I like the way you think Vortex. Or a little Bailey's for the coffee....

Everything that's going on with my granddad is stirring up deep, deep-rooted dysfunction in the larger extended family and everything is just sort of going to hell while I watch.

Yep.

I just... forget sometimes. She does such a good time covering it up, and putting focus on others (my dad and my grandmother) that I let myself be fooled, and I think everything's great and relatively normal, and just... no. No, not at all.

I could not even IMAGINE how awful it would be if my mother's parents were still alive. OMG.

Basically, I made the mistake of telling her I was worried about her and urging her to accept help if it was offered, and asking for help if she needed it. Oh, I won't do that again.

Gronk.

I just got my final paycheck. They took out Medical, Dental, Life insurance and Flex Spending at this year's rate.

Except that as an ex-employee, I'm no longer eligible for that.

I gritted my teeth and girded my loins, relaxed and called the HR person who fired me.

I was all polite and cordial. I figure that when people check on my past employers, I should not give them a reason to say things about me to potential employers.

We're going to see if his employer will give him a fuel allowance in lieu of plane fare.

Odds are you'll be driving through Atlanta.

Odds are you'll be driving through Atlanta.

My house is tiny, but I've got a guest bed and two sleepable couches.

Mmmm. I ate there with JZ and Hec a few SF visits ago. Perhaps it was the year of the Debauched Halloween Where I Kissed Damn Near Everyone. Anyway. Helmand is yummy Afghani food.

That was a good Halloween. Helmand is still yummy.

I met Juliana at City Lights Books and we had a drink at Vesuvios. Then I dragged her around the stretch between North Beach and downtown, showing her Chef Jia and Cafe Prague and other notable boites, while telling horror stories about the Barbary Coast and how that relates to early Eugene O'Neill.

Then we stopped at the Bamboo Hut (tiki bar) on Broadway and had another drink and talked to Tobias the bartender who used to be manager of the HiBall Lounge next door. (Which before that had been the Jazz Workshop of Charles Mingus fame.)

Then we wandered down to Tosca - along the way I pointed out the porn shop which advertised The Nastiest Videos In San Francisco and assured her that this was no idle claim as they specialized in Japanese and German porn and neither country has ever properly dealt with their loss in WWII and consquently were deeply profoundly FUCKED UP in their sex videos.

At Tosca we sat at the bar, I pointed out the sticker from the 1939 World's Fair on the back bar and the opera on the jukebox. JZ met us there and then we were off to Helmand for dinner.

Afterwards we walked Juliana home and she took us to the hipster bar directly under her apartment - Magnet. We had some sake infusion thingie (mine was pineapple - very tasty) and sat upstairs and stared at the large plasma screen TV showing some Baraka like National Geographic stylish third world imagery and tried to talk over the pick-up chatter and the rap and petted the dog that wandered by every 10 minutes.

In short, it was fun.

Sounds good.

So very jealous!

Is askye anywhere near there?

Alas, askye is even further from Tampa than me. 5 hours in the other direction. Long state it is. Still, come and play! It's a very nice state.