I was going to freak out about getting a Vera Wang dress at the Goodwill, but then I checked the label, and it's her line for Kohl's. I still like it, though! And it was still $7.

That's awesome. I can't believe you worked on ships for six years! Weren't you here before that? Time flies, man.

I was! Which is insane. I found myself here when I lived in China, which is what I did before I worked on ships. But, six years! Dang.

That's so great! And bodes well for your relationship.

Thank you! I think it does! We technically lived together on the ship (because if you don't live with the person you are dating you will literally never see them) but this is way different. We've only been in the apartment 8 days but I am just loving it.

I'm fairly sure at least some of my extended family in the Mohawk Valley in Upstate New York added the faint t sound in my Uncle Nelson's name.

Argh, meara. Disappointing.

Lovely to read, zuisa!

I like Vera Wang for Kohls, or whatever she calls it. Not as exciting a find as actual designer at Goodwill, I suppose, but still a good buy.

I don't think I've heard Nelson with a T in the middle, but I can be pretty oblivious to subtle pronunciation differences.

I am doing a whole lot of nothing today and it's great. Just reading and eating.

Can I start another sentence with I? Oops, already messed that up.

Did my civic duty and attended the town hall - sat a few rows in front of shrift but we didn't see each other until it was over (which I think is a good thing inasmuch as it was too crowded for us to find each other until then; the place was packed!). Lots of good speakers, many personal testimonies about the safety net the ACA had created, and a *lot* of doctors showed up.

Speakers included: a man who's been HIV+ for 23 years, 17 with full-blown AIDS, and who never thought he'd live long enough to stand up in the town hall and speak -- as an AARP representative; a social worker who'd lost her job the same week her son was diagnosed with asthma and who until the ACA faced unimaginable insurance costs because asthma -- asthma! -- was a preexisting condition that hiked their rates beyond affordability; the director of the Mission Neighborhood Health Clinic, talking about the ACA's integration of mental health services into primary care; and the wife of my very favorite high school English teacher, who's been spending her retirement driving around the Central Valley gathering ACA stories from Democrats in red counties.

I ended up not getting to visit with shrift, because I had to talk to my very favorite high school teacher, and hug him, and take the opportunity to tell him how much he meant and what a huge influence he's been on everything I read and write (and also take one last chance to scold him for making us read Ethan Frome and crush our spirits with that devastating last chapter).

He told me a story he'd never told me before, about an essay contest I'd won in high school -- I'd written a great essay, he'd sponsored my entry, and then the organizers rejected it because I was the only person at my school who'd entered. So after failing to get anyone else to try, he wrote an essay himself, scribbled a fake name, and submitted it. And won. And then had to lie to the organizers, "That kid? He dropped out, I think, or maybe he moved, or something. Anyhow, haven't seen him in weeks. Can't find him."

I told Hec, who said, "That could totally be a sitcom plot."

"The nerdiest sitcom plot ever."

That is an amazing story, JZ!

Sounds like a good day, -t. I haven't done much of anything, aside from the Goodwill.

I went out to just drive around for a while, which I haven't done for several months. I found a new place to sit and listen to the quiet near the lake. It was cloudy and windy and chilly, so it'll probably be noisier come summer. But there's no fee to pull over and look out over the water.

What a story, JZ! And I'm glad to hear the town hall went well.

I have run out of books* and am switching to individual comics. Soon I will have to make a lateral move to magazines full of short stories.

Perhaps a cup of tea is in order.

'*In this particular series [Rivers of London - The Hanging Tree had references to stuff that happened earlier in the series and when I went back to reread I realized I had forgotten an awful lot, so, re-reading the whole thing in the hopes that some of it will accumulate rather than falling out of my brain entirely]. I don't think running out of books entirely is possible for me at this point. Even if I broke my glasses I have a pretty sizable stockpile of audiobooks to hold me over.

We bought a new TV today (65"! It is comically large in this tiny apartment!) and got so distracted by 4K Netflix goodness that I forgot to make dinner and now I 100% cannot be bothered. Ordered pizza, only to realize we have no idea how to let someone into this building, so now we're gonna just lurk awkwardly downstairs.

Your tv is bigger than me. Good luck with the pizza gathering