Lindsey: Why--why did you... Lorne: One last job. You're not part of the solution, Lindsey. You never will be. Lindsey: You kill me? A flunky?! I'm not just...Angel...kills me. You...Angel... Lorne: Good night, folks.

'Not Fade Away'


Natter 77: I miss my friends. I miss my enemies. I miss the people I talked to every day.  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, butt kicking, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


shrift - Mar 02, 2024 5:28:05 pm PST #28971 of 30000
"You can't put a price on the joy of not giving a shit." -Zenkitty

SF-istas, you will probably know it when it hits.

I'm intrigued, but my work org has been making more than just the local news and I'm feeling some kind of way about it, so you have my sympathies.


meara - Mar 02, 2024 5:42:39 pm PST #28972 of 30000

Ughhh. Was supposed to be on a flight at 215pm. It’s now 541pm and they’re saying maybe it’ll be leaving after 7pm. The plane we are supposed to be on is in LA and hasn’t even taken off yet. This is NOT the best terminal to spend 8 or so hours in. Some airports I’d rock up to a nice restaurant or pay for a massage…not really options here.


sj - Mar 02, 2024 8:58:57 pm PST #28973 of 30000
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."

Ugh, meara that sucks.


meara - Mar 02, 2024 10:18:18 pm PST #28974 of 30000

Whew. Finally landed, five hours late. Very sleepy. Glad it’s at least Saturday and I have tomorrow to recover.


lisah - Mar 03, 2024 6:36:15 am PST #28975 of 30000
Punishingly Intricate

We were stuck in the Toronto airport for 8 or so hours when we were going to Scotland a couple of years ago and you’d think a cosmopolitan city like Toronto would have cool stuff in its airport terminals but you’d be wrong. So boring. We had to make up a game where each of the 4 of us bought something Canadian for under $2 and then we voted on the best thing. My friend tried to buy a Canadian Air pin from a stewardess who couldn’t sell it to her (it was part of her uniform) but did sell her some delicious maple cookies. So she won.


Calli - Mar 03, 2024 10:07:14 am PST #28976 of 30000
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs

Sorry about the travel woes, meara.

The Detroit airport is surprisingly pleasant to spend time in. There is (or at least was the last time I looked for it) at least one nice bar, some decent restaurants, a fun light show on one of the tunnels between terminals, and a fountain that occasionally has musicians playing next to it. If I have to fly up to see family, at least there’s a decent hub to transit through.


Steph L. - Mar 03, 2024 10:12:47 am PST #28977 of 30000
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe

a fun light show on one of the tunnels between terminals

I love that tunnel! With the trippy Tangerine Dream-esque music!


DavidS - Mar 03, 2024 10:28:26 am PST #28978 of 30000
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

Airline Shenanigans: The Golden State Warriors were stuck on the tarmac in NYC for 8 hours after playing the Knicks. Didn't get into the air until 5am, and had to play a game in Toronto that night (that they won). Brutal.

In the exciting game of Good News/Bad News, I have one smallish but significant Good News, and Two large Bad News.

Good News: All the chunks Dr. Shannon Watkins carved out of me came back clean. So no further clean edges required. I appreciate her diligent attempts to keep me alive and cancer free, even if it means quarterly visits where she pulls down my underwear and cuts off pieces of my skin.

Bad News 1: I've been trying to get Jacqueline's pension payments going. They should have been paying out as soon as she retired in July but her death complicated things and I had to send forms and marriage certificates and death certificates and refilling forms.

Anyway, I thought I had everything in by December, but nothing still. So I called and they said they indeed had all the necessary paperwork and that in 30 business days it would start to pay.

This is the UC pension JZ paid into for thirty years, and while I do have money now, her pension is a big part of my financial planning going forward as she was fully invested and it would basically be the equivalent of her regular paycheck from now until I expire.

But last week I got a letter from UC Retirement saying that due to some technical legalistic detail they've decided not to pay me and if I had an issue I should get a lawyer. Those FUCKERS. Like I need this stress. I will get that money, you may be sure, but now it's a fucking fight.

Bad News 2: I got a call from Hannah (from JZ's Sacred Circle). She told me that Lola (the mother of one of Matilda's most beloved friends, Isabella) had been diagnosed with Stomach Cancer. Hannah said they hadn't staged it yet, but from the information she gave me it was clearly Stage 4, and had spread throughout the body, including doing enough damage along her spine to cause necrotic tissue and back pain.

Lola and asked Hannah to call me to get an idea of how she should broach it with Isabella, and what her treatment would look like.

What I told Hannah to pass along to Lola was: Tell Isabella immediately. Be forthright but acknowledge that some things were still unknown. Basically they had to go through the first round of Chemo to see how her body would respond. Some people respond very well to chemo and are able to be cancer free. Try to take it step by step.

What I told Hannah for her own information was that Lola was fucked. Unless Lola had a near miraculous response to chemo, or found an out-of-nowhere clinical trial, the diagnosis was worse than Jacqueline's. It had spread to multiple organs, but the cancer along her spine was probably going to complicate things immeasurably and preclude any surgery. Lola would have to be lucky as fuck to live for even a year with that diagnosis.

So...malign bureaucracy and a heaping dose of human mortality.


meara - Mar 03, 2024 10:39:15 am PST #28979 of 30000

Oh David. That is so shitty. I hope a lawyer is quickly able to wrangle bureaucracy for good because jeeez.


Laura - Mar 03, 2024 11:41:03 am PST #28980 of 30000
Our wings are not tired.

I really like the good news, but that is a whole bunch of bad news. I'm sorry.