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!

Woo, London! Have a good trip, transcending the chump lounge constraint

I’m sorry lisah.

Safe travels, Brenda!

So apparently Musk is trying to get access to the US Treasury. [link]

How much is going to end up in his virtual pockets?

Brenda, have a great time in my favorite city!

I’m watching the news, which I should not be because everything is awful.

I’m in a better position than so many folks. We’d be fine for a while if I lost my job but, man, all this bullshit makes me so angry

How unfair to be relegated to the Chump Lounge!

I hope the otter cafe is/was all you'd hoped and more. Otters!

I warmed up for the Otter Cafe by going first to the Mini-Pig Cafe.

Perhaps sensing that I'd eaten bacon for breakfast, the pigs rejected me. I mean, I did get to cuddle a few, but one lady had three piglets happily piled on top of her and it took regular coercion and prompting from the staff for the pigs to hang with me. One pig finally deigned to lay his head on my leg and I did pet him.

Otters was more fun though less cuddling. (Which is to say zero cuddling.) It took a while to find the place because it was second floor (2F in Japan) in the shopping mall/arcade (there's a lot of stuff on 2F and B1 if you're looking for cool little bars and places. And dag they've got some tiny, claustrophobic elevators).

I waltzed in without a reservation and managed to land right in a lull. So it was me and one other guy having alone time with one hungry otter, so we got to feed Oagge a lot. Then we got to hang with his smaller daughter, Wasabi, at which point six other people arrived.

Really enjoyed the up close with the otters.

Then I spent too much money at a Japanese record store but the prices are pretty great with the exchange rate.

I'm hungry but my stomach feels wonky. What I really want is a bigass California salad and that is not going to be forthcoming.

I think I'll hit the Public Bath for a soak then go out later.