I am trapped in a phonecall with my teenage niece. I don't even know what we're talking about anymore. We've gone through henna tattoos to her weird dreams to um, boys named Mailer and Task, which may be teen-girl-pr0n she's writing. And there's a witch that keeps coming up. I am praying her mom will arrive home soon.

Ah, Vortex, the more I learn about your dad, the more I think he was the bee's knees.

Yep, I was very lucky to have had him. Whenever I miss him, I can't help but smile at the same time.

Wow. New way in which my workplace has decided to try and control employees. A very unsettling email was sent to everyone saying that one of the hi up muckety mucks is on 'leave' for an indeterminate time. Ok, odd, I guess it's good that we know who is gonna run things in the meantime so I can understand why this information was circulated. But that was followed with "In the interim, I expect that you will immediately bring to my attention, or the attention of the appropriate supervisor, any instances that you become aware of whereby this information becomes a topic of gossip or speculation by any ...employee. Such instances may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination."

Soooooooo......I get that no one wants us gossipping...but I work with very smart, sharp people who are trained to infer criminal activity from vague statements. That^^ I read as "something scandalous happened but if you ask anyone what happened you will be fired." Which pisses me off to no end. Thanks, ThoughtPolice, I'll try to NOT have my interest piqued by statements that can have no result other than to stir the pot.

Wow, that is annoying, erin. Something like that would make me way more curious than just "This person is on leave."

The frozen food place that I've been ordering from accidentally sent me two weeks worth of food this week, rather than just one. Which, cool, free food, but also, not so much freezer space. (Also, while this food is pretty good, and it's definitely a help to have pre-made food for the next few months, I really want to know why they have a space on the order form for food allergies, if they send stuff containing those allergens anyway.)

What service is this? I am loving my SoupCycle subscription (which is soup, delivery weekly, via bicycle, because Portland.) A quart of vegan soup every week, and sometimes I'll add on the 'soup of the week' or the veggie soup and get 2 quarts and that's up to 8 meals if I expand it with some crusty bread or lotsa steamed kale. I've found that very few soups (at least the vegan kind I get) suffer from a handful of washed, chopped kale tossed in so that it steams as the soup heats.

And yeah, I normally wouldn't care in the least why a high-up muckity muck is on leave. Tell me that I can't ask or discuss and all of sudden i'm on high SCANDAL!!!! alert.

A supervisor just got nosy about a conversation i was having with a coworker re the lovely quilt on the wall which just unfortunately happens to look like an enormous swastika. We are so being surveilled.

erin, that is hella sketch.

Zen, did you ever escape? That sounds… confusing.

Had a pretty good day. Ended it "working" the merch table at a vaudeville show. I use scare quotes because frequently I don't sell anything, like tonight. I get in free and sometimes get a few bucks, but it's mostly a favor for a friend. I find it depressing when I don't sell anything, though. I think her prices are too high, but what do I know.

And yeah, I normally wouldn't care in the least why a high-up muckity muck is on leave. Tell me that I can't ask or discuss and all of sudden i'm on high SCANDAL!!!! alert.

Yeah, something like that happened at my last job. So naturally everyone was scanning police reports and whatnot in the paper for clues. We quickly learned that the person on leave had had a metric buttload of pot growing in his house in the country. He'd been out of state for some reason and got an alert on his phone that there'd been a break in. And, with instincts likely honed by sampling the merchandise, he called the cops and asked them to check it out. The good news--they didn't find any burgers.

That would indeed wake any latent curiosity. Good grief, erin's employers.

Oh no, I think Zen fell asleep with the phone on her ear. And is likely having really interesting dreams.

Took the Buffy quiz, and cheated on almost every question. I think I would have scored about 25% otherwise.

Boy update. He decided that living on the beach was still better than moving a whole 20 miles to Fort Lauderdale (ends of the earth) to live with his aunt and uncle. BUT, he is coming by every day to shower and get fed, AND he got a job (probably) at Office Depot doing tech. He stopped there with a friend to get toner and talked to the tech manager and they were desperate for help. He can pass any support type test they throw at him and the manager basically told him he was in. He meets with them formally Tuesday. He also has an interview for a couple grocery store openings Monday. I told him when he was employed I would pay for his first month somewhere close to his job. He has applied a bunch of places.

Someday he will appreciate me, right? Seriously, I know he loves me and knows I love him and all that, but he doesn't get why we won't let him be a 23 yo bum living in our house. Sigh.

He already does appreciate you or you. He's just being a big jerk.