Thursday Thoughts - I'd love to try and settle down, but everybody's leavin' town

1. I need you to know about these and I’m going to need you to try them. They are at DiBruno or you can go to the site to see how you can get them. They have made the cut for my Thanksgiving appetizer spread.

2. Athleisure shoes are my love language. Bonus when everything on them is the same color.

3. Loving the fall scenes. The leaves aren't even through changing yet. 

4. Two days in the office this week, and I'm doing a half day in there tomorrow. It's exhausting. It's not permanent or a new schedule, it just happens to be how I set this week up like a straight dumbass. I’ve taken the train in and not shared a seat with anyone until the ride home yesterday. An ass was in every seat and some were standing over me. I was not mentally prepared for the sardine aspect of commuting. I’m thankful for mask mandates on trains.

5. I have days to burn so I took Tuesday off and had a proper no computer drifting adult day. I rolled out of bed and took Mae to the vet, got groceries at Aldi, voted, had a nice salad for lunch, cleaned out the coat closet, changed sheets and pulled my quilt out, did laundry, got my hair done which I needed desperately, made salmon/potatoes/broccoli for dinner, and read. It was a great week day off. 

6. Cuteness. Also if you leave your dog outside barking incessantly without letting them in or addressing it in some way you are a fucking asshole. This is what I yelled out of my kitchen window last night at two of my back neighbors who do exactly that. Won’t you be my neighbor? Seriously though, I have four dogs who bark and I’m annoyed, imagine how everyone else feels. 

7. Show Us Your Books is already on Tuesday! I've been reading one book since Sunday. That's the way it is sometimes. About to get hygge with a long winter of reading with animals as backdrop instead of beach…this is a previous photo but you get the idea. 

8. White supremacy is doing the most to keep its stranglehold. None of these exhibit that, but if you really look at the heart of things, that's the struggle. The more people try to tell you it's not, the more you know it is. Also what in the hell are you all doing out there in America electing the book burning people from Footloose to school boards across the country? Let teachers fucking teach. You do what you do. Also before you go off on social media around politics, maybe know some more about it - the things I saw people posting leading up to and on Election Day made me LOL for real. If you think a governor can fix global supply chain issues, that the president is responsible for gas prices, that critical race theory is even taught in K-12 public schools, or that individual school boards can mandate certain things, you are a fool. Obviously I disagree with people who vote differently than me on a lot of things, but I can at least listen to them if they know what someone has the power to influence or control and what they do not. We should probably all go back to school and learn history as it actually was and also civics so we know how government works and who is responsible for what. 

9. Reminder via Sid the Visual Kid

10. Ecards

That’ll do it.

What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to when I'm starting this - this week is Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues by Danny O'Keefe

Friday Five: Types of Assholes at the Park & Ride

Although the title might tell you differently, I do love that my train station is a park and ride. I've taken the train from other stations and finding a spot in a small lot or looking for street parking can be really stressful in the morning. That being said, the park and ride is not without its assholes...I mean, is any situation? Here are some types of assholes I encounter at the park and ride. 

1. The people who stop at the nonexistent stop sign. Sometimes the difference between making the train and not making the train is someone stopping at this nonexistent stop sign on the way into the station, yet they still do it every day. Rage spikes into the stratosphere on days when multiple people stop for no reason. I hate to start my day off laying on the horn but sometimes it must be done. 

2. Artful parkers in the morning. Again, we’re on a train time table. Chop chop. If you can’t park your car in one shot, you fail. No one has time to wait for you to finesse a perfect park job, backing in and out and in and out. It makes the people waiting to get past you feel like playing demolition derby with your vehicle. Are you in the lines? Good. Stop moving.

3. People who do not observe the exiting etiquette. Leaving the station is a complicated system but one you are introduced to quite quickly when you are a regular rider. There are three exits from the main parking lot and decorum calls for taking turns and letting people out. When you don’t do this, people let you know with horns, hand gestures, and yelling what an asshole you are yet some people speed their oblivious asses off acting like they see no one else waiting to leave. We recognize you as regular passengers, you dicks. We’re supposed to take turns letting each other out and you know it. 

4. People who block cars in. This seems like a no brainer, right? Do not sit in the lane with your car in park, making out like your life depends on it, then act butt hurt when people beep at you to move. Park your car in a spot and make out if you need to relive your teenage years. Or maybe make out not in public like other adults. 

5. Little bitches. When I wave you across the lane and inch up when you’re ¾ of the way through, still quite far from you, do not shake your head at me. Because I will roll down my window and say, “I’m sorry, did you have a problem with me waving you across?” and you will be left stuttering, "No."

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All of the sudden, it was May. Right? That came up like a rocket. I'm excited to have lunch with my friend Tara from high school today. Other than that, I have no commitments this weekend. This rarely happens and I really love that the weekend is stretched out before me, waiting to be meandered through. And it looks like it's going to be beautiful. Enjoy, friends!