I’m home. We had a great time talking about books and eating cheesecake. I’m still not sure why anyone would want to be my friend, but I appreciate the encouragement here.

Chai:

Much ~ma for everyone who is out of work or worried about losing their jobs right now.

I’m going to London tomorrow night and I am woefully unprepared. Including for the presentations I need to give, but fortunately, those aren’t until Tuesday.

This has been a long chaotic week. But nothing like what a lot of people are experiencing, including lisah and Mr. Flea and Cash and everyone.

Plus, I get to go to London tomorrow. For free! In business class!

Therefore, I am choosing to be salty about the fact that the Polaris lounge at O’Hare is closed for remodeling so I have to have my preflight free drinks in the chump lounge. (AKA the regular United Club.)

Which very nearly IS a diamond shoes too tight problem. BUT ALSO when am I going to have access to the Polaris lounge again? No time soon that that’s what.

[sj sneaking in with a post right ahead of mine that makes mine look even worse haha]

Brenda can you access if you’re traveling business class on miles? Or no? Because I’d think you have enough miles to take a nice trip! But also booooo.

Which very nearly IS a diamond shoes too tight problem.

Let's celebrate the good things.

I am choosing to be salty about the fact that the Polaris lounge at O’Hare is closed for remodeling

Oh, that is a sweet lounge.

so I have to have my preflight free drinks in the chump lounge. (AKA the regular United Club.)

Stay strong! You can survive the chump lounge!

I think at least once I got booted for bleeding too slow

This was threatened to me once. When I confirmed they could neither use the less-than-sufficient amount of blood or return it to me if I let them stop then, I had it keep running and, by sheer force of will (and/or squeezing the stress ball thingy fast) finished in the allotted time. They also recommended hydration to avoid the problem in future.

sj, I'm a little late to the party, but you are sweet and smart and made of awesome. Any person who wouldn't want to be your friend is probably not that bright and not worth the bother.

So glad your new "roommate" is working out so well, Cass.

Otter cafe beats stroller owls.

A high bar, indeed!

Much job~ma to all of you in newly precarious situations. It's sucks so much.

It's so good to hear that Matilda is doing so well. Like Laura said, I still think of my mom and wish I could share things with her, and I was presumably much better equipped to handle the loss at 46 than Matilda at 16. I hope she really gets a lot out of this amazing experience.

I had a "regular" doctor appointment today, optometrist. Thankfully, my eyes seem to have settled back down after the huge drop they took after my hyperbaric chamber treatments. Even though I didn't really need them since my Rx hasn't changed, I went ahead and ordered new glasses - figured I might as well get value out of my vision insurance. By some miracle I managed to find frames I really liked for $159 - of which my insurance covers $150. I decided to give transitionals a try this time. I've always avoided them because I remember that friends in HS who had them pretty much always had some degree of dark lenses. But I have been assured that the technology has come a long way since 1988. We shall see.

Brenda can you access if you’re traveling business class on miles?

Not domestically I don’t think.

My travel is nearly what it was back in the day because I’m mostly managing teams now (who are doing all the pursuit traveling).

And I am in fact delighted that I’m in a position to take this trip at all. But I was a little annoyed when that notification popped up.

Though oddly after a brief flirtation with Delta (and a platinum card with a good offer) I have a boatload of miles over there so I’ve been noodling about a trip to South America or southeast Asia.

Glasses win!