlantis in it) and pay them with folding money at the end of the day. But I saw a "No Twenties" sign on my way out (and why not on the way in?) and I knew I only had twenties so I planned to stop at Little Shanghai on the corner and buy a package of plum wafers so I would have dollars and fives and things. I was ten minutes early, everythign should be fine. But I discovered on my way in that I did not have my wallet so I would not be able to pay for parking at all. So I went back to the car and looked for my wallet in the car. No. So I had to leave. After all, if you just come in and go again they don't charge you.

I shouldn't have. I should have left the car and walked home after work and walked back to the garage later at night and paid for the accumulated parking (it's an all-day, and into the late night garage, which is another reason why I parked there: no three-hour limit). Because the lady at the kiosk demanded a quarter and I didn't have one. I had already explained why I was leaving so soon -- because I had no money for parking. She said I had been parked for ten minutes and you only get four minutes free.

She was having such a fun time telling me this. With a flourish she said, when I repeated I didn't have anything, that she wouldn't let me out of the garage until she wrote me a ticket. And she proceeded to write me a twenty dollar ticket for the failure to have a quarter. She said if I came back before three with a quarter I could pay off the ticket with it. After she already knew I didn't have a quarter and couldn't get out of work to bring one to her if I had it.

I was of course crying by then -- I was already pretty upset because I had gotten yet another condolence from someone I hadn't seen in years -- and she just got smugger and smugger.

I was nine minutes late.

It was an okay day at work, though. I realized at six, when the little boy who is usually last started asking for the ritual mommy songs, that I had not sung all day, which is really unusual, and I'm sorry for it. I'll do better tomorrow.